AFA has grown so huge and so crowded as compared to the first one that I went in 2010. The good thing with that is the whole atmosphere really feels like those anime fair in Japan. On the flip side, I usually hate the crowd so yeah, it kinda suck. Well, can't seem to have the best from both sides after all.
I reached about 1130am and the queue for the ticket was shocking. I never remembered having to queue that long for any of the previous AFA. The queue moved pretty quickly but in the end it still took about 20 minutes. The ticket (just for the exhibition) costs $13 this year. It seems that nowadays they only give a wristband and there is no more 'ticket' per se. The wrist band is of much higher quality too. It has holes (like a watch) to cater for different wrist sizes. Once the plastic part is pushed in, you can't remove it so you cannot share with with other people I guess. Going in and out of the exhibition hall requires the wrist band to be scanned. There is a notice that says if you go out without scanning, you may not be allowed re-entry. Hmm.. is that so?
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| The ticket-cum-wrist band |
My highlight this year is taking a photo with Animax mascot, OO-kun. Sadly, as I leaned towards him, our heads knocked and in the picture, Oo-kun is not not looking at the camera T_T I decided to buy the plush and small pillow for $35. Gotta admit that I was tempted because of the ~30% off as compared to buying individually. I was only interested in the plush and it was $26 alone.
The crowd inside the hall was terrible too. I did not enter a lot of the shops as it was too crowded. I personally don't really like shops as even if I entered, I would have nothing to buy anyway. I skipped the Creators Hub area as I could not even move to pass by that section. Wow. I prefer to have more booths by companies/developers/etc. The shops do not really bring in interesting things and the prices are still sky high that there is no incentive to buy.
Overall I find this year is better than last year's AFA which I left after only about 1 hour. Surprisingly I took a lot of photos too. It was not as bad as 1 of the AFA (I can't remember which year but the one when Attack on Titan was all the hype) when it was super crowded that I could not even take any pictures without strangers appearing in the pictures. I am usually excited to go to AFA in hope of getting some merchandises. If the trend with what the shops are doing this year continues, I think I have less incentive to go again next year. Not to mention that the crowd would just grow bigger and bigger every year. When I left, the queue for the ticket had become CRAZY. It stretched literally from one end to the other end of the whole Suntec floor. And it was rather stagnant. I guess if I want to go next year, I better remember to go earlier!
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| The 4 fans are free for buying the OO-kun plush set. While the Squid Girl wrist rest is due to my luck!! Hehe.. It was from one of the 'lucky' chance by putting a ball at the top of a tower and see where it landed. I was prepared to get none but hey I got this ^^ |
Sword Art Online has interesting display of Kirito and Asuna wearing clothes from different countries. It was so difficult to take pictures of these standees as the area is too narrow and the traffic was.. gosh.. These are the most frustrating photos to take.
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