17th and 18th December. It's that time again as the prestigious yearly event of Comic Fiesta being held. This time, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center. A better place for all as it's the biggest place than all previous venues in previous years. Compared to the last year's event that being held at the Ballroom in Berjaya Times Square Hotel, the Hall 5 of the convention center is slightly bigger by 50 percent. Plus, it's a perfect place for a large gathering of people since, well, it's KLCC. Apart from the meaning of it being the convention center, it's also meant for KL City Center which is just a few meters away from the tallest twin towers in the world. Yeah, better transportation like trains and also a lot of parking areas.
Bigger venue and better transportation means a lot more people from before. So, yeah, by the means of 'a lot', there were A LOT of people. The first day of the event showed us that 20,000 tickets were sold out by 2 p.m. while the hall itself it said to be able to accommodate about only 5,000 people at one time and there were more than that considering how cramped the place can be when people rushing in inside. There are many reasons that led to this massive influx of people. Other than the reason that it is the biggest anime event in the country (duh), it was also because of the performance of Ceui and Mikuni Shimokawa. With an RM 15 ticket for a day of event, you're not only watching the performance of the great artists from Japan but also watching the special screening of Hoshi Wo Ou Kodomo, a movie by Makoto Shinkai, on the day itself.
Comic Fiesta 2011 was also highlighting the usual anime event stuffs especially cosplay. The cosplay competition for this year has been added with One True Pairing, apart from solo and group competitions, where competitors will present their concept of a “One True Pairing” between different characters through performance at the stage (or rather, just below the stage for wider spaces). Then, there's art competition where two kinds of competition, 4-koma and comic competitions. Participants were required to draw simple comics with allocated time according to the theme given to them. The sequel to the incredibly popular Defense of the Ancients, DOTA 2, had also make an appearance in the event as participants faced against each other through competition held by E-club Malaysia. Other than that, there were Super Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournaments organized by KDU. Bands performances made their way through the main stage of the event. While the performances had an enormous reception from the audiences, the later band performances were cancelled due to request from the management staffs of KLCC. And, of course, the artist booths from various doujin groups where they're not only from locals but also from other countries in the region. There were more than 100 doujin groups opened their booths inside the hall this year apart from the major companies having their own booths like Animax, Comic House, Suncomic, Gameaxis, VBG Network and many more.
Due to massive amount of visitors, the second hall was opened beside Hall 5 to give some room for the visitors to queue up before entering the hall. The queue started as early as possible in the morning. Those who have tickets earlier like through pre-orders were able to get in the line better compared to those who tried to buy the tickets on the day itself. But still, they have to queue up for those who came there late. The first day of event was even came to worst when there was another event being held at the convention center along with several circumstances nearby the area. To curb the problems on the first day not to happen again on the second day, the CF committee managed the crowds by sorting out the flow of the crowds by themselves (the first day was totally relied on KLCC managements).
While there were grueling complaints from a few of the visitors, the overall receptions were good and there were positive comments. There were even European visitors and from Japan too attending the event. As usual, packed, crowded and still a lot of fun.