Spot Tedfox!

There isn’t much to talk about, other than the fact that the number of yukata wearing patrons were vastly outnumbered by “civilians”. The event itself was held over a few areas. The left and right wings were where the stalls and game booths were held, while the performances, originally supposed to be held over in the field was moved over to the hall due to the rain.

Only two girls wearing yukatas? I rest my case

I didn’t pay too much attention to the merchandise stalls, since they weren’t selling otaku related stuff. Instead, me and my compatriots made a beeline for the food stalls. I had a curry Benton and takoyaki, which in my opinion should be given a Nobel Prize as the greatest delicacy mankind has ever witnessed. Just look at that photo, doesn’t that make you drool? I know I did ^^

Gotta love the hat

Yum

Yum Yum (i lied)

Tedfox sama was there as well and we indulged in a long conversation like war buddies who have never been to a summer festival while commenting on how un-otakuish this was and we are better off confined in our rooms watching anime instead.  OH wait we knew each other through NS… well he could do with a better wardrobe in my opinion hurhur.  Didn’t hang around too long though, for any longer and we would have been deemed homo.

The main highlight has to be the performances event over at the hall, where they did the “dance around the drum” event for lack of a better term. I was tasked the unlucky job of photo-taking, which involves bumping into people and trampling on their toes just to ass insult to injury.  Curses!

Fighting through this crowd was no joke

Did I mention those kids were cute? Awwww (for the last time, I am not a pedophile!)
Whether I would make this event an annual affair is debatable for me since, there was hardly any otaku related stuff.  It was admittedly an eye-opener for someone like me who’s sans  for anime-related stuff, has never been exposed to Japanese culture, much less a Japanese festival!  Oh heck, you can count me in next year too.

Nintendo was there in full blast with it’s WiiFit showcase as well as a few DS games, including the unreleased guitar hero world tour which was surprising. If ya haven’t seen that god awful DS ad, check this out on gametrailers. The wiifit booths drawn the most crowd, with kids lining up to try out that hulla hoop or soccer ball heading whatever. Having seen the wiifit balance board for the first time, I must say it’s pretty easy to cheat on it. I have seen kids get away from just wiggling their body bleh.

Star Wars was out represented by Hasbro, and they had the second biggest booth after Nintendo, and boy did it draw quite a crowd. There was even a queue for the exhibition albeit to prevent overcrowding. They showcased several toy models like the AT walker and the jedi starfighter. Oh, and they have a bunch of chibi toys that were absolutely cute.

Chibi Star Wars! Liven up my day anytime.

All hail the Imperial Army

But hey, we are otakus, you guys ain’t here for some kinda lame kiddy toy! Illustrations were aplenty with several studios setting up booths. I didn’t go to all of them, but one notable studio worth mentioning would be Imaginary Friends. For the uninformed, Imaginary Friends is a local illustration studio specializing in really slick looking 3d and 2d artwork. These god-like beings have descended to the land of the deprived to sell some of their awesome artwork. Art prints were going for 10 bucks each. They were also selling two artbooks, Imaginary Redux and some other one which slipped my name at 25 and 35 bucks respectively. If you are visiting later today, do make an effort to check out some of their work. You can find out more about them from their website as well from Zer0’s blog post here.

The gal on the outermost left was the fastest selling artwork

Bandai had three chibi gundams guarding the front. Apparently, they were modelled after the characters from The Romance of the Twelve kingdoms apparently, but i only recognised Liu Bei… Ah well, but they were real kawaii.

Chuang Yi publishing was also selling their manga selections at discounted prices at 10 percent. Although do take note that Kinokuniya is currently having a storewide discount of 20 percent for all customers, so If I were you, I would make a beeline for that. Sorry CY!

Several other notable booths are Gary Erskine, an illustrator for Virgin Comics in the States. He was doing a live demonstration and I must say, it was refreshing to check out illustrations that weren’t limited to just manga or anime. NUS comics was there as well selling 2nd hand manga. 501st garrison was also there with several cute troopers hurhur.
Do forgive the awful pictures I took with my phone cam. Gotta get a better camera sigh…
Next week’s CosFest! Any person who calls himself an otaku should make a trip down to downtown east. I just hope the MC isn’t the same guy again *prays…