First, I would like to qualify my words by stating that there is absolutely no malice against cosplayers, figurine lovers and anime merchandise lovers. However, I think that there will be enough anime blogs out there ready to post all the cosplayers, figurines and gundam pictures that you ever want. For me, I believe that those things would always be around in every single anime convention. Sure, there might be cosplayers doing different characters, but I do not see the point. They will be there every anime convention. They won’t run away.

However, there are things in the AFA08 that are more unique in an anime convention. These are the things that I will be reporting on, and I hope that you take some time tomorrow to check it out. In order to hook you, I praised ODEX in this post. Check out why.

ODEX: Booth E01 – E06

Yes, the well hated group in Singapore has a corner for all its merchandise. You can troll them all you want, but the truth is that they have been making an absolute good job for local anime during the past 6 months. It is probably true that Singaporeans easily flame the living lights out of ODEX when it screwed up with the PR. They did, it was terrible and I have no qualms joining in the furore one year ago.

However, we are often quiet when it does well in things. The display posters of Skip Beat, Casshern Sins and Toradora is evidence that anime companies can keep pace with the “fansubbers” and provide content that is of decent quality. ODEX has actually done something seemingly impossible, from the continual denial that it’s possible by American anime companies. I am not saying that they have suddenly become angels all of a sudden. Their PR campaign is completely off Do pay them a visit, and of course the DOMO compels you to visit them. Of course, stay tuned to OKTO and watch the series. I know I am.

Animax’s LAMB: Booth D03

Of course, our very own Animax Asia is going to release their first anime in the form of Lamb. Check out the website about the story. I was quite bought into the idea since one of the themes in the anime was about environment conservationism, an issue that would be of growing importance when resources on Earth become limited. Sorry, I have been reading too much of “Hot, Flat and Crowded” by Thomas Friedman.

Anyway, go to the booth to look at the story board of the first few chapters. It’s definitely interesting to see how anime is built up through storyboard. Also, I must admit that I found the song by Click Five (or was it the Simple plan) to be totally off for a series I expect to be bittersweet. I am hoping that it will not be a stinker because it is one of the few special things for Animax. I have not seen any actual animation for the series though, but the animation is in safe hands. Hopefully, it will do well. Let’s hope for the best.

Hexa Project: BOOTH F02

I bet many of you will be scratching your head, and wondered if there is actually such a booth. Let me assure you that there is, and it is in fact one of the key attractions for me. Hexa Project is a non profit organization that is established in 2005. The lady above is in fact the director for their latest project, and they are toughing it out as an independent company. It’s really a pity that I spoke little Japanese because I was really hoping to know more about the company in general. There is a translator at the booth though, so you can ask her for questions.

Nonetheless, they really have very cute merchandise (I still don’t know if they are for sale too, so you could ask that for me). They also offer a CD for some of their animation clips. It’s really interesting, and I urge you to take some time to take a look. It’s worth spending 10 minutes away from whatever you are doing in the conference to pay them a visit, ask some questions and learn a bit about the independent industry players.

Tomorrow, I will continue my coverage of the atypical AFA report 2.

This day I shall forever burn into my mind. I wish you were there RIUVA…but I guess that Island Paradise was worth it, yes?

So it was a glorious day for me on June 14, 2008 the day I shook hands with the God of Metal Gear, Lord Hideo Kojima. The minders would not let us tarry for pictures so I got some pretty crappy ones, hopefully the rest of my comrades got better ones. Nevertheless I got what was most important, my very own signed copy of MGS4. In addition the first layer of air on my freshly opened copy included air from the same room as Lord Kojima. I can now die a happy man. I was most fortunate to be a San Francisco native and even more fortunate that Lord Kojima would agree to visit so small a place instead of just stopping at New York City, and Los Angles.

Meryl and Snake (Larger Version)

The rest of their group.

Earlier in the day… (This was my start point by the way)

I got up later than I wanted so I rushed out as soon as I could, I was disheartened at first when my buddies were late as well. So I ended up as the first one on scene at 1130. They got there around 1200, thankfully there weren’t that many people at the time behind me so the guy behind me didn’t mind. Around 1400 they announced that we were not going to be guaranteed to get a signature, no one got out of line though since in my area there were roughly 200 people in front of us. Strangely enough I saw more DS units being used that PSPs. The guy in front of me wanted to get his copy of SSBB signed too, I wonder how well that went over with the Sony crew… Another guy wanted to get an issue of Playboy signed, if he did get it I am sure the tale will soon be circulating. I am glad we persevered and by 1700 we got our entry wrist bands for the signing. The cut off came about 45 minutes later.

