My first time at an anime convention.

COMICFIESTA 2015 through the eyes of TJ.

I really enjoyed myself at CF this year. I got to perform with my anisong band, Crimson Heroes. But this blog post is to talk about the experience as a CF participant.

How to put it... i was overwhelmed by the mood and the sheer size of the convention. I had more money than time. I couldn't get to see all the shops.


There were razer shops, a LoL singapore competition, a blackshot competition, a FIFA competition... The blackshot one was dumb though, who the hell plays team death match/team flag match competitively. and they even had commentators. There was some chinese game involving placing your soldiers too. But I didn't really take time at that one. It had a lot of support, though. DA Master i think.

First and foremost, the COSPLAY. So much effort the people put into the cosplay, but I just put mine together without a care in quality, haha. I was so happy when 2 girls asked me to take a photo with them. I unzipped the mouth of my Kaneki mask and said "but mine is the worst kaneki cosplay"
They took the photo on their phone, so I don't have it.

here's a funny cosplay i saw. GHILLIE SUIT. Probably cosplaying as Ghost from the COD series. Or one of the characters from COD:Ghosts. Never played that game, though.


I was happy to see some fanbases are still alive. For example, when this person walked past me i shouted "MEDIC!!!"


and when this guy said he didn't finish his sniper rifle i said "why not use jarate"



I saw this mikuo cosplayer that I didn't talk to. I liked what he did with the doll on guitar. Very cute. The glove thing is great too. I might do mikuo sometime in the future.


I was so excited when I saw that THERE ARE STILL FANS OF MONOGATARI XDD
My biggest regret here is that I didn't take a full body shot for this one. They had the skirt, and Hanekawa had the black bag. Oh and the cosplayers are quite cute, no?


Lastly, I was filled with excitement when I saw Kagamine cosplay.


My Kaneki cosplay was crap. It had so little effort put into it, and i didn't bother putting on makeup.
But I was so happy when two malay girls asked me to take a photo with them (using their phone). I unzipped my mouth and said "but my kaneki cosplay is the WORST!", they said nvm still want to take...

Side note, I also got a fan of my violin playing! My first ever fan.. Honestly I don't know how to react to it. I feel like fanboyism is very bad, it creates unproductive heated arguments and it makes it easier for fans to be manipulated, into either spending more money or doing whatever the fanboyee asks. I've decided to try to make friends with the person rather than treat the person as a fan.
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So there are two categories of Creative Art booths, one is called Premium and the other is called Basic. Premium is by bigger companies or foreign artists. Basic is for local artists. The photos i'm about to show are photos of artwork i liked but didn't buy.

The artists are trying to sell their renditions of franchises. If it's not a franchise, it's an original work or cats. Cats.

A shop that sells cat stuff ^

The following are pictures of food with cat in them.

@kader: wouldn't you love this

I also saw a lot of fanfic, your favourite pairings drawn in in front of you for commish, but some already printed. Kind of heartwarming to look at too.





And this fanfic tho. Transcription:
Sensei! Sensei! I found your brothers !
Genos... I don't even know them! How can they be my brothers!?

I saw this funny comic title


Next I want to talk about artwork that I saw.
To summarize what i felt in 1 picture which is also an artwork:

=== represents different artist

It says 'Sri Angkasa Dato Vader'
===

===


pardon the bad cam quality for the last 2 pics above
===
Loka Made. I bought the artbook. It's a pun on 'Local made'. When I saw this book I was amazed, it gave me a sense of nostalgia and a sense of home. Basically, he did elaborate architecture using malaysian-relevant style and the girls featured are wearing our blue pinafore instead. He also designed the poster for The Journey, which I happened to have watched.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/The_Journey_Theatrical_Movie_Poster(2014_Malaysia_Movie).jpg)




At the Loka Made booth there was 3d paper cut art that i was amazed by, too.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rRtTeW-1qQw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3bZg-RdXpW8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_XBw8LA0cRs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

===

At saturday night there was a 'Jam session' where two local bands, Pretzel Heart and Raijin, each have their 30 minute segment to rock the stage. Pretzel Heart is a rock band with a lead violinist to play the vocal melodies. Sometimes the lead violinist sings (his name is Eugene) and sometimes he plays. Overall he doesn't go very high, but his pitch and vibrato is pretty solid.
Raijin was great, they're like a standard rock band. But the sad part is that after these 2 performances, JRock band FLOW will perform. So Raijin, which was before FLOW, was told by the crowd saying WE WANT FLOW, etc before they got to leave the stage. I imagine it must have been very hurtful to them. It's like they were a set-up for FLOW.

