Or the one where I got to see SCANDAL perform live but showed up too late to get an autograph. Alternatively, it is also acceptable to refer to it as the one where I still had yet to buy an external flash for my camera and ended up taking shitty photos.

Oh wait, that applies to all of them. Bazinga. How about we just call it the one where it was AFA X and I went there.

Everyone does event report these days and, given that I am no longer a young lad, I cannot hope to compete with the new-age style of live blogging and instant Tweeting when it comes to delivering the event reports.

So screw that shit. I’ll do this event report my way (late, irrelevant and full of digressions). With blackjack! And hookers! Actually, screw the report.

FFXIII: what I bought a PS3 for

My heroic tale began one fine Sunday morning two days ago. I woke up before noon and loaded up Valkyria Chronicles on my PS3 for some hawt turn-based/real-time hybrid tactical strategy. (What is VC’s proper genre anyway? Please do not say JRPG.) I was at chapter 15 and I was about to face Selvaria for the first time since she handed me my ass with her god-mode exploit many missions ago.

Selvaria’s boobs: what made my PS3 purchase worth

Then I remembered that I had to make my way to Suntec Convention Centre for AFA X and the SCANDAL/angela/May’n concert at night. At the exact same moment, a tropical thunderstorm warped itself into my immediate sector. On a tangentially related note, I own a very tiny umbrella.

Fast forward an hour or so, I collected my awesome-looking plastic ticket from the ticketing counter and made my way into the stage area of AFA X. Strolling casually into the event hall, I saw May’n and SCANDAL’s Haruna greeting their fans on stage. And then it was over. I realized that I had made it there just in time for the last 30 seconds of the meet-and-greet session. Laziness is the bane of my existence.

What followed was about three hours of standard convention fare. I shambled aimlessly around the exhibition hall and cosplay area a few times, took a bunch of under-exposed photos that looked perfectly fine on my camera’s useless LCD screen and almost accidentally stepped into the Borders clearance sale next door (those book nerds really know how to party).

It’s blur not because I suck at photography (I do) but because it’s Three Dee

It’s a Segway, except smaller and Japanese

Maaya :3

The concert itself was pretty decent.

My seat was right at the front, so I was like less than ten metres away from the performers on stage. There was a group of hardcore Japanese angela fans next to me who brought (presumably) handmade towels with the word “angela” sewn on. They all carried luggage cases and were flying home right after the concert.

Angela performed Shangri-La. Twice. You can say that it was a literal “encore”. Ba dum dish.

Interestingly, the rest of their set list was mostly Fafner pieces. Perhaps they were under the impression that Singaporeans wouldn’t know anything else. Kind of disappointing since I didn’t really care for Fafner beyond Shangri-La and Separation. That said, they did bring Asu e no Brilliant Road and it was awesome. It’s been so very long since Stellvia… Good times.

Right after angela came onto stage, a bunch of people with seats in the back rows ran up to the front and crowded around the fence between the seating area and the stage, thus significantly lowering the value of my prime location, much like subprime mortgage foreclosures in the neighbourhood. Fortunately, the bailout arrived just before SCANDAL came on when a pair of AFA coppers chased the squatters back to their ghettos while menacingly brandishing light sticks. My view of SCANDAL’s performance was thus glorious.

Left to right: Tomomi, Rina, Haruna, Mami

Since photography was prohibited, I can only show you stock photos of SCANDAL. Tomomi (vocal and bass) has a really high-pitched voice that I find mildly disorienting. Haruna (vocal and guitar) has the typical lead vocalist kind of vibe and energy. My (completely baseless) impression of Mami (guitar) is that she looks like she’s smoking pot all the time. Finally, I have no opinions regarding Rina (drums) because she’s always hidden behind.

