Between Linux and Anime

So I went to AFA again this year! Buying the whole (non-VIP) package for Sunday including Stage Events and Concert. Sunday because while Lisa and co. on Saturday’s concert lineup looked plenty attractive, their shine was tarnished somewhat by Baby Metal also being on the same day (I’m sorry, it’s probably not such a nice thing to say, but Baby Metal is kill-it-with-fire material for me personally). At the end of it all Sunday turned out to be a great choice since Sphere ended up doing a live dubbing event in the afternoon which was pretty awesome. All in all it was a very packed, and very eventful day – eventful partly because my pants ripped (!) in the middle of the thing and I had to hightail to the nearby mall to buy emergency replacements. Running between the stage events and getting pants had the unfortunate consequence of me failing in the end to meet up with Iso in what would have been my first ever irl meetup with a fellow aniblogger, but hey, the day may not have been perfect in a couple of ways, but all in all I sure as hell had a phenomenal time.

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Lazy because after having attended and covered this several times over, there really isn’t too much more to say about Cosfest. It’s the same old, same old cute and cozy cosplay event at the same out-the-way but pretty nice location at Downtown East. So we went down, and we photoogled, and I’m just gonna let my iffy photos do most of the talking here.

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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.

EDIT: This may not be a scam after all. See new post here!

Here’s a public service announcement of sorts. I don’t know how many of you who come by here are actually Malaysians or close thereofs, but if you are, consider what I’m about to say carefully. I came by a poster (above) today at a “Rock Corner” music store outlet advertising an anime con called Anime Fiesta Kuala Lumpur (web site here, as shown above), apparently to be held 31st March to 1st April at KLCC and even involving a Hatsune Miku live. The catch however is that this thing is, believe it or not, almost certainly a scam. After smelling something fishy while looking this up online, I did some reading around, and have a summary of evidences listed below:

1. By multiple accounts (by people who claimed to have called up or visited the event venue, eg here) and by the schedule page of the location itself, nothing remotely related to anime is happening there at the announced con date. The halls that are supposed to house the event are also, apparently, already booked, by other parties. Various groups have also claimed that they were approached by the organisers selling their booths while acting extremely unprofessionally and making incredulous claims about the scale of the event.
2. Someone apparently emailed Crypton Future Media Inc. inquiring about a Hatsune Miku concert in Malaysia and screenshot and posted the email conversation. The response was a negative. There are also many people voicing suspicions regarding the pricing of the Hatsune Miku concert tickets, who are apparently significantly more exorbitant than comparable concerts in the past.
3. Some thorough, transparent (and Linux-assisted!) sleuthing, summarised in this post, revealed that not only is the event’s web page (and its many iterations!) suspiciously badly conceived and full of blatant plagiarisms, they are also self hosted under dyndns via a streamyx connection, and is in fact squatting together with the website of the claimed organizing company, which, as it turns out, is a mobile phone store in Ampang. Beyond suspicious for the webbie of an apparently highly ambitious project involving a Hatsune Miku live.
4. There is no official response from the organizers regarding the avalanche of accusations levelled at them. Not even an appeal for time or a promise that everything will be cleared up. Take a look at (one of!) the event’s facebook page. Basically, they are simply ignoring the accusations (and, from bits and pieces here and there, apparently also deleting and banning them), only responding indifferently to price and time enquiries.

In short, taken collectively, I consider the evidence virtually incontrovertible. This is almost certainly a scam, do NOT fork out any money to these people! Unfortunately I was able to find little advice for people who might already have purchased something from these folks. This post recommends reporting the scam to the National Consumer Complaints Center/Pusat Khidmat Aduan Pengguna Nasional. There is also an “Official video response” of sorts apparently by the local community regarding the situation, in which victims are invited to “contact us immediately in the comment section below & it’ll further assist in the police investigation”.

I hope there aren’t many victims :( I was surprised at the terrible taste this left in my mouth, considering I had only had a passing interest in the possibility of going to the “event”. I can only imagine how it would feel to be brutally cheated of your money and your anticipation and excitement. Various parties claim to be taking action against these guys, I wish them the greatest success. If someone knows what else can be done about these conmen, please drop me a note at the comments.

Edit: links fixed. /palmface

Important difference? I didn’t have a chair ;_;

Yes, I got suckered into forking out fifty bucks to stand at the concert. It’s all Kalafina’s fault I swear! I just couldn’t sleep at night anymore with all the disembodied voices in my head going “It’s Kalafina~~~~ KALAFINA~~~~” “They’re doing a live AT YOUR BACKYARD~~~~” “People are flying down to see them, you just need a 30 MINUTE bus ride~~~~” “You’re reallyyyy not gonna go~~~~?” “It’s friggin KALAFINA~~~~”

Alright alright I know already geez. And so I did. I went, I paid, I got starstruck, and now I’m back. And I’m just gonna take a moment here to attempt to pen some post-concert impressions while the memory is still fresh.

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