Post Asianim 4

All the things Asianim promised it delivered.

Location was OK. The Palais du Congres is, well, what the name states, a congress hall. Asianim had two amphitheaters: one for entertainment purposese like quizzes and games and one for cosplay and concerts. Brilliant idea. They worked out great.The was devided into 4 spaces: downstairs: traditionl Japan, upstairs: game/food hall, vendors’ hallway and amphitheatres.

Food was good. Hats off to the asian guys that worked so hard in the food section.

The avatar village was a let down  partly because it was preceded by the oh so cool Star Wars  fan village last week. So I was expecting igloos, benders of all races, and fire nation ship models. Other activities; didn’t have to do origami this time as people at belorigame had a full table all day long. The martial art demonstartion were cool! as all the other things well.

The cosplay was brilliant; That comes to show what a real stage, proper lights and actual music can do for such an event.  With comfy seats in the hall,  we sat through the entire 3h cosplay event  featuring  3 categories: individual, group and catwalk .

Merchadise. The vendors were located in the hallway in front of the amphitheatres, which was a beautiful hallway bathed in light from the  glass façade which could be translated info fucking bright light that made us crawls into the dark corners of the cosplay room. 23 might have been the biggest number of vendors to participate at Asianim however that didn’t translate into a lot of stuff. Luckily the few vendors that were there had good stuff: Bleach swords, nice trinkets, good cosplay outfits. Some second hand manga was available however the new editions where only available from Slumberland at €8-€9 a piece. Again expensive! At Forbiden Zone in Brussels you can get new manga for around €5-€6 so I’d expect big retailers and editors to sell it for less.

All in all Asianim was a fun event intended for 3 days. We only attended it Sunday and after spending about 3h – 4h  in the cosplay event  and the mandatory amount of time staring at the goodies on sale, we barely had any time left for games and other activities.

Here are some pics of the event taken from the Asianim facebook group

Asianim 4

Belgians love their anime so a week after FACTS we have Asianim.
The fourth edition of the Asianim festival is taking place on the 24th & 25th of October in Luik/Liege at the Palais des Congrès. The activities of the festival will be focused around 3 themes:

1 - Traditional Japan

• martial arts demonstrations -Karaté – Aikido – Jujutsu – Kobudo- by JAPAn asbl
• Sumi-e –traditional painting- by Suely Shiba
• Shogi, Japanese cooking  by Passerelle Japon
• Go by Club Go Liège
• Tessen demonstration –fan fighting- and painting on silk by “l’Orient en Occident”
• Viêt Võ Dao demonstration –Vietnamese martial arts-  by Vovinam
• Tea ceremony
• Bonsai  exhibition by Bonsai Club Liège
• Origami by BelOrigamo
• Calligraphy by Mrs. Manda
• Go

2 – Contemporary Japan

• an Avatar village
• Dance Dance Revolution booth
• AMVs
• anime projections
• movie projections – 20th Century Boys on Sunday
• Video Games – console, arcade, pc
• Inflatable Sumo
• various fanzines
• cosplay competition on Sunday at 14:00
• Jpop/Jrock/Visual Kei Concerts on Saturday

13:00 – Guren

14:00 – Pinky Doodle Poodle

16:00 -Bernard Minet

3 – Commercial

• 23 different vendors

Aside from this there will be Speed Painting and contests, karaoke, quizzes by Bulle Japon.

Practical Info

1 – Food & Drinks

Asianim announced it will provide reasonably price sushi. Menu should look something like this :

• Sushi €1,5
• Pack of 6 sushi – €7,5
• 2 Maki – €1,5
• Curry Rice – 4,5
• Sandwich – €3
• 0,33 soda can – €1

2 – Tickets

Pre-sale at Fnac and Slumberland:  €7/day , €12/weekend

At the entrance: €8/day, 15€/weekend

3 – Hours

From 10:00 to 18:00

All in all

So they seem to have all that I’d expect from a anime event in Belgium : cosplay, concerts, merchandise, games and touch of traditional stuff. Why tamper with a proven recipe, one might say. Other might say that we’ve seen it all before. However, I believe that, like myself, the ones attending Asianim are looking forward to learning another origami figure from the guys of BelOrigami or practicing their Shogi / Go or one of the other activities they’ve enjoyed at other events.

