The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsThousands throng Anime Festival in Singapore after long COVID hiatus
The three-day convention celebrates all things Japanese pop culture.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
Thousands of cosplayers and anime fans flocked the Anime Festival Asia (AFA) in Singapore over the weekend, held for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world.
(Instagram /animefestivalasia)
T
housands of cosplayers and anime fans flocked to the annual Anime Festival Asia (AFA) in Singapore over the weekend, held for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than two years ago.
The three-day convention celebrates all things Japanese pop culture.
Anime, a sub-culture originating from Japan, has continued to thrive and grow internationally in recent years despite the pandemic, largely due to its vast online presence and supportive participants.
AFA attracted 120,000 attendees the last time it was held in 2019. Although exact ticket sales will not be available until a later date, festival director Shawn Chin told Reuters that he expects the Singapore event to reach the same number, if not surpass it.
"Now that I'm in Singapore it feels like a meetup of old friends, because I was in constant online contact with people here," said a featured Taiwanese cosplayer, Hiko, from her booth at the exhibition hall.
Singapore eased most of its COVID-19 curbs this year, and had seen various international events returning to the city-state in recent months.
More from The Weekender
A year after Affan: The anger that stayed
A year after Affan Kurniawan’s death, the fury that spilled into Jakarta’s streets has not disappeared. It has settled into other forms: exhaustion, distrust and a lingering sense that nothing has really changed.
The ludicrous economics of Pokémon cards in Indonesia
How did pieces of cardboard go from childhood collectibles to billion-rupiah commodities?
A fair national exam is radical politics
When India's medical entrance scandal drove students into the streets, a writer watching from Beijing asked what exam systems are really protecting.
