AFA 2012

I went to the AFA 2012 (Anime Festival Asia) yesterday and today, and well, I was disappointed.
Mostly because I didn't see anything from Deathnote, or Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, or Prince of Tennis. I was especially disappointed by the lack of anything PoT-related, because the Shin Tennisu no Oujisama series were just released this year. And I'd been hoping to buy some PoT merch.

What I saw was a lot of Kuroko no Basuke. And Vocaloid's Hatsune Miku.

Which pissed me off.

Speaking from a biased point of view, I'd sooner choose tennis over basketball. Any day.
Speaking from a not-so-biased point of view, I'd have expected THE biggest anime convention in Singapore to at least have some PoT merch, even if it wasn't very big on the scene. I mean, the series was released in 2008, which means it isn't too new. And it's not as big as Naruto. I get that.

I'd just have hoped that the AFA would have had some PoT merch that I could splurge on. But even without any PoT merch (which broke my heart, honest), I did buy some nice items for myself.


I don't know much about Kingdom Hearts, but this was too good to pass up!

Sleepy Totoro characters.
Zzzz.

Mononoke-hime.
I'll never forget this as the first anime movie I ever watched.

Baron! One of my favourite Studio Ghibli characters, for the simple reason that he's such a gentleman.

And what's an anime convention without the cosplayers, right? I was so happy that I managed to get pictures with the amazing people who came cosplaying as PoT characters! TvT

Rikkaidai no Yukimura Seiichi (cosplay)

Rikkaidai no Yukimura Seiichi (actual)

Fudomine no Shinji Ibu (cosplay)

Fudomine no Shinji Ibu (actual)

U-17 no Kirihara Akaya (cosplay)

Rikkaidai no Kirihara Akaya (actual)

Seigaku no Sadaharu Inui (cosplay)

Seigaku no Sadaharu Inui (actual)

I was worried that I wouldn't have been so crazy over PoT since I hadn't been listening to the OST that often (not since Kazuki Kato took over my phone), and the current Shin Tennisu no Oujisama episodes just aren't out yet. So without any dose of PoT in my life, I was so worried that I'd forgotten how much I loved the series.

I was so glad that I was proven wrong. When I saw Shinji Ibu (he was the first cosplayer I saw), my heart just stopped and I literally forgot how to breathe. And when I plucked up the courage to walk up to him and ask him for a photo, I was stuttering and tripping over my own words and generally being a complete fangirl. It was so un-Nat of me - I've never acted like this before, honest. It's a new feeling. And when the Shinji Ibu cosplayer didn't get the hair right, and didn't really know what I was talking about (I was stammering on and on about PoT-related stuff, oops), I got pretty indignant. I mean, if you're gonna cosplay as someone you'll wanna make sure that you know almost everything about the character, right? You don't wanna do some half-arsed job.

But all indignation aside, I was beyond happy to see PoT cosplayers. To me, it was like living my everyday drab life, and then running into a PoT character and feeling like "oh my god, they're real". And all of a sudden, my day seems brighter because I ran into one of the characters from my favourite anime series, and it's like I could throw my old life away and follow them into a world where I could truly be happy. These words don't do enough to describe how I felt when I saw the cosplayers. It was like I'd finally found someone who genuinely loved the series as much as I did, and wouldn't judge me if I were to randomly quote characters or fangirl over them, but would join in with 200% enthusiasm.

All I can say is that when I saw them, I wanted to run up to them, hug them, and cry, all at the same time.

If I got to take a picture with Ryoma Echizen, I think I really would've cried.

Comments

  1. MakiNovember 13, 2012 at 2:24 PM

    Hello :)
    Just passed by your blog when i'm searching for photos taken on AFA..

    I went AFA on the first day and saw Yukimura and Ibu too!!
    BUT OMGGGGG I DIDN'T SEE AKAYA AND INUI ;A;

    There was ONE PoT-related merch...
    A stall was selling the one and only NPoT calendar.. I wanted to buy it BUT there was this girl that saw it 1 second before me and it bought away. ;A;
    I had fun turning the PoT Gacha in front of the bandai stall though! XD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CyanideNovember 14, 2012 at 5:50 PM

      Hi Maki! ^.^
      I went on the first and second days, so I got to take a pic with Inui and Akaya on the second day! And AAAAAAAAHHHHH HUNT HER DOWN AND STEAL THE CALENDAR HAHAHA. I /NEED/ to find PoT/NPoT merch stat! I'm going insane because there aren't any new episodes lately T^T
      I didn't see any Gacha though! *horrified face* HOW DID I NOT KNOW. GASP.
      But all that aside, thanks for commenting on my blog and it's great to FINALLY find someone who's equally obsessed over PoT/NPoT like I am! :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's Your Patronus?

Image
What's a patronus? According to Professor Lupin, it "is a kind of Anti-Dementor - a guardian which acts as a shield between you and the Dementor". It basically conjures an incarnation of the caster's innermost positive feelings, such as joy or hope, and is a weapon rather than a predator of souls. Patronuses shield their conjurors from Dementors, and can even drive them away. They can also be used to send messages. Well. I've always wondered what my patronus would be. Once upon a long-ass time ago when I was in Primary School, I'd have said that my patronus was a dog, mostly because my favourite animal back then was a dog (of course, that was way before I realised exactly how awkward I am around animals). Then a few years after that when I was in Secondary School, I would have said that my patronus was a tortoise or a turtle, for reasons that I'd prefer not to say. And then after I graduated from NAS, I asked myself again what my patronus co...
Read more

Red.

Image
I always dye my hair red - I started dyeing it two years ago after I completed my internship because I felt that it was time, I was ready, and I haven't dyed it a different colour ever since. Of course, constant dye jobs do nothing for the hair, which is why I allowed mum to nag me into doing a henna job on my hair instead of the usual bright red I ask of the hairstylist. The result is that my hair now looks orangey instead of red, which is what I expected but nevertheless found myself incredibly disappointed with. (The irony is that I never have such complaints about my hair colour whenever my red fades to orange within the first two weeks of the fresh dye.) Tsuki-kun told me that he felt the orange suited me better since the red was too bright, but I can't quite bring myself to agree with him. See, the thing about red is that I chose the colour myself - it was the colour I was absolutely sure that I wanted for myself, and I never regretted the colour. Sur...
Read more

Break The Mirror. Please.

Image
I don't want to look at myself in the mirror anymore. I don't want to see my reflection, I don't want to see that ugly girl staring back at me. Those pleading eyes. She wants me to do something, anything, just so she doesn't look so ugly. She's fat and ugly. Hideous, both inside and outside. All she wants is to stop thinking. Because every time she does, the knife inches ever closer to her heart. She will never be as perfect as her . She just wants to stop looking. Shut up. Just shut up. Stop comparing. I know I'm ugly. Stop thinking. Leave me alone! She wants to stop seeing all the fat bits, all the wobbly jiggly bits that she aches to just cut off. Just grab a knife and slice them all off and she won't be so FAT . She won't be so UGLY . She just wants to kill herself. Please?
Read more