It was pandemonium early in the morning, people had been queuing up to get into the convention halls hours before it even opened, some of the earliest had been queuing since before the sun had even rose. This was not an unusual sight, for the past few years which AFA had been held, there had always been people queuing up early just to be amongst the first few in line, so as to be able to buy the limited edition goodies that were on sale, in fact it is almost compulsory for anyone who wanted a share of these limited edition merchandise to queue up early, for these items ran out very very quickly, it was known that within the first hour or so , the entire event had probably sold out on all of it's limited edition merchandise.
Even without the limited edition merchandise on sale, people continued to enter the convention halls throughout the day, many of them in full costume, or rather "cosplay" a term used to describe people who dress up as anime/manga/Japanese characters. Each and every year, AFA holds a cosplay event to find the best cosplayers in the region, this event attracts cosplayers from around the world to attend, and naturally, many locals are also inspired by these first generation cosplayers to cosplay and ever since then, the number of cosplayers have been rising steadily, year after year.!
AFA has created a wonderful event where anime lovers from around the region can gather and collect anime merchandise that came directly from japan and from local artists, it also provides a platform for anime lovers to express their love for anime through cosplay, anyone and attend the event, provided they purchase the basic entrance ticket at $10, anime lovers get to see their favourite anime characters get brought to life by cosplay, indulge in delicious japanese food, purchase unique merchandise and even hear their favourite anime tunes in the IloveAniSong Concert!. This is one annual event that every anime lover has marked on their calenders, one that is certainly not to be missed. So, mark your calenders everyone for next year's AFA!
{Photo credits, AFA, Danny Choo,Amin}
