Today was the first media preview of the upcoming Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2011, Singapore’s and Southeast Asia’s biggest showcase of the Japanese pop culture and anime content. As earlier announced, this year AFA 2011 will be taking place on 11-13 Nov 2011.
Here’s are the key highlights from today’s closed door media preview:
Better experience with more content!!
- Larger floor space of 8,000 sq metres (up from 5,000 sq metres last year)!! Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre Halls 402 to 404.
- Same day screening as Japan of the highly anticipated movie “Gundam Unicorn”
- A new AKB48 Experience Zone will be created
- Popular Experience Zones will remain within the festival, with activities such as live dubbing sessions by popular seiyuus, Maid Café and Butler Café
- Akiba Town will be bringing in top players direct from the toy and merchandising industries in Japan, including Bushiroad and Bandai
I love Anisong – Rock Your Soul
- This year there will see three evenings of concerts, with a rock theme this year, and the current list of artistes include May’N, Ichirou Mizuki, FLOW, LiSA
- Organisers are currently finalizing the full line-up and will share more closer to date
Regional Cosplay Championship
- This time around, the bar has been raised with an enhanced competition format, where participants will now have to go through a live audition in each country
- Winners of each country will have the prestigious opportunity to compete in the Regional Cosplay Championships in Singapore
- Calls for entry will start this Saturday with application details on the AFA website
- Prizes will include a trip to Japan!!
Cool Japan Forum
- Cool Japan Forum returns on 11 November to showcase several of Japan’s leaders in the music, animation and publishing industries
- This year’s theme focuses on methods to monetize content
- Talks will include topics on how killer content can be built on the digital field, shared experiences from companies which have developed successful business models using anime content, and how content can be used to boost a company’s brand image
- Organisers Dentsu Singapore and SOZO are in talks with Indonesia and Malaysia to hold overseas Anime Festivals (scheduled in 2012)
- The flagship event, AFA, will continue to be held in Singapore annually
- Overseas events will follow a similar format as AFA with the content adapted to the local communities’ interests.
I will be talking more about the I love Anisong – Rock Your Soul concert and the featured artistes in a seperate post.