Anime Fiesta KL, well, may NOT be a scam!

UPDATE2: Well, I guess a final update is in order re: “what really happened!?”. So the event did in fact happen (at their new venue), but as one might guess from the everything else written in this post and the last, it was as far as I could tell, a predictably, tragically dismal failure. Better luck next time Viva Version, if there is a next time. Ooh and here’s some extra word on a final fiasco that happened with AFKL. And here’s something I found which gave an idea of what it was like to attend AFKL (with photos!). It looks like the Darrel J. Guilbeau guest of honor guy ended up being a cool guy and saved the event somewhat. If only a little.

UPDATE: AFKL apparently changes their friggin venue like a couple days before the event. AreYouF**kingKiddingMe.jpg.

You’d think amending a previous declaration would be an uncomfortable and somewhat embarrassing thing to do, but damn, I tell you I’m actually relieved and a little happy. The truth is I’ve been actively lurking and keeping up on word on Anime Fiesta KL since writing that post. After all, a coalition of people remained that seemed to swear by the validity of the event, and I wanted to see if they could offer anything onto the table that could challenge the sizable condemnatory evidence (about AFKL being a scam).

So I lurked, and waited, and while most people spoke no sense in their fanatical loyalty, gradual lurk-analyses eventually revealed an actual possibility, consistent with all previous evidences, for Anime Fiesta KL to not be a scam. Nonetheless, I wanted to wait for an actual positive evidence before opening my mouth again, and today I found that evidence in the form of this post.

In short, the sum of all evidences I previously detailed can in fact either show that AFKL is a scam, as previously claimed, or simply that the organisers were inexperienced and generally exhibited bad form. For starters, there is no Hatsune Miku concert! This much is absolutely certain. There is some word claiming the organisers wanted to have the concert but it didn’t happen, and also some saying that it’ll happen later in the year instead. So that puts the Hatsune part to rest: there is no concert. No trace of that is in the events official web page, and the organisers are apparently themselves confirming this. Hyping a Hatsune Miku concert without confirmation is certainly bad form, but it’s at least not scamming.

A posted Malay-language interview of an organiser-representative also claimed that the organisers originally sought to work with JPAC, but failed, and so they’re winging it on their own. Basically this means, if true, that they probably have zero experience doing this. With this in mind, the atrociously bad, entirely plagiarized official website and the fact that it is hosted on a private streamyx connection shared with a mobile phone store becomes somewhat less suspicious – since it appears that the mobile phone store is in fact the organiser. It’s a little weird, but not quite impossible. The organisers and supporters are after all claiming that they are organising this out of interest and passion. Alright. Still again, claiming JPAC before confirming JPAC is, well, bad form.

The lack of the event on the list of scheduled events at the intended event location, KLCC, can be explained if the organisers actually announced the location before successfully reserving the site. I asked the organisers about this myself and they claimed to have been given a lot of trouble by the site admin, and had to make many floor-plan revisions. “Now we are rushing for the authorities’ approval”. Again, announcing before reserving and then scrambling to get the site is bad form, but it does let us explain the lack of the event on the scheduled event without labelling AFKL a scam.

Notably, the event is still not listed as of the writing of this post, and the organisers claimed to have requested it not be put up because, and I quote, “For reason that KLCC is wearing out all the enquiries.”. I didn’t understand that either. For now the best we have is the word of the guy at Typical Storm who claimed that a trusted person has contacted KLCC and confirmed the existence of the event.

There is still no official response from AFKL itself regarding all the allegations levelled at them, but if the above suppositions are true, well, it’s not at all far-fetched that the organisers are simply incapable of constructing a proper response. In fact it seems at this point to me that the organisers don’t actually have a spokesperson that is fluent in English, with most of the support and interviews appearing to come from the Malay-speakers.

In short, rather than a ginormous malicious scam, there is now a significant possibility that the organisers simply bit off far more than they could chew (and counted a hootload of their chickens before they hatched). The entire scam hoo-ha originated from the terrific ball of hot air the organisers created for themselves at the beginning of all this, throwing out names like JPAC and a Hatsune Miku concert and all manner of other superlatives, which people proceeded to investigate, dismantle, and call them out on. Now viewed in a more humbled light: as an ambitious convention planned by passionate first-time organisers, the whole thing becomes a lot more plausible.

And really, this is something that I could live with. Even a badly organised event with well-meaning but somewhat irresponsible organisers is a good effort that would hopefully become a learning experience for future efforts. It is definitely infinitely better than a scam. You probably won’t see me down at KLCC on the 31st of March, as RM50 is still well beyond what I’m willing to pay even for a premium con (sans concert), but I’ll be extremely gladdened nonetheless if there is a hall open down there, with people manning booths and cosplayers parading the aisles.