Hope those of you Japanese anime and manga inclined kept your calendars free this weekend – else you’re going to be doing quite a bit of running. First up we have the previously mentioned inaugural Singapore Comifest 2011, and at the same time, we’ll be having the inaugural JPLEX Japan Entertainment Platform.
Comifest has had some updates since our last post, with a very healthy roster of local and overseas artists coming down to show off their skills. So much so that Comifest has had to expand from the Green Atlantic to the Concourse at the Suntec Exhibition Center, very very strangely sharing the space now with Wedding and Travel, even allowing fans to dress up as Lavender from The Celestial Zone in her wedding gown. No details as to whether this is limited to females only. My tip is go for this if you’re into manga and art, especially if you’re thinking of getting into the industry, this wouldn’t be a bad place to meet people! Also, do check the list of artist showtimes to figure out when you might want to make sure you’re there.
All the way at Republic Polytechnic we have JPLEX | Japan Entertainment Platform. JPLEX, which actually started yesterday, has somewhat of a different scope, focusing on music and anime. Featuring the music of Angela and Flow, these concerts are ticketed at $58 and $98 depending on the amount of shows you want to go for, as are the screenings of anime, priced at $13 each. Sokyuu no Fafner, Naruto Shippuden #4 and Gundam Unicorm #3 will all have multiple screenings each day. My tip? Well there’s tons of merch to be had it seems, so drop on by if you’re a fan of the bands, or if you want to get more of the anime related merchandise. If you’re a cosplayer, there’s free tickets for the anime screenings for the first 50 each day.
With both first time almost similar events going head to head, one really wonders why it had to come down to this. Was the very first weekend of March the only weekend where anime and manga otaku decided to put down whatever they were doing at home to come out? (Obviously not.) It’s possible that since both events are new the planning went ahead without any idea that the other party was having their own designs on the weekend. While I can’t be certain about the reasoning behind all this planning, I wish things were flexible enough to allow one to shift away (after careful collaborative discussions) or even move to the same location, for inasmuch as they do cover somewhat different grounds, in the end the fans, especially the all consuming Japanophiles, suffer.
