Unfortunately I only have photos of the Vocaloid set, but I guess these are enough to make one notice fake products in the future. Once more, these figures have been spotted at Liberdade district, in São Paulo. Pics were taken at the same store where I’ve spotted bootlegs before, so it’s not much of a surprise. What really upsets me is that it’s getting somewhat easy to come across counterfeit Nendoroid Petits around here, specially those from the Vocaloid and Death Note sets. I really don’t get it, since I imagine one cannot make much of a profit with fakes of non-expensive non-exclusive figures… Anyway, let’s take a look at the pics, shall we?

I do believe most of the problems are quite easy to spot, eh? Before even saying anything, let’s compare the last pic with an official shot:

Just in case you do not trust official shots (since most of them depict prototypes), here’s a shot from tsuki-board member fraven:

Most blatant sign of problem: the Nendoroids in the first pic have a line in the middle of their heads. Those lines indicate where pieces are connected during manufacture, and, well, they are not meant to be seen in the final product. You can easily spot them in both Miku and Kaito.

I’m pretty sure you’ve also noticed the poor painting job done there. Namely, they’ve got almost all the colors wrong for both Meiko and Luka. Here, compare those with originals:

Bootleg Neru suffers from the same problems. Actually, she’s in such a bad shape that even her eyes do not feel right no matter how you look at them:

You may well spot some creepy facial expressions in these bootlegs, such as this Miku:

And, just in case wrong colors, plasticky painting, scary eyes, and wacky facial expressions weren’t enough for you, there are also some quite noticeable paint imperfections and rough spots…

As I’ve said more than once, and all photos here speak for themselves, this kind of stuff would NEVER meet Good Smile Company’s quality standards.

Once more I recommend not buying if you’re uneasy, as, at least for me, it’s not worth to taking the risk.

If you want to be sure you’re buying legit stuff, you should stick with stores that get their merchandise via AAA Anime Distribution or buy online from reputable dealers such as AmiAmi, Hobby Search Japan, HobbyLink Japan and J-List. And if by some unfortunate turn of the tide you end up with a bootleg in your hands, post some pics online and give the seller some negative feedback if possible.

You may also want to check my last posts on counterfeit figures: Bootleg Figmas Spotted and Fake Nendoroids Alert.

I should also credit some tsuki-board members as some of their pics were used for the comparisons:
- Meiko Nendoroid Petits from user kuromono
- Nendo Puchi Luka pic from Mako-chan’s gallery
- That lovely photo of Nendo Puchi Neru from copperchief’s pics

I believe I own my readers (and myself) some stats, explanations and excuses.

First, let me say that I’m publishing this post in January 2nd because I was dealing with the New Year festivities at my parents’. And since I only visit them twice a year, I’m pretty sure they’d frown on me for spending the first day of the year locked in my room. XD

Second: I pretty much need to apologize for the complete randomness of posting periodicity. Okay, I did warn everybody of that in the “About” section, but still, I was expecting to publish at least one post each two weeks. Maybe one post per month in a worst case scenario. In the end I wrote nothing but 15 posts, being one of them the inaugural post and two others mere lame excuses for some long period of absence. So, what happened? Well, I’m preparing to send applications to some American universities as I’m planning to pursue a Master’s degree on Asian Studies or the like in the US of A, so I was focusing on my studies back then. =~

This year I’m planning on getting myself into some nice internship, but till then I’ll have to keep my grades high, and that means nothing inferior to 80/100 in any subject. It will be tough, but I will give it my best. ^^; I’ll also try to pay closer attention to this blog by trying to post something new whenever possible. I do hope to establish some sort of periodicity but I rather not promise anything about that. I can just assure you that improving shikinami.com is one of my goals for 2011. And I do stick with these goals throughout the whole year.

Let me also thank all my readers for your kind support, being you one of those who leaves comments or one of those that anonymously reads posts once in a while. Thanks to all of you WordPress registered exactly 4,485 visits in 2010. That was an average of 12 viewers a day. Not much, but very meaningful to me if I may say.

That’s much more than I was expecting since, as I said, I did not devote as much time as I wanted to blogging. I’m very, very thankful to all of you and I humbly expect to keep up to everyone’s expectations. I invite you to share your thoughts on anything you want me to know. Criticism is (and will always be) welcome. And since most of my visitors dropped by referred from both dannychoo.com and my twitter, I’ll try to be more active on both.

