A very special Hanazawa AFA

AFA X is this weekend. Are you excited yet?

If you are, you should be. If you are not… you probably have your reasons too. Everyone have a different stake in AFA and this AFA, you might either be very hyper about it or you are very disappointed. Hopefully, this post will give you a couple more reasons to be excited about AFA X for this AFA, CDS will be bringing you a great showcase of beautiful artworks and a whole lot of love for a very special AFA guest, the lovely Kana Hanazawa.

So what can you expect from CDS this AFA? As you can see on the side bar, we will be having an artist booth at AFA again. This year, we will be located at Booth I4, ready to show you your latest products created specially for this special occasion. In addition, as one of the sub-organizers of Extravaganza 2010, a couple of us will also be prowling along the Extravaganza stretch to watch over the exhibits and interact with anyone interested in illustrations. Haimerejzero, in particular, would have more stake in Extravaganza than anyone of us since he is challenging the judges and his eternal rival for the Gold award that everyone talks about but never saw.

Will he finally win the gold with this pretty fairy maiden? Or will he fall against the rival once more?

However, he better watch his back for if you just watch one rival, many more potential opponents might just sneak up on him and defeat him instead. As part of the organizing committee, I have seen the entries and boy, there are some awesome works in there. Watching Leckman frown and furrow his brows as he try to award varying scores just tells it all. This year’s competition is too close to call and the end results will be something worth watching for.

Extravaganza is not just about competition too. There is the exhibition aspect of it, Kaleidoscope! which showcases some of the best works from the different art groups in Singapore, both professional and non-professional. Get ready your cameras and prepare for a visual treat from some of the local best.

Now then, this is Kana Hanazawa. Quite a pretty lady, I would say. If you already know all about this seiiyu, you are probably excited about her impending appearance in AFA X. She will be having a Q&A session and whatnot during AFA and you probably will need to get special tickets and such. Go down to the AFA X webpage if you need more details. If you are like me and went, “Who?!”, then you better start catching up. A great place to start will be hashihime (where the above image is ‘borrowed’ from). She is the voice of many anime character and that’s a lovely voice to boot. She has voiced Zange from Kannagi, Nadeko from Bakemonogatari, Kanade from Angel Beats! and Black Rock Shooter/Matoi from Black Rock Shooter (BRS). Better start stocking up on those character goods.

Us at CDS, we love her too. Her repertoire of characters are some of our favorite characters and seizing on this chance, we have created a new set of prints to be released during AFA. I present,

#CDS0021 – 花より声 Voice Over Flowers

This set of prints features the various characters voiced by Hanazawa-san lovingly depicted by Xephonia, Mycstea, Tragic Comedy and Haimerejzero. Expect to see some of the best renditions of these characters whom Hanazawa-san gave life to through her beautiful voice. Each set cost 35 SGD and comes with a special envelope to keep them well protected within. In addition, there will be other Hanazawa-san-voiced character products for everyone. Perhaps a Black Rock Shooter glass, anyone? Watch out for these special products when you visit our booth! Full details to be released over the next couple of days.

Finally, I have been teasing a particular image on Facebook and Sgcafe.

Have you been watching out for Dead Masters this Halloween?

Now, that might not be exactly very special. Till you realize… where the heck did Dead Master get a watch from? Is there anything special about that watch? Well, the answer is ‘yes’. This is not just a BRS sketch featuring a battle between BRS and Dead Master. It is part of a doujin that a group of us are working on. Featuring a crossover story by yours truly, manga art by WaHa, guest arts from our group of talented artists and a cast of four very popular characters (one of whom was voiced by Hanazawa-san), I am proud to present:

#CDS0022 – Starry * Night

(c) ZUN/Shanghai Alice and (c)Huke/BRS Project

This is a crossover story between Touhou and Black Rock Shooter. A ‘versus’ story, I like to say since you can expect that when the characters from both worlds meet each other, they won’t be doing so in a very polite manner. So put aside that gentlemanly cup of tea and roll up your sleeves. This is an action story and there will be loads of action.

Unfortunately, the book will NOT be ready by AFA as WaHa is still trying to find a work and play balance at the moment. We predict that it will only be ready for sale during EOY. However, we should be having a short preview of the book at AFA for everyone to browse and we will also be taking pre-orders from anyone who is interested in having this book. The deposit for preorders is 10 SGD and doing so will get you a special Starry*Night card that will also act as a receipt to identify you when the book is finally ready. People who holds this card is also entitled to a one-off 2 SGD discount on the total cost of the book at the point of collection.

So this AFA will be an interesting one for us. There will be an exhibition to watch over, a new product to sell, an upcoming product to promote and a lovely seiiyu to listen to. This is one AFA CDS cannot miss. Drop by and say hi to us. Be sure to watch out for new announcements that might just make it onto Facebook!