The Hero behind me. That is hard core man fucking HARD CORE…(Larger Version)

The only picture I got with Lord Kojima looking up, stupid handlers…nothing against Mr. Imaizumi. (Larger Version)

Thanks for looking up Mr. Imaizumi!

The scuttle butt (rumor) was that the cosplayers that they found were granted an audience with Lord Kojima, but I am not sure. They did however get out of line rather early, so I assume that they got something for their excellent cosplay. The 1UP/EGM guys were there two interviewing some people, mostly cosplayers and the man behind us. The guy behind us was a long time and hard core fan of Lord Kojima who came all the way from Phoenix, Arizona. He is a hero amongst the gaming faithful. Not only did he get a copy signed he got his manual for Snatcher signed too, in addition Lord Kojima responded to the question of a Snatcher sequel with a shrug and a “maybe.”

Damn you friend of the guy with the box! As you can tell they shoved us out as soon as we got our stuff signed. Damn you Sony employee DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!! Not that Ms. Kikuchi’s profile was in any way bad, but still…

Guy Hero who was behind, me you sir are a lucky lucky man. (Larger Version)

Today’s Loot, yeah I know I got the SHnY CDs rather late but I don’t give two shits, for I have a signed copy of MGS4. Thank God that the 13th was pay day.

I am glad they decided to speed things up by having a bunch of MGS4 sleeves on hand for Lord Kojima, Mr. Kenichiro Imaizuri, and Ms. Yumi Kikuchi to sign in order to speed things up, since it allowed even more people to get an autograph and walk away happy. It would have been better if a speech was also in the cards but as the last stop before they went back to Japan, it was understandable that they were a bit exhausted after all their other stops. I got sun burn, but it was worth it. Next time though I will bring sunscreen and some food before camping out during the day. After the event we went off to Japantown to get some ramen. Now off to play!

I am so fucking happy I could cry… (Larger Version)

All right, Joo has done the honors with her immensely picture intensive entry on the EOY 2006. Other than the rather bad management (NOR, shouldn’t you help them with your event management skills?), the whole event has tons of good cosplayers. Honestly, even with the non-existent order, the cosplay standards are really improving, since the four of us did not really expect too much.

That, by the way, is the wisest ever decision because I was totally bowled over. There are tons of really great cosplayers and some of them are so friendly and nice, that I will think that they are wonderful. Completely.

Warning: 56k visitors should not try to click more because it will result in hair pulling, arson and loli killing. Trust me, loli killing is wrong. JUST WRONG!

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Section 1: Cosplayers first!

1. Jirou and Kotarou from BBB – “They are so sweet!”

First things first, this cosplayer and another cosplayer (probably her friend) are just about the sweetest and nicest cosplayers around that I have met in the whole exhibition. She is not only nice to talk to, but also very helpful, especially with her friend who actually cosplayed in two constumes. One was honey-sempai from Ouran high (if I remembered correctly) and her friend actually changed especially for me to Kotarou. Personally, I found it very embarrassing for them to change just that, but I really appreciate the step forward and I will somehow like to thank the two of them a lot for the allowance of this humble blogger the chance to take pictures of them. Thank you so much, even though I know not of your name.

Thanks!

2. Ouran High cosplayers – “Kiss, kiss, fall in love <3"

I reallly like the Ouran High cosplayers. Even though the clothing is not much harder to do compared to some of the more elaborate ones, they really found some really nice people to do it. Haruhi in the first picture as well as Honey-sempai in the group picture really looked like them and I am totally impressed how some of the cosplayers really look very pretty actually. The Haruhi really has that ambivalent look that is clearly feminine, yet somewhat….I can’t describe that feeling.

It is pretty surprising how pretty they can be, since my image of cosplayers is really negative to be honest. I apologize for my stereotyping but I now feel that all cosplayers are really pretty people. It makes me interested to really cosplay, slim down and do something interesting next year. I am sure Joo and Nor will agree on cosplaying. JW (alkanphel)? I am not too sure, we have to see how it goes, ya? However, you might see the authors of T.H.A.T blog soon to cosplay next year, so you can hold your breath one day.