When FLOW performed, the crowd was so hyper. I used my little light-bow-stick to wave as well.
TBH i don't know who FLOW is, but I cheered along anyway and it was a whole lot of fun. They really make the crowd feel appreciated and hyped. We jumped and we chanted, etc. They gave us a special encore at the end and the drummer threw 2 drumsticks to the audience.

Here's some phone camera pics of Pretzel Heart that looks like it's from an anime


===
I tried the Maid Cafe for the first time. Cost RM45. Tbh the food is not worth the money. They had services there though. RM5 to ask a maid or butler of your choice to spoonfeed you 3 times, RM10 to take a polaroid photo with a maid/butler, RM10 for them to design a fan memento in front of you.
When they serve the cake, they will gather some maids to do some 'magical charm' on the cake, which is a cute moe dance. the people on the table is supposed to follow along.

Frankly, I didn't enjoy myself. I actually did the spoonfeed thing and was imagining in my mind some cute heart-pounding anime scene. But in reality it was meh. I guess the maids didn't act cute enough ? xD

My friend later told me "Aiya, you don't know how to play the maid cafe! You're supposed to make them your slave for the day. Like when they spoon feed you, you should say "nono, i want aeroplane" then the second time "ah nono, now i want like a train"
===
And now, the part I'm most hyped about: badges. BUTTON BADGES (and other trinkets). omgwtfbbq i spent way too much on button badges. Now I have to go get a bag to hold all of it. I already put some on my violin case.

Here are pics of buttons i saw (sorry for cam quality)


don't starve buttons!!!! :OOO
and bee and puppycat.... and those stylized horrific stickers on the left ...  There were Bravest Warriors buttons but i didn't take a photo.

the one below is pretty funny, because i don't know who would want to wear a button that tells the world that they enjoy hentai... But i see it as a joke.



and now, for collection of things i collected from CF:




DOTA 2 PLAYING CARDS were sold for RM60 a pack. I felt he made a few design flaws, though. He said this: K is for King/Kunkka, Q is for the queens etc. 10 is for tanks.

I assume Ace is for all those solo mid heroes.

My problem is, why didn't he put Sven at number 7?? Why didn't he put all the 2 headed heroes on number 2?? (ogre, jakiro, alchemist) or any duos like alch or trio like techies..
For number 5, he could have put a meepo there... At least he should have grouped the heroes better, like agi range carries on the same number, etc.. He could have put 4 and 5 as the supports (position 4, position 5, etc.

But whatever, dota 2 cards, i buy it anyway.

I totally love the lina/cm combo buttons. you must be a monster if you bought one without the other.

One that really touched my heart is the Kagerou Project buttons. Many shops sell Kagerou buttons but they are single characters. This particular shop sold them with characters in pairs, so i instantly remember their relationship/friendship together. Every time i look at the button it gives me feels.

From the don't starve buttons, Chester is the best because you can put them on your bags.

Another one i really find to be GENIUS is the Jake the dog one. The simplicity of it, if you want you can buy more straight or corners then make it go however long you want.

And of course, the vocaloid ones for the moe factor.

The three Sesame-street-like at the top are characters from Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. There was only 1 shop that sells it.

My prized collection from CF, is of course the purple card at the top. All performers get a purple card that allows them access into the hall through the side doors. The signatures on the card are from my bandmates. There are more signatures behind it. The goatee on the neko is a representation of my goatee in real life.
===

There was this book I saw but didn't get to read all of, it was a collection of depressing stories in manga form. I cried manly tears through my Kaneki mask. Sad that i didn't take a photo because I was rushing for time.
===
About T-Shirts and bags. I was actually looking for an ACG-themed bag with a franchise i liked on drawn on it. I had been looking for something like that for years. The ones in stores outside sell merch for things i don't know of, such as Naruto and One Piece.

