AFA 2011: New friends, more figurines and an epic Kalafina concert

Most of Animenauts local readers (I think) would probably have gone for the recent Anime Festival Asia 2011 last weekend. Not only did I manage to go for all three days, I also acquired a media pass thanks to the wonderful people at AsiaPRWerkz. So as I slowly recover (physically, financially or otherwise) from the epic event that is Anime Festival Asia 2011, I shall let you guys take a peek at what happened there from my perspective… (I know its a little late but hey, I got it up anyway, right?)

Day 1 (11/11/2011)

Of course, day one of AFA11 all begins with the press preview at Suntec. Beyond the usual event adverts and Danny Choo being Danny Choo, the various guests and anisong singers made an appearance as well, which of course, led to lots of pictures being taken.

I also hung out for some of the Cool Japan Forum talks. I thought the presentation on the Japanese music industry was particularly educational. The rest of the talks though were a little dry, especially if you aren’t interested in the topic itself.

Day 2 (12/11/2011)

Its the festival opening day and its packed. Unfortunately, my alarm clock had the brilliant timing to stop working on the day when I had an interview with Ume from Teru-Teru fixed at 8.00am. Woke up at 7.50am and made it there by 8.30am thanks to my dad

After a short interview and photoshoot, I decided to take a couple of “mob” shots, then joined a few of my friends to properly explore the festival grounds. Checked out the Fate/Zero showcase (with the audience not-so-surprisingly treated to a free performance by LiSA) and later on, the Chiwa Saito live dub as well. Also interviewed Komicer from Collateral Damage Studios.

My loot for day two consisted of a Mawaru Penguindrum Survival Strategy set from Teru-Teru, a Fate/Zero materials book (which you will see in the day three loot picture later), a Chiwa Saito tribute poster from CDS, as well as a Kalafina tee-shirt and lanyard, for a total damage of S$113.

Day Three (13/11/2011)

I actually made most of my purchases on day three. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of purchasing the figurines 15 minutes BEFORE they decided to start a store-wide sale. While that did put a damper on my mood, it was also the day of the last Anisong concert at AFA11, featuring Milky Holmes, Kanako Itou, May’n, angela and this year’s concert headliner, Kalafina.

Kanako Itou was the opening act for the day 3 concert and I have to admit, I did not know ANY of her songs. There was a pretty upbeat, electronic-dance feel to her songs though, which did pique my interest into the Steins;Gate anime, especially since Willis and Sheng Yang are big fans.

Next up was Milky Holmes. Frankly, most of the concert-goers were not really interested in their performance (save for a couple of die-hard fans from Japan and Singapore) and I think quite a few were probably happy to see them go.

Next up however, was angela. Both “atsuko-sensei” and “KATSU-oniichan” managed to whip the crowd up to a frenzy, singing a number of their hit songs, like Soukyuu no Fafner’s opening theme Shangri-La, as well as Beautiful Fighter, the opening song for Shikabane Hime. angela also greeted fans who were watching the concert on NicoNico, with Katsu waving his own scrolling message across the stage. There were also various anime references in between performances, including but not restricted to Mobile Suit Gundam (“Sieg Zeon!”) and Mawaru Penguindrum (“Seizon senyaku!”). The awesome moments for me however, was when angela surprised the audience with their cover of Zankoku na Tenshi no Teze (a.k.a Cruel Angel’s Thesis), the opening theme from the Evangelion TV series and their encore piece, which was my favourite angela song, Asu e no brilliant road (Opening theme for Stellvia).

Then of course, came the concert’s lead act, Kalafina, which got the loudest cheers from the audience. Starting from their opening song of Magia (Madoka Magica’s ending theme) and Oblivious (ending theme for the first Kara no Kyoukai movie) till their final song, Hikari no Senritsu (opening for Sora no Woto), Kalafina literally entranced their audience with their singing (interspersed with wild cheers between songs). Was really surprised when one of the three vocalists from Kalafina, Hikaru, started to introduce herself in English (not heavily-accented broken English, but honest-to-goodness proper English).

The only complaint really that one could say about the Kalafina segment was that it was too short. Animenauts’ resident Type-Moon fanboy, Edward Pang, was a little disappointed that they did not sing Aria (Kara no Kyoukai fourth movie ending theme). For myself, wished I could have heard Kizuato (Kara no Kyoukai third movie theme) but getting to hear them sing Magia and Hikari no Senritsu live more than made up for it. The Kalafina segment was probably the high point of the concert, with the atmosphere being (for lack of a better word) totally electric the entire time they were on stage. Needless to say, everyone in the audience (myself included, of course) would gladly have them back for the next AFA.

Alas all good things must come to an end and it was time for the final performer, May’n to take the stage. While she did get (some of) the crowd going with a couple of fan-favourites like Iteza gogo kuji Don’t be Late!, Kindan no Elixir (both Macross Frontier insert songs) and her new single, Brain Diver (opening theme for Phi Brain), the reality was most of the crowd were already a little too tired after the Kalafina frenzy just before that (The person in front of me actually left right after Kalafina left the stage…). So despite the best efforts of May’n and her backup dancers, it was kind of a lacklustre ending to the concert.

Day three loot consists of a Madoka Magica poster and Akemi Homura tee-shirt, a Danboard Revoltech, Nagato Yuki (Disappearance ver.) Nendoroid and a Professor Layton Revoltech (on hold for WM). Total day three damage was S$230. Total AFA damage is S$343, way over my original budget of S$200.

All in all, I had a great time at AFA 2011. I was happy that I also got the opportunity to expand my “otaku” circle, getting to know people like Zach and Ume from Teru-Teru, Komicer from CDS and Willis’ army camp mate Terence. I also significantly expanded my anime merchandise collection, thanks to AFA. Look out for reviews of Revoltech Danbo and Nendoroid Yuki Nagato (Disappearance ver.) in the near future!

Tags: angela, Anime Festival Asia, anisong, Figurines, Kalafina, Music, poor wallet we hardly knew ye