Somehow they pulled it off. An event known as the Anime Festival Kuala Lumpur. Thanks to the photos taken by Alan Chin Weng Lon who was at the scene with some others, I was able to know that an event actually took place.

I am not in KL and would not be able to attend the event and be there myself so I am in no way involved directly in the dubious event. In other words I am a mere spectator. Nevertheless I have been observing this little event from the very beginning as it had made the claim that it could bring in Hatsune Miku for a concert at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. I felt like writing this article to provide what I think about it. I can stand up straight and write this article as I have never directly bashed them. I have always been standing at the sidelines looking at how others would undermine this event, and to tell the truth, I have been really convinced that event is not going to happen.

I remember this is somewhat like how someone had tried to accuse Mr. Allen Yap of wanting to make a profit. The captain of the Cosplay-Fun, who had wanted to assemble a team of cosplayers to parade for the Hari Wilayah Persekutuan parade, merely wanted to further the purpose of the group, and that is to promote cosplay amongst Malaysians (with the slogan majulah cosplay untuk negara). Facebook is a vicious tool to spread rumours and doubt, but if used well, it can also be used to rebut them. Mr. Allen Yap denied that he would be making any profit by sending a team to the parade in a stern sounding reply on the accusation. All well ends well and the parade went on smoothly, and nobody complained after the parade took place. The cosplayers had their share of fun (they were able to cosplay their characters to the public!) and the detractors kept quiet and never again complained. In Mr. Allen Yap's case I had full confidence in him because he is an established senior in the Malaysian cosplay community. But I didn't have the same confidence with the organisers of AFKL, even though the person responsible also shared the same surname Yap. (lol)

Back to the original topic of AFKL, I admit, I did doubted and did not believe that the event would take off. In this world, we talk about evidence in order to make a case, and the group of detractors had some pretty good evidence here and there, and once accumulated, becomes some really convincing argument. The evidence are as follows:

1. How the organizers were just a small phone credit reload stall, and how the website has been plagiarised. This was discussed here.
2. How Crypton Future Media Inc. replied in an email confirming that Hatsune Miku is not going to appear in any such event.
3. A series of Youtube videos created by Solomon Freeman speaking to a few witnesses which included the boss of the Tenshi no Cafe maid cafe.
4. A couple of days before the 31st of March, the following letter from KLCC was leaked out by the Comic Fiesta forums, and it shows that KLCC had not allowed the usage of their premises, and even added that the event had been cancelled. Comic Fiesta and SAYS Youth Society further added that they are not in any way involved with AFKL.

I think the thing which made all of us anime fans out there mad was the outrageous claim that they would be able to host a live Hatsune Miku concert if they could gather 9000 "likes" on Facebook for it to happen. Too bad. AFKL have always made me felt that it was like a baby/foetus that nobody wanted. Everyone bashed the foetus before it could have been born. Everyone jeered at it. Not many believe it could survive. Not many thought that it was viable. Perhaps if everyone had given their support (like they did to Comic Fiesta all these years which also had a humble beginning), then it might have succeeded in its aim in organising an event with a Hatsune Miku Concert, who knows?

Someone had described the effort taken by the organiser of AFKL to be as much as a certain "Danny" and I have to agree. Look at all those gashaphon machine. Someone must have poured a lot of money renting and placing them at the spot. Even if they did not spend that much money, the organisers must be congratulated for being able to find such sponsors. They have the ability to do so.

And going by the standards, they have managed to invite a real voice actor - Darrel Guilbeau. That would make this event more or less, or perhaps equivalent to Daicon or Comic Fiesta in terms of content. The only thing that the organizers lack is the support. They also had attracted too much bashing from detractors. They have been doubted from the very beginning, and the fact that they had to postpone the event from its original date, have a stupid website url (not to mention having plagiarised the website codes from somewhere else on the internet), and to have changed the venue at the last moment, it is not hard to say that the organizers should have expected it (the low attendance) coming. Basically - the organizers are unprofessional and I believe that even they can't deny this. This is forgivable if you're a group of high school students or university students organizing an event as an annual club activity but if you're out there to make profit, at least be professional. Indeed in my opinion, if you can do things professionally, then you deserve to make money, just like AFA Singapore or the May'n concert.

But back to the original discussion as to how they lost had the their support. If they had not made the outrageous claim that they'll bring in Hatsune Miku and host it at KLCC, they might have just been able to garner some support as a normal anime event organised by a small company. They just had to make a claim so outrageous that would make fans angry! But wait, I don't think they have managed to bring in Hatsune Miku either. In that case, AFKL may well still be a scam, after all. Next time if you can't do something, don't increase the expectations of others, because if you can't fulfill their expectations, then you'll get their wrath instead.