Finally, let me thank you all once more and wish you guys a very happy new year. 明けましておめでとうございます！今年もよろしくお願いします。(Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu. = Happy new year! Please support me this year as well)

Pixiv of the artists of the pics in this post:

Evangelion birthday pic: Unome

That character from Tales of Vesperia whose name I’ve forgotten: Rita Mordio

Touhou’s Izayoi Sakuya bowing:  Wakie

Yuki Nagato with bunny earphones: Nemu

I was a bit uneasy with shipping stuff by SAL, but so far I’ve got no problems. As a matter of fact, if you are live in South America, chances are that merchandise shipped by EMS will take longer to reach you than if you’ve shipped them by SAL (EMS generally takes 6-8 weeks, so far SAL never took more than 3-4 weeks to arrive). Why? Because SAL shipments hardly ever get stuck in the customs. The great lesson I’ve learned is that SAL is indeed the best way to ship anything from Japan to Brazil: Not only I will have to deal with smaller shipping costs, I’ll face fewer risks of having to pay absurd import duties. And avoiding taxes is the golden rule here, since having to pay 60% of the merchandise value in taxes would definitely hurt the following month’s loot. ^^;

Anyway, let’s take a look at what’s inside of those boxes.

First, let’s take a look at the HLJ box. When I first noticed its size, I have thought they’ve shipped the wrong item. Why? Well, pictures speak a thousand words, so take a look yourself.

Now you know what I’ve meant: I bought a tie and they sent it to me in a box that nearly fits an umbrella! No complains here, but I guess they exaggerated a bit XD Anyway, this is my lovely new tie, and I plan to use it in my college graduation ceremony next year. Azunyan FTW! =)

Now, to the next box.

I’m so glad I’m finally able to put my hands on Haruhi’s armband. I’ve been wanting to buy one since 2008, but it was sold out everywhere. Thanks Heaven HSJ got some of the last shipments last month. I’ll also try to wear the armband during my graduation, I just hope people will allow me to do so.

But more importantly, to the figures!

First figure is Sci-Fi Revoltech Mothra! An awesome acquisition, if I may say. You may not be aware of this, but kaiju movies (怪獣映画, literally monster movies) were my first contact with the Land of the Rising Sun. Toho’s monsters, specially Godzilla, Mothra, and King Guidorah were an important part of my childhood, so when I heard Kaiyodo was making Revoltech versions of them I just couldn’t help but to feel this great wave of nostalgia. And of course, a sudden urge to collect all of them as well. XD Now I’ve got a big problem: I’m split between two types of figures: kaiju and bishoujo. All I know is that it’ll certainly be even more difficult to balance my budget from now on. ^^;

Now, to the last figure. As expected, it just had to be Asuka again.

She’s absolutely gorgeous. One of the finest Asuka figures I’ve seen so far. I was a bit blue because quite some people commented that Alter’s version was much more beautiful personally. But now I see there was no point in regretting ordering her since she’s just perfect, period. It’s true she does seem a bit older than the original Asuka, but one cannot possibly neglect the great job made by Kotobukiya here. If Alter’s even better, then I’ll just bow to them.

And the complete loot shot:

And since I still have no place to display my figures, they’ll have to be kept in these boxes for a while longer. With so many great figures being released each month, I’ll only be able to buy some new shelves by February. ^^;;

Unfortunately I couldn’t take as many pictures as I’d like since the store’s clerk is getting a bit suspicious of me already. I do not blame him since I’d really find awkward if someone drops by occasionally just to take photos of the same figures and then leave.  ^^;;

Anyway, let’s take a look at them.

If you take a quick look at the figures only, it’s hard to notice anything wrong. I’d even say it is certainly difficult for an untrained eye to notice the problems here. The price though may be a hint: BRS 118 (68 USD or 5,770 JPY) is a bit too cheap considering the price of a Nendo in Japan (3,500 JPY) + shipping cost to South America + import tax (60% of the merchandise value) .  Suspicious indeed… Let’s take a closer look at these nendoroids.

