UPCOMING: Anime Festival Asia 2015

Anime Festival Asia Set to Bring Japanese Popular Culture Fever to the Next Chapter

Region’s biggest Japanese Popular Culture Festival Refreshes Celebrity Line-up and Opens New Area to showcase diverse facets

Singapore, 9 November 2015 – Anime Festival Asia 2015 (AFASG15), the region’s biggest premier festival for Japanese Popular Culture and anime, will offer fans a refreshing line-up of celebrity performances as well as a new area for cosplayers. Held from 27 to 29 November 2015 at Suntec City Convention Centre, the updates to the experiential festival is in line with its objectives to provide a regional stage beyond Japan for high quality talent and performances and introduce the best of J-pop and anime to Singapore. Visitors can look forward to new additions to the I Love Anisong concert line-up, new cosplay personalities, a new zone for cosplayers, alongside crowd favourites such as the latest merchandise and day stage activities.

On its eighth year, the festival in Singapore has been a must-see experiential event in the region, with over 90,000 visitors last year.

“Anime Festival Asia has enjoyed strong support in both our Singapore and overseas editions, and we are very appreciative of our fans’ support. Each year, we continue to bring in content that are driven by what our fans want. We are also seeing increasing interest in Japanese Popular Culture within the industry. For example, this year, we are set to challenge ourselves to offer a regional stage to artistes who are new to Singapore, or who have not had the opportunity to offer a full-concert experience to their fans here. The intent is to continually push boundaries and bring the best and most varied J-pop and anime experience here, for all to enjoy,” said Anime Festival Asia’s Executive Festival Director and SOZO’s Founder and Managing Director Shawn Chin.

I Love Anisong REBOOT Concerts: Bringing anime music fever to a new chapter

For the first time in its highly-anticipated ‘I Love Anisong’ concert series, AFASG15 will feature an almost entirely new lineup of performing artistes, many of whom will make a debut performance over three days of concerts at the festival. Titled “I Love Anisong REBOOT,” anime lovers and fans can catch acclaimed performers such as BACK-ON, bless4 and Mika Kobayashi and veteran voice actresses such as Ayana Taketatsu, Maaya Uchida and Suzuko Mimori live in action alongside returning heavyweights May’n and GARNiDELiA.

The artiste line-up for the AFASG15 I Love Anisong REBOOT Concerts includes:

• 27th November: Aimer, BACK-ON, bless4, HoneyWorks/CHiCo with HoneyWorks, ZAQ

• 28th November: P’s LIVE! (featuring Ayana Taketatsu, Maaya Uchida, Suzuko Mimori, MICHI, Shiori Mikami, Yumiri Hanamori and Yurika Endo)

• 29th November: GARNiDELiA, Lia, May’n, Mika Kobayashi featuring Tetsuro Shimaguchi (KAMUI) and nano

Tickets are available for sale now, with prices ranging from S$428 for a VIP 3-day package to S$58 for a single day Basic Ticket.

A New line-up of Cosplay guests 

Tomia (South Korea)

Avid cosplayers can look forward to seeing new faces among their favourite cosplay celebrity guests. More than half of the celebrity cosplayers gracing AFASG15 are new to the festival, including Tomia, Sansin, Otogi Nekomu and Liui Aquino. 

SiuTao (Hong Kong)

Hailing from countries such as Korea, the Philippines and Hong Kong, these celebrity cosplayers will make their appearances at cosplay showcases and exclusive meet-and-greet sessions at the festival.

Supporting the cosplay community

In view of the needs of the increasing cosplay enthusiasts who spread beyond the hall grounds to showcase their craft and exchange ideas, AFASG15 will create a free zone area to offer non-anime merchandise and services. Held at the entrance of Level 3 at Suntec City Convention Centre, the area will see brands such as BCL and Canon, as well as an AFA Shop booth, an all-in-one access gateway to exclusive privileges that AFA has to offer. 

AFA2015 will be held from 27 to 29 November 2015, at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre Levels 3 and 4. For more information on the festival, check out www.animefestival.asia and www.facebook.com/animefestivalasia.