This mid-November, Liz and I had a rare day out at Anime Fest Asia 2011. It’s the third year AFA is on and I’ve missed the previous two on account of work or other church-related events. This particular Saturday, however, I managed to set the day aside to do something I wanted to for a long time.

Not that I’m an anime fangirl by any means. I don’t really collect a whole bunch of merchandise. I enjoy reading Japanese manga and watching anime whenever I have the time (which is rare indeed). I’m just a fan of cute-anything. You know? Anything kawaii? (Kawaii is now officially in the Oxford Dictionary by the way.)

I do enjoy Japanese culture, though, as many of you would probably know. And this is just a part of it. When I head to Japan next month, I hope to have some experience with wabisabi. How I wish I could head to Edo Wonderland. Yeah, Liz, do it without me.  (p_q､)ｼｸｼｸ

We began at Suntec… at Swensen’s for breakfast. Three words… I’ve had better. But it’s not that bad.

A happy shot of me, while waiting for breakfast to arrive. I’ve always liked those Swensen’s lamps. They remind me of the old days when Dad used to bring us to the one at Thomson Plaza for ice cream on weekends when we were kids.

We got our cheapo $8 tickets at the convention centre lobby. There were other tickets for sale, such as the Anisong concert tickets. Quite a lot of notable folks in the anime scene were around for this. But, I wasn’t terribly interested in spending $100+ bucks on it. ケチ！

Not particularly fond of the mascot, but then again, I’m not fond of Astroboy either.

Once we entered the hall, it was already filled with tons of people. It got worse as the day wore on. There were loads of stalls to browse through, many from famous companies. There was a stall selling all sorts of Gundam models. It was very popular with the guys. Gundam’s like the Japanese faction of Transformers. Except better. I can’t imagine spending time fixing up those plamos though.

The AFA merchandise stall had its share of customers.

I’m stingy so I didn’t bother.

Along the way, I spotted some cute little figures.

Kaname Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Can you believe the detail and quality of this?

And the chibi version:

Even cuter! ARGHHHH!

Around the corner was a stall selling katana. There were primarily two types you could get – a katana or an umbrella disguised as a katana. Nifty! They had Bleach katanas and Liz, the everlasting Kuchiki Byakuya fan, bought a replica of his Senbonzakura. Except it was Senbonzakura-kasa. It was a brolly.

The whole place was decked out with large posters. Like this one of Kuroshitsuji 2.

I was hoping to meet Danny Choo at AFA, since I had a few brief exchanges with him online about this and that (I notice it’s mostly about gadgetry – Apple fan club?). Imagine my delight when I chanced upon Mirai Inc’s booth!

With a Suenaga Mirai itasha! It’s a BMW to boot! I wonder whether anyone will really drive around in Singapore in it. I have no idea what that guy’s tee means. Does he like Pluto that much? Is he a sci-fi geek? I don’t know.

And guess what? I met Danny and his musume! (Musume means daughter.)

His bunshin that is. Apparently there’s a company in Japan that makes dolls or figures based on oneself. It costs a pretty penny though.

There were plenty of Suenaga Mirai figures.

And I’ve always wanted to see these first hand! The Volks Dollfie dream dolls. They’re really quite large and so lovely. You can swap the parts to create different looks. These also cost a whopping US tanker. ^^;

La Tendo, the shop that I went to for L had a lot on sale too.

But, I didn’t see anything I really liked.

Except this Hatsune Miku itasha!

After rounding the corner, I spotted a whole bunch of musume on display. In the spur of the moment, I searched Yahoo Japan Auctions for the Morikawa Yuki Dollfie Dream. She’ll cost me ¥200,000. That works out to be over SGD$3000. I could get another souped up MBP with that! ARGH! Morikawa Yuki is limited edition since production has already stopped. But she has the most heartbreakingly sweet countenance you could ever imagine. The standard Dollfie Dreams from Volks are about a fifth of the price.

But I’d rather spend the money souping up my GF2 with lenses (which I will shortly – a good zoom).

Oh well. I think I’ll be resigned to the fact that it’ll just be me and L. And a whole bunch of mini Nendoroid figures from K-On!.

I wouldn’t mind purchasing this figure on the poster if they made it though. A Hatsune Miku merlion! Haha.

There were plenty of other stalls to look at, set up by some other folks in the business. It’s like a doujinshi type thing, except there weren’t many to speak of. It was mostly self-created merchandise based off characters from other manga and anime. It’s not as elaborate as Comiket in Japan by any means. Not that I’ve been to one yet.

I wasn’t surprised to see a long line of guys standing in wait (or should I say “lying in wait”? – haha) when I stopped by the Moe Moe Kyun maid cafe. What is it about guys and maid cafes?

Maybe I shouldn’t ask.

I did take a peek into the cafe through the exit which was heavily guarded to prevent rear entry. Just cuteness overload. Mostly guys in there and one or two girls, tolerant enough to participate in it with their boyfriends. It would be interesting to visit. I wonder if the food’s any good.

Not to be beaten, the girls were lining up next door for entry into Atelier Royale Wonderland, a glorified host club cafe. I’d already taken a look at the guys who would be there, thanks to Danny, who posted it all on his blog of which I’m a crazy avid reader. Emo sure is popular nowadays.

My next stop was to scout around for some merchandise in the reasonably large Muse store. It was so popular there was a huge line outside. It’s like the line at Louis Vuitton boutiques on weekends. Except longer and a whole lot less atas.

Now prior to this, I stopped by a stall selling all sorts of cosplay items. And I purchased a pair of black lace neko-mimi (cat’s ears). To justify my purchase, I’m just going to say that anytime I need something for a costume party, I’m going to pull these out.

Here I am, outside Muse, in my neko-mimi.  (〃∇〃) てれっ☆

Me and my neko-mimi met some characters along the way! There were a whole ton of cosplayers everywhere.

Kurosaki Ichigo looking a little messy. Just got out of bed much?

Hatake Kakashi looked alright though. But I like him better on his blog.

I didn’t realise card games (e.g. the ones by Bushiroad) were that popular until I saw a whole bunch of guys playing them.

Cosplayers outside on the way out.

My loot for the day!

Neko-mimi, a Kuroshitsuji card sticker (what???) and a Gintama Sougo sleeping eye mask (always wanted one!). Knocked me back less than $50. Not bad, considering how much potential that place had for spending.

Overall, AFA was a great experience. I wish there were more stalls. Perhaps in the future, with the anime culture gaining in popularity over here, we’ll see more retailers setting up shop.

Flickr Set AFA 2011