It’s difficult to notice anything wrong with Shana and Yoko, but that’s not true for Konata and Haruhi. I’m referring to Konata’s hair and Haruhi’s skirt. Doesn’t the painting seem a bit shiny and plasticky?  There’s no Nendoroid with such painting. And no, it’s not the lighting, they look exactly like that. It’s easier to spot the difference when you compare the bootleg candidate to a picture of the original.

See? No plasticky look here. (btw photo came from the gallery of tsuki-board’s member AsukaBunny).

Now let’s take a close look at the boxes.

Now we can be 100% sure that we have a team of counterfeit nendoroids being sold at these store. I believe that even a wannabe-figure collector will notice that there’s definitely something wrong here. Namely, the printing is ridiculously dark in those boxes. Not to mention that Shana’s hair turned somewhat pink and Yoko’s became crimson red (she’s even a bit tanned!). Let’s compare both with pictures of the original boxes:

A striking difference, as you can see.

And before we go, let’s take a look at the box of the nendoroid Konata being sold at the same store.

So here I want to show you two things. First, the printing seems a bit darker than expected again. Second, and most important in this picture, the box is not sealed. Good Smile Company ALWAYS seals their products’ boxes with circular sticky tape. Most bootlegs are sealed with normal adhesive tape (thanks to Lighning Sabre for reminding me of this some weeks ago). But Konata’s not even sealed here! Not to mention that the box is a bit damaged.

Now let me show you yet another counterfeit nendoroid…

Not only this L is being sold without its box, its price is too good to be true: 90 BRS is at about the same as 4,400 JPY. The regular price for L Nendoroid is 3,000 yen. Besides that we should also add 60% of its value as taxes (1,800 JPY) and at about 800 to 1,200 JPY as shipping cost. So total cost, with profit rate being zero, just could not be inferior to 7,000 JPY…

Well, it just might be a second-hand nendoroid right? That’s why it’s so cheap. And maybe its owner may have lost its box too, you might suggest. I’d really like to believe that, but that’s not the case.  If you pay close attention to the seat of L’s chair, you’ll see the poor painting job done there (it’s possible to enlarge the pic by clicking on it). I can assure you that something like that would never pass Good Smile Company’s quality standards. Therefore, as Master Yoda would say, a bootleg it is.

So, this post’s quite long already, time to wrap it up. Some advices: the easiest way to tell if you’re buying a legit nendoroid or not is to take a close look at its box, especially its back. Bad printing quality = red light warning. It’s also good to pay attention at the nendoroid painting quality as well: plasticky painting, and colors fading are bad signs. Unfortunately, though, sometimes you’ll only be able to find out if it’s legit or not by opening it. And here I bring you my final message: if you’re not sure, then simply don’t buy it, it’s not worth taking the risk.

Ah, almost forgot. It’s also advisable to be skeptical when you come across figures with prices that just seem too good to be true, but I guess you guys already knew that, eh?

I hope fellow figure collectors out there find this post helpful in their daily struggle against bootleggers. See you guys!

Filed under: Anime, Figures Tagged: anime, anime figures, bootleg, counterfeit, death note, fake, Figures, good smile company, gurren lagann, haruhi suzumiya, konata izumi, L, lucky star, nendoroid, nendoroid petit, shakugan no shana, shana, yoko littner ]]> http://shikinami.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/fakenendoroidalert/feed/ 8 shikinami Bootleg nendo Shana1 bootleg nendo yoko 1 bootleg nendo konata 1 bootleg nendo haruhi 1 bootleg nendo shana 2 bootleg nendo yoko 2 bootleg nendo konata 2 bootleg nendo haruhi 2 bootleg nendo shana 3 bootleg nendo yoko 3 bootleg nendo shana 4 bootleg nendo yoko 4 nendo shana original box yoko box original bootleg nendo konata 3 bootleg nendo L http://shikinami.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/september-loot/ http://shikinami.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/september-loot/#comments Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:12:25 +0000 shikinami http://shikinami.wordpress.com/?p=452 ]]> Got a lovely surprise when I got home today.

I just couldn’t believe both Hobby Search Japan and Hobby Link Japan packages arrived the same day.  (WARNING: there’s at least one image that is NSFW below)

It sure took quite some time, since both were shipped late-August. But I guess I’ve nothing to complain about since I’ve chosen to ship both by SAL. Besides, Brazil is known for keeping items at the customs forever, so if you look that way it wasn’t that slow.

