10,000 attend heady mix of anime, J-pop and cosplay

KUALA LUMPUR: Over 10,000 fans of Japanese otaku culture made a beeline for the first ever Anime Festival Asia Malaysia 2012, showcasing J-pop performances and cosplay celebrities.

Besides hundreds who showed up as their favourite anime characters, guests visited the more than 20 booths set up during the festival at the Putra World Trade Centre, which offered merchandise ranging from trading cards to action figures and popular online games.

One of the most popular booths was the Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe, which saw a long queue of mainly male customers waiting patiently to get in. Patrons at the Maid Cafe which is very popular along the Akihabara Street in Tokyo were served traditional Japanese food by waitresses in French maid costumes.

Food and fantasy: The Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe at the festival yesterday was a major attraction for men.

Its creative director Jim Khor said the booth was only set up for the event. “My goal is to make the cafe permanent here. I want to bring out the Maid Cafe brand to other countries,” he said, adding that there was a demand for such cafes in Singapore. “We want to find local talent for the maids through online auditions,” he said. Khor, who is based in Singapore, said unlike normal cafes, the service in Maid Cafe involved the creation of a different atmosphere due to the set-up, the costumes and the greetings by the waitresses in Japanese.

The festival, which ends today, also saw the country's best local cosplayers slugging it out to represent Malaysia for the Regional Cosplay Championship in November. Malacca-born cosplayer who only wanted to be known as Wendy, 19, said she had been interested in Japanese anime since 2008. “In the future, more people will be interested in anime culture as currently not many are exposed to it. “I feel so delighted to be a part of this festival as this is the first time that it is being held in Malaysia,” said Wendy, who came dressed as Bara Suishou from the anime Rozen Maiden.

There were also talk shows by cosplay celebrities from South Korea like Tasha and Miyuko from the SP Cats team, who related their experiences participating in such events. During the talk show with Japanese pop culture blogger Danny Choo, they told him that they liked Malaysian food, adding that this was their first visit to the country.

-thestar online.

http://animefestival.my/ctc_travel.html