Anime Festival Asia Indonesia was just incredible. Everybody in the industry kinda knew there was a huge market in Indonesia but nobody up until now had ventured into Indonesia in a big way to find out just how many folks there love Japanese pop culture.
Everybody in the industry was sceptical but some companies did decide to invest in checking out the waters - only to be completely blown away! Most who did venture into Indonesia did so conservatively.
I, just like the rest of the anime industry, under estimated the power of Indonesian Otaku - not only by their numbers but also by their spending power too!
After all - anime is not made just to be downloaded from the Internets for free - the industry needs to recuperate costs and ideally make a profit to keep the industry healthy so that they can bring us more titles. All folks in the anime business are now very interested in the Indonesian market thanks to AFA and next year Indonesia can expect much more!
For all the attendees who complained about lack of space or booths - it was only because we didn't know what to expect and was conservative - now that we do know what to expect, you can come to AFAID 2013 with peace of mind that the venue will be much bigger, more guests, more booths and much more content too!
It was our first time running such an event in Indonesia and there were issues such as ticketing and wot not - but we have learned and can guarantee that you will have a much smoother experience next year.
What was your AFAID experience and what/who would you like to see next year?
Following are events of the exhibition hall - more AFAID coverage to come!
The Culture Japan booth was also bursting at the seams! More photos here.
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