Chara Expo 2017

Hello everyone and welcome to an event coverage on Tiro Finale! Over the weekend, I had the chance to attend one of Singapore's premiere ani-manga exhibition, Chara Expo. Here is a quick look at the entire event!

Held once a year, this annual event ran from the 9th till the 10th of September in Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Center. Early bird tickets sold for 6 SGD while, tickets bought on the day itself was 8 SGD. 

Right outside the entrance were the attentive staff members dressed in bright yellow tees. They would be the ones to check your tickets before entering the event hall.

A useful ticketing and information counter was located right next to the entrance. Although, not many attendees were lining up for it as most had already gotten their tickets beforehand and was just there to collect it.

Right next to the ticketing counter was the information wall providing a guest list, event schedule and floor map for potential visitors. 

Get your ticket and you will be ready to enter! Make sure to keep it as the ticket can be used to play games within the expo and claim discounts at restaurants outside the venue. 

A handy goody-bag is provided at the entrance of the event hall. Inside it is a clear file, some Cardfight Vanguard pormotional material and an Event Guide booklet.

Immediately upon entering the hall, the first booth that comes into your field of view is the Good Smile Company booth. For Chara Expo 2017, GSC decided to supply several exclusive products including the recently announced Magical Mirai Hatsune Miku and the event exclusive, Nendoroid Musashi and Young Nagato. 

There were several Snow Miku merchandise on sale as well.

All merchandise sold were on display in glass shelves and stock was subject to availability. 

Despite going a little later, the only figure that had sold out was the Snow Miku Twinkle version. The skiing Snow Owl version was still available to all interested parties.  

Besides the exclusive merchandise on sale, Good Smile Company also showcased several of their own figures. Most of them were Nendoroid(s) and judging from Singapore's figure collection fan-base, it was a good idea to do so.

Kemono Friedns had a significant impact on this year's Chara Expo. Later on, these individual placards were placed all around the event hall and attendees were challenged to find them all and take a picture with it. Successfully complete the task and you would get an event reward.

Aniplex had a booth close to GSC's but, their goods were primarily focused on charms, trinkets and miscellaneous merchandise.

There were no figures to be found at all yet, that did not stop fans from gathering to purchase these collectibles. 

Ongoing and recent popular series were the target of Aniplex's merchandise as apparent in the abundance of Fate/Apocypha merchandise.

Aside from anime, there were booths selling merchandise for Japanese music, movies and pro wrestling too.

Several local hobby stores also had booths at the event. Somehow putting a Nesoberi into Hachikuji's backpack is pretty genius. 

There was a booth promoting the Love Live School Idol Festival mobile game, allowing players to try out a song or do Honor Scouting. Throughout the day, the lines were really long. As such, I did not bother to do it as I could just play it at the comforts of my own home. 

Kurosawa Dia was recently elected as the Poster Girl for Singapore and players could redeem her in-game during the promotional period which lasted up till the 31st of August.

Part of me was a little disappointed that the SIF booth only promoted the newer Sunshine series but, I suppose that was to be expected. 

A little teaser of the Weiss Schwarz Attack on Titan cards.

Ichiban Kuji lotteries were particularly popular among the locals. 

Right at the center of the event haul was a gigantic Eren in Titan form. 

The humonogous inflatable Titan looked almost life-size but, without official measurements, there was no way of me knowing that. 

Right next to the Eren Titan was the Mini Stage. Peek behind and you can see Kemono Friends airing then. 

More Titan Eren. I must concede, it was very well done especially for an inflatable structure. 

Making their annual appearance at Chara Expo was Visual Arts/Key. 

This studio was responsible for many cult-hits such as Angel Beats! and Charlotte. 

Cospa's booth was further down the haul and featured mostly Hatsune Miku apparel together with a splash of other series. 

Miku everywhere!

The other series shown were those such as Love Live Sunshine, Kancolle, Idolmaster and Evangelion.

One booth promoted manga and anime drawing lessons and provided it as an official course.

More Attack on Titan Weiss Schwarz cards. I did not know the game was available in English already.

Aside from anime, trading card games (TCG) also had a very big presence in every Chara Expo. This year, a significant portion of the event haul was dedicated to table for players to play card games.

