Anime Festival Asia 2014 Singapore (AFA 2014)

Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2014, the largest edition of South-east Asia’s most anticipated J-pop and Anime Festival was back in Singapore with the latest J-Pop and Anime Content.

The festival was held from 5 – 7 December at Suntec City Convention Centre. With 6 halls consisting of exhibition booths, stage activities and concerts, fans were spoilt for choice over the three days. 

I brought Linda along with me on the last day of AFA because I know that she loves Japanese culture and anime. We were just in time to catch the first Asia Anisong-singer Audition.

We went in to the exhibition hall next where we can find exclusive merchandise and showcase of works from anime content creators. There will also be special activities held in the main and mini stages.

Linda was drawn to one of the booths where we can use the ipad to read the anime stories.

Spotted the figurines of Ironman.

Featuring 140 exhibitors from 10 countries which includes Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan and USA, AFA 2014 showcased the latest content, culture, music and key industry personalities through a myriad of engaging activities. Visitors were treated to the best of Japanese Popular Culture and Anime-related talks, merchandise, activities and exclusive showcases.

All the figurines were so kawaii, I want to bring them home and start my collection.

Passed by my favourite anime series - Sailor Moon, the pretty soldiers. Shall check out the booth.

They were selling cosmetics with Sailor Moon packaging.

So adorable.

Say hello to Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon.

Here's the story of Sailor Moon: 

Usagi is a normal teenage girl. One day, she encounters a mysterious cat, Luna. Luna gives Usagi a magical brooch and explains how to use it to transform into Sailor Moon. Luna tells her that she is a Sailor Soldier who must fight for peace, and find the rest of the Sailor Soldiers, as well as their princess.

The lovely Smart Doll.

What is Smart Doll?

Smart Doll is a 60cm tall fashion doll designed by Danny Choo and manufactured in Japan. 

The first Smart Doll is modeled after the Japan tourism mascot Mirai Suenaga and comes in two flavors - Manual and Automatic. 

Meet the Shinigami (death god), Ryuk.

There is a Death Note Musical showing in April 2015 at Tokyo and July - August 2015 at Seoul. If you happen to be overseas at these 2 countries, you may want to consider watching this.

Former AKB48 member's Tomomi Kasai was here at AFA and was cosplaying as Misa Amane.

The sexy babe figurines in swimwear.

Other than stage activities, there was also fansign session going on.

There were lots of cosplayers at AFA. AFA is the time where you can cosplay and everyone will think that you look normal.

AFA 2014 was yet another great success. Over the past 3 days, it has drew a crowds of over 90,000 visitors. This festival has push the J-Wave to new heights and help promote top quality Japanese content across South-east Asia.

Thanks for the invitation, see you next year.

Anime Festival Asia 2013 (AFA 2013) Singapore Day 2

Anime Festival Asia (AFA), the region’s biggest premium festival for Japanese Popular Culture and anime, is back in Singapore for the 6th year.

AFA 2013 took place from 8 – 10 November at Suntec City Convention Centre. 

With highly popular concerts and experience zones returning and a dazzling bevy of A-List celebrities and cosplayers from Japan and the region, J-pop and cosplay lovers can experience the most anticipated J-pop event of the year.

I was here Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre for AFA day 2 on a Saturday afternoon.

Visiting the exhibition hall first.

The exhibition hall showcased lots of exclusive merchandise direct from Japan, the Creator Hub featuring works by fans, for fans, and the Japan Future Entertainment Zone.

One of the highlights would be AFA Cafe where diners can experience a new concept combining the very popular Moe Moe Kyun Maid Café and Atelier Royale Butler Café. The AFA Food Street will return as well. Famous blogger Miyake and Yutaki will be there.

The cute figurine of transformer and the maid caught my attention. There were more to go.

Say hello to Racing Miku, the race queen.

Kyouko Sakura, the magician girl with red-colored long hair and often seen with a spear.

Omg, this is so cute. I want to have this cute girly figurine home. 

Meet Nendoroid Monokuma.

I'm loving all the figurines. I want to start the collection soon.

The Gundam Series of space opera anime featuring giant robots.

With this, I ended my tour at the exhibition hall. Time to proceed to the main stage for anime and fashion showcase.

Spotted the girls from Love Live! School Idol Project.

μ's is a school idol group centering Honoka Kosaka, the main character of "Love Live! School idol project". The group consists of 9 members and they appear not only in the anime, but also in the real life

Besides being part of Milky Holmes, Suzuko Mimori and Sora Tokui also have voicing roles in Love Live!, playing the roles of Umi Sonoda and Nico Yazawa respectively. Together with Emi Nitta who voices Honoka Kosaka, these 3 voice actress were here at AFA13 as special guests.

Love Live! School Idol Project is one of the most popular current anime.

Other than Anime showcase, there was also fashion showcase featuring Marble Wonderland by Asia Kawaii Way.

ASIA KAWAII WAY introduces Japanese girls' culture as well as fashion, cosmetics, and contents to other countries in Asia as Cool Japan.