3. This really pretty cosplayer – “*so cuteeeeeeeeeeeeee~ moe~”

Initially, Impz thought that this cosplayer was Japanese because her features are really delicate for a Chinese. However, I then heard her speaking Chinese and realized that it was not the case. In any case, she is really pretty and cute and I personally like how she dressed up in a kimono because kimonos generally make people with baby faces look even better. This girl is perhaps one of the most pretty cosplayers that I have seen in this exhibition. Considering the amount of beauty in this cosplay, she is definitely one of the top notch ones.

4. Vincent from FF7 – “Wowed speechless”

To me, this is the best costume cosplayer among all that I have seen. I really like her features because it fits with the cool Vincent look. I do have a pic of her when she is out of the Vincent mode and she in fact does have a very good smile, only that she cannot smile with that look on her. Hah. It’s pretty sad that such a nice smile has to hide behind a cold and deathly Vincent look but she is still the best cosplayer in terms of costume for me. You can tell that Impzie is completely impressed.

5. Bleach cosplayers – “Wahhhhhhhh~ Not bad!”

Both Ishida and Shunsui’s costume are pretty well done. I am totally impressed by the workmanship of the two costume and to be honest, the two cosplayers are pretty good too. I like these 2 characters in Bleach the most when I watched Bleach fanatically. Not too bad stuff here.

6. DeathNote cosplayers – “I watched only the movie…but…wow!”

I personally profess to not watching Deathnote, even though as an anime blogger, I do know roughly about the series. Hence, I am not too surprised that some people will be keen on cosplaying them. Still, I am surprised at the detail of Misa and L. The first L has that slightly moody and clever glint in her eyes while the 2nd L has that dangerous look that sometimes L can have. Both of them, even though they portray the same character, gives off a completely different feeling altogether.

I do applaud the Misa cosplayer too, because the amount of detail is wonderful.

7. Miscellaneous cosplayers – “Just because they are all one picture only…But very good too!”

These are all pictures that really deserve to be up here because they are so impressive. Who does not like the forbidden love relationship between the awesome Desu angel Suiseiseki and the babelicious tomboy Souseiseki (who I think is rather pretty), or the love of Sakura and Xiaoran in Tsubasa Chronicle or the dangerous alliance of Misa and Light. All wonderful cosplayers by their own means and due to the laziness of this blogger, he can only say that he’s sorry he did not devote that much lines for each of them. They are really wonderful!

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Section 2: Merchandise! Little but great stuff!

1. Osaka goodness! – “Huh???”

Osaka is great. BANZAI!….And remember, Osaka’s seiyuu is Tsuruya’s seiyuu, which means one more thing. GREATNESS! This is also dedicated to Nor because she is a crazy fangirl of Osaka!

2. Rozen maiden’s drawings

Rozen maiden’s drawings. I so regret being totally broke because the drawings are really top notch stuff. I so want to buy them if I do have some cash, it totally rocks my socks off seriously.

3. Dolls…

These dolls are really beautiful. I am not a very experienced person when it comes to Dolls and the likes, but the workmanship applied to the dolls are really intrinsic. Really impressive work right there. I also met up with a classmate from my university when she is presenting the dolls. Thanks a lot, Sharon, for the explanation. It really helped wonders!

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Section 3: Domo-kun!

…Because a tired domo-kun deserved a whole section to himself. Cheers!

This section is dedicated to Joo because she’s a crazy scary and dangerous camwhore who likes Domo-kun a lot. Yes, she’s scary.

If any of the cosplayers want the 1600×1280 resolution of the pictures I posted, do email us at thatblogATgmailDOT.com. Cheers!

56k be warned!

Here we have ANBU Kakashi and ANBU Anko I presume. (I never bothered to confirm with them )

The quadders consisting of me, impzus, alkanphel and invis trooped down with cameras and all sorts and found ourselves pleasantly surprised. Pleasantly surprised at the standard of cosplaying and the amount of characters turn out. We weren’t expecting a lot so you could say it was a very worthwhile trip and also because its our first time at a cosplaying event.. So we didn’t reallly know what to expect.