SCANDAL performed quite a number of songs from their Temptation Box album (Everybody Say Yeah!, Houkago 1H, Aitai, Girlism) and some of their older stuff (DOLL, SCANDAL BABY), before ending with Shoujo S (from Bleach) and Shunkan Sentimental (from FMA), probably the only two songs that more than 90% of the audience listened to before Sunday.

I love Shoujo S but the performance was pretty bad because the chorus was completely inaudible. Shunkan Sentimental was better and Aitai worked pretty well. Temptation Box is a great album.

Also, since I sat right at the front, 90% of time SCANDAL’s pop-rock beat was basically pounding my internal organs into a fine mesh via the giant subwoofers. It was still good though. Even Houkago 1H was tolerable but I still can’t stand Tomomi’s voice.

Haruna’s vocal was definitely not quite the pitch perfection found in studio recordings, but hey it’s rock so it doesn’t really matter. It’s really too bad SCANDAL didn’t/couldn’t work their ballad single Namida no Regret into the set list. It’s easily one of their top three songs. I suspect they can’t do the song well in a live. (Please do not kill me for blasphemy.)

I have to say that Mami is probably my favourite SCANDAL girl because she looks so stoned and calm even while playing the guitar. She may not be the prettiest but she’s ever so zen.

This is the face I imagine Mami (background) to have all the time

The concert closed with May’n. Interestingly I actually watched Itsuwari no Utahime for the first time ever right before the concert because I bumped into a 1080p raw on YouTube while googling, so at last I finally recognized Universal Bunny. Unfortunately, May’n’s performance (at least from my perspective) suffered quite a lot because of the insane level of bass. I couldn’t really hear much of her singing. Oh well.

And of course, I only found out after the concert ended that the autograph session was in the afternoon during the meet and greet. Getting SCANDAL’s signature would’ve been pretty cool, but I suppose this is fate. I am learning to be zen too.

Hmmm… Come to think of it this is probably my last AFA ever (for the foreseeable future). If the world doesn’t end and nothing unexpected happens, this time next year I should be chilling around Palo Alto in California, a state almost exactly the size of Japan but without the four distinct seasons.

Maybe I’ll show up for an Anime Expo or two.

I just woke up with a throbbing headache. I feel like I’ve spent the past two days walking. Of course, this comes nowhere close to the time when I queued overnight in the winter rain for Comiket 73 and fell asleep on Big Sight’s ice-cold wet concrete floor. That was just crazy.

AFA 09 has finally come and gone. I went for both days of the event and managed to get a decent feel of the whole thing, though I did end up spending most of that time chatting with people and taking pictures of cosplayers outside the event hall. I also managed to catch the concert by May’n and Yoshiki Fukuyama, a pretty worthy climax for my AFA experience.

On the whole, I think AFA 09 improved from last year. The use of space in the event hall was much better and the level of industry participation was also noticeably higher.

Unlike last year, there weren’t any odd empty spaces in the booth layouts this time, partly because the stage area was expanded and isolated from the rest of the event hall. This made the concerts more professional and authentic, but on the flip side made the whole event seem less lively. On-stage events in the afternoon, such as the regional cosplay competition and the live-dubbing session by the K-On! cast (most of it anyway), drew considerable crowds away from the main event hall.

Ideally the huge black curtain separating the stage area from the rest of the event should only be there for the evening concerts, but I guess that’s logistically infeasible.

Bandai had a pretty prominent exhibition area celebrating the 30th anniversary of Gundam. There were some event-exclusive and early-release Gunpla models too. I spent 15 minutes watching a video on the construction of the 1:1 Gundam that was recently assembled in Odaiba. It’s pretty amazing to watch these engineers and technicians put something like that together from scratch. Watching them fine-tune the speed of the Gundam’s head rotation and adjust the positions of the jet exhausts makes me feel kind of funny inside. I think the next closest thing I can think of is watching Disney Imagineers at work.

You know, the feeling that after these people have grown up, gone through college and become professional engineers in various fields, they can take the serious stuff they have learnt and use it to create something born from childhood wonder. It’s magical.

