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Popcon Asia celebrates creativity, humor
Popcon also featured the premier trailers for upcoming Indonesian movies.
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Celebrating heroes: An Indonesian couple and their daughter wear costumes portraying Super Sentai and Sailor Moon, who are Japanese superheroes, during 2018 Popcon Asia in Serpong, Tangerang,
Banten, on Saturday. (The Jakarta Post/Vellen Augustine)
I
ndonesia’s seminal pop culture convention, Popcon Asia, returned for its 2018 edition at the weekend, allowing emerging local artists and creators to come into the fore in droves to showcase their creative talents.
The event was a celebration of everything pop culture, from comic books and films to games, with online gaming in particular put in the spotlight through an exciting Dota 2 tournament that ran throughout the weekend.
Everyone, including illustrators, sculptors, video makers, cartoonists and professional gamers, was well represented, with local creators providing the best touches of this year’s festivities.
Popcon 2018’s main guest stars came yet again from the Power Rangersfranchise, particularly from the widely notable Mighty Morphin Power Rangers era.
Popcon announced in August that Austin St. John, the actor behind the Red Ranger, was one of the guest stars, but due to reported scheduling issues, his name was quietly removed from the lineup only days before the festival. He was replaced by two others from the same franchise.
Karan Ashley, who played Aisha, the Yellow Ranger in Mighty Morphin, was the main guest star along with David J. Fielding, who played the wise sage, Zordon. Their appearance was to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the inaugural Power Rangers series and to promote their involvement in 2017 action film The Order, which stars a number of ex-Power Ranger actors.
Ashley and Fielding are the second and third actors from Mighty Morphin to have appeared at a Popcon event.
Tetsuya Kakihara was the main guest star from Japan at Popcon this year. The versatile voice actor has been featured in countless iconic anime series, such as Bleach, Beyblade, Fairy Tail and Yowamushi Pedal. His appearance surely satisfied the otaku community.
At all creator booths, it was clearly visible how artistically creative and in touch with pop culture Indonesians were.
The vibrant “Artists Alley” exhibited graphic designs, figurines, manga doujins, homemade board games, accessories and locally developed video games.
“This is my second or third Popcon I think and I always seem to enjoy the experience,” said booth vendor Palas, who is part of the GoodGuysNeverWin action figure company. He has been carving and producing action figures since 2005. His action figures sat in one of the larger booths within the center of the hall.
GoodGuysNeverWin sells homemade action figures that resemble Indonesian pop culture icons, such as a Go-Jek driver, Indonesian ghosts and the gruff fellow that is on all the cigarette warning labels.
“The point I want to convey with my work is that Indonesia is home to so many funny and notable figures that have become part of pop culture,” Palas said.
Aside from the creators and the guest stars, this year’s Popcon also featured the premier trailers for upcoming Indonesian movies.
A trailer for Hollywood-produced Indonesian action flick Foxtrot Six was premiered at the event. The film is notable for its involvement of Mario Kassar, the producer of action juggernauts Terminator 2, Rambo and Total Recall.
Another anticipated film that released its first trailer was DreadOut. Based on an Indonesian horror game that went viral partly due to it being featured in a video from YouTuber PewDiePie, the film presents a universe akin to that of Resident Evil, as Indonesian ghouls play the central antagonists to a group of high school girls who are curious about the supernatural world.
Young local actress Caitlin Halderman plays the main character, Linda, who is one of the central characters in the DreadOut game. She is supported by the likes of Jefri Nichol, Marsha Aruan, Irsya Dillah, Susan Sameh, Hannah Al Rasyid, Miller Khan and Ciccio Manassero.
Despite the filmmakers’ desire to recreate details from the game, they also created new worlds and characters for the film, so as to further expand its universe.
“The DreadOut world of the game and the film will be two different things,” said DreadOut director Kimo Stamboel. “As filmmakers, the potential to hash out and expand on a game-based universe is always there and can always be done well so long as we respect it.”
Both DreadOut and Foxtrot Six will be out in 2019.