But when I got to CF, the shirts for Black Rock Shooter were out of stock!! nooo
The bags sold were so limited, the only one I wanted to buy was one that had Black Rock Shooter on it... BUT THEY SPELLED IT WRONG :(
"BCACK ROCK SHOOTER"

Anyways, Another said thing is that I didn't see a single Monogatari merchandise. Not even a button or a shirt!! The series is still going, I even saw cosplay of it.... Maybe Malaysians don't really like Monogatari? But I knew a few friends who followed the show too...
===================

CONCLUSIONS

I loved CF, it brought me so much joy. The merch I bought is going to bring me joy for a long time after this. One of the best part about CF is how they support the local talent. What is sold at the big booths (premium) are what the corporate companies or big artists are selling, which reflects on what is POPULAR among the general public.

What is sold at the small booths (basic) are what the local artists are selling, which reflects on what the local artists LOVE. They love it enough to draw fan art of it.

This means that from anime conventions, you can tell which franchise (cartoon, anime, game, novel, vocaloid, manga)  from any media are in hot demand, or in niche demand (for lack of a better word)

If I were to say which are in demand, I would definitely say Touken Ranbu, Kancolle, One punch man and Hatsune Miku are overloaded. A lot of booths are selling it, both basic and premium.

Basic booths seems to be interested in western stuff. I was so surprised but happy to know that the adventure time fanbase is very very strong. 1 in 3 basic booths will sell either adventure time, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, Bee and Puppycat, Bravest Warriors, etc.  in decreasing order or frequency. Tbh i only saw one bee and puppycat and one bravest warriors one.

There was a basic booth selling malaysian-made vocaloid music in malay language. I already knew they were coming, though. I even heard some of their music online before this. If I were to pass a comment on it, I would say Malaysian vocaloid producers still have a lot to improve on. But the local visual artists are pro.



Thank you for reading :]

Today I went out with the epitome of a teacher.

I may not be able to remember his words exactly.

I once had a teacher that taught me in form 4 as a substitute, for my BM tuition but only two lessons.
Today I went out to watch Frozen (2nd time for me) with him.
I remember his teaching... The gentle, understanding warmth in that lesson, I still remember it.

I remember after the lesson, two years ago, we exchanged phone numbers and he offered me a chance to help Tenby with

their camping project, as a facilitator. (It never actually happened, though)

Ever since then, he had been SMSing me, always the initiator of the conversation. He would always just say "Hi", "What are

you doing now?", and I would usually reply the same things (because I usually do the same things) ; "Playing games".

The texts weren't creepy. It was odd and awkward, but it was warm. Very warm. We never met after those lessons, but I

would always remember his smile.

Today, finally I get to talk with him. He fetches me to Gurney Plaza and back.

I will now share all the conversations we had today:

In the car, I asked him, "Hey, how do I spell your name?"
"R E D Z U A N"
"Oh... I'm sorry I got your name wrong... This CD, I burnt it for you."
*The CD was 47 Ronin and Frozen OST*
On the CD wrote "For: Cikgu Ridzuan <--- I hope I spell correctly :)"
(it literally wrote "I hope I spell correctly :)" )
"Ahh takpe.. Every day at the school, people call me Ridzuan until biasa d.... Same one lah, Ridzuan Redzuan"

At a traffic light stop, finally the sensitive question came up
"so... are you anti or pro?"
"ahh of course lah i'm an ubah kind of person"

"What age do you teach ah?"
"Last time I teach form 3... But i feel like want to heart attack, so i say BETTERRRR i teach primary. So I told my principal

that i'm teaching primary starting this year."
"Was it the students... or was it the paperwork?"
"The paperwork lah, every day also stress"

-random joke-
"Once, I was fetching my students and we were at the parking lot, and i tersilap pronounce, saya cakap "Where can we find

fucking?"... mereka semua gelak gila-gila tak habis-habis"
-random joke ends-

We then go up Gurney Plaza, into the car park. He looks frantically for a spot, and I point to all the green lights and tell him

about them, but he doesn't understand.

After a while, he did.
"Ohh lampu-lampu semua tu ke?"
"Yeaa.... they'll shine green if there is a free spot."
"ohhhh baru tau... setiap kali student saya naik kereta saya tak pernah cakap punn"

We got off and we stood in front of Old Town.
"Eh, you choose where you want to eat la. Cikgu belanja kamu."
At that moment we were frantically walking around 'cause I really couldn't decide where to eat.
I said, "Okay lah, Old Town... Since we're next to it anyway"

We sit down, and i don't know how, he confirms what he want in less than a minute. Meanwhile, I hold the other menu

saying "hmmmm looking for the cheapest"
He said, "Don't look at the price lah, cikgu belanja kamu, pilih mahal pun tak pe"

He tells me that the Wantan Mee and the bread is very good in Old Town
So okay, I pick one.
The waiter takes our orders. Later coming back saying that the one that redzuan ordered OK, but the one that I ordered

cannot add the drink.