Danny Choo had a booth collaboration with Good Smile Company where all the usual (figurine) suspects could be found. He was also helping to promote Otacool, a book published by Kotobukiya that compiles photos of “otaku rooms” from all over the world. It’s like a printed copy of the internet! I think it’s about time someone did something like this for epic 4chan posts that are of historical significance to serve as primary sources for future O-level source-based questions. (“What is Anonymous and what do they not do?”)

I have this one. Yay!

Interestingly, COSPA has decided to set up a South-East Asian branch, COSPA SEA. Damn it man. It’s already hard enough as it is to wear a COSPA shirt to a local event without bumping into someone else wearing the exact same shirt. Back in the old days we had to physically fly to Japan to get our COSPA shirts and they were like rare Epic loot. Young anime fans these days have it too good. *Swings walking cane around wildly*

I hereby proclaim Shirt.Woot the next indie mass-market apparel trend for geeks. Considering they still do not ship to Singapore and will unlikely do so in the near future, our bought sense of individuality should be safe for some time.

Tatsunoko Production

Local comic Freedom Formula — soon to be a major Hollywood production

Hottarake no Shima — Production I.G.’s new family-friendly box office release

During Production I.G.‘s presentation on Friday, the speaker mentioned that the studio was founded by people who, having seen how girls are drawn to men who do sports, poetry, etc., decided that they want to make anime that can help them score with chicks. (I imagine telling a girl that you were responsible for a scene in Kill Bill can be quite a turn on.)

And having successfully achieved their primary goal, many of them are now happily married and starting families. Hottarake no Shima (Oblivion Island) is the result of that transformation. Heh.

Summer Wars — coming to a Cathay cinema soon

Storm Lion booth babes

Animax Asia live broadcasting

Doujin merchandises

Doujin posters

Moe Moe Kyun maid cafe

Danny drew quite a crowd when he went into the maid cafe in his Storm Trooper armour. All the maids were fighting to serve him. ;)

Reine Hibiki (illustrator for Marimite light novels) autograph session

And finally, the cosplay photos. I know I say this after every cosplay event, but AFA 09 has finally made me decide to buy an external flash for my Canon 400D. Eventually. Yeah.

A familiar face

GO GO POWER RANGERS

Hetalia will be the cause of WWIII

She’s Japanese

That reminds me. Speaking of K-On!, there was a live on-stage dubbing demonstration by the seiyuu cast on Sunday. Four of the girls were present. Guess who was missing? It was Yoko Hikasa, the voice of Mio. The audience was noticeably shocked and confused when this was finally revealed.

The session still went great and watching the voice actresses do their job was pretty interesting. The fans, once they got over the initial shell shock, responded quite positively. As a bonus, I found it amusing to observe the reactions that took place immediately following the unexpected revelation. In fact, I was kind of waiting for it to happen. I am a bad person. :(

Okay, so we all know that I’m probably never going to buy an external flash and when the next cosplay event comes around, I’ll be back here posting under-exposed and out-of-focus photos again. Damn my lack of willpower.

I missed the concert on Saturday but managed to catch the one on Sunday. Although better than last year, the acoustics still left much to be desired this time. Most of the vocals were hard to make out over the loud synthesized pop tracks and the booming bass speakers that were pointed right at me.

May’n performed a few of her latest non-anime songs before ending off with Northern Cross, Lion and Iteza Gogo Kuji Don’t be late. The crowd, being who we are, reacted much more favourably to her Macross F songs. Yoshiki Fukuyama’s performance was more audible, partly because he has a louder voice and partly because he played his own chords on a guitar.

The best part of the concert was of course the two duets May’n and Fukuyama performed for the encore. Fukuyama did an impressive rendition of Diamond Crevasse on his guitar and sang along with May’n during the chorus, and May’n did a surprisingly good job with Dynamite Explosion from Macross Dynamite 7. Personally, I was looking forward to a Totsugeki Love Heart duet, but I guess I shouldn’t be greedy. Music — the one good thing about Macross 7.

