I LOVE ANISONG TICKETS SELLING OUT FAST!

(Singapore, November 12th, 2009) With one week to go before Anime Festival Asia 09, organisers have announced that the highly anticipated “I Love Anisong” 2-day tickets that went on sale with SISTIC on 19th October are 80% sold and selling out fast!

To allow fans to get up close and personal with the Japanese stars, there will be a lucky draw where 20 winners will win exclusive autographed CDs from their favourite “I Love Anisong” artiste at AFA09!

Additionally, fans of May’n will be thrilled to find out that they will be able to enjoy “World First” showcases as her management has just confirmed that she will perform brand new songs from her upcoming album and the latest Macross Frontier movie.

“I Love Anisong” Concert Ticket holders can expect an impressive audiovisual concert experience. Fans are encouraged to become part of the show, and light sticks were come with their concert tickets for them to use in the dark as enjoy their favourite Anisong hits.

“We expect this event to be truly a regional event as many of the tickets sold have been purchased from fans living in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philipines. The 2-day concert tickets are selling out fast especially because fans see the significant cost savings they can enjoy if they purchase tickets to attend the concerts on both days. We want to ensure that everyone gets a chance to enjoy these impressive acts from Japan and we urge fans to buy their tickets now to avoid disappointment later,” said Festival Director, Shawn Chin.

The “I Love Anisong Music Concert” is looking to build on last year’s success. Backed by the biggest names in the Japanese Anime Music Industry, this year’s star studded line-up includes singer and guitarist Yoshiki Fukuyama, multi-talented Shoko Nakagawa, singing sensation May’n and the Big Brother of anime songs, Ichirou Mizuki. Virtual Idol Hatsune Miku will also be making her formal International debut at AFA09.
On Saturday, 21st November, fans can enjoy concert performances from Virtual Idol Hatsune Miku, Ichirou Mizuki and Shoko Nakagawa

Hatsune Miku is the most popular and well-known Vocaloid, otherwise known as a music software that can be tuned to create J-pop anime songs. The name of the title and the character of the software was chosen by combining Hatsu (First), Ne (Sound), and Miku (Future). Hatsune Miku has become a big hit in Japan and around the world and performed ‘live’ to a crowd of 25,000 at a major anime music event - Animelo Summer Live. Hatsune Miku’s performance is sure to be an unique experience for all that attend “I Love Anisong”. As a guest star for Saturday, 21st November, Miku will perform a ‘live’ concert via a virtual platform where she will use VOCALOID2 to perform song reditions by utilizing samples of various annuciations by a real human being. Organisers have also promised that there will be a surprise in store for fans of Hatsune Miku.

Ichirou Mizuki, Japan’s “King of Anime Songs”, better known as “Aniki” (meaning older brother) by industry and anime fans alike, has performed over 1200 songs including songs for “Mazinger Z”, “Captain Harlock” and Tokusatsu (meaning Sci-fi or fantasy) shows, such as “Masked Rider”. Having gained international recognition as Japan’s most prominent Anime performer in his 40 year career as a singer for Anime songs and has performed at prominent anime events overseas and on various TV shows around the world, Mizuki returns for the second time to perform at Anime Festival Asia.

Shoko Nakagawa, affectionately known by her fans as “Shokotan” and “Blogger Queen” will be performing for the first time in Singapore. Her popular blog has achieved phenomenal success with a total number of more than 1 billion hits to her site. Using her own unique slang, her blog is described as one of the most popular celebrity blogs and garners over 1.8 million hits a day. Her long list of credits includes her singing the theme songs for Pokemon and popular TV anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

On Sunday, 22nd November, Yoshiki Fukuyama and May’n will perform a duet together in addition to their own individual performances.

At AFA09, May’n will perform brand new songs from her upcoming album and the latest Macross Frontier Movie. Last year, May’n attracted a crowd of over 8,000 people from all over South-east Asia at AFA08 where she performed to a sell-out audience. With a first solo concert scheduled for January 24th 2010 at Nippon Budokan May’n is surely on her way towards becoming a rising star in Japan.

Yoshiki Fukuyama is an acclaimed guitarist, singer, and songwriter and member of JAM Project (Japan Animation Song Makers Project). As a member of JAM project, Fukuyama has produced numerous opening and ending theme songs for anime series and games. He had previously performed in Taiwan, San Paolo, Baltimore, Korea, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mexico, Paris and Barcelona. Fukuyama also played the singing role and guitar of “Macross 7” main role Basara Nekki and will perform live “unplugged” at AFA09.

Online sales for the “I Love Anisong” T Shirt have also been available at the AFA09 official website.

‘I LOVE ANISONG’ 2-day passes are sold at $188/- and the 1-day passes are at $108/. Customers can purchase tickets from SISTIC counters or at www.sistic.com.sg for the two-day music event. ‘I LOVE ANISONG’ ticket prices include entry for the day of purchase into the main Anime Festival Asia hall.

AFA has more than 25,000 facebook fans of which more than 40% of fans live overseas. General entry passes for adults to AFA09 are sold at $25/- for the 2-day pass and $15/- for a 1-day pass. Student passes are at S$20/- for the 2-day pass and $12/- for a 1-day pass. Children below 12 years old can enter AFA09 for free. AFA09 sponsors include Bandai and SANYO and Animax is the official media partner. For more information on AFA09, please visit www.afa09.com.

About I-PROMO

I-PROMO is a multidimensional marketing agency specializing in strategic and signature events. I-PROMO conceptualizes, develops, manages, and implements corporate and lifestyle events. The company’s primary expertise lies in creating own branded, title events with local and regional sponsors and partners. With years of experience managing conventions, exhibitions, festivals, and gala events, I-PROMO produces events worthy of being called phenomenal rather than merely experiential.
As a subsidiary of Kingsmen Creative Limited, I-PROMO teams comprises of professionals with diverse talents such as conceptualization, marketing, sales, design, and construction. With streamlined operations and collaborative resources, I-PROMO consistently deliver results beyond the expectations of our clients.

I-PROMO’s pool of talents are able to execute opportune, current, relevant, competitive, and profitable events that are critically aligned to clients’ objectives. Over the years, the company have created events for the government and the arts, as well as the giants of retail, IT, finance, and petroleum industries.

About SOZO

SOZO represents a cutting edge entertainment and youth-marketing driven company. Made up of a diverse talented pool of industry professionals, SOZO is focused towards developing animation and entertainment content and service platforms geared at engaging young adults at both regional and global levels. SOZO’s main mission is focused on delivering highly entertaining pop culture experiences, contents and products that will constantly engage, thrill and excite this young and restless market.

About Dentsu Singapore

A wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Dentsu Inc. and an ‘Asian-born’ agency, Dentsu Singapore is a fully integrated communications agency, providing total communications solutions to both regional and local clients. The Dentsu network dates back to 1901 and has at its disposal powerful network support and resources. According to Ad Age Global, it is now the world’s number one agency brand and the biggest among all major networks in Asia. Dentsu for many years has also ventured into many successful anime franchises and has a dedicated entertainment and contents division overseeing its operations.

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