A new TCG by Bushiroad was being promoted at the event too.

How a Titan looks like from the rear.

Yes, it was not just figures on display and sale. There were plush toys too.

Including Nesoberi which were all sold by local hobby stores.

This booth sold on Ichiban Kuji lotteries and seemed to be rather popular, going through many of their prizes before mid-day.

Music, ani-song, in particular was on sale at the Sony booth together with other Sony merchandise.

A large placard showcasing all the nine members of Aqours was located right behind the SIF booth.

It was difficult all nine girls in one image so, I had to split things up.

I am fairly sure that they were arranged according to how they appear in promotional images. 

Or, at least I hope they were.

Love Live was not the only music-concept anime present though, as Bang Dream had a seemingly bigger presence. Although, the interest rates seemed to hover towards the side of Love Live.

By mid-day the crowds were becoming rather hectic especially around the areas of the hobby stores with some of them selling fairly cheap figures.

Poor display area.

Having done a few rounds by now, I decided to revisit the Aniplex booth. 

As well as the Good Smile booth.

Scale-figure Miku(s) are indeed an intricate piece of work. 

The most unique Nendoroid ever made by GSC thus far?

I am not well-versed with Saekano but, I am made to understand that this particular Nendoroid is quite a big deal.

GSC had recently started churning out Naruto Nendoroid(s) and with several more along the way, they show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Nendoroid Hifumi and Aoba were on display too but, the entire display shelf looked really empty with just the two of them. 

Finally, we have Arthur's Archer form. While the figure did impress me, the same could not be said about the figure lighting. All around GSC's booth the lighting for the figures was really spotty. 

New Japan Pro Wrestling had a small booth showcasing their brightest stars. Not many seemed to be too interested in NJPW which is a real pity owing to the quality of work the promotion is putting out these days.

A quick peruse through Bushiroad's booth and there were certainly a good number of Love Live Sunshine merchandise on sale including these swimsuit tees. 

The only Gashapon merchandise present in the entire event haul and it cost 9 SGD for one play!

A quick lunch break before the main event begins. 

Main event? Main stage?

That is right, Myth & Roid were present at this year's Chara Expo for a 30 minute Live Showcase! No photos or videos were allowed naturally and in order to get a good position, we had to go into the main hall a good 45 minutes before the live was scheduled to begin. Starting right on time, the live began with Overlord's L.L.L. followed by BBK/BRNK's Anger/Anger. Despite the initial sound issues, they were soon resolved and the crowd was beginning to get riled up for Re:Zero's Styx Helix, Straight Bet and Paradisus Paradoxum. It all ended to loud cheers for Youjo Senki's Jingo Jungle which was easily my highlight of not just the entire live but, the event as well. While it was a pity that the live ended in half an hour, Mayu, the lead vocalist, announced that Myth & Roid would be doing the OP/ED for Ovelord's 2nd Season. That little tidbit made many, myself included, really excited. Looking forward to seeing more from them and if you every wondered how the name is pronounced, it is Myth and Roid (as opposed to Myth Android). 

Leaving the main hall, I headed back around to the TCG section to check out the stores that were there.

Despite a long day at the event, some of the shopkeepers were still in cheery moods and high spirits. 

The packed event list for the TCG tournaments.

The various cards on sale at the event.

More Attack on Titan Weiss Schwarz cards.

Revisiting Cospa, we spotted several other tees that we missed the first time.

One of them was this incredibly adorable Non Non Biyori tee with Renge's signature Nyanpasu line written on it.

Looking around one last time, I was surprised to find that a good deal of GSC's merchandise was still available.

Having gone around the entirety of the event several times, it was time to exit the hall and pay a visit to the side-attractions.

Chara Expo promotions were present on site too.

The crowd was sparse in the first half of the day but, come early evening, all the cosplayers had arrived and filled up the surrounding concourse section of the event venue.

These are one of the few events in Singapore where cosplayers are able to come out in full force and you could clearly notice it.

After spending a good 7 hours at the event venue, it was finally time to say goodbye to this year's Chara Expo. Just like the sign, the event slowly faded off into the background as we headed back and prepared for the next event on the schedule. Tomorrow, it would be time for the Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention. I hope you look forward to that coverage. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!