Malaysia’s largest and longest-running anime convention, Comic Fiesta, once again graced the halls of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from the 21st to the 22nd of December 2024. Cosplayers, art enthusiasts, music lovers, and geeks of all kinds flocked to the event for a weekend packed full of all things anime, comics and gaming.
This year’s Comic Fiesta saw a greater emphasis on the arts with the introduction of various guest illustrators. LAM, a Japanese artist known for his iconic and bold anime style, held an art demo and meet-and-greet sessions during the event; while Emirichu and Daidus from the animated YouTube channel Spilled Ink had a fun panel where they challenged themselves to draw various characters from memory.
Speaking of the arts, Comic Fiesta is well known for hosting one of the region’s biggest art and cosplay markets, with this year’s edition featuring over 600 different artists and cosplayers. Visitors could not only purchase fan-made merchandise of their favourite anime and videogame characters, but also original works created by local and regional artists. Popular cosplayers could also be seen selling their own merchandise and interacting with their fans.
The commercial or exhibitors’ booths, which occupied KLCC’s main exhibition hall, also had plenty of exciting offerings for visitors to look through. Many game developers took the opportunity to promote their latest releases, such as the popular mobile game Cookie Run, which held a learn-to-play activity for their upcoming trading card game Braverse. Others, such as Nikke or Yostar (the developers behind Azur Lane, Arknights and Heaven Burns Red) simply held fun community activities and merch sales at their eye-catching booths.
A few more interesting exhibitors’ booths that caught our attention included MapleStory SEA, which offered merchandise sales and game-related activities that fans could participate in; Hoopi, who was hosting the exciting Malaysian launch of the ROBBi art toy figure; and anime distribution company Medialink, featuring various life-size cutouts of popular anime characters that fans could take pictures with.
Comic Fiesta 2024’s guest list also certainly didn’t disappoint this year, featuring many prominent names from the anime industry. Naoyuki Ito and Kikushima Kazufumi, the director and producer of the hit anime series Overlord respectively, were present to promote their upcoming movie Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom. Hyuganatsu, the author of the light novel The Apothecary Diaries also held a stage session where fans could learn more about her creative process.
Some of Japan’s most popular voice actors also made an appearance during the event.Taito Ban, voice of Sung Jin-Woo from the anime Solo Leveling, was here to promote the anime’s second season during the Arise from the Shadow panel. Fans of Re:Zero also had the chance to see Yusuke Kobayashi and Rie Takahashi, the voice actors behind Subaru and Emilia, during their special stage session.
VTuber agency Hololive also had a significant presence at Comic Fiesta this year, with the event playing host to the Kuala Lumpur leg of the Hololive STAGE World Tour’24 -Soar!- concert, featuring Tsunomaki Watame of Hololive, Moona Hoshinova and Kobo Kanaeru of Hololive Indonesia, and Takanashi Kiara, Ninomae Ina’nis, and Hakos Baelz of Hololive English.
Hololive English VTubers Nerissa Ravencroft, Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame, Gigi Murin, Raora Panthera and Cecilia Immergreen also hosted stage sessions for their fans; as did their Holostars and Holostars English counterparts Minase Rio, Axel Syrios and Banzoin Hakka. While photography was prohibited during these sessions, fans could still head to the Hololive booth to grab pictures with interactive standees of the featured VTubers.
Finally, crowd favourites Konomi Suzuki and Myth & Roid returned to the Comic Fiesta 2024 stage to close off the event on Sunday evening, where they performed popular songs such as “Redo” and “Reweave” from the anime series Re:Zero, before ending with a explosive encore featuring “Realize” from Re:Zero and “Blow Out” from Akashic Records.
Comic Fiesta has more than established itself as one of the must-see conventions in Southeast Asia, and with good reason. We definitely enjoyed our visit this year, and can’t wait to see what they have in store in 2025!
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