"Marble Wonderland by ASIA KAWAII WAY" is a new Culture Entertainment Show (fashion,dance,cosplay,anime,idol) that transmits to the world Japan's "KAWAII" power that has never existed till today through a selection of "KAWAII" from every aspect of Tokyo Fashion Pop Culture. It mainly focuses on the three areas with unique culture: Harajuku, Shibuya, and Akihabara!

There was a segment performed by Amiaya, Japanese music duo of twin sisters.

Next up was a Japanese pop idol group Dempagumi.inc.

The group was formed in 2008 and  released their debut single, "Mirror Magic?" in that year. The six members consist of of Mirin Furukawa, Risa Aizawa, Nemu Yumemi, Eimi Naruse, Moga Mogami and Ayane Fujisaki..

Dempagumi.inc brought us a series of energetic dances,

The way to make girls "KAWAII". 

The way to connect girls in Asia by "KAWAII".

Thank you Marble Wonderland for the wonderful performance. It was an enjoyable show.

Wow, sexy cosplayer!

I had a great day spent at Anime Festival Asia 2013. It was a fruitful trip down, the exhibition and performance was fabulous. Look forward to Anime Festival Asia 2014.

Music Matters 2013 - J-Rock Matters presented by BARKS Media Conference

Fans of J-Pop, here is something for you:

Music Matters Live is happening this week from 22 - 24 May 2013.

The annual Music Matters Live with HP is back for the third year, bringing the best underground talent from across the globe to Singapore. Asia’s top music festival that showcases some of the industry’s up-and-coming and established local and foreign music acts. The festival will be held at Clarke Quay over three nights...with no admission cost! 

Are you ready for it?

For the first time, Japanese artists will perform in a Japanese showcase at Music Matters 2013 - J-rock Matters presented by BARKS. 

On 23 May 2013, SID and flumpool will hold a public concert at the Fountain Stage, Clarke Quay at 9 pm. The hour-long showcase will be streamed live on Youtube as well. Click here for the link to Youtube.

Following that, SID, flumpool and WEAVER will each hold an exclusive invitation-only mini-concert at the Beer Market from late night onwards.

Isn't it awesome to catch 3 of the famous J-Rock bands performing live in Singapore for free?

I was here at M Hotel for J-Rock Matters Media Conference. I can't wait to see SID, flumpool and WEAVER in person.

BARKS is Japan’s largest music publication, engaging in multi-lingual publication of Japanese music news, providing agency, consultancy, digital music distribution aggregation services, and EC for merchandising and ticket sales.

Let's invite Tadashi Goto, Producer for BARKS to share with us more about it.

The popularity of Japanese music and artists is rising in Asia and worldwide. Despite that, not enough sources existed to feature them and deliver Japanese music news internationally. Hence, to respond to the growing diversification of global consumer-needs, BARKS extended its online outreach with a an English website and the launch of two new Mandarin sites, making Japanese music news more accessible to global audiences:

English website (www.en.barks.jp/)

Simplified Chinese (www.zh-cn.barks.jp)

Traditional Chinese (www.zh-tw.barks.jp)

With this, international audiences will now be able to get the latest updates and trends on the Japanese music scene. From news, artists biography, the site also includes a BARKS Ranking, which showcases the top artists based on the viewership hits on their bios and news articles within the website.

Without further ado, let's introduce the first band up:

WEAVER

From left to right: Shouta Okuno (Bass & Backing vocals), Yuji Sugimoto (Piano & Lead Vocals) and Toru Kawabe (Drum & Backing Vocals)

WEAVER is a piano rock band and started their performances mainly at the live house “VARIT” in Kobe.

This is the third time WEAVER is performing in Singapore. Yuji shared with us that the fans enjoyed seeing them interacting in English. So this time round, WEAVER will be singing one English song at Music Matters 2013.

The next band, flumpool.

flumpool expressed their gratitude to the global fans for supporting Japan during the Tsunami crisis in 2011 and that's why they are here to performing at Music Matters 2013 to show their gratitude.

Aww, why isn't Kazuki Sakai (Guitarist) here at the press conference?

Kazuki is actively trying to slim down and he hope to surprise the fans during his performance. So he does not wish to disclose his progress at the conference.

Do you know know flumpool had a performance together with Mayday at Tokyo’s EARTH X HEART LIVE 2013.

It was Ryuta's personal dream to give Ashin a hug and his dream came true. Both bands had a close brotherly relationship after a series of successful collaborations.

Last but not least, SID.

For SID, it is their first time here in Singapore. SID were touched that there were many fans at the airport waiting for their arrival.

They are really excited to put up a good performance together with flumpool and WEAVER.

Do catch the three growingly popular artist groups performing livein Singapore. Through their music and performances, music fans in Singapore and Asia can recognise and appreciate the universal appeal of J-Rock, and continue to support the artists by checking out their latest news and updates on BARKS.

WEAVER, flumpool and SID hope all of us could be there at Clarke Quay to support their performances.

Photo-taking time:

WEAVER.

flumpool.

SID.

Photo of the 3 J-Rock bands.

I shall end the photo with a photo of me and WEAVER. 

*scream!*

Support J-Rock, support BARKS.

For more information, please visit http://www.en.barks.jp/