Now let’s take a look at the girls who joined my army. Muhahaha

First, the HLJ box…

Yep, it’s MegaHouse Aldora! Always loved the upper half of this figure but “that thing” kept me away from buying her for quite some time. But when I discovered she was on sale at HLJ for mere 1,800 yen, I just couldn’t resist. ^^;

If you’re not familiar to Aldora and her “thing”, here’s a pic.

Aldora is a very special addition to my army since she’s my very first ecchi figure. And she’s so ecchi I’ll have to hide her when visitors drop by (basically because that “thing” is not removable)  ^^; Good thing is that now I’m motivated to watch Queen’s Blade. Always liked some characters, such as Alice, Alleyne, Erina, and Mirin , but never got to watch the series for some reason, hmm…

Now, for the Hobby Search Box.

Hmm… Wonder if the girls are fine beneath this suffocating paper-thing.

I’m very glad to say that both Azusa-chan and Kuroi-chan arrived just fine. Boxes are intact despite there was nothing but paper to keep them safe. The sad thing is that part of the mouth of one of Azusa’s faces is a bit faint, but it’s hardly noticeable.

And here we have the three girls together.

I haven’t unboxed them yet because – and I’m very ashamed to admit this – I have no place to display them. At the moment I’m saving some money to get myself some nice glass shelves, but that’s gonna take a while. ^^

Ah, almost forgot: no duties were collected this time, yay!

Anime Friends is the largest anime convention in Brazil, its organizers also claim it to be the largest in Latin America, but I’m not sure about that since I don’t know much about the cons in Mexico. Anyway, it’s the most traditional anime event in Brazil and it’s being held every July (Winter vacations in Brazil) in the city of São Paulo since 2003. I attended it last Saturday (July 17) and below this paragraph you’ll find some photos I took during the day. My sister lent me her Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3, which is slightly better than my old Olympus x-750, but she only gave it to me during the event, which did not allow me to check all it’s capable of. Therefore, I’m sorry for the poor quality of some images.

Most of the pics are from cosplayers I’ve spotted and from the shows during the night. I hope you enjoy them and please, do point out the names of the characters I do not know. ^^ Shy cosplayers (do they exist?) that want their pics removed may contact me. E sim, eu falo português, no worries.

Final Fantasy XIII – Hope and Lightning

Final Fantasy XIII – Snow and Serah

Tim Burton’s Hatter

?

Super Mario gangster team?

Bleach people?

Some Naruto guy fighting

Forgot the name of the character, but I know it’s from some Final Fantasy. At first I thought it was the Black Mage from FF Tactics, but there’s no Chocobo there.  Maybe it’s Vivi Orunitia from Final Fantasy IX?

Argh! Also forgot the name of the series…

Claire from Claymore

DC comic characters group (+Venom Spider Man as an intruder)

Shinku, Suiseiseki and Hina Ichigo from Rozen Maiden

Chrono Trigger

MOAR Final Fantasy. The one in the middle is Lulu, I don’t remember the names of the other two. ^^;;

Russia and Lithuania from Hetalia.

Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Norway (Hetalia)

Prussia! (Hetalia)

Belarus from… Hetalia again!

Hetalia galore! Japan’s hiding behind that Hello Kitty. XD Loved to see how Hetalia grew that popular in Brazil. And now, thanks to NewPop, the manga of Hetalia Axis Powers will be released in Portuguese this year, yay!

Gurren Lagann group: Kamina, Anti-Spiral Nia, Viral, Yoko and adult Simon.

And now for the shows! This year’s guests were Akira Kushida, Shinichi Ishihara, Takayuki Miyauchi (they performed on July 10-11), Aural Vampire (unique show on Saturday, July 17), Chihiro Yonekura, Minami Kuribayashi, Aki Misato and Piyo Rabbie (shows on July 17-18). Photos of the shows on July 17 may be found below.

IMPORTANT: I do not own the rights of the songs and I DO NOT INTEND TO VIOLATE ANY JAPANESE LAW RELATED TO COPYRIGHT OR USE OF IMAGE. If there’s a problem with the videos and photos in this post, please, do contact me and I’ll remove them as soon as possible.

