5 things to look forward to at Anime Festival Asia 2022

Southeast Asia’s biggest Japanese pop culture event, Anime Festival Asia (AFA) will run from Nov 25 to 27 at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.

In a press release on Wednesday (Oct 26), AFA 2022 unveiled a wide variety of activities, including, meet and greet sessions with cosplayers, featured art exhibitions, and cosplay and dance competitions that will take place during the festival. Here are five things to look forward to at AFASG 2022.

With this year’s festival theme AFAVERSE, visitors can be the protagonist of their own video game.

Those who purchased tickets for the festival will be given their own AFA band, which allows them to earn special AFA digital currency and AFA Hero XP (experience points) when they play the various “phygital” games at the festival.

Known as AFA Challenges, visitors can earn digital currency like bonus AFA Coins and XPs by playing the games in person at the festival.

AFA Coins can be used to unlock special accessories for your Seika AFA-tar, at the AFA claw machine which contains specially curated gifts, or exchanged for festival perks and special deals in the AFAVERSE store.

Players level up upon collecting a certain amount of XP, and the player who tops the AFA Hero League will win the title of the official AFA ambassador when the festival returns in 2023.

The grand prize also includes an AFA Hero Certificate, a three-day VIP access pass, AFA merchandise and priority access to AFA 2023.

A dedicated area for budding artists, the Creators Hub, will feature dozens of booths with fan-made merchandise including bookmarks, posters and doujinshi, also known as self-published comics.

AFA 2022 will also collaborate with pixiv, Japan’s largest art community, to host an Illustration contest. The winning entry will get around $2,000, a free Creators Hub booth at AFASG 2023, and a chance to display their original artwork at the pixiv display area in the Creators Hub.

Two other competitions will be hosted at the Akiba Stage in the festival space.

For those interested in cosplay, the Cosplay Singles Showcase competition allows participants to show off their costumes on a regional stage. The winner will win $500 in cash, while the second and third places will receive $300 and $200 respectively.

A new dance competition named J-Dance Asia will be held before the physical festival. The Finals will take place on Akiba Stage on Nov 26, where groups of two to 10 people will get the opportunity to dance to a Japanese song track in front of the crowd.

Participants who come in first place will receive $1,000, while those in the second and third places will receive $500 and $300.

Interested applicants for the Cosplay Singles Showcase can register here, while those looking to join J-Dance Asia can apply here.

Fans can find out what animation studio MAPPA has in store as a special panel shares about current and upcoming projects of the studio, including hit titles like Chainsaw Man and Attack on Titan.

Talk shows will also be conducted during the festival, featuring Vtubers from different countries, including Luna Amane of NHOT BOT, Nox from Virtuareal and Lilrya Prisvielle from VReverie.

The series of screenings, guest talk shows and interviews will be held at the AFA Day Stage located at Hall 405.

Anime fans can also  look forward to the 10th Anniversary Event Premiere screening of Sword Art Online – FULLDIVE on Nov 25 at 7.30pm at AFA Night LIVE!

Held over three nights, the event will present hololive Meet and I Love Anisong, featuring Vtubers, singers and virtual idol groups.

Fans can take selfies with featured cosplayers like Charess, Ely, Hakken, Hiroto Kuramasu, Thames Malerose and Xiaoyukiko at the first-ever constructed AFA photo booth, and have their pictures printed out instantly. 

Of the six featured cosplayers, Hakken, Charess and Ely will also be having their own meet-and-greet sessions.

Besides front row-seats and selfies for 20 randomly selected participants, autograph signings on an event exclusive poster and a group photo will be given to all the fans who attended the meet-and-greet session.

Fans can find Hakken on Nov 26 at 4pm and Ely and Charess on Nov 27 at 11am and 1.30pm respectively at Suntec Singapore Meeting Room 331.

Unique works from 28 featured creators may catch your eye as you stroll through the festival grounds.

If you like seeing your beloved two-dimensional characters come to life, digital artist Raiko will have such character paintings on display. Inspired by games like Genshin Impact and anime like Spy x Family, her creations are portrayed in a semi-realistic style.

Another featured creator would be self taught illustrator Rachta Lin, who makes use of her travel experiences to influence her creations.

AFA 2022 will also collaborate with featured creator Sarah Thursday to release a limited-edition capsule collection which includes an exclusive t-shirt, tote bag and sticker, available at the festival’s shop and online at AFASHOP.co.

The festival will be held at levels three and four of the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre from Nov 25 to 27, with the exhibitions running from 10am to 8pm on all three days.