Redzuan tells him some stuff, and suddenly cannot
Later he contains his laughter and whispers to me "The reason why I can pick so fast... is because OLD TOWN IS MY

FAVOURITE RESTAURANT! I've tried every single dish. I was hoping that you would pick it, but if you didn't I would be like ok

oso lah..

Also, I took the set menu and gave you the a la carte menu, because the best dishes are not on the set menu... Did you realize

the wantan mee isn't on the set menu? They wouldn't put promotion on the hot selling dishes."

So what basically happened, is that i ordered the RM8 rice, thinking it was a set that came with the drinks, but he knew that

it didn't, and the drinks would add another RM5 to it.

"Remember to remind me to pay for your movie tickets"
"Ah about that, my mom insisted that i do the buy 1 free 1, so I went this morning and we got tickets d"
"waaa so kesian"
"Nah, my mom insisted that i do the buy 1 free 1, and there was once I didn't, she would scold me for not saving money"
"That's good... I remember Cikgu Majemin always told me, "Whatever your mother's training, that cannot be found in the

syllabus. Those are the teachings brought down from generations to generations"

Then, I ask him:
"Cikgu, kenapa tak mau add kat facebook?"

He says,

"I don't have facebook."

...I ask,
"Why don't you have facebook?"
"saya anti-facebook"

....

I asked, "why anti-facebook?"
"Usually I say 'anti-facebook' so that my students don't ask me after that. So that they think its a sensitive topic for me , like

"oooh cikgu kata anti-facebook, lebih baik jangan cakap pasal tu" but actually i just lazy. Last time i used to have facebook,

but every day I would have keep getting messages from my students. Before i could reply to one, i would get another. Then

suddenly there is a post and i feel like need to comment something.....

Before I knew it, the books that i had to mark, i had to put on hold to do facebook until I became a facebook addict...

So that's why i stopped using facebook"

Now that made me appreciate the outing more. I felt like this might be the only chance for interaction besides just SMS all

the time.

I ask him, "Why do you always insist that the teacher always pays for the student?"

"It's because the teacher has a salary, but the student does not. I take all my students out ... Every single student in my class

has at least went out with me at least once, some even went out with me for 2 to 3 times, got some go until 10 times already"

Inside, I cried of immense appreciation. It's like he cares about every single one of his student. He did brag about it too.

He said,
"I remember besides you, there was one more boy at that tuition... I really like your batch... That day, I met Cham Seng, and

he waved and said "haii cikguu" " <--- Yes, he remembered the name wrongly

I then asked him, "where.. do you learn your teaching from? How did you get until like this?"


"I went to study teaching at Cambridge"


Whoa. He didn't pay through it either. He got a scholarship, Highest grade (the system was different at the time) in SPM, and

STPM .

He explained:
"after i got the certificate, I didn't go back to teach at PFS like most teachers who were once PFS students. My friends and

colleagues were like "What? are you crazy?" .

I was bored of PFS. I wanted to see the other cultures. So I taught at chung hwa, chung ling, ramakrishna ashrama, al-

masyhoor and eventually at international school. That's probably how i become so open-minded. I've seen all the cultures"

=random joke=
"When you teach something, you need to *shows sprinkling* add a little bit to make it stick.

Once I was teaching about imbuhan apitan, so i was like
Do you all know what is kapit? like when you have a sandwich and you kapit it , bread meat vege bread...
or when you have a hotdog, you kapit the sausage with the bread...

or when you watch the movie, the 'blue blue' one, you see the woman got one line *point at his breast* and then that one

realllly 'kapit' "
=random joke ends=

I ask, "How do you deal with the gangsters in your school?"

"You just be nice to them. And you believe them. A lot of teachers, when they see a notorious gangster student and another

kid in a fight, they'll always start scolding the gangster student.

You just need to believe them when they say "he hit me". Even if they're the one that's sensitive and buat pasal about it.
They're the ones that need attention from their parents, so you should give it to them."

"Do you believe them even if they're wrong?"