That about concludes my AFA 09 coverage. Now I shall pray to the great Cherokee gods for Maaya Sakamoto to come to AFA 10.

So all the cards are finally on the proverbial table. In addition to whatever was announced during the first press conference, the final details for Anime Festival Asia 09 was released this Wednesday (or last Wednesday depending on your preferred usage) during a blogging conference (hurray new media?). Being really short on free time these days, it naturally took me three whole days to write this post. You know you are getting old when you no longer care about first post.

Refer to my previous post for the prior announcements. The new details are as summarized below:

• “Live” performance by Hatsune Miku. You can see how it will look like here.
• Live dubbing by K-ON! seiyuus
• Showcases by Tatsunoko Productions and MADHOUSE Studio
• COSPA retail presence
• Weiβ Schwarz Grand Prix (it’s a moe anime TCG game)

In addition, the anime song performances will be split between the two days of the event, with Ichirou Mizuki, Shoko Nakagawa and Hatsune Miku on day one and Yoshiki Fukuyama and Mayâ€n on day two. The concert tickets are priced at S$188 for two days and S$108 for one day. You can also purchase regular entry tickets to the event for S$15 for one day or S$25 for two.

I think the most interesting thing to me is probably the joint performance by Yoshiki Fukuyama (who performed as Basara, the lead singer of FIRE BOMBER, in Macross 7) and May’n (who performed Sheryl Nome’s songs in Macross Frontier).

Think about it: quite a few of FIRE BOMBER’s songs are duets. The AFA organizers aren’t wiling to confirm anything, but it’s not inconceivable for May’n to assume the role of Mylene and perform a few classic Macross 7 pieces with the great Basara himself. That’d be awesome. If it happens anyway. Planet Dance!

Still, the ticket prices have gone up this year. Since I have effectively zero income right now and still have an expensive college education to save up for, choices will have to be made with the utmost prudence. Hmmm…

I just got home from the press conference for the second Anime Festival Asia and got a feel of what this year’s AFA09 will feel like.What feels like not too many daybreaks ago, a young innocent boy travelled through time all the way from 1989 to witness history unfold one fateful September day yesteryear with the birth of Singapore’s first anime convention. Now we are all grown up. *Sniff* It’s all so beautiful — a quintessential coming-of-age story.

But I digress.

This year’s Anime Festival Asia (AFA) will take place on 21st to 22nd November at the Suntec City convention hall (in Singapore) as per last year. In additon, there will be a one-day corporate event called Animation Asia Conference (AAC) on the 20th for industry sharing and shoulder-rubbing. So there’s something for not just the kids and the young-at-heart, but also suits looking to expandify and integratize their regional new-media social networking portfolios. Making up words is fun.

Reiko, the bilingual MC, speaks better English than me

The suits

Here’s a bullet-point breakdown of AFA09 announcements so far:

• Confirmed performers:
  • May’n
  • Shoko Nakagawa – all-round otaku idol/blogger
  • Ichirou Mizuki
  • Yoshiki Fukuyama – JAM PROJECT! FIRE BOMBER!
• Regional cosplay competition – auditions to be held in various countries.
• Danny Choo – showcasing Mirai-chan merchandises, giving talks, and moving to some Stormtrooper groove.
• Bandai stuff – Gundam 30th anniversary, Power Rangers, Harumika, Cook Joy, BAKUC.
• Moe Moe Kyun maid cafe – a cafe. With maids.

It definitely looks like the event is growing (literally in some sense), particularly the industry networking side which has expanded from a corner of the event hall to its own day. And of course with almost three months left to the actual convention, there will no doubt be more announcements coming in the official AFA09 website.

