ANIMAX Carnival Malaysia 2014, 29th March

Before I begin this topic, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 / 9M-MRO tragedy that shocked this country, and also offering my prayers to the victims themselves.

Now, back to the main topic. After my visit to Comic Fiesta 2013, I had mixed feelings about it; but in reality, I feel mostly unhappy after the visit because of the majority of my FAILED objectives there. My newest blog post this time is about ANIMAX Carnival Malaysia 2014, held on 29th and 30th March at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre, Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur.

ANIMAX first organised this carnival, if I remember correctly, back in 2012, where it was held at 1 Utama shopping centre at Petaling Jaya. The second one was held at Sunway Pyramid last year. I have never been to ANIMAX Carnival Malaysia before, and this year is the first time I did so.

What I liked about this year's ANIMAX Carnival Malaysia was the fact that it was held at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre, where I can easily go to the event by riding the KTM Komuter train from Bangi Komuter Station. Also, ANIMAX Carnival Malaysia's admission is free, much like the DaiCon 2009 event at Multimedia University (MMU) Cyberjaya. On the day of my visit (Saturday), anyone who happens to be an Astro subscriber can also get a free gift if they bring along their Astro bill for it.

Upon arriving there at 11.22 a.m., a long queue is, as always, expected. I was at the first floor when I started to take photos. Once I got to the third floor, I can see visitors queueing up at the centre area, circling the floor. In order to control the crowd, the staff in charge of crowd control would give visitors a piece of paper with a number on it, and one of the staffs is also holding a whiteboard with the queue number written on it. I got mine, and decided to focus on taking photos of cosplayers, until my queue number was called.

Photos of the queue below:

Once inside the exhibition centre, the staff at the registration counter stamped my right hand with a rubber stamp and gave me a brochure, a free gift, and a card which shows the site map on one side, and six blank boxes on the other which will be stamped with a rubber stamp by the staff there. I then approach Astro's counter and showed my bill, where they gave me a pen and a survey form and filled in the blanks. However, in order to redeem the free gift for Astro customers, they required the actual owner's name and IC number instead of the person bringing it. I found out as I gave mine to the staff there, where they gave me a new blank survey form and I filled in the blanks with the actual owner's name and IC number. Once done, they gave me this denim ANIMAX bag, but I can't comment much about it, though, thanks to my previous head injury, that is.

Photos of the entrance, exit, Astro booth and redemption counter below:

The Rules and Regulations of ANIMAX Carnival Malaysia 2014.

Now onto the other booths. Remember what I said about the card with six blank boxes earlier? These six boxes have the names of the six booths where the staff there will stamp the blank boxes with a rubber stamp, and once all six have been stamped, you can go to the redemption booth for a lucky draw, where, if you're lucky, you can win an Anime merchandise. As for the booths, they are:

• Dedication Booth
• Bleach Photo Background Booth
• Fairy Tail Photo Background Booth
• Ninja Challenge Booth
• Shageki Booth
• Daruma Otoshi Booth

I passed the first three booths, and tried the games at the last three. Unfortunately, I didn't win all of them, but at least I got my card stamped with a rubber stamp and went to the redemption booth in order to try winning the lucky draw, where I lost and didn't get any of the Anime merchandise.

Now onto something else. There are two merchandise booths; one by MUSE Taiwan, and the other by ODEX Singapore. All of my merchandise, from the anime Shingeki No Kyojin, are bought at the MUSE booth. I was planning to buy some merchandise at ODEX booth, but I didn't, since the queue was very long. MUSE merchandise booth, however, has none of the visitors queueing up at the entrance, but it does have a tendency to become overcrowded.

There's also an Art Gallery, where it displays the posters of a number of Anime titles on ANIMAX and ANIMAX-On-Demand, where I took several photos of the posters. There's even a photography studio right beside the Art Gallery, but I didn't go there.

Last, but not least, the special appearance by the J-Pop band angela. I managed to take a photo of them from afar, and also managed to record a video of the said artists. The video, however, is the beginning of the Q&A session, and it's not a complete video, since I'm getting ready to leave the exhibition hall.

Photos of the booths, the stage and the said artists below:

The live stage performance by the J-Pop band angela. This is the best possible photo I managed to take. Video is located below.

Below is the Art Gallery:



Lastly, not forgetting, the cosplayers. Once again, a number of cosplayers, cosplaying as characters from Shingeki No Kyojin, are at the event. There are also cosplayers cosplaying as Anime characters other than from Shingeki No Kyojin, and I also noticed cosplayers cosplaying as Red Ranger from Power Rangers, Agent 47 from Hitman, and also, a WWII Japanese soldier, possibly General Tomoyuki Yamashita. The characters from Shingeki No Kyojin I noticed at the event are:

• Mikasa Ackerman
• Eren Jaeger
• Armin Arlert
• Christa Renz
• Rivaille (Levi)
• Reiner Braun
• Annie Leonhardt
• Sasha Braus
• Hange Zoe
• Jean Kirschtein (unconfirmed)
• Conny Springer (unconfirmed)

Also, for the first time, I posed with some of the cosplayers there. But first, the photos of the cosplayers below:

Below is the Hange Zoe cosplayer:

Last, but not least, me, the author of this blog, posing with Shingeki No Kyojin cosplayers, many thanks to the person who helped me taking my photo. The characters here, judging from their appearances, are Mikasa, Armin and Rivaille:

The first photo. This one, I'm doing the usual salute.

The second photo. Just for fun, I decided to salute the opposite way like Conny Springer did in Episode 3. Take a look at my buzz cut hairstyle and you'll know what I mean...

To conclude this post, my visit to ANIMAX Carnival Malaysia 2014 left me with mixed feelings again, just like what happened back in Comic Fiesta 2013 at KL Convention Centre. As usual, I enjoy going to these places, since I love Anime like many of the visitors do.

Although the long queue is always expected at events like this, what made me really unhappy is, as always, being a forever alone person in the event. None of my friends showed up there, and what's worse, I didn't win any of the three games at the booths and I also didn't win the lucky draw. It looks like I am now an unlucky and forever alone Anime fan.....

Anyway, enough of my misfortunes. After this, I'm planning to start cosplaying; and if God wills it, I might make an appearance at Comic Fiesta 2014, cosplaying as a character I find suitable.

RemainUnknown522 Out.