While in Chengdu to attend a friend's wedding, I chanced upon the end year anime convention that would take place on the same day - 30/12/2023 (this was a 3-day event), and immediately pre-ordered the VIP ticket (RMB $128, S$24).

The VIP ticket was priced RMB $50 more than the Normal ticket and has a designated queue & entry gate plus comes with a goodie bag that needed to be redeemed inside the Hall. Given that we cannot even enter the local convention hall without paying at least S$20, the VIP option was naturally a steal.

(You will need a China number to purchase the tickets and thankfully my Chinese exchange friend lent me a hand on this.)

However, it was an excruciating effort to enter; as China favoured QR code scanning over physical tickets, it was impossible to receive OTP to retrieve my QR code and had the helpdesk troubleshoot for over 30 minutes. Thankfully armed with screenshots of my payment proof, an officer extracted my invoice number and let me in.

By then it was already 3:30pm, and with 2.5h till the end of Day 1, I rushed through the expo corridor towards Hall 3, seeing I had 4 halls to conquer.

Inside the Hall

Sparse, spacious, and silent, something AFA can only dream of.

Come check out some of the exhibition highlights, starting with the impressive 1/4 scale figures from Lightyear Studio:

Kamikaze Minato pre and Hokage version

2nd Hokage - Senju Tobirama

1st Hokage - Senju Hashirama

The classic Inuyasha brothers

I forgot which studio this was from, but presenting Sakuyamon from Digimon Tamers

Other attractions

Live voice acting from voice drama series 《秉性下等》

Tags: BL, 1st person, HE, 狗血

Generous and dedicated cosplay photography spaces

A free for all stage where continuous BGM clips were played and random dancers who recognised the tune jumped in and danced spontaneously

Live parade of traditional palace costumes

Breathtaking digital art, 《Butterfly3》by Wlop

Kawaii Collage 1

Avatar Collage 2

My favourite non-BL Chinese 3D animation: Shenlan Qiyu (The Land of Miracles)

Archery game booth from the same production house, a rather creative way to attract traffic

Cosplayers causally dunking

Some overly flashy anime sedan

Would be quite a sight to see someone drive this version of Porsche

My favourite pastime during secondary school days - spamming Initial D on manual mode

Cosplay Galore

Sebby <333 albeit female but still hawt

Gojo winter version still didn't fail to raise some temperature

Saw this cute potter while queuing for my goodie bag

Xielian from Heaven's Blessing (天官赐福)

Starstruck by Albedo from Overlord

Appreciate the bare chested Inuyasha

Gaara caught my eye from afar with the gourd

Mashiro Rima from Shugo Chara, a dated Shojo anime that was surprisingly still popular

Hange Zoe who was also part time photographer his/her DSLR

Managed to catch Mikasa mid-way retreating after posing

Inumaki Toge from Jujutsu Kaisen

Kagura and a shrank Gintoki

A moody Madoka Kaname

Spotted the young Obito as I was heading towards the metro

& finally...

Contents of the VIP goodie bag:

Sticking with the regular tickets next round.

xoxo

My 1st Anime Festival Asia (AFA) was in 2009, when there was student price with no distinction between the exhibition and stage area. Then 2010 comes the "Festival + Stage Access" concept, but it was still largely affordable at $15/day.

Fast forward 13 years later, after a 213% inflation the ticket price has soared to $32 for a mere "exhibition" only access... Naturally I was not inclined to support such price hike and protested by attending and hanging out along the taped-out area.

While I was slightly bummed to miss out on the figurines showcase and booths hopping experience, I was not disappointed by the quality of cosplayers who guarded the free alleyway with me.

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Attendance time: 14:00 - 15:24

Immediately the Bleach cast caught my attention and I drifted to the main character to kick off my 1st shot. I noticed that he probably cut and put together the Shinigami outfit from rough cloths, kudos!

Hi Shinji, appreciate the funky expression & canon-slanted-straight bangs

Renji was a strong presence with the bankai props...

...Though not as strong as Urahara's giant puppet that helped to clear the pathway

A crazed-looking Sanemi Shinazugawa from Demon Slayer

One of the impressive Madoka Kanames spotted; due to the shooting hijack attempt I failed to notice the wings were perfectly perpendicular to the camera...

A pretty elf lady chilling by the figurine table

Of course, I had to throw in the iconic Ai & her "brother" Aquamarine. Also, her permed wig was looking fire

One of the favourite cosers (and is male!) whom I was admiring from afar who happened to bang into my shoulder, and I had to seize the opportunity ₍₍⁽⁽(ી(´◐ω◑` )ʃ)₎₎⁾⁾

Another dynamic pair who walked past & dazzled me with their coolness

Final coser from Brisbane is presents Rei from the classic Neon Genesis Evangelion, very petite & friendly lady *◡*

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I hope to be able to continue the annual AFA tradition & there's some slim chance that they will adjust the tickets rates to Budget Friendly ｡ﾟﾉ

For the 1st time, the annual Cosplay Festival organised by the Singapore Cosplay Club was no longer held at the far East (i.e: D'Marquee @ Downtown East) & by virtue of the new location, I had to attend. It was a 1-day event held on 8/04/2023 (Sat), starting from 12:00 - 20:00.

How lucky for the tourists! I had a fun time rather openly watching their curious expressions.

Unfortunately, I did not purchase the $23 ticket to enter the Cosfest Hall. Thankfully, there were a sea of sight worthy cos-ers hanging out by the flooding entrance. No Itachi spotted, although his partner Kisame must have snuck out:

I was prepared for a gathering of the repeat Genshin characters (5 same character cosplay was the max spotted) and was pleasantly surprised by the unusual Bleach pairing strolling by:

Abarai Renji

Urahara Kisuke

(Really cute irl ><)

V-Tuber Shxtou

(Pronounced Shoto; I'm not well-versed in the virtual Youtuber scene, but apparently this was voiced by a Vietnamese-Amercian behind the avatar)

Doctor Strange: Scarlet Witch

Pulled off by resident Sephiroth & Alucard (feat. in EOY & AFA posts~) Imagine my delight spotting him again & again fufu

(Unknown) A beautiful sight captured in time

(Unknown) Another striking babe

(Unknown)

Immediately caught my attention, she literally just stood there & embodies elegance

A breath of fresh air to spot a hanfu lady

(This affirms my goal to do a hanfu shot in China)

Genshin Impact: Kamisato Ayaka, Springbloom Missive edition

(A very meticulous cos-er who ensured the chain behind her costume was properly fastened before attending to me)

Genshin Impact: Nahida

I did an internal fist of victory at her choice of camp site; the background could not have accentuated her elf theme better...

Genshin Impact: Hu Tao, a very popular character choice

Kamisama Hajimemashita: Tomoe

Whom I had interrupted amidst his (her) Mac lunch

Conclusion

Honestly, the experience was not the best - it was way too humid, crowded with insufficient photoshoot clearings. I experimented with close-up shots and realised it was compromised with the busy background and bad lighting. I also made a mistake and took some against the sunlight (which explained the overcast faces in some photos).

Regardless, I have met my photos KPI and might return to cos in the next event (かな?)

Signing off with Hako-san whirling a hammer~