It's one week too late but, I went to the SMASH! Sydney Manga and Anime Show 2012 at Austalia last last week!
I was granted media pass to attend the event and the experience was amazing ! Not only did I managed to interview all the 3 guests, I also had a blast at the event! Thank you to everyone of you who posed for my camera and said hi!
This is the schedule of the event, and as you can see, it's choked full of things to do! It's so full it's even kinda sad because you know you can't be everywhere. But better more than less right ?
* More photos under the cut*
The free Gundam building workshop
The Maid Cafe which I didn't enter …
One of the rooms screening Anime. I think there were at least 2 rooms screening different titles concurrently.
The queue for a fan sign with the 3 Japanese guests! Okay, it’s not really the queue but the signage xD
I’m in love with how SMASH! caters to so many different types of event attendees, something our local events needs to buck up on.
Unfortunately, I only managed to catch Shinichirou Miki's Panel and missed Sakura Tange and YukoMiyamura's but it was so much fun and love! Getting to see him voice the hugely popular characters he did live was amazing! Even though I'm not exactly a fan of his (didn't quite follow the series he voiced). It was still an unbelievable dream to be able to hear a japanese seiyuu do a live dub ! Almost felt like I was in Japan!
A separate blog entry of my interview session with Shinichirou Miki will come after I get them approved 
I also went to check out the Vender's hall and boy is it huge! I think I didn’t even managed to finish walking through it! It occupied an entire Hall level by itself!
A whooping total of 75 stalls!
Unfortunately, I missed the Cosplay Chess but I did camp at the Main Stage for the entire Madman Cosplay Competition. Below are some shots of the Competition participants!
I was too busy shooting cosplayers outside and missed the Award Ceremony entirely.
But according to various sources, Team Sexy Beast who were cosplaying Yukimura & Masamune from Sengoku BASARA! won the “Best Team” award.
The cosplayer who did Fujimoto from Ponyo won the best skit. The skit was so funny! The cosplayer danced to Sebastian (The Little Mermaid) ‘s song while a motor operated shark balloon floated around in the air xD
The shark even lost control and floated into the audience area, causing quite a stir xD Anyway, Congratulations to all the winners for outshining the other contestants!
Like most of the shops in Australia, SMASH! officially ends at 5pm and everyone was shooed out of the Vendor’s Hall xD.
Overally, I really love how organised the entire event was and as a foreign Media representatives, I could feel and see the clear professionalism in each organising member. I am especially impressed because I understand SMASH! is a non-profit fan based event and everyone working for it is doing it out of love for Anime and Manga. There’s just something so endearing about a group of dedicated people coming together to bring fun and anticipation to a huge group of people they don’t know, for nothing except passion.
P/s: If I got any names wrong, please comment and let me know =)
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