After FACTS,  I’m hoping to find the “manga for €1 booth”, which showed up at Animansion and Made in Asia and maybe some other reasonably  priced goodies. Assuming that the 3 years of experience will show, Asianim should be the best Belgian anime event so far.

See ya on Saturday if you’re heading there.

FACTS 09

Just got back from FACTS 09 and I am exhausted. This was my first FACTS  convention and my third anime con in Belgium.

First off: the line to get in was EPIC! We got there around 11, so about an hour after the doors open. That was the longest line I’ve ever been in however it went pretty fast, for it’s length. The organisers might get a kick out of seeing the lines outside however I disapprove, seeing how the chances of rain in Belgium are extremely high any time of the year. This happens because, aside from a few “early bird tickets”, all tickets must be purchased at the door.

FACTS is said to be the biggest convention of its kind in BENELUX and I can’t but agree. Of course they needed a  space to its size so FACTS it’s currently taking place in the Flanders Expo. Not the best choice of location.

The location

The Expo might be a big enough space to pack in all the geekines however it is not the best space for such an event

• It wasn’t very well ventilated.
• The ceiling are rather low so it make the space seem even more enclosed.
• There are windows all around expo and  natural light doesn’t make the best mood light.
• I don’t know if this is on the location or on the organisation but  the space was not very well planned out. Plenty of dealers, plenty of room to move around, not so easy to follow which ones you already visited.
• Also the artists were just lined up on tables, not booths, so they didn’t have much space to exhibit their works and there were no real activities involving them as well.
• The cosplay stage was kind of small and the sound quality was not too brilliant.Plus natural light cancelled out the stage lights.

The one other event I saw at Flanders Expo was a book fair and that suck as well, being cold and dark.

Cosplay

The cosplay was good. Over 60 participants in the competition (kids/group/individual). Loads of people running around in costumes. Apparently FACTS is the “official” Belgian cosplay event as the winner gets to go to EuroCosplay.

One thing though: why do the people presenting these thing suck at it? How hard is it to get someone to properly read the names of the contestants? Is there a shortage of bilingual anime watchers with that can hold a microphone? ‘Cause I can think of at least 3 of the top of my head.

The guests

Christopher Judge and Kevin Sorbo (and other guests as well)

I found it rather confusing how they did the entire signing/photo/Q&A sessions. On top of that the Q&A was done in an adjacent room to the expo hall, that could just as well be a storage room. I sat in only at the C. Judge Q&A and it was good fun.   Kevin Sorbo looks better in person that in his latest online pics, however I expected him to be  of a more imposing stature.

Merchandise

As FACTS is not an all anime con, there was a shortage of merchandise in the anime sector.The few wall scrolls and figures we found were reasonably priced, starting from €8. However the manga was expensive, most of it being around €8.

There might not have been a lot of anime stuff at FACTS however there were plenty of goodies. I loved a particular dealer selling medial costumes, everything from coats, dresses to armours. A German shop had a very nice selection of gothic inspired jewellery. Loads of vintage toys and tons of comics. Also (expensive) geek pride shirts, (expensive) patches, decorative weapons.

Food & Drinks

Expensive! Like at any expo. €3 for cola, €6 for a small box of very spicy pasta, €1,5 for a donut. Expensive candy was also available  for  €3,5 / 100g which is like 3 times how much it usually costs. The organisers were nice enough to allow you to go outside and buy  food. I’d wish I could buy theme food at such a place *sigh*

Other stuff

I loved the fan village… which was like a demo to the Star Wars universe. I’m not all that much into Star Wars however the people that are into it are so much cooler that the actual thing. LARP FTW! Not much else at FACTS, sadly enough.

All in all

It might sound critical however it was a pretty good covention. I guess my standard for FACTS were quite high at it is a long running event. All these being said, I am totally looking forward to next year and for the record I volunteer to present the cosplay event (I am bilingual, not afraid of speaking in public and I know what WOW is)

Here are a few pics from FACTS.

Pictures taken by and property of Laura Smekens.

Spring weather

The weather here is insane.
Yesterday the day kicked off with a warm sunny morning and concluded with 2 hale storms :/ .

Made in Asia

Belgium has otaku love.

