NKDS

Today, AFA09 held another press conference aimed specifically at bloggers. During this conference, the ticketing price and several new guests were revealed. Suffice to say that AFA09 is shaping up to be the anime event to beat in the region.

First thing first… the normal ticket price will be $15 for a day and $25 for two days. Students will get to enjoy a special student rate of $12 for a day and $20 for two days. The concert tickets will be priced at $188 for both days’ concert and $108 for one day’s concert. There will also be free entry for children under the age of 12 and for cosplayers who meet adequate standards for the event. Note that all prices are in SGD.

EDIT: The concert tickets will cover the entry fee as well. For example, a one day concert ticket will cover the entry fee for that day, while the two day concert ticket will cover the entry fee for both days.

Yes, this is a substantial increase as compared to last year. But considering the total amount of content available in AFA09, one might argue that the price of admission is a good deal compared to any other anime event of comparable size and depth. Not to mention the concert ticket pricing this year is actually cheaper per artiste as compared to last year!

For the students out there, the deal gets even sweeter with substantial discounts available to you. 20 bucks for two days comes out to 10 bucks a day. Not bad at all.

Now, on to the new content revealed in the conference.

EDIT: More details such as Industry and Regional Cosplay Championship included!

K-On!

Yeah, man. The K-On seiyuus are coming to Singapore! There will be a live dubbing session and a Q&A session for them, all accessible to all attendees. Expect a huge deluge of K-On merchandise to go on sale in the event.

I think this is special for several reasons. First of all, this is the first time that any seiyuu has visited Singapore for an event, not to mention an entire seiyuu group. It will be something new for any anime fan in the region who has yet to attend any seiyuu event, me included. Indeed, there are anime fans who might not be aware of the amount of effort involved in the voicing of anime characters. Hopefully, this will be an enlightening experience for them, with the live dubbing session and all.

The 2nd reason why this is special… Aki Toyosaki! She voiced Yui in K-On, and she is widely considered as one of the up-and-coming moe-type seiyuu in the industry right now. She also voiced Koyoi from Hatsukoi Limited, Najimi from Akikan and Kana in Kanamemo. Yui is my favourite character in K-On and I have always wished to meet Aki Toyosaki some day, to show my appreciation for her seiyuu work. That’s possible now!

Ah, if only she would call me “Onii-chan”, like how she does in Hatsukoi Limited. Damn…

Next up is the shocker, the one thing that came out of the blue(green?) with no one expecting it.

Hatsune Miku!

You might have known of Hatsune Miku’s live performance in Animelo09. If you thought that was cool, you now have a chance to see the performance for yourself! For the first time ever, Miku is going to have a live overseas performance outside Japan, with AFA09 being her chosen event for such an occasion. That’s right, Miku is coming to perform for AFA09, on the first day of the concert, alongside Aniki and Shoko-tan!

This is surely good news for all Miku fans out there. Once again, expect a whole range of Miku stuff to go on sale. To be honest, I was never much of a huge Miku fan, though I am very interested to know how a 2D character will be brought to live on a real stage. Regardless, prepare your leeks!

As for the animation studios in the industrial area, AFA09 has managed to bring in a couple of heavy hitters this year. First up would be Tatsunoko Productions, the company that animated classics such as Macross and Gatchaman. Apparently the company also co-produced Evangelion with Gainax, so we are talking about a studio with a proven track record here.

The next studio would be Madhouse. I think Madhouse requires no introductions… if you are an anime fan, you have definitely watched their titles before. Their recent works include Death Note, Chaos;Head, and my personal favourite: Needless! Epic anime is epic, and Needless ranks up there as one of the titles that I truly enjoyed since last season. Not to mention the ending song and sequence is damn addictive.

Well, Madhouse also animated The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and the upcoming Summer Wars. It would be nice if we could get a preview of Summer Wars at AFA09, yeah?

And finally, Genesis Frontier and KKnM are moving into AFA in a big way, by introducing Bushiroad and COSPA into AFA09. Local fans in Singapore can easily acquire their COSPA stuff anytime by heading to KKnM, now international fans who are heading to AFA09 can get their COSPA fix too!  More information on the exclusive merchandise available at AFA09 will be released at a later date through the AFA09 website, so keep a look out for that.

Genesis Frontier will also be representing Bushiroad, the company that brought you the Weiβ Schwarz trading card game. If you ever wanted to play a TCG where you can use Nanoha to lay the hurt down on Kyou from Clannad, Weiβ Schwarz is going to be the game system you are looking for! AFA09 will host Singapore’s 1st ever Weiβ Schwarz Grand Prix, with the winner representing Singapore at the World Grand Prix Championship, to be held in Japan in December. In addition, Bushiroad will have booth spaces within AFA09 itself, with experienced players on hand to guide and teach attendees who wish to learn more about the game.

That’s all we have for now, and it is quite a handful. When added on to the existing content that were already announced, saying “AFA09 will be better than last year” seems to be stating the obvious.  We are told any new information will be updated on the AFA09 website, so readers might want to bookmark that site or something, if you have not done so already.

MORE NEWS:

The Regional Cosplay Championship will be extended to the 12th of October, 11am Singapore time. This is in response to requests by cosplayers who require more time to complete their costumes.

As for the Asia Anime Conference (AAC), they are bringing in Mr Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, Chairman and CEO of Kadokawa, which is pretty insane in itself. But that’s not all! Mr Mamoru Hosoda, director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, will also be in attendance for the event. There is also Mr Shiro Sasaki, the CEO of Flying Dog, the label responsible for artistes such as May’N, Maaya Sakamoto and Yuki Kajiura’s FictionJunction. These are three of the more famous names that I can recall at the moment. Add Danny Choo and other notable speakers into the combo and we can clearly see  that the AAC is an industrial event to attend.

The ticketing price for the AAC will be set at $480 per person, with special prices for students.  I would strongly urge all animation students who are reading this to attend the event, the moment the student price is announced. The chance to meet such top personnel within the industry is already rare to come by. Not to mention these top personnel will be bringing along their extensive entourage. If this is not a good chance to showcase yourself and get yourself some attention in the industry that you might be working for in the future, I don’t know what is.

NK-DS will continue to provide up-to-date coverage on AFA09, so stay tuned!

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.