Finally, as far as I know, Solomon Freeman is trying to accumulate evidence and bring this "scam" up to the authorities, i.e. police. Indeed, although an event did took place, that would not change anything about whether it is a scam. I see that it is indeed a big scam because there is no Hatsune Miku Concert as promised. I believe that nobody would ever pay tickets as expensive as RM50 or RM200 or whatever outrageous price just to enter a normal event.

Edit: The following advert was shared on Facebook. Not sure if it is real. But to those who bought the tickets, do call and try to get a refund.

I have recently read a rant by a veteran cosplayer from Malaysia on his experience in the Regional Cosplay Competition and Anime Festival Asia 2011. This post is what I think of it.

Talk about sacrifice. There are reasons why people shun cosplayers and their attitude, and among these reason is with their attitude. Notwithstanding the fact that veteran cosplayers tend to be a little elusive, but it gets worse when their souls have been battered all the way up the stairs of glory. I respect these cosplayers, yes I do. I respect them for the courage they have, as well as their enthusiasm. But I believe they should not have "exploded". It just shows their ugly side to everyone, including fellow cosplayers, fans, and not forgetting members of the public who have no knowledge in the cosplay culture.

Others (as in other cosplayers, or successful entrepreneurs, figures) might have gone through experiences that are even worse. The floodgate of unhappy experiences might open on Facebook - everyone might start sharing their bad experiences and bash the organizers, and organizers of other events. I am not defending any event or convention organizers here by the way, but I believe that the organizers should not be entirely at fault here. Being veterans, these cosplayers should be aware of how bad the treatment can be judging from the stahdards of smaller events. I know that even cosplayers have higher expectations on the organizers of major events like AFA2011 and hence they would expect better treatment, but major events are also events organised by humans in that it gets out of hand too, and these cosplayers should expect the bad treatment to be, erm, higher.

Apparently negative comments from the audience during the AFA was the last straw that broke the camel's back. I say deal with it. You're in a competition and you're supposed to satisfy your target audience. If they don't like what you're cosplaying, either ignore them or change.

It might also end up like Ahluwalia and we don't want that to happen, do we? A lesson for other cosplayers: if you're not ready to go the distance, don't, and if you actually do go ahead, keep all the bad experiences to yourselves and to your closest friends. I respect cosplayers who have fun while cosplaying, not veteran cosplayers who grumble the pain they've gone through to the open. The more experienced a cosplayer gets, the uglier and more rejective he or she becomes when the person shares her experiences in public. Nevertheless, I am proud that Malaysia had a representative on the global cosplay arena. Cheers and good job to you, you know who you are. :D

"Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai" ("My little sister can’t be this cute") is an anime series that has two endings, "Good End" and "True Route". The main differences between the two is that in "Good End" the protagonist, Kousuke, and his little sister, Kirino, would not be separated, while in “True Route” the protagonist’s sister would leave for a faraway country without even informing him beforehand.

Both endings took place in episode 12, and to differentiate between the two endings, Doki Fansubs has labeled "True Route" as episode 12.5, which is somewhat misleading as episode 12.5 would give the impression that "True Route" would occur after "Good End" - which is wrong. In fact “Good End” stops at episode 12, while "True Route" would continue on till episode 15. It is to be emphasized that "True Route" and "Good End" occurred during the same timeline, in which different choices have been made by the protagonist which would alter the ending. This article would analyze the similarities and differences that had occurred, as well as the choices made by the protagonist and its effect towards the end.

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The event that I am about to write about is “Cosplay & J+K-Pop Dance Cover Contest 2011” which was held last Sunday, 27 of February. Organised by the Japanese Club of the Tropicana Secondary School (SMK Tropicana), it was an event which was heavily criticized for having changed both its date and venue several days before the event was to take place. Nevertheless, the attendance was pretty good for an event that had people boycotting due to the last minute changes, and as far as I know, there are even people that had come from as far as Ipoh just to attend the event!

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I can’t help but feel sad for Kondo Mayuka because seems to be unpopular amongst anime fans. Unpopular not as in people detestated her, but what I am saying is that nobody seems to recognize her... at all! Probably due to being overshadowed or whatnot… Anyway, Kondo Mayuka, or also known with her pseudonym as “Mr. X”, is one of the main characters of Oniichan no Koto, an anime which I have picked up this season.

At the time of writing this, a Google search of “Kondo Mayuka” would return a search result with nothing that is relevant to Mayuka! The only thing relevant from Google is the ED of Oniichan no Koto of which Mayuka has a singing part! Besides that, there’s not even an image of Mayuka on imageboards such as Sankaku Complex’s imageboard or Danbooru! Sad but true! Prior to the airing of episode 5, I can understand that perhaps she hasn’t been introduced so no one knew about her. But even after the airing of that episode, she still hasn’t received the recognition she deserves! In my opinion, Mayuka should be given the recognition of at least Yuki Nagato’s level! The following are some of the reasons that I have came up with.

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