As you may be aware, Piyo Rabbie came to Brazil for Cofesta 2010, you may check my coverage on their show back then here. At that time they’ve said they’d love to return to Brazil in the future. I did expect them to return, but I thought I’d only see them Yoshikawa-san and Namihey-san next year, not less than a semester after their first visit! ^^;;

I took 100+ pics of all shows,but most of them are blurry. These are the best in the bunch. Sorry about that, I’m a bad photographer and I admit it. More pics of Piyorabbie’s Usagino Namihey below.

Their show was somewhat nice, but the place was so crowded that there was no space to wotagei suru (dance wotagei in Japanese), which was very sad. You know, if you never danced wotagei chances are that you’ll find it awkward, crazy or simply hazukashii (a Japanese word used to describe situations one would feel ashamed or embarrassed). I also thought all of that, but after giving it a try I just discovered that it’s also awesomely fun. I really don’t understand what the organizers were thinking when they decided to let them perform in a place they could not interact with the audience. =/ Anyway, they sang “Chad-la Head Chad-la,” “Pegasus Fantasy” and two other songs I don’t remember now. ^^;;

Aki Misato’s show was just awesome. From all guests, she was the one that seemed to enjoy herself the most. She also deserves some extra points for wearing this awesome kimono.

Misato-san sang Shoujo Meiro de Tsukamaete (Strawberry Panic), Disarm Dreamer (Genshiken 2 – yeah, awesomeness!), Gendai Maho no theme (Soul Hunter), and Blood Queen (Kaibutsu Oujo OP).

Disarm Dreamer is one my favorite opening themes ever, I was so glad Misato-san sang it. =3

Chihiro Yonekura, for the first time in Brazil, also performed very well. She sang Yakusoku no Basho e (Kaleido Star), Arashi no Naka de Kagayaite (Mobile Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team OP), Ten (Mobile Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team ED) and Will (Soul Hunter).

Never watched any of the Gundam series, but some people told me Chihiro’s Arashi no Naka de Kagayaite is the best Gundam OP ever. It’s a great song indeed, but I’d like to hear the opinion of Gundam fans out there on this.

As you can see below, the camera seemed to love Minami Kuribayashi, most of the nice pics left are of her. ^^;;

I really, really wanted to try talking to her or at least have her autograph my Chrono Crusade manga, but there were no such possibilities since the guests were confined in the dressing-rooms, which were, of course, off-limits for most people, myself included.

And here we have Kuribayashi-san engulfed by light. =D

She sang Tsubasa wa Pleasure Line (Chrono Crusade), Precious Memories (Rumbling Hearts), Crystal Energy (Mai Otome) and, Shining Days (Mai Otome), and Yell! (Super Robot Wars Original Generation: Divine Wars ED). I was expecting her to sing Meiya Kadenrou (Katanagatari OP) and Unreal Paradise (Kämpfer OP), but I guess the audience wouldn’t be familiar with these titles since they’re way too recent. ^^;;

Next pic is not exactly great (somewhat blurry), but I’ve decided to post it since it looks like Kuribayashi-san was waving to me. Kawaii! 可愛い

If you want to follow any of these lovely ladies on twitter, I’ll help you do it, here: Aki Misato, Chihiro Yonekura, Minami Kuribayashi, and Piyorabbie (Usagino Namihey and Sunao Yoshikawa).

As for Aural Vampire, it was forbidden to take pics or to film the show, so I’ve got nothing to show you. Their style may be defined as a mix of electro-pop, techno and gothic; which was quite interesting, I shall say. I’m not a big fan of electronic music, but I did enjoy some of their songs, specially Cannibal Coast, which you can check out the PV on YouTube.

In case you are wondering, Aural Vampire is a duo formed by RAVEMAN, the “zombie DJ” and the vocalist EXO-CHIKA. And it’s ok to look for more pics of Exo-chika since she’s bery cute. ^_^;;

Well, I guess that’s pretty much of a coverage. And I did write more than 700 words, oh my… I promise I’ll try to write smaller posts in the future.

