Story and photos by ARIS ZARIL
alltherage@thestar.com.my

For fans of animation, comics and games (ACG) around the region, it was the event they’ve waited for all year – Comic Fiesta, Malaysia’s largest and longest-running ACG convention returned for its 11th edition on Dec 21-22.

To give you an idea of just how huge ACG culture has become in Malaysia, the event was held throughout the massive space of six halls at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, and nearly 40,000 people showed up over the two days.

As usual, one of the main attractions was the Creative Art Market, which saw possibly the largest number of doujin (self-published work) booths ever seen at a local event.

Commercial booths made their presence felt as well, with the ever-popular Culture Japan booth in particular drawing huge crowds. The League Of Legends game had it’s own event space as well.

Over the years, cosplay (costume play) has become a huge part of the convention, and this year’s event drew a record number of cosplayers. Some costumes were highly sophisticated, and some were more humble, but everyone was having a great time admiring each other’s work.

There was also a cosplay competition, which saw some amazing cosplayers showcasing their work for a shot at the coveted solo and group titles.

If that weren’t enough, there were also some fantastic cash prizes as high as RM1,000 up for grabs at the Pokemon XY and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 gaming tournaments.

To cap it all off on the final day were live music performances by LOVERIN TAMBURIN, RFB, Fly1ng Pan, 5 Minute Heroes and Harmonia, all building up to an all-out End Game finale mixed by Japanese music producer livetune.

Special guests this year included Culture Japan director Danny Choo, illustrators redjuice, Vofan, Ikkyu and DMYO, as well as international cosplayers Onnies, Yuegene Fay, stayxxxx and Xrystal.

The goal of Comic Fiesta is to celebrate the art and creativity of ACG culture, and to promote a greater understanding of it among the general public. Judging by the growing numbers every year, it is definitely reaching its goals.

If you missed out this year, fret not. You can log on to facebook.com/thestarRAGE to check out more photos of the event, plus there’s always next year! Bring on Comic Fiesta 2014!