AFA is finally here to Singapore this weekend and unlike previous years, it started on a Friday and despite being a weekday, we got quite a crowd thanks to the school holidays. That having said, we observed that most of the visitors are of younger ages.
We got down to business early in the morning before the crowd hits the Suntec Convention Centre, approximately 7am where the queue is already visible, with eager folks awaiting for the doors to open at 9am.
First booth at the entrance goes to Bandai’s Gunpla Display which spotlight going to the recent release of Perfect Grade Unicorn Gundam as well as the current broadcasting titles Build Fighters and Reconguista. Within this booth, there was only showcase shelves for the new releases as well as the 35th Anniversary tribute collage of Master Grade RX78, some taking colour schemes of other units. Wasn’t really much of a difference since the last Gunpla Expo several months back, just a Perfect Grade model kit display.
Allocated right beside Bandai’s Gunpla booth, we have Bandai’s Tamashi Nations Series that featured some older and newer model units, including their latest metal composite of Unicorn Gundam and Hi-V Gundam. More attention were given to the One Piece Series which we missed out today, where we will work on in during our 2nd day visit tomorrow. Stay tuned for it!
Other than this two showcase booth by Bandai, they had a third booth that mainly sells model kit, with their special release of High Grade Build Strike Gundam Full Package Plavsky Particle Clear Ver. (Which I bought on my day 1 trip, approximately 2560円.)
Next booth on the entrance goes to THE iDOLM@STER, with a glamorous sight we have here featuring the leads of all members of 765 Production in life size banners, along with meaningful gallery of their past content, future series, costumes, figures and many more. All three iDOLM@STER series have been featured in this booth, as well as theatre premier of their 2014 film in a selected theatre starting today, which we have reserved couple of seats which we will be attending tomorrow afternoon with special guest appearing for just two sessions:
Asami Imai （Voice of: Chihaya Kisaragi）
Manami Numakura （Voice of: Hibiki Ganaha）
Yumi Hara （Voice of: Takane Shijou）
*Certainly we’re looking forward to it and hopefully we can share some photographs for the event if possible.
That’s our 1st AFA thumbs up!
We then next moved on to Aniplex’s Aniplex+ booth that showcased quite a few eexquisite stuff such as autographed illustrations, limited distribution figures and many more merchandises at their regular store behind it. Long queue formed up quickly for merchandises of Sword Art Online, Black Butler, Fate/Stay night as well as Madoka Magica. If you are willing to pay great prices ranging from 16,000円 – 24,000円 for collectable items, this booth is a great place to visit.
Unlike previous years, Good Smile Company had a wider range of figures on sale this year, adding more limited distribution figures to the shelf, which still sold out on the first day of event. A special activity was also made available to everyone, to draw their own Nendoroid facial expressions on actual face pieces, with guidance provided and sample hair parts, letting everyone create their own facial designs.
That’s our 2nd AFA thumbs up!
Culture Japan is back for another round of smart doll frenzy with the 56,000円 beauties get wipe out within minutes after we enter the hall as the first wave. We were in the queue for the adorable 2014 design shirts where the folks in the queue were worrying for the stocks of dolls. Many customers bought both Mirai and Kizuna in one shot, making it 112,000円 spending within the first hour of AFA. Heavy damage there. We bought two shirts costing 5,200円 which was quite a deal. There were also the standard posters and Moe Kana which passed, hoping to see more merchandises next time round. We even met Danny Choo while we’re at the booth. Around the corner we have Square Enix Mobile Application Game Million Arthur working with Culture Japan for the limited software content.
Psycho-Pass got its own booth this time round, featuring litter yet extreme content, such as their 1:1 scale figures of their protagonists that came all the way from Diver City, along with Bandai Tamashi’s official 1:1 Dominator replica that works just like those real gimmick within the series. It is able to produce sounds of user identification as well as syncing lights that will get the user all hyped up right away. We tried the Dominator and we got to admit it was pretty well made, got us killed the next moment. Pre-order is open to public at AFA.
Shingeki no Kyoujin caught our hearts with this wacky stunt experience where you get on those “Vertical Maneuvering Equipment” which has proved to be more than just difficult yet not impossible. What made it even cuter is that they make you wear the survey corp’s vests before you head for the gears. It was definitely fun to watch but we aren’t going to get on those ropes since we have all watched how Eren Yeager once failed. Definitely one of the fun thing we see at AFA which we thought was fresh and entertaining to see. We however hoped to see more trained stunt man doing wilder tricks of much bigger scale.
That’s our 3rd AFA thumbs up!
Dollfie Dream, IMS, CharaGumin were also presented in a single Volks booth, with all merchandise on sale as even more hefty prices, beating Culture Japan’s Smart Doll prices, starting at over 64,000円 for their dolls. Even their CharaGumin figures are not cheap, entering the halls with thin wallets ain’t something to do before visiting Volks booth.
This year, we have much more stages, interactive activities and much more entertainment to spend time on. We have NicoNico Kunikaigi event where famous producers all gather to showcase their talents, stirring quite some hype in the early Friday evening. Live telecast on NicoDouga will be held on all 3 days of AFA event, holding more on-stage in between performances.
We also have other main stages such as Manga Drawing Battle, allowing contestants to challenge each other at their mangaka skills, live on stage and viewing on wide panels all over the places. Intensive pressure is one thing but cheerful interviews are held at the same moment, here we have Danny Choo on stage as he talks more about his story.
Another gaming stage featuring Dengeki’s latest Fighting Climax face off was also pretty popular among players as they compete their foes with their favourite heroines till the end of eternity! The queue was long till the waiting time reaching 100 minutes today, a weekday to be precise. Saturday and Sunday will definitely be a booming spot.
Several smaller stages were also seen, with some having time schedule for events such as Karaoke, dances, anisong singer audition all coupled with NicoDouga live telecasts, building the bridge between Singapore and Japan’s enthusiasts.
Watch the live telecasts on NicoDouga (You need an NicoDouga account):
Day 1 Live Telecast
Day 2 Live Telecast
Day 3 Live Telecast
This year we see a lot more Singaporeans speaking Japanese fluently before the camera during their spot-on interviews happening throughout the event. Many more foreigners are also turning up for AFA for cosplays, singing, performing and many more talents.
Having all these entertainment is definitely our 4th AFA thumbs up!
Last but not least, the wonderful lineup of I love Anisong concerts lasting for three nights, with famous groups and so artists coming back every year for this remarkable event.
That of course, is our 5th and last AFA thumbs up!
That ends off our day 1 report at AFA, do stay tuned for our day 2 Report, and here’s our grabs of the day.
Overall the event was much successful for a opening day, with many other booths we will like to showcase, below are some of the other photographs we took, with booths from:
1st Place \\ Anime Japan 2015 \\ Banpresto \\ Gainax \\ Garo \\ Hello Japan \\ Horipro \\ Love Live \\ Mega House \\ NHK \\ Sword Art Online x Oculus Rift \\ PlayStation \\ Vanguard \\ Exit Tunes \\ Canon \\ more Doujin area