Ah, almost forgot, at the goods booths I found this:

I’ve always wanted Figma Haruhi Chouyuusha Ver., but this one was being sold for BRS 999! That means approximately USD 570 or 49,600 yen! It came with the game and everything else, but gee, that’s the price of a Mini Dollfie Dream. Madness, I’ll tell you.

Here we are: the last part of my coverage of CoFesta in Brazil. I promised exclusive footage and you’ll find it below. You just might wanna check out part 1 and part 2, but I guess this is the post most people were looking for. Without further delays, this is it.

As I’ve said before, amongst CoFesta’s attractions there were 4 invited guests of honor who would make shows during the event: the duo Piyorabbie, awesome singer Yoko Takahashi and seyuu Miki Maruyama. Each of them performed at about thrice a day. In order to avoid repetitions, I’ll talk about the shows in a non-chronological manner.

Piyorabbie is a duo formed by Usagino Namihey (in pink) and Sunao Yoshikawa (in yellow). They’re performers at Dearstage, a live house and bar located in Akihabara, Tokyo. Their live performances, of course, are accompanied by the proper wotagei moves. Their single, Hikari No Kyanberu, scored 15th in the Oricon Daily charts, it was also ranked 1st in the Weekly chart when it was released. Now enough of this generic info, let me tell you about the shows.

Let me summarize everything: I’m a shy person and I had never danced  in public. Well, Piyorabbie not only managed to get me dancing wotagei frenetically, their shows were so addicting that in the end I even joined them at the stage on Sunday, March 14. I believe I did a good job since I scared some people while dancing. XD They were extremely charismatic and were always trying to make everyone in the audience dance.

Besides their original songs, they also sang “Chad la head chad la” (DBZ), “Lost My Music” (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuustu), “God Knows” (Suzumiya), “Black Rock Shooter” (BRS), “Butterfly” (Digimon Adventures), Mezase Pokemon Master (Pokémon season 1), “We are Fighting Dreamers” (Naruto) and “Soldier Dream” (Saint Seiya). What kind of disappointed me is that there were very few people in the audience singing along with them. Most did not know the lyrics. =/

And here they’re teaching everyone some basic wotagei moves. ^^

And this is a world-wide web exclusive. Maurício de Souza, the most famous Brazilian cartoonist, rushed to the stage to take pictures of Namihey and Yoshikawa. =D

When they weren’t performing, one could bump into them walking in the event. The fact that they were pretty unknown in Brazil allowed them to walk around without so many problems. I even tried talking in Japanese with Namihey-san at the first day, but our conversation did not go much further than “Hajimemashite, watashi wa [name here] to moushimasu. Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu” (It’s very nice to meet you. My name is ****), “Sain o kudasai!” (Could you give me your autograph?) and “Shashin o tottemo ii desu ka?” (May I take a picture?). Don’t blame me, I started studying Japanese last year and I still don’t know much. Anyway, I was lucky enough to get two autographs and four pics. After dancing in the stage, Yoshikawa-san also gave me one of those light sticks you often see while watching Japanese shows. If they ever read this, especially Namihey-san, let me just say I’m sorry for bothering you two so much! ^^;;

Miki Maruyama is a singer and seyuu. She sings “Angel Addict” , the main theme of Lemon Angel Project, with Ryou Shihono, Mai Kadowaki, Ami Koshimizu, Minori Chihara, and Juri Hirama. She’s also the voice actress of Uran (Astroboy 2003), Miki Suwa (main character of Lemon Angel Project), Ishiguro Izumi (BECK), Polly (Black Jack), Tako-ball Nurse (Ondekun), Nozomi Kasuga (Shikabane Hime) and Mieu (Tales of the Abyss – PS2 game and anime).

One word to define her: kawaii! She did great on her performances, albeit those being quite brief. She just sang the tv version of two Lemon Angel Project songs, which together took at about 5 minutes.

Piyorabbie joined the audience during some of Maruyama-san’s shows!

Mauiyama-san also answered some questions of the crowd and introduced Uran and Miki Suwa to the audience. Me has a video. Check it below. “Tudo bem?” is Portuguese for “Ogenki desu ka?”/”How are you?” ^^

I should also introduce you to the host of the event: Kendi. He’s an actor, singer, producer, and reporter. But above all he’s extremely charismatic. The woman in black was the event’s interpreter. I talked to her later and she said that it was her first time working as an interpreter in this kind of event. She was very kind and I believe she did an awesome job, specially considering that none of the guests understood Portuguese. I owe them both a lot, I’ll explain why in a minute.