"Yes. Like for the first time you ask them "kamu rokok ke? oh tak ah... okok".. eventually you ask them 10 times and keep

believing them, they'll eventually feel regret for lying"

=

We rush to see Frozen, (we were late) and he
[spoilers]
could already notice that Kristoff was the actual true love before the plot twist. He would already know the reason why anna

is thawed before the movie explained it to the audience.
[/spoilers]

Yes, these may be things that a normal person could realize because it's a cheesey Disney film.
Then, he expressed how much he likes the film, the music especially. At that point i felt so much satisfaction because I

passed him the CD of the OST. At least I gave something back.

During the credits, I was trying to explain to him that there is the extra little scene after the credits. I trying to give an

example of other films that do this, and i asked him if he watched a marvel movie before (because MARVEL movies always

have the post-credits scene)

"uhhh i watched.... batman ?"

LOL (MARVEL fans understand)

=

After that, he knew exactly which door to come out of to reach his car.

"I may not be good in technology, but I am very 'memerhatikan'... Everyone that go camping always invite me, because as long

as i'm there they can never get lost. It's like God has given me the gift to be observant"


I realize, that this must have contributed to how amazing of a teacher he was.

In the car,

we talk about politics,

"one joke my students tell me , is 'cikgu, cikgu perlu jadi politician la weyh... semua budak cina , melayu india akan undi

cikgu... dan akan bagitau kawan mereka untuk undi cikgu'

but i don't want to be a politician. When i'm a teacher, I can say what I want. When I'm a politician, maybe i'll have to look at

Kit Siang and he'll be like "oh nonono you cant say this, you cant say that" or if i'm in UMNO i'll have to look at <forgot the

name he used> telling me what to say, all the nonsense tuff lah"

I told him, "However, you should realize that politics are what affects our lives the most. --

he interjects, "ya, dalam malaysia laa"

I say, "nono, even outside of Malaysia. Even in USA, how politics have affected education and law, in terms of evolution and

marijuana... But in USA it's also the business affecting the government affecting the politics affecting the other things."

And he responds saying

"oh... mm it's good to share these things, we become more open-minded. Thank you."



we talk about race,
First, I tell him that i'm taking matric, but I don't think that I won't get it, and I'll just go form 6 if I don't.

"Matrix is just a gamble," I said

"Yeah, I know about the race thing. Last time, the university students betul-betul PANDAI... now not so much, since they

simply pick.
During my time, the malay people of PFS, realized that majority of the school students were Chinese. The Malays grew up

together. It's like you know, when you study and grow up together, you learn to put importance into peace. no need to claim

this land or any of that political things*."

*I'm not sure if that's what he said after 'study and grow up together'.

Eventually, I had to break the news to him that the demographics and culture in PFS had 'degraded', and there was serious

racial polarization (leading to racism) going on.

He said, "One of my friends, who manages a company, says, "When you hire a <race censored to avoid blogspot rage>, you can

only hire a few of <race>.. you hire too much and they'll group together and make problems."

I said, "Nah. It's only when you hire all the uneducated ones, when they group together that will cause problems. But if you

hire lots of educated <race>, there will be no problems. "

I started rambling, " I have many <race> and <race2> that are so different from the rest. They strive to be different. They're

the ones that actually try to make it better. They don't do the typical bad things that is associated with that race."

"I agree with you."

At many of the stops, I would stumble to express my appreciation to him; not for teaching me, or taking me out today, but for

being the kindest teacher I've ever seen. The fact that I meet him personally had already touched my heart.

When we reached my house, he remembered that he wanted to belanja me for the movie.
He took out RM20 from his wallet, for me to take it.
I said, "Nonono, it's a buy 1 free 1, so it's only RM 10 total...  at most, you just pay RM 5..."

He said, "Aiya just take it, then the extra money you can count as pocket money."
"I can't take the money."

He said, "Money is temporary. Kindness is rare."

I said, "I wish there would be more people like you. Maybe I'll try to be the next. "

"I'm sure you'll be."

Cikgu Redzuan, <--- Yes now I know how to spell his name

In his presence, I feel like he's an incarnation of Gatsby, but with people appreciating him this time.
I felt overwhelmed even as I write this, because I cannot express how much appreciation I have.
Not once has he asked for anything in return. And that is what's so heart-wrenching for me. That I feel like i'm not 'balas'-ing

enough to his kindness.

I said to him, "Next time we go out, can we go out as equal friends, rather than a student and a teacher?"

I don't mind if it's TL;DR. I'm writing this for myself, so that i'll get it off my chest.