Anime Fest Asia (AFA) 2011 took place on 11 – 13 Nov 2011. A 2-and-a-half day event, AFA brings “a New Multi-dimensional Experience to Anime and Japanese Popular Culture Fans”, as quoted from the official website. Loot is aplenty, and dedicated collectors can be seen queuing up early on the second day (i.e. the first day of the exhibition itself) to get their hands on their desired merchandise. Less picky visitors sometimes choose to wait until the third day (i.e. second day of the exhibition) to purchase any leftover goods at a discounted price. And so it came to pass that I was able to lay my hands on 2 Tenshi’s for a low price. In this post, I shall inundate the reader with pictures of said loot.
Tachibana Kanade (a.k.a. Tenshi) is one of the main characters from the anime “Angel Beats!”. The perceptive reader will note the use of an exclamation mark in the title of the anime, which automatically grants the anime a high degree of awesomeness. It is in this anime the Kanade captured the hearts of many fans. Possessing a variety of “Guard Skills”, such as her signature “Hand Sonic” blade, she performs her student council presidential duties while exhibiting various moé qualities best experienced by watching the anime. With this lengthy preamble out of the way, I shall now proceed to present the promised pictures of the loot. One must take care of accord ample forgiveness to the writer for the grainy pictures, due to them being taken using a handphone’s camera and not a fancy DSLR camera. One can click on the pictures to see the full-sized versions.
First up are pictures of the box. The $30 price tag can be considered dirt cheap among figures that cost upwards of 3 digits. There were only 2 sets left when I bought them on the third day, and the other set was snatched up shortly after, so I assume they were popular due to being heavily discounted.
Next, let us gaze upon the Hand Sonic version.
Front View:
Close Up:
From a higher angle:
Right side:
Close up of right side. She channels the powers of a Starcraft zealot with flair!
Back view. The hair feels quite dynamic:
There is nothing particularly interesting on the left view, so I have omitted pictures of the left side.
We now move on to the Wings version, which I think is rather spectacular.
Front view:
From a higher angle:
From a lower angle:
Close up of the hair and wings:
Close up of the wings. The tips of the wings are somewhat translucent, which is pretty wonderful:
Another close up of the wings:
In between the wings:
Back view:
Teaser shot!
Pictures of the figures themselves are not very indicative of their sizes. Hence, I now present a size comparison with the Izayoi Sakuya figure purchased during the previous year’s AFA.
You may have noticed that the figures in the pictures are placed on a transparent glass table. Usage of a glass table has allowed me to take a picture of the Hand Sonic version that I otherwise could not. However, that picture, as well as another picture for the Wings version, are actually hidden pictures and not referenced anywhere in this post. The file names (excluding the file extension) have been passed through a well-known hash function. The inquisitive and interested reader may do some sleuthing and guesswork to try to access the two hidden pictures directly using their URLs. Alternatively, the interested but lazy reader can simply ask me for the links.
Anime Fest Asia has always included the I Love Anisong concert in the evenings, which sees Japanese anisong (anime song) artistes make their way to Singapore to perform live for their adoring fans. Lucky draws are conducted, where winners get a poster with the artiste’s signatures. I managed to win twice, so I have posters from two different artistes. LiSA found fame by singing songs for the afore-mentioned “Angel Beats!”, while Kalafina has been around for a few years, singing songs for “Kara no Kyoukai” and “Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica”, among others. In fact, I would heartily recommend that “Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica” be watched, by virtue of it having a star in its title.
The card given to the audience (not sure if VIP only) also lists the performers of the concert:
I also had the opportunity to watch the Sora no Otoshimono movie, which resulted in another poster for the movie.
Upon closer inspection, the reader may notice a mysterious black shape in the background. Who could it be? Could it be Yagami Hayate with wings upgrade?! Of course not, there is no way that can be true. The identity of the winged figure shall be naturally revealed if the movie is watched.
That rounds out the loot obtained for this year’s AFA. I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I have enjoyed obtaining them.
