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| Myself (left) with a cosplayer (right) |
Yep. It's true. I went to an anime convention. You can't believe it? Neither do I! Given that I'm a 20-year-old Asian nerd that does engineering in uni, you'd expect me to be familiar with stuffs like that (just like my fellow Hong Kong friends). But no, I have no idea what's the hottest anime on right now, and I still don't understand people's obsession of them anime girls. The last anime I've watched is either One Piece or something to do with Gundams. My dad used to play it on his iPad, and I'd watch along on how Luffy smashