After last year’s smashing success. Anime Festival Asia 09 is back with hopefully, a bigger bang. Yes, even the cynic in me had to admit that last year’s Anime Festival Asia surpassed most of my highbrow otaku expectations. I don’t shed my otaku skin so easily.

Thanks to the good people at Red Dawn Communications and  I-Promo, I was cordially invited to the AFA09 Press Conference which took place a little over four hours ago in a cozy Suntec Conference Room. This time, I went in the capacity of in your basement’s blogger, rather than a journalist, so expect my very frank opinions on what was revealed at the press-con.

First off, I’m pretty disappointed that I won’t be around for this year’s AFA, because I’ll be living it up in the Motherland of Japan. I wonder if AFA09 needs an Akiba correspondent…

First up, what do the head honchos think about this year’s event? According to Anthony Kang (President of Dentsu Singapore and the Chairman of AFA09), the “digi-savvy” youth of today need events like AFA09 to express themselves freely. Digi-savvy? I don’t really agree, but I suppose being on the wire 24/7 makes us a lot more aware than the youth of 10 years ago. Do we actually know how to use whatever digital that’s at our finger tips? For most people, no.

Personally, I still think that calling it Anime Festival Asia gives it a much narrower scope than it appears to me. To the average person on the street, they might not realize the rather broad intentions of AFA09 — but then again AFA09 sounds a lot more catchier than having “THE ALL THINGS COOL AND GEEKY JAPANESE SUBCULTURE HURRAH FESTIVAL”. Right?

One of the buzzwords for the press-con, IP 360 (I’m assuming IP = Intellectual Property and not.. something else), has more floorspace and headspace this year, with a dedicated Business-to-Business industry conference taking place on 20 November 2009. As a sort of opening-act for AFA09, industry bigwigs share their technical know-how with fellow creators around the world. The idea here, is to “Create, Manage and Engage”. For that, they’ve lined up a whole panel of leading industry people, including the famous Danny Choo.

Somehow, I feel that he’ll be giving a rehash of the talks he always gives on using Web 2.0 to engage his audience. Hopefully, he’ll have something new up his sleeve and won’t merely dance-troop for us. Which brings me to our next point: for some reason, they decided to screen Danny’s dance-trooper video — for kicks, I suppose — and of all videos, they chose the latest Don’t Say Lazy shoot, which isn’t one of his best in my opinion. It was strange, and also strangely embarrassing. Danny’s mascot Suenaga Mirai will be showcased. So for those of you who have always wanted to catch the figma Mirai in plastic PVC flesh, be sure to turn up!

Speaking about embarrassing, I wonder if the industry talks will be conducted entirely in English. This is an important point, if you haven’t realized, because most of the professionals in the anime industry are from Japan and would presumably have limited ability in English. That said, if the Animation Asia Conference 2009 seeks to be an industry standard, then what about engaging the main creators in Japan? Will there be a translator - like how it’s done in Tokyo 2.0 or Pecha Kucha - or is it an automatic assumption that everyone just operates using the lingua franca? How will they, as Michael Ng (Co-Chairman of AFA09, from I-Promo) puts it, reach out to a “wider audience”?

Animax is once again the official media partner of AFA09. In addition to promoting and covering the event, be sure to look out for exclusive content produced in conjunction for AFA09, like an upcoming expose on the trials and tribulations of cosplaying. All you lucky bastards who get that on cable!

Bandai is up to its wallet-draining tricks and has new merchandise and new exclusive merchandise (did I see your ears perk up? Because mine did!) for the avid collector. Similarly celebrating Gundam’s 30th Anniversary (I bet it’s older than most of you here), Bandai will be having exclusive showcases, including the Time Tunnel which acts as a linear time-capsule of sorts, tracking Gundam’s illustrious history.

I’m not going to go into the details of er, the Harumika fashion toy line (I’m sorry, it really doesn’t interest me) or the Cook Joy line. Unless I’m bribed with food.

Last year’s Akiba Town saw up to S$2.5 million transacted and AFA09 hopes to replicate this success. They’ll be outfitting extra space with even more limited edition merchandise — more details will be released soon.

This year’s Cosplay event has been blown up to a bigger scale in the form of the Regional Cosplay Championship. With KANAME as one of the guest judges, I’m pretty sure the level of judging will be high even if the quality of entries isn’t.

Next on AFA09’s list of “must-sees” is the Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe. Without being totally snarky here, I honestly, truthfully, and more sincerely think that the maids are not moe at all. They’re just normal (okay, chio/pretty) Singaporean girls who, with the aid of make-up (not that they don’t put on enough make-up out of costume) and kawai’i maid costumes, who happen to play the role of maids.

Granted, they do have a few months to work on their enunciation and pronunciation, but come on girls. Don’t let me continue thinking that the majority of you are vapid creatures who cannot say “Okaerinasaimase goshuujin-sama” properly? It isn’t that hard! Really. Look, even I can do it.

Still, I think that their come-hither looks and fresh faces — as fresh as they can get with all that make-up on — will draw in large number of otaku who will paw at their feet for more moe moe kyun-tastic service. Soothe my soul? No thank you. And what’s with the Japanese names? I know that you want to create the illusion that we’re being served by authentic maids but having a Japanese name and a horrific Japanese accent does wonders for my dream of being served by a cute maid. I really don’t mind being served by a cute maid called “Anne” or “Xiao Feng”. (Names are totally random.)

(Side-note: One of the maids, Miyake I think, does have a good accent. I pass her. If I could attend, I would ask her to greet me.)

But now, for what I am really pissed off about.

I ♥Anisong.

No, I do not love you I♥Anisong!! Why on earth am I not in Singapore when these people are coming!?

Noooooooooooo.

MAY’N and aniki Ichirou Mizuki will be back, along with JAM Project’s (you promised aniki!) Fukuyama Yoshiki and Shoko Nakagawa. Shoko-tan. Shoko-tan is coming.

Not that I’m a fan, but I want to see Shoko-tan. She is my Pokemon idol. Yes indeed she is. I want to see her say “gizakawayusu” in person. DAMNIT.

So yes. That about wraps up the press-con revealings. Apparently the folks at NKDS.org have more detailed information, so do run along and check out one of the official blog-partners for the event! Also, keep a look out for Alafista, DM, and Double’s posts on the press-con and their thoughts.

Stay tuned with In Your Basement for more exciting news as I get them!

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