It appears that some fans managed to take a pic with Maruyama-san too. Hmmm…

Now, having introduced Piyorabbie and Miki, that leaves me to talk about Yoko Takahashi. I won’t lie to you, I’m a great fan of her and the sole fact that she’d be in the event was the main reason I attended the three days. If you don’t know her, she’s the voice behind New Genesis Evangelion OP “Zankoku na Tenshi no Teeze”. She also sings some other outstanding music such as Pumpkin Scissors OP “Aoki Flame”, Shakugan no Shana ED “Yowake Umare Kuru Shoujo”, Neon Genesis Evangelion Death and Rebirth’s theme “Tamashii no Rufuran”, and This Ugly Yet Beautiful World OP “Metamorphose”.

During the shows she only sang Zankoku na Tenshi no Teeze, Tamashii no Rufuran and Fly Me To The Moon (acid bossa ver.). But it was enough to bring me to tears. ^_^

During the first show I kept waving to her with my Neon Genesis Evangelion #1 manga. When she stopped singing Kendi noted I was desperate to talk to her and lend me the microphone. I told her that I was a great fan and that even with the absurd import taxes in Brazil I had three of her singles. Most important: I told her that March 12 was a day I’d never forget cause I managed to listen to her live and above all, I talked to her. She was very very kind for listening me there. She thanked me for supporting her job so much and said she was glad to know she had such hard fans in Brazil. YAY!

And Takahashi-san pointed at me while singing “Fly Me To The Moon!” Almost passed out here. ^^;;

In the end she autographed my NGE manga and allowed me to take a picture with her (although the security staff advised her not to do so). I was extremely happy to know I was the unique person that managed to take a pic with her during the whole event. =D

The last day of the event was March 14, but I only realized that by 3 PM. I almost killed myself for not buying any White Day gift to Takahashi-san. In the end I gave her what I had with myself at the time, a pin with the flags of Brazil and Japan. It was the least I could do. ^^;;

Now, my verdict: CoFesta was awesome, but mostly due to the live shows. I mean, without the artists, people would have no reason to attend all three days. The most serious problem was the lack of publicity: if it was properly divulged, it’d be crowded. The fact that there were no food outlets was a thorn in the neck. As for the anime being exhibited, my point of view is that they’ve picked some titles that would never make much of a success in Brazil. Some were very embedded with Japanese daily life, such as “Kochikame” and “Mainichi Kaasan“. Other’s such as “Crayon Shin-Chan” would not be broadcasted here due to the moralism of public channels. The manga library was a great idea, but they should’ve brought some titles in English too since very few Brazilians know how to read in Japanese.

Positive remarks: it a was a great initiative to bring the event to Brazil. I should really point out that I’m very glad to know that Japanese companies are finally noticing the potential the Brazilian market has to offer, with its enormous population and large number of Japanese descendants, not to mention the fact that anime and tokusatsu are broadcasted here since the 70′s. The guests were an awesome choice as well, all of them managed to interact with the audience very well, which is quite a feat considering that less than 5% of those present could speak Japanese. I really hope CoFesta comes back to São Paulo in 2011, while trying to avoid the problems of the 2010 edition.

And finally, here’s a group pícture taken by Piyorabbie’s staff after their last show.

If you want to follow Piyorabbie on twitter, they may be found @usaginonamihey, @sooopiyo. You may also want to follow @dearstage for occasional livestreams of some performances.

The event was scheduled from March 11 to 14. It took place at the third floor of the Ibirapuera Bienal, one of the most traditional event holding spaces in Brazil.

Since 2010 CoFesta would be held overseas, the purpose this time was to try to promote an interchange between Brazilian and Japanese companies. It was also supposed to introduce some contents in Brazil and to stimulate business between both countries. There were for example some TVs broadcasting anime there, but they were not for the public in general, they were there because the Japanese companies were attempting to negotiate broadcasting rights in Brazil.  What follows is a map of the event. As you can see, it was considerably small if compared with any of its previous editions. Now let me explain each category. New Technology was mainly introducing some hi-tech innovations from Sony, JVC, and Panasonic, it was showing products  such as 3D converter (it would allow you to transform any image into a 3D one) and a device takes pictures of the faces you make while playing games. Unfortunately, this is the unique picture of these booths I’ve got.