Very worth the 12buckeroos we paid. Hahaha. (After reading on some blogs about how management closed stores at 3pm oddish and people streamed in for free.. the 12 buckeroos we paid wasn’t that worth it after all.)

I’m pretty impressed with a couple of cosplayers’ outfits. And how some of the people look so apt cosplaying a particular character. For instance, i just hafta mention the naruto guy. He looks really good cosplaying him! hahaha. It really suits him to a T! And DOMO KUN!!! omg. That made my day, instantly.

So, without further a do. Photos that were painstakingly watermarked and resized by yours truly.

It was a pain, a realll pain. And should any of you want photos without us inside… Leave a comment with yer email or something, i’ma contact you and send them to you. hahaha.

WARNING: DO NOT CLICK IF YOU’RE RUNNING ON 56K.
DO NOT CLICK IF YOU’RE RUNNING ON 56K!!!!!

Rozen Maidens

The expensive but super lovely dolls.

I was telling nor how she shld dig out her kimono to wear too.

I think the girl really looks jap even though she’s chinese.
She’s jan’s fave btw. *psst. lolliphile*

More expensive dolls! And more coming up! hahaha.

And we have cardcaptor sakura! And syaoran.

And us with some ouran people. :] We love ouranhostclub!

The very suitable naruto cosplayer. hahaha.

With the NUS anime club peeps.

Yes, we had to take a shot with him. Hahaa. Alkanphel tells me naruto normal poses are like this. v ^_^ v

With the super cute girl again! HAha.

OMG. Nor loves azumanga daioh. But so ex

And because i’ma haruhi fangirl. I wouldn’t give up the chance wld i?

More haruhism.

XXX-holic, thank you very much.

And lovable domo-kun. -hearts-

Tsubasa Chronicle.

Aizen from bleach.

Er. I dunno which anime is this from. ehehe
But super nifty costume!

.hack// series

Gundam Seed Destiny

While ppl were taking photos, i took photos of them. SEE SO MANY!

Lovely lovely Nanao-chan~! i wanna cosplay as nanao next time! D:

Deathnote. We’re gonna catch deathnote 2 soon. yayyy.

Er. Dunno where’s this from either. Heh.

Its robobunny! i don’t know the name actually but i think the costume’s well done!

Look its a duckie!!!

Looks like its from kingdom hearts. -shrugs-
i don’t really know either.

The girl on the left is a spitting image of emma watson aka hermione?

YUKI from TMSH! Hehehe. jan fangirls like mad.

The maids from meido cafe. =O

Dark saber from FSN!

The bleach team. i’m kinda impressed with the person RP-ing rangiku.

Rozen maiden again~

Tsubasa-holic team. They had a reallly cheesy story that got my goosebumps rising. lmao.

The ff7 team (thanks for the correction TJhan).
I LOVED THEM BEST! gawd, the pizza thingie was hella hilarious.

Ragnarok team i think. o.o;

Another FF team that was hella impressive too.
The girls looked really good. bwahahaha.

And another team.. i forgot.. from where.. ehehe.

AND DOMO KUN’S TIRED!!! hahaha.

Fairytales, they never have happy endings. haha.

Rukia X Ichigo. KTHXBAI! <3

OMG. a panda girl!!! -squees-

Nor loves sakura. :]

Hollow ichigo. hella cool.

And L from deathnote.

D-gray man if i’ma not wrong. Haha.

FSN! Saber and Rin. I didn’t see much FSN cosplayers. Strangee.

Haruhi from Ouran Host club. I think she’s really suited for her. haha

More gorgeous expensive 1000dollars dolls.

Yachiruuuu! Me and nor were excited when we saw her. hahaha.

SEIGAKU!!! Prince of tennis.

School rumbleee! Hahaha.

Jan loves them and forced me to take a photo of them cos his batt died.

And the ever elusive urahara we managed to snap before leaving!

Lastly, a groupshot with beloved, darling domo.
JO LOVES DOMO KUN. YAY.

Kaes, As i’ve said before. If you want any photos used here without us inside or in larger size.. Do leave a comment with yer email. Haaha, and of course. we’re not professional photographers. Sooooo yeahh. these photos were taken from our point of view and i hoped you enjoyed our little tour of the cosplay fest today!