Thousands gather for anime festival in Singapore

STORY: Thousands gathered for this Singapore anime festival after a three-year hiatus

Cosplay enthusiast Frankie travelled to the Anime Festival Asia from Malaysia

(Frankie, Magician from Malaysia)

"We all love animes, we all love ACG’s (Anime, Comics and Games), so this is why we are here. We can know each other. So, this community is strong, the bond is strong. So, I think is a fantastic things, in my whole life.”

Cosplay is a subculture originating in Japan

It has continued to thrive and grow internationally in recent years despite lockdowns

Largely due to its vast online presence and supportive participants

Liz is a 17-year-old student from Singapore and newcomer to cosplaying

(Liz, Student)

“Online, the cosplay community is super nice in Singapore especially. I remember I started off a small cosplay account just for fun and then some other small accounts started following me and then spreading it around, saying like ‘oh, it’s a new cosplayer, let’s support her’, something like that. And then, in my opinion, that really comforted me, telling me that some people actually don’t really care about how bad your cosplay is. They just know that you like anime, you like cosplaying, they’ll support you.”