Manga booth was a actually a small library. One could rent a manga during the event and read it in the comfy specified areas, they were available in Portuguese and in Japanese. They also had hundreds of titles available online, including some awesome series such as Summer Wars, Shakugan no Shana, Fate/Stay Night, Lucky Star, and Code Geass. Unfortunately all these were only available in Japanese. I do believe that they should have at least tried to bring some content in English at least…

There were also some game booths where one could play some PS3 and Wii titles such as Street Fighter IV, Castlevania and the at the time yet to be released Wii’s Taiko no Tatsujin. At the far end there was also a booth with some famous PSP games, I remember playing Project Diva and Monster Hunter there. Which reminds me, I’ve got to save up for a PSP.

Good Design was all about Japanese products with innovative functions. The logo was “a living design for daily life” or something like. It was the most “meh” part of the event if you ask me. The products themselves were far from interesting, at least for a casual observer.

Espaço Brasil (Brazil Space in a very poor translation) comprised booths reserved for Brazilian enterprises. AreaE manga school, Onigiri Art Studio, and Saga school of art, game and animation were present. Turma da Mônica, the most famous comic book in Brazil also had a stand. Turma da Mônica was created by the greatest Brazilian cartoonist Mauricio de Souza, who attended the event on March 12 and 14. He delivered autographs and was kind enough to take pictures with some fans. I didn’t get an autograph, but I managed to take a pic with him. =)

Finally, the character booths. They comprised informative booths about Vocaloid Miku, Luka and the Kagamine twins, presented PiyoRabbie and Miki Maruyama and exhibited one or two anime episodes. It seemed a great idea, but the stands were nothing but a television broadcasting an endless loop of anime scenes and a poster explaining the plot.

Found this vid on youtube that shows exactly how the event looked like. There are very very few visitors cause it was filmed on March 12th, which was a normal working day in Brazil.

Yes, it was filmed during Yoko Takahashi’s show. I have no idea of who would be insane enough to miss it, but anyways, thanks to youtube user montesandra for uploading it.

As for freebies, most of them were folders. But hey, these are original folders that came directly from Japan! =P Don’t ask me why they were distributing folders of events that took place in 2009, I really do not know. At the entrance visitors were given a fan of the event because it was ridiculously hot there (late Summer in Brazil). For each time you played Wii’s Taiko no Tatsujin you’d also get yourself a limited edition bottom, but they’ve already runned out on them by the afternoon of the second day. ^^;;

One impressively important problem of the event was the lack of food stands. This unpleasant reality was even worse in the first days of the event, when they announced that it was forbidden to bring food from outside. Fortunately they abolished this ridiculous rule later on, but really, it was a major fault. The event was scheduled to begin at 9 AM and to finish at 7 PM, so how could they possibly forget that people just might feel hungry and/or thirsty during such long period of time? Even the staff complained about it. Oh well…

Judging against its predecessors, Cofesta 2010 was not the success I was expecting. But the attractions of the main stage, namely the pocket shows of Piyorabbie, Miki Maruyama, and Yoko Takahashi more than compensated so many failures. My final verdict on this event and the coverage of the shows will be published in part 3, which I’m already writing.

But even before talking about the event itself I can point out an important problem: the event’s publicity was practically nonexistent. There were merely some posters attached to some stores at Liberdade, São Paulo’s Japanese district. I myself came to learn about it by March 3rd, less than a week before the opening ceremony. I barely had the time to let my beard grow to attend it cosplaying as Gendou Ikari. ^^;; No wonder the event was far from crowded most of the time. Another small problem was that apparently they mixed up the English name of the event with the Portuguese writing of Brazil (which is with an “s”), the right choices would be “CoFesta no Brasil” in Portuguese or “CoFesta in Brazil” in English. ^^;; And I think this post is already enormous, so I’ll hold back the review of the event and most of the pictures for part 2 (and possibly a part 3), which I plan to publish till Monday. I assure you this time’s for real. ^^;;