The maids

A random Minuki (Trucy Wright) cosplayer

Personally, I’m a lot more excited about Yoshiki Fukuyama than Shoko-tan. Although as with May’s performance last year, I doubt that the event organizers will be able to secure screening rights for Macross 7 footages, given the legal shit-storm that is the franchise’s international distribution rights — a sobering warning to all aspiring creative talents on the danger of selling out too early. What a pity. The songs were the only thing that made 7 fit for viewing and they worked great too.

Bandai’s Cook Joy — It’s like Cooking Mama in tangible 3D

It appears inevitable that this blog will eventually become nothing more than a collection of distilled madness and PR mouthpiecing. Although the Gundam Unicorn series airing next spring may provide some rejuvenating blog fodder… But I digress again.

So anyway, I’m sure I’ll be seeing many of you at uncomfortably-close range come November at AFA09. (Please wash your hands and have a breath mint.) In the meantime, maybe it’s about time I get an external flash for my timeworn Canon 400D.

Over. Singapore’s first anime convention is. It’s been an eventful two days and I’m quite happy with the way it ended. Now we can start looking forward to next year. Also, I just woke up and my head hurts.

Pre-Event

The convention area is divided into a few zones. The white rectangle at the bottom right is where the staff and invited guests rest. You can read up on more background information about the event from my past entries.

Again, the invited guests were May’n, Yasufumi Soejima, Koji Morimoto, Kunio Okawara, Ichiro Mizuki. I uploaded a YouTube video of the Q&A session on Saturday.

Crowd

The queue got better later in the day

Graphite drawing competition organized by NUS Anime Club

The stage area was always crowded whenever there was any performance. My 17-50mm lens couldn’t get any picture of what went on. There was a cosplay competition on the second day.

It’s a sign

Ultraman vs. a furry teddy bear

Also, since I was using a DSLR with no live preview, I had to shoot blind while holding it above the crowd.

Displays

Genius Party concept art

Koji Morimoto

There’s a display for Studio 4°C’s Genius Party. Koji Morimoto was there on Saturday for an hour to sign GP merchandises.

Animax Asia showcasing LaMB, their first in-house production

Yasufumi Soejima

LaMB is Animax Asia’s first in-house production and it is being produced right here in Singapore. It’s a one-hour sci-fi anime movie with storyboard by Yasufumi Soejima, a former GONZO animator.

I want this… D:

The figurine displays drew a constant crowd. Although the whole thing was handled by a local distributor, there were Japanese representatives from Good Smile Company and others around, and apparently they were quite impressed by the turnout. Bodes well for the future. ;)

Event limited 1/60 Exia Trans-Am mode

Airbrushing demonstration

Those of you waiting for episode 8 review can make do with this

Bandai and Gundam have quite a presence at the event because Bandai recently set up an Asian branch in Singapore. No questions were asked about why there were so many Gundam 00 fans in Singapore when the show is not available here. *cough*

Imaginary Friends Studios’ display at NUS Graphite

Pepper

Pepper too

There were many pieces from Imaginary Friends Studios on display both at their own both and at the NUS Graphite booth. IFS is a Singaporean art studio with an impressive repertoire and has many major foreign clients such as Electronic Arts (e.g. Mirror’s Edge), Intel, Nokia, DC Comics and Penny Arcade.

I bought a copy of their latest release, The Pepper Project, which is a compilation of artworks featuring Pepper, the mascot character created by Artgerm aka Stanley Lau, the head of IFS. I got him to sign my copy.

Some works from Collateral Damage Studios

Yes May’n signed it

Anime showcases from everyone’s favourite company

Hehe

Seriously though, Odex did a decent job

Local distributor Chuangyi Comics

Some manga-related displays

Cosplay

I apologize for my poor photography as usual… I should really get around to getting a Speedlite. If only some kind soul would donate a 580 EX to me. My birthday is in January by the way. :D

Awesome

It’s running away

This can only mean one thing: giant cockroaches

Miku got a haircut

Concert

Ichiro Mizuki performed on Saturday night and May’n performed on Sunday night.

