Anime Festival Asia 2014 Part II: I Love Anisong concert (Day Three)

Source: Anime Festival Asia Facebook Page

Previous post: AFA14 Part I – Summary and thoughts 

Bridging the gap with (anime) music

As I’ve mentioned in Part I, AFA14 is my third time attending this event. If memory serves me correctly, I bought only the entrance ticket in 2010 and the main exhibition + stage event in 2011. You can start to see a pattern here – of me progressively trying out what the entire event has to offer.

So I decided to go for the I Love Anisong (or I ❤ Anisong, if you want to fit the emote in, Anisong being a portmanteau of “anime” and “song”) concert this year, having had my “resistance” to attending these “eroded” with the few K-pop concerts I went for in my uni days (and that I’m more able to spend now).

Excluding a processing fee of $3 per ticket, the most basic ticket category cost $58. Standard tickets were $88 and the VIP ones went for $158. For Basic and Standard, it is first-come-first-served, and standing only. VIP tickets entitle the holder to a seat, and stuff such lightsticks (to wave crazily during the concert) and a chance to get an autograph with some of the artistes. The graphic on the left, reproduced from the official AFA14 webpage, shows you how well the various ticket classes can see the stage. The blank space in the middle between VIP and Standard contained the platform on which the official video cameras were deployed, which effectively meant that a large portion of Standard didn’t have direct line of sight to the stage. What about Basic? It’s virtually impossible to see the stage from Basic, so you’ll just have to be content with looking at the footage from the screens placed above the stage itself, like these –>

Which pretty much means I bought the Basic ticket, right? 🙂 Now, with all the admin info out of the way, let’s go on to talk about the artiste lineup. For the three days of AFA, the organisers managed to get an impressive number of singers/groups in to fill each evening’s concert with a different artiste (so if you’re a big die-hard fan of anime songs and singers, you would have gotten the $428 package which includes access to ALL three days of the event and concert).

Friday’s lineup saw concertgoers treated to performances from angela (2nd appearance at AFA), Kitamura Eri, DJ Kazu and Horie Yui. On Saturday, it was fripSide (2nd appearance), THE IDOLM@STER, LiSA (2nd appearance) and yanaginagi’s turn to charm. Sunday was probably reserved for some of the better acts, with a bumper crop of five artistes performing: FLOW (2nd appearance), GARNiDELiA, Aoi Eir (2nd appearance), ROOT FIVE and May’n (7th appearance).

Since I had other things going on over the weekend, the choice of which day to go was obvious for me: Sunday, because I am somewhat familiar with the most number (four) of performers for that evening. After bumping into a friend I hadn’t met for years and doing a quick catch up, I headed straight to Hall 406 to hopefully get a good standing spot… which I sort of did, but when you’re all the way back and get blocked by everyone in front and all… well, what is see is what you get, yes? (I shall resolve to get the more expensive tickets next year… cash flow permitting. :P).

An almost nerve-wrecking one hour wait descended upon all who entered. But when the lights dimmed, everyone immediately got to their feet, and the hall echoed with cheers from the audience. Lightsticks were activated/lit up, and it was pretty cool to see all these little pinpricks of light form a cohesive moving mass in time with the music. This fascinated me for most of the night.

Going with the FLOW

Left picture: From left – Bassist Got’s (Gotou Kasutarou), vocalist Hayashi Keigo, vocalist/guitarist Asakawa Kohshi, drummer Iwasaki Hiroshi and guitarist Take (Asakawa Takeshi) (Source: CrunchyRoll). Right picture: Keigo and Kohshi belting out their energetic tunes, driving the crowd into a frenzy.

The opening act was five-member Japanese rock band FLOW, who immediately brought the house down with their fiery rock numbers and extensive stage presence. Vocalists Keigo and Kohshi ran and bounded from one side of the stage to the other, jumped on and off the speakers and platforms located on the rim of the stage, and would have had the audience eating out of their hand if it were possible, I think.

Keigo drew laughter from the audience at his attempt to speak Mandarin to introduce FLOW and say some nice things about Singapore. Kohshi’s excellent English, on the other hand helped by making it easier to communicate with us all and announcing their intentions… which was “Do you remember the last time we came, due to time, we couldn’t perform all our songs … but this time, BECAUSE WE’RE THE OPENING ACT, WE HAVE MORE TIME TO SING!!!”

That they did, with a full 45 minutes of hot-blooded, manly anime theme songs such as “World End” from Code Geass R2 and “Cha-La Head-Cha-La” from Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. It was paced by slow ballads like “Ryuusei (Shooting Star)”, to which Keigo mentioned, “There is a huge distance between Singapore and Japan, but we are connected under the same guy, and our music, to you,” which was a pretty “awww!” moment for me.

For their excellent stage presence and seemingly unlimited energy (okay, so they were both panting when they stopped to interact with the audience, but hey, that’s a plus in my books for effort!), FLOW truly heated up the concert hall with a performance worthy of the opening act, and deserves a solid 10/10 for their hard work.

The Ethereal Bride

GarNiDeliA is a relatively new music unit consisting of vocalist mizuhashi Mai (also known as Maria) and composer/keyboardist Abe Yoshinori (also known as Toku). They debuted in 2014 and have released three singles so far (Left picture courtesy of Sony Music).

GARNiDELiA came up next, and went through a couple of songs before stopping for Maria’s short speech with the audience. Decked out in a sleeveless silver dress with furry trimmings, and a cut-off skirt skewed to the left (please advise me of the proper term for this attire!), she looked every bit as exotic and pretty as she did in GARNiDELiA’s music videos – refer to her AFA14 message video to have an idea of what I am talking about.

To be honest, her speech was kind of flaky, and the only notable comment I picked up was that it was rather hot in the hall (I didn’t feel anything, and it sure must be up on stage, with all those lights shining down on her and Toku). Perhaps it was their first overseas performance, and Maria wasn’t so sure of what to say (Toku was silent, if memory serves me correctly). Whatever the case, the whole experience was somewhat of a downer after the high standards set by FLOW in the preceding act.

On that note, Maria stopped several times to wipe her sweat with a towel (?) during GARNiDELiA’s set (This is an assumption; it looked like so from where I was), which wasn’t so cool (pun intended) in my opinion. To add to the bewilderment, someone, apparently a famous Nico Nico Douga performer (NND is Japan’s analog of YouTube) came in as a backup dancer during one of their songs, and left right after that. While it brought attention to the fact that the song had a dance element to it, I was puzzled by the brief appearance of the other lady.

That aside, for a rookie music unit, they still made a good showing of themselves, with songs like “Ambiguous” from Kill La Kill and “Blazing” from Gundam Reconguista in G. It is always a pleasure to listen to songs live, and testament to the skill of the performers when they sound the same live and in the studio. 7/10, I say.

Headbanging Ah-lian?

Aoi Eir started Singing since high school, and worked briefly as a Gravure model after graduation before committing full time to her singing career (probably got scouted by a record label, I guess?) Currently signed to sony music entertainment, the 26-year-old is making wAVES IN THE ANIME MUSIC INDUSTRY, HAVING DONE SONGS FOR A FEW HIGH-PROFILE anime SERIES. IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN WHETHER HER STAR WILL CONTINUE TO SHINE (PICTURE SOURCE: JHOUSEROCK.COM)

This pretty lady with a powerful voice was the third “battleplayer” of the evening, and definitely put her best effort into her singing. From the camera close-ups, I could see her vocal cords tensing, and really do appreciate all the labour that she (and all the other singers) have put in to ensure an awesome night for the few thousand of us gathered here.

Bringing to us songs such as “Sirius” from Kill La Kill, “Innocence” and “Ignite” from the Sword Art Online series, Aoi-san also introduced a new song (the title of which escapes me) to the waiting crowd. She was especially fond of climbing up and down the stage-rim platforms, and headbanging with all caution thrown to the wind. Coupled with her very simple attire (sleeveless top, shorts, and a cardigan), she looked like a talented ah lian singer who somehow found her way into a concert and began performing. It was a little disappointing, considering that she actually has more elaborate set-ups for her other concerts. For the awesome music and dat headbang, 7.5/10.

One tough mathematical operation

 

Root Five (√5) is a japanese vocal unit formed on nico nico douga. the way i understand it, amateur singers come together on NND and collaborate, forming groups as and when circumstances allow. the really good ones do end up going pro, like these five young men here. This makes them the equivalent of youtube celebrities in the western media context. From left: pokota, kettaro, Koma’n, Dasoku, Mi-chan (Source: Anime Festival Asia official webpage) 

The fourth and shortest act came from ROOT FIVE, a group which I knew nothing about until Sunday’s concert. Their performance felt like that of a typical boy band, nothing noteworthy, with the boys singing to minus one tracks and no live band backup. They had a brief self-introduction and interaction with the crowd before going off as quickly as they had came, with a repertoire of roughly five or so songs. This was probably due to the fact that they were the least experienced out of all the five performers, so their time could have been considered more “expendable”. Unfortunately, although they did songs to anime that  I have actually heard of (Saint Seiya Omega and Fairy Tail), audience reaction to them seemed muted as compared to the other artistes. Poor guys. Ganbatte kudasai, ne? 6.5/10.

Sultry and cute, all rolled into one.

May’n, or nakabayashi mei, is a regular performer at AFA’s I love Anisong concerts. she debuted as a singer back in 2005, but only got her big break in 2008 as the singing voice of sheryl nome, the “Galactic Fairy” from the anime macross frontier. her carrier took off from that point on, and she has released a fair amount of albums and songs for anime, tokusatsu, and mainstream j-pop. Welcome back to your home away from home, May~n~! (Source: May’n official blog, http://ameblo.jp/mayn-blog/)

I had somehow misled myself into thinking that LiSA was the last act. So it was a perceptual bonus for me when it was the Ginga no yousei (銀河の妖精, Galactic Fairy) herself that appeared on stage. For the rest of the fans all around me, I’m pretty sure this was the moment they were waiting for. May’n went on further to tease us with a popping/jazz/jitterbug dance performance from her backup dancers for around 5-10 minutes, before finally stepping out to the cheers of all present.

Clad in a black halter top with floral prints, showing off her toned, sexy arms, and matching hot pants, May’n sizzled on stage, beginning her performance with the sultry number “Welcome to my FanClub’s Night!” (Macross Frontier). After a couple more songs, she stopped for a breather, and mesmerised many of bus boys with dat toothy, megawatt grin. She was also the only singer to have a sense of space, even asking “those of you at the back” if we could hear and see her (YESSSSS! Said everybody).

Next to FLOW, her audience sense was the best. Ever since Macross Frontier, I’ve kept a lookout for her performances every once in a while, and this is what I like about her: She can turn up the heat with her songs (especially the MF ones, since Sheryl Nome was supposed to a sexy singer), regale her listeners with those uniquely-voiced ballads, yet become a total cutie when conversing in grammatically-correct, Japanese-accented English.

This time, she revealed that she went shopping at Orchard Central, Ion, and Marina Square (wished I had caught a glimpse of her up close!), and bought clothes and stuffed hippos -> she apparently likes that animal. Her voice somewhat scratchy (from all the singing), she also declared, “My favourite food is roti purata (sic)! Rot purata should come to Japan!” Who wants to volunteer to open a prata shop in Japan just for her? Haha.

Saving the best for the last, May’n closed the evening with the high-tempo “Lion” from Macross Frontier and “Chase the world” from Accel World. After wishing us well for the night and thanking our attendance, she disappeared quickly off-stage. And so four hours of music came to an end, just like that. The main hall lights that snapped on brought me out of my reverie and I shuffled out with the rest of the people, beginning to plan for this blog post. May’n certainly did good. While I wished she had the time to do more of her MF songs, the rest of her performance was totally worth the effort of standing there and craning to see the screen properly. 9.5/10.

Epilogue

In closing, the concert was, overall, a good experience. However, standing for four hours is no joke – I must be getting old! Thankfully there was this intermission period between every performance (for them to get ready, I guess), where everyone gladly took the opportunity to sit down and rest. The acoustics were too loud for my liking though; I only got used to it after an hour or so. You could feel the bass thumping through your body… definitely not for those with weak hearts. But being able to see some of the artistes in action, and observe the fandom going about in their acts of devotion (those coordinated lightstick waves, the chanting of names) adds to the aural and visual adventure. Kudos to the event crew who were very vigilant and on-the-ball in stopping photography and videography, which was supposedly prohibited.

Looks like I will be back next year!

P.S.: For those who missed it, here’s some video highlights of the day’s happening, courtesy of the official AFA YouTube channel: 

Anime Festival Asia 2014 Part I: Day Three summary and thoughts

Prologue

There is a first for everything, isn’t it? I mean, I’ve covered events and written about them for university assignments and also for the publications I handled at my former workplace, but this is the first time I am doing it as a blogger, and for this blog as well.

Before I bore you, the reader, with my rambling nature (Warning: long post ahead!), here’s the link to my Facebook photo album which contains the photos I took during the event over the recent weekend, minus some stuff that will be exclusive only to this blog’s coverage of Anime Festival Asia 2014.

Setting the scene

Anyway, first things first. For the uninitiated, Anime Festival Asia (AFA) refers to a series of anime conventions and peripheral events that are held in Southeast Asia, with the core event taking place in Singapore, where it all began. Since 2008, AFA has been held annually in November/December at the Suntec City Convention Centre, moving out once in 2012 to Singapore Expo due to renovation works at Suntec. The core convention in Singapore can be considered to be the biggest anime and Japanese pop culture event in the calendar of us anime/manga enthusiasts and Japan aficionados.

From its inception, AFA has been organised by Singapore-based entertainment and event company SOZO, together with concert organiser Zepp Entertainment, and Dentsu Group, a Japanese advertising and PR agency that offers services across a wide variety of portfolios around the world.

I have been an anime fan (and as a result, I read less manga) for roughly two-thirds of my life. It is a natural progression for me to want to “get more into it” with cosplay, attending cons such as this, and so on. For those who know me, I went down quite the different route of tactical simulation/reenactment – need a better term for this – in the end. But it was through this and my interactions with my new-found buddies that I finally came to be aware of events such as AFA, Cosfest, STGCC that the fandom attends every year, much like how religious devotees make pilgrimages to holy sites whenever they can.

However, since I left the army, I’ve had less time to follow as many series as I used to before, that being taken up by other pursuits and commitments. This was already starting to happen when I attended my first AFA in 2010. To a certain extent, I was also getting lazier. My 2011 album and the sad lack of photos can attest to this somewhat. Maybe it’s because I am actually not fazed by the exhibition – I am not one of those who will queue up hours before the official opening, rushing in when the doors swing outwards, grabbing merchandise this way and that. I prefer to saunter in, look at cool things, stroll around a bit at my own pace… you get the idea.

AFA14… is it any different?

It was with this relaxed attitude that I faced this year’s edition of AFA. I should go and take a look, right? Since I missed it for two years while I was in Australia (and opted out of a anime con there because the ticket was too pricey T_T). But I wasn’t going to rush, anyway. There were two ticketing options: For $13, you will get access to the main exhibition areas, which is about 80% of the floor space. Top up an extra $10, and you will be able to enter the “Stage” area, which, I believe was a section reserved for performances and activities related to Japanese video-sharing website Niconico (formerly known as Nico Nico Douga).

I decided to go for the latter option, buying the ticket for Sunday (the final day) because I didn’t want to go all three days and blow all my money on this (Yes, money is a central theme in this entry :P). When I bought my tickets last Friday the girl at the counter gave me this neon-pink wristband (see picture; left) and warned me not to lose it, and that it would not be removable once locked.

Sunday came and off I went! I waltzed in to Convention Hall 401 – 405 at around 3pm, and quickly made two rounds, looking at the merchandise. and exhibits on display. Among other things, there were official artbooks, doujin, paraphernalia like badges/magnets etc., toys, figurines, T-shirts and swords. Yes, everybody loves a (wooden) katana or two. No more merchants selling metal blades, like the one guy in 2010 who was later hauled away by the cops, I heard. I didn’t find anything special that I really wanted or needed, so I snapped pictures and moved on.

There were some pretty interesting exhibits though! A huge motherload of Gundam figurines in a variety of colours, commemorating the 35th anniversary of the venerable military science-fiction/space opera/real robot anime franchise, Gundam.

There was also an Oculus Rift demonstrator, which was used at the Sword Art Online (SAO) booth. Oculus Rift, in technical jargon, is a “virtual-reality head-mounted display”. In simpler terms, it allows one to experience a different world through the glasses you wear. Apps and games have been developed which enable you to manipulate the virtual environment as seen through the glasses, and it is widely seen as the next step in creating an even more immersive gaming experience, among others. Sadly though, at the SAO booth it was little more than a glorified pair of 3D glasses, that let you see in 3D a battle scene from the game Sword Art Online, which is what the anime of the same name revolves around.

Apart from that, pretty standard convention fare I guess. Console games, card games and other promotions rounded up the booths that offered stuff to look at. Oh, and there were mini photoshoot studios with certain landscapes/scenes set up inside them for cosplayers or guests to have a cute shot or two. The Moe Moe Kyun and Atelier Royale maid and butler cafes were conspicuously absent though – just when I had gathered enough courage to queue up for one and blow my hard-earned money on it.

On to cosplayers. I’ve noticed a fair bit of youngsters; boys and girls younger than me, stalking the grounds and getting photos taken and such. I feel old… but that’s besides the point. I think most of them were out on Level 3 basking in the limelight, what with the legions of pro and amateur photographers queuing up to take shots of the better-dressed ones. From my travels across Facebook and Instagram, it seems like every cosplayer had fun, which is what matters. 🙂

As with other cons/events, many characters were from series I didn’t know, but I did find several from the American animated series RWBY, as well some really good ones from the second season of SAO! Especially this trio of Vietnamese cosplayers, whom I tracked halfway across Level 3 before successfully taking a shot of two of them. 🙂

As for mini-events, well, I can’t say my opinion is completely objective, nor complete here since I did miss quite a fair bit of stuff in the day, coming just in time only to catch a couple of performances from people I didn’t recognise, the Manga Battle thing, and watching people queue up for autographs. The gruff event security crew (they’re just doing their jobs, I guess…) hustled us along to make way for Matsuoka Yoshitsugu when he arrived, which was pretty sad. Mr Matsuoka is the voice actor for Kirigaya Kazuto/Kirito, the lead character of SAO. Maybe I should have joined the queue?

Didn’t really stick around for anything. It was a case of “document it, and move on”.

Exhibition thoughts

All up, the exhibition ran rather smoothly I suppose. I didn’t see hiccups, the crowd wasn’t too bad, traffic flow went generally okay, and the various booth staff (heaps of kids earning pocket money for the school holidays xD) were all quite courteous. As a guest, I didn’t have any problems or feel it a particularly annoying experience to walk through the grounds.

While some exhibitions did catch my interest, the rest of it was by far pretty run-of-the-mill in my opinion. This, I acknowledge, is tempered by my preconceived apathy for most of what was happening on the ground, my ignorance perhaps in following some of the newer cultural trends (I have never been an early adopter) and the actual time I spent at the exhibition area itself (Remember, I came at 3pm, while the mini-events had started unfolding at around 10.30am). Maybe I was also influenced by the fact that I went alone, and didn’t have anyone to share in this here burning passion that we all have.

On a side note, I did spot a couple of parents who were trying hard to rein in their children, but were pretty much led from booth to booth by them instead. xD

In retrospect, perhaps I should not have topped up the $10 for Stage access since I rarely ventured into the stage area. There didn’t seem to be strict access control restrictions once you were inside too, but this is an unqualified observation on my part. It has come to my attention that I missed the stage area entirely (Hall 406). I need to be more prudent next time…

Thus, in between acknowledging my perception bias and giving credit where it is due, I would rate my re-immersion into the whole AFA experience a 6.5 out of 10 points.

In the next part, I shall review the concert proper. Stay tuned for that! 🙂