This time at Made in Asia, on the 14-15 march at Brussel expo, during the Creativa week-end.

What this one has extra is anime at the cinema.In short, this is  the program:

Free coffee in just when I needed it most

The reasons to love Belgium in the morning are quite materialistic: freebies at the train stations. Which such a big part of the population commuting by train every day, it makes for excellent promotion and a lot of happy commuters.

This morning in front of the Kortijk/Courtrai train station Panos was giving away free coffee and croissants to people. No questions asked, no speech, no having to choose between the two. After a sleepless night, having to go to “work” at 7 am I was just fantasying about a steaming cup of coffee.

So, thank you Panos.

Another time when I was dragging myself across Belgium at the crack’o’dawn I got a pot of yogurt in front of Brussels Central, where I also got, on a different occasion, some Cola.

P.S. apparently coffee + 1h train ride = 3 new posts.

Thanks again Panos!!!

Franz Ferdinand at L’ancienne Belgique in March

Fresh news from the AB : Franz Ferdinand concert on March 12 at l’ancienne. As per usual, ticket will go on pre-sale on Proxiumus go for music and LiveNation starting with December 12 at 9! So you have 3 days to check you financial records and decide.

Guy-liner guy coming to Be this spring

By guy-liner guy I am referring to Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy.

The band will be playing at Ancinne Belgique on March 23 2009.

Tickets go on pre-sale via Proximus Go For Music on December 3^rd at 9 and , by judging how fast tickets sell here, they’ll be gone in 24h, so just doing my bit putting the news out there.

I have nothing against the band and might even have considered going to see ‘em  …before I came across the persona of pete wentz … whom launched a eye liner for guys which is special because “it smears better” and afterwards went on to give make up advice on applying eye shadow. And now he’s got a kid to raise! Want to be gay, fine, I don’t care but having a baby is just plain irresponsible of him.

Ferme du Biéreau, Malibu Stacy, A brand and Louvain La Neuve by night

Finally, finally a real gig, in a real venue. Many thanks to my maître de stage for giving me the chance to attend. Gig in question: A Brand, Malibu Stacy and The Subs @ Ferme du Biéreau, in Louvain le Neuve.

First off: Louvain le Neuve. My first time there, couldn’t get much of an impression as I has rushing to the location and the running back to the station, as I kept getting lost. It was very cold and very dark. As a matter of fact that was on of the “darkest” train rides I’ve ever took. I mean, wtf, Belgium is so bright you can see it from space but you couldn’t make out one single thing out the window.  So dark, cold, quite odd, had “student village/camp” written all over it.

Second off: La Ferme du Biéreau. Formerly stable you could say not much has changed, if you’re into the anti-globalisation/media culture types. Nevertheless, the place is cool: simple, exposed wooden beams, clean, a lot of sound thingies and a very strong scent of new wood,

Finally the music: A Brand.

The difference between first and last row. I’d seen A Brand before at the Student Welcome Party in Kortrijk yet couldn’t remember much apart from their suits. They sound pretty much covers everything from the ’70 till the late ’90, ranging from metal guitar and bass riffs to a cappella.

They claim to sing “Glampop, Artrock ” (www.myspace.com/abrandtheband ) and I have very little clue what that means but they’re fun. They remind me of a rock band past its glory (see HIM’s “Wicked Games” video) the matching pearl white suits with black shirts are quite something and they make the bass player look like an older version of House MD’s Robert Chase.

Malibu Stacy. I though they were the headlining band, so I was looking forward to seeing them. When they came on second I was partly relived as The Subs is present as “electro”, which is so not my cup of tea and I already used up my Kriek coupons. A bit too brit, the lead sliding a bit too close to emo in his performance. I hardly understood a word he sang but maybe it was the sound as A Brand also kept fiddling with the sound as well. Apparently all that equipment with pretty coloured lights didn’t help. Sadly enough, thanks to SNCB whom had the last train to Brussels at 22.43, I had to leave before they were done.

All in all: extremely happy as I got to see a real gig after so long and I did is as “homework” .

Did you know…

… that the Atomium is sparkly at night?

Cause apparently it is! At certain times, or so they tell me Found this one out walking back from Next08. Looks nice . Drop by to visit it as it’s its 50th anniversary this year.