Next week, the NUS Comics and Animation Society (aka NUS Anime Club; their functional identity reveals their true orientation…) will be holding the NUS Anime Bazaar 2007.
NUS Anime Bazaar 2007
From 5 Sep (Wed) to 7 Sep (Fri), expect the foyer outside LT27 (Science Faculty) to be turned into an otaku stronghold between the hours of 10am and 6pm. There’ll be stalls hawking anime and manga related merchandise (KKnM will be there) as well as a host and maid cafe.
I hope to be able to apply leave (I have more than 30 days of leave to clear anyway) so that I can check out this event.
I haven’t attended many of the local otaku-related conventions and it’s time I should. Even if it’s a modest affair, I’m sure there’s still things to see. The very least, you get to meet your own kind (if you haven’t been seeing them online or at Sunshine Plaza already).
When I was an undergraduate, I hardly took part in any of such events. That’s because there’s hardly any of such campus activities. I never knew that NTU had an anime/manga club that called itself Anime Works, a sub-club of the NTU Visual Arts Society (NTUVAS) until I did a web search earlier.
Besides, I was going through the jock phase of my life and remained a closeted otaku during my early 20s (Hey, you wanna impress the chicks and get some, right?). However, my hostel room betrayed my true nature:
My Otaku side of the room – NTU Hall V, Purple Block circa 1997
My side of the room was decorated with my action figure collections (my NS and university days were the time I amassed a huge collection of action figures). Technically speaking, I was more of a fanboy than an otaku as my bias was towards American and British comics and sci-fi culture. My staple diet was American comics, though I was also a regular at Jurong Point’s Comics Connection. Then, I was only watching anime and reading manga very selectively.
Perhaps that’s the reason why I never got lucky – would a girl ever make out in a guy’s room with action figures staring right at her?
Now that I’m gonna gatecrash a NUS’ geek convention instead of their jam & hop sessions…things have come to a full circle.
