And we’re back in STGCC!

Year 2008. Back then, CDS was just started and we took a gamble with a booth at the then-new STGCC. It was fun and all but after that, CDS never went back. The booth prices had gone up and as a doujin group, we are not inclined to paying those kind of prices.

However, that didn’t mean that we don’t like STGCC. Every year, we went back to see how things are. To have fun and stuffs like that. STGCC usually takes a less anime-hardcore, more western focus of ‘geekdom’ which isn’t really our thing. But we know a nice, fun event when we see one.

This year, suddenly anime. We found the STGCC website announcing the arrival of Japanese guests such as Kipi, Kishida Mel and Itou Shizuka. Now we gotta find our way back into the event. Thus begins Operation STGCC.

The Planerds x CDS postcards set as on the STGCC publicity

The opportunity came easy enough. Planerds was asking the comic artists they were in contact with to conduct autograph sessions over at their STGCC booth. It was an opportunity that we seized gratefully. It might not be a full-blown CDS booth but it will be good enough to earn ourselves entry to the event and a brief presence. Of course, we proposed the postcard collaboration at the same time and that went on sale during STGCC ’11.

Did you get it?

Day one was rather uneventful actually. Most of us turned up on the second half of the event since our ‘shift’ was only from 6 – 7pm. While we waited for our turn to wow the crowd, we were taking our time to browse around. Black Label naturally gravitated towards the Maharani booth, comprising of many talented Indonesian artists (including Kuso-Taisa), where their Tiger and Bunny book will debut.

OMG. That TnB mini cushion is so cute!

For the guys, they decided to go catch the Q&A session with Kishida Mel-sensei. As Kishida-sensei went through the slides of his many artworks, further questions from the ground will be taken using SMS. Of course, given the fanboys of CDS, we tried to invite Kishida-sensei through SMS. And of course, we failed. No matter. We can always try again the next day. We also managed to capture a shot of Kishida-sensei gamely posing as a crab.

Kani. Kani. Kani. Kani.

6pm. Time to do our job. We weren’t really expecting a lot of autograph requests; people just don’t really ask for autographs from doujin groups. However, live-drawing. That is something we know people can easily appreciate from us. Once we’ve set up the self-provided monitor, WaHa is up to perform some of his magic. It is only a one hour slot but he will be able to manage something. Planerds called us “young, gorgeous”. I can live with that. Though we still got Black Label to come over so that we can better fit the label.

Kids. One day you can be as awesome as me.

WaHa’s STGCC exclusive art.

By the time our shift ends, it was time for a team dinner and catching up with each other. Day 1 was fun but more importantly, it gave us the chance ‘study’ the grounds and timing. Day 2 would be a lot more precise and intense. It’s hunting for idols time.

Our shift for Day 2 starts at 1pm and ends at 3pm. While Haimerejzero and JUN goes off after Kipi’s autograph, it was Xeph’s turn to perform his magic. Since it was Curry Day, Xeph was tasked to draw something related to curry.

It started out normally at first.

Crisis struck when Xeph realized that he failed to charged the laptop earlier. There was only 15 mins worth of power left and a lot of art to be finished. The bigger problem looms. Without a laptop, we do not have an avenue to show off our skills.

Not bad for a rush, incomplete job. Happy Curry Day!

Luckily for us, Green Tea Neko was at hand. Extremely well-versed with traditional illustration, he took up the challenge of doing live drawing traditionally. Borrowing the easel and drawing paper from Planerds, we set up the drawing station for GTN to perform his magic.

The theme given to him was ‘curry’ once again.

He was an absolute crowd pleaser. The curry themed neko girl he drew now belongs to an enthusiastic young girl who came late but hoped to meet us. We like to get them when they’re young.

Haimerjzero refused to draw curry though. After meeting Kipi, he drew Homura instead.

When GTN was done, Haimerjzero took up the challenge next. With these activities, our shift ended soon enough. It is time to sacrifice our temporary HQ in STGCC as we shifted our attention towards getting memorable photos and having fun meeting idols. Our first target: Kishida Mel.

