Anime festival at Siam Paragon
Fans of pop culture should not miss Anime Festival Asia Thailand (Afath), one of Thailand’s largest Japanese anime and pop culture events, to be held from Aug 19-21 at the Royal Paragon Hall, Siam Paragon department store.
The event is a collaboration of Sozo, the brand owner of Anime Festival Asia, together with Dream Express (DEX), the sole agent in managing licensing rights for both Thai and international market, and Cosmos, a pop culture event based around anime and cosplay.
Afath features smash hit anime TV series and movies, Anisong artists, famous voice actors, cosplayers, producers and masterminds behind popular animations as well as exclusive merchandising goods for anime lovers.
Anime Festival Asia (AFA) was first held in 2008 in Singapore, with large numbers of anime fans from all over Asia participating. The festival is unique because of the content itself, bringing everything that anime fans are most anticipating as well as exhibiting exclusive content and products directly from Japanese companies.
From its outstanding start, AFA expanded to Malaysia, Indonesia and finally Thailand last year. More than 678,000 people have participated in 15 AFA events, according to Sozo managing director Shawn Chin.
Last year’s Anime Festival Asia Thailand was well attended with 75,000 visitors within three days of the festival, drawing the interest of many leading companies. Over 70 companies from Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand have agreed to join this year’s instalment.
AFA country director of Sozo Jesdapong Jariengprasert noted that among the event’s highlights is the “I Love Anisong” concert performances by popular Japanese singers and vocals behind many anime hits.
Visitors will also have a chance to meet and greet famous Japanese voice actors, production teams behind anime series, witness new innovations from Sony Interactive Entertainment, and use the PlayStation VR, which will be revealed for the first time in Asean. Various kinds of exclusive goods for anime lovers will also be available. The anime content from Japan is growing significantly. In 2014, the overseas market expanded by 9% — valued at around ¥671.8 billion (221.9 million baht). Thailand’s import of Japanese anime is ranked the sixth in the world and first in Southeast Asia.