AFA 2009 Press Conference Release

WHERE JAPANESE POP CULTURE COMES ALIVE!
Anime Festival Asia 2009 incorporating Animation Asia Conference 2009. It’s time for South East Asia’s BIGGEST event celebrating all things related to Japanese animation and popular culture. At the same time, the offical AFA2009 website have been offically launched after conference.

Here are some of the major highlights

ANIMATION ASIA CONFERENCE 2009
FAMILY ATTRACTIONS AT KIDS LAND
NEW ATTRACTION – ‘I LOVE ANISONG’ MEGA MUSIC CONCERT
SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY TOP JAPAN BLOGGER – DannyChoo
REGIONAL COSPLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

More details can be found from here.

I LOVE ANISONG MEGA MUSIC CONCERT

ANISONG MEGA CONCERT
Anime Festival Asia 2009 Concert Platform featuring the best Anime Sing Performers that Japan has to offer.

This year 4 singers have been invitated to grace the event with the success of last year. Yep not 2 but 4 singers! And they pack quite a punch too.

In response to the many requests from the region’s fans, May’n will return to Singapore for AFA this year with new songs and a brand new performance experience.

At AFA08, May’n attracted a crowd of over 8,000 people all over South-east Asia, including Japan, delivering an unforgettable experience for all. Since then, she has moved further in her career and embarked on a solo concert tour in January 2009 and July-August 2009 with a total of 14 sell-out concerts.

Her first solo concert at Nippon Budokan has just been announced and will take place on January 24th 2010. Her work as the singing voice of Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier has been given another dimension: the theatrical version will appear on the silver screen on November 21st. May’n is surely on her way to become a rising star in Japan.

Multi-talented (Actress, Cosplayer, Voice Actress, Illustrator, Manga-ka, Idol, and Blogger!) Shoko Nakagawa will perform in AFA09’s “I Love Anisong” act.

Her debut single “Brilliant Dream” was launched back in July 2006. 2 singles later, “Sorairo Days”, her 3rd single and opening theme to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, became a smash hit in Japan in 2007, and she participated in the Red and White (Kohaku) Singing Contest, NHK’s year-end music show at the same year. Shoko has continuously released hit singles such as “Snow Tears”, “Tsuzuku Sekai “and “Namida no Tane, Egao no Hana”, and, since “Sorairo Days”, 7 of her singles have made into Oricon Top 10 weekly charts.

She is multitalented and her activities are endless, ranging from being an idol, voice actress, comic artist to blogger. From August 23 to 27, Shoko traveled to a depth of 5200m on the “Shinkai 6500”, a deep submergence research vehicle, and became the first talent who made such a descent.

Ichirou Mizuki, Japan’s “King of Anime Songs”, has confirmed that he will come back to Anime Festival Asia 2009 (AFA09) to perform at AFA09’s “I Love Anisong”

Better known as “Aniki” (meaning older brother) by industry and anime fans alike, Ichirou Mizuki began his career in 1968, with the theme of “Genshi Shonen Ryu”. Since then, he has performed over 1200 songs including songs for “Mazinger Z”, “Captain Harlock” and Tokusatsu (meaning Sci-fi or fantasy) shows, such as “Masked Rider”. He has gained international recognition as Japan’s most prominent Anime performer in his 40 year career as a singer for Anime songs.

Member of JAM Project. Guitarist, singer, and songwriter, Yoshiki Fukuyama will be performing at Anime Festival Asia 2009 in “I Love Anisong” act for the first time ever in Singapore!

Inspired by Queen, Yoshiki Fukuyama started his career as a musician in 1988. In 1994, he played the singing role and guitarist of “Macross 7” main role Basara Nekki and became known on an international level. He had won the Japan Gold Disk Award for “The Best Anime Album of the year.”

With them all converged at AFA 2009. The concert is a must not to be missed.

Next is the Regional Cosplay Championship. The top cosplay team from each South East Asian country will be sponsored by AFA09 to compete in the Regional Cosplay Championship during the two-day anime festival where they will perform and be judged by a panel of distinguished guests from Japan including internationally renowned cosplayer Kaname. As seen from the flags, it includes Phillphines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

The guest judge for the event will be KANAME.

We will be seeing more international cosplayer this time!!

Next up will be special appearance by top Japan blogger Danny Choo. He is the most influential blogger in the asia region. At Anime Festival Asia 2009, Danny will be speaking at the Asian Animation Conference as one of the key speakers on how companies could engage the anime generation and more. At the actual event itself, he would also be hosting several events as well, such as well as a showcase of his Mirai-chan related merchandise.

In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of theGundam franchise, Bandai, Anime Festival Asia (AFA) and Danny Choo is running an online Gundam modeling competition to celebrate this most awesome occasion – introducing the Bandai World Gunpla Competition. It can be access from figure.am.

The catorgatories are

Coolest free-style Gunpla
Cutest Super-Deformed (SD) Gundam
Coolest Gundam diorama
Most amusing Gunpla

MOE MOE KYUN MEIDO CAFE

One of the interesting highlights ish AFA09 maid cafe " Moe moe kyun" to soothe our souls x3. This would be one of the few chances to get a taste of akiba and moe-ness. Apparently, they are at the conference for media preview. Indeed, they induce everyone into a state of floating in heaven. Their full profile can be seen here.

MOE MOE ATTACK!! To sum it, I be very looking forward to the live concert. As of last year, May’N and aniki was a blast. Only complain were the sound stage. Last but not least, welcome the cosplayers who grace the event.