Kishida-sensei’s Walk of Fame autograph session starts at 4pm. As we waited, we watch Itou Shizuka’s lovely voice acting from far at the back. Everyone was camping for Kishida’s autograph; each of them having something of Kishida-sensei’s touch with them. From art books to WS cards to even a nendoroid! Apparently, when Kishida was announced as a special guest, the Atelier art books in the local Kinokuniya were all bought up by eager fans. At least three of them were by CDS artists. Once the queue started, Xeph was easily the first one in line. And Haimerejzero and JUN came soon after. Then they re-queued. Towards the end, I also requested if Kishida would be willing to take a group photo with all of us. He was friendly enough to agree to it. As we took the photo, another official photographer also took the group shot of us. That might just end up in the STGCC official photographs.

Don’t you wish you were there?

We’ll have to wait to complete our next objective. At the meantime, it was time to soak in the atmosphere and catch up with others. There were plenty of cosplayers and the cosplay competition was going on. Kuso-Taisa took part in the STGCC cosplay competition as SuckerPunch’s Rocket. She channeled the dangerous, nothing-to-lose, badass look and for that, I wouldn’t want to get in Black Label’s wrong books.

We met the Madoka cosplayer from Cosfest and did an exchange of service. Puella Magi was already printed and we were carrying samples of it with us. You know how much we love having photos of cosplayers and our stuffs! First, we got her to pose with the new book which she did. Then she wanted our assistance in doing a shot. More specifically, she wanted our hands.

Smile for the camera!

As someone commented. ‘TMA done correctly.’

Finally, the moment we have been waiting for. Kipi did such a nice Homura cosplay that we just felt that we should give her a copy of Puella Magi. Getting her is the difficult bit since she was ushered from the lounge to the cosplay competition so quickly. We were about to leave the event when we happened to pass her by on her way back to the guest lounge post-competition. That was the chance that we were waiting for.

Despite what people have said about photoshop and all, she is cute in person. Her random Chinese endeared her even more to us. How often are you able to properly speak to an idol without having to go through a translator? It’s not THAT fluent but it is sufficient. She has gotten herself a couple more fans. We were looking at her autograph and wondering if she has any art background. Hopefully, our little gift would be something she appreciates. Her profuse thanks were more than enough a reward. And of course, there is our obligatory photograph together.

Photoshop was used on the photo. But not on Kipi. Just on two self-conscious but very happy mugs.

Despite my assurance, they insist that their mugs are too ugly in the presence of Kipi’s cuteness. Thus you are left with two creepy Kyubeys instead.

So what can I say about STGCC on a whole? Well. It was fun. We had fun. Sure, the event was not THAT focused on the anime subculture. Unlike AFA, STGCC takes a more holistic approach and they usually focus more on Western comics. Which I like too. In fact, the newspaper had reported that certain fans were unhappy about the creeping influence of anime onto STGCC with the coming of Kishida or Itou. We can only say that in Singapore, especially if you are going to have cosplay as part of your attraction, you can’t really ignore the dominance of Japanese pop culture influence. There are also complaints about it being too expensive and such or not worth the price. Well, without linking to the articles, I’ll think that it’s really not that expensive and it’s quite worth the price. But we are not really in the position to comment considering that we were there as ‘special guests’ of sorts.

One thing that struck us as we pursue our prized photos and interaction with the Japanese guests was how open the organizers are towards us. As long as the Japanese guests were open to it and willing to interact (and they have time in their schedule, of course), they give them free rein. Perhaps it is the lack of manager-sans around but it’s something really refreshing and satisfying. It certainly makes for a really good experience for us. Perhaps we could enjoy that kind of interactivity at future events as well?

Regardless, yea. STGCC is fun and we enjoyed ourselves a lot. Kishida is many levels of awesome and Kipi is many levels of cute. We would certainly love to meet them again and hey, maybe the next STGCC, we might actually take up a whole booth for ourselves!