I didn’t attend Mizuki’s concert but I heard it was pretty awesome. I did watch him perform during rehearsal on Friday and during the cosplay competition on Sunday. (He was one of the judges.)

Waiting for May’n

I did attend May’n’s concert. It was one of the most awesome moments of the past year and a perfect end to the event. Her stage presence is truly captivating and her vocals are the real deal. I was standing right at the front and the atmosphere was just perfect. Sheryl Nome was on stage.

Unfortunately, photography was banned during her concert so I don’t have anything for you to see, especially since I was at the front where all the staff members were…

Okay just kidding. I have obtained some top secret photographs taken by other people. Many Bothan spies died to bring us these pictures. Not that you can see much in them.

The MCs

Camera LCDs

Pictures taken by LianYL of RIUVA. Please arrest him instead

May’n’s dancers, Junko and Mizuki

Picture taken by Double. Please arrest him instead

Picture taken by Windbell. Please arrest him instead

By the way, the Sheryl cosplayer (first picture in this post) was actually a Diamond VIP ticket holder who went on stage to shake hands with May’n and receive a signed board.

And yeah, I had a Diamond VIP ticket too. Also, vicious rumours of my snubbing of May’n are competely untrue. The reality is that I did shake her hands, but at that very moment Jim (extreme right), the design director for AFA08, introduced me to May’n’s manager (centre right) all of a sudden as “the guy who translated all the interview questions” and I ended up in a deer-in-the-headlight situation with me fumbling for words while attempting to bow and greet simultaneously. As any reasonably sane deer would do, I fled. orz

So yeah. I didn’t snub her. I merely ran away. >_<

People love to spell my handle as two words :(

I was asked to join Dentsu, the event organizers, for supper after the whole thing ended because I had been translating all media interview questions for the various invited guests, and the people at Dentsu wanted to thank me. May’n was there too! She signed Crazy Crazy Crazy (her debut single) for me. :D

It was worth all the time I spent on doing translations during my final year A’ Level exam period. orz

Next

What’s next? I’m sure many of us will be looking forward to the next Anime Festival Asia if it happens. Personally, I think the chances of that are quite good. From what I heard, representatives from various Japanese studios were quite impressed by AFA08, so no doubt Singapore will be receiving plenty of good publicity when they report back home.

Looking forward to next year.

P.S. Gundam 00 episode 8 post will be delayed this week due to Post Event Syndrome.

I attended the press preview for Anime Festival Asia 08 today. The actual event starts tomorrow at 9am. The preview itself consisted of a short tour around the booths that were being set up and a press conference to introduce the invited guests.

Note: This post is backdated because it took longer than expected to upload a 25-minute video to YouTube…

In case you’ve been ignoring all my posts on the topic, AFA08 is Singapore’s first anime convention and it will be held on Saturday and Sunday at Suntec Convention Hall 403 and 404.

The guests are (left to right):

• May’n (singing voice of Sheryl Nome in Macross F)
• Yasufumi Soejima (director of LaMB, former GONZO animator)
• Koji Morimoto (Studio 4°C founder)
• Kunio Okawara (original designer of Gundam)
• Ichiro Mizuki (anime and tokusatsu singer)

The press conference itself is just a short sales pitch of the whole event, and you can already find all the information on the official website, including the details on exclusive merchandises.

Shawn, the head honcho

There is a Q&A session at the end with each of the five guests. I’ve uploaded a video recording of the whole thing to YouTube using ShakyCamâ„¢ technology.

The best part of the whole thing was actually after everyone else left and they started doing stage rehearsal. May’n performed all the songs she’ll be doing for the concert. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed for the rehearsal, so you have to use your imagination for that, or catch her actual performance on Sunday. All I can say is that she is one of the few singers who sound even better in real-life than on CD.

Also, for no reason, here’s a picture of a Sheryl cosplayer who was a member of the press.

Head down to Suntec City tomorrow or on Sunday if you want to see more. I’m really tired now, so I shall retire…to the world of Azeroth. Well, Outland actually.

UPDATE: Yes I realize that this post is really, really late. The YouTube video took years to upload overnight before failing and I had to upload it again using the non-beta uploader. Just pretend that you are reading this post on Friday night, okay?

On another note, I just got back from AFA08 day one. I’m really tired. Will blog about the whole event tomorrow because I didn’t get enough pictures today. (I forgot to put a CF card into my camera and only managed to borrow one from Windbell just before I was going to leave the venue.)

If you haven’t already read about it on other blogs by now, details on the VIP tickets for May’n’s life performance are out on the official site. (Normal AFA ticket holders will be able to enjoy the concert from less optimal positions.) Diamond VIP tickets, which get you an autograph and a handshake from May’n in addition to front row seats, will sell for S$118 (80 USD), while regular VIP tickets go for S$68 (46 USD). They will be on sale through the website starting from 1st November.

I am helping AFA08 compile a list of questions from fans in Singapore (and other English-speaking countries) to send to May’n. She has gracefully agreed to answer them through email correspondence.

I will be sending the questions in both English and Japanese and the event organizers will help to edit and forward them to May’n. I will be translating her replies and the final result will be posted in both languages on the official website.

So, if you have anything you want to ask May’n, please submit your questions through the form on the official site. The deadline is Wednesday, 22nd October 2008.

UPDATE: The interview is up on the official site.

AFA08 pre-registration is now up. Only the $8 two-day ticket is available for pre-registration. Details on the special VIP seating for Mei’s concert (tier pricing and sales location) will be released early next week. Head to the official ticketing site more for information.

Yes, this is NOT a joke. May’n (May Nakabayashi), the beautiful voice behind Sheryl’s songs in Macross Frontier, will be making her way down to this tiny-red-dot island to perform live at the inaugural Anime Festival Asia, previously introduced on my blog, to be held on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2008. This will be her first live performance outside of Japan and will possibly mark the greatest moment in Singapore’s short and pathetic history.

More details after the break.

Dentsu, the organizer of AFA08, held a small informal session today to announce a few new details on the upcoming event.

Here’s a list of things about the concert that have been officially confirmed by the organizers:

• May’n will be performing at least 7 songs.
• There will be an autograph session but the exact procedure for it is to be determined.
• No additional ticket purchase is required for the concert; everything is included in the convention entry fee.
• There will be premium tickets for reserved seats, but the details are yet to be confirmed.

Here are some other things about the convention that have been confirmed:

• Kunio Okawara, the mechanical designer of Mobile Suit Gundam and Gundam 00, will be appearing at the event to sign autographs and judge the Bandai Action Kit Universal Cup Competition (BAKUC).
• Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, Kaiyodo, Alter, Square Enix, Revoltech, and other companies will have retail presence at the convention.
• Kotobukiya is releasing an exclusive limited edition Armored Core model for sale during the convention. Other companies may have exclusive merchandises too, but details are not yet available.
• Jump Super Anime Tour will be part of the convention.

Unconfirmed rumours:

• There is at least one other seiyuu yet to be announced.
• She is not Megumi Nakajima.
• Possible Revoltech release.

See, I told you AFA08 will be awesome. So yeah, come down to Singapore in November if you want to see May’n live! You can read up on all the above details on the official AFA08 website. Once again, the ticketing details for AFA08:

Date: 22nd and 23rd Nobember
Time: 10:00am to 9:00pm
Venue: Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centure, Halls 403 and 404
Ticket: $5 for one day, $8 for two days, children under 6 free

Cosplayers who pre-register will be able to enter for free.

P.S. Nyan Tora is pretty good but it doesn’t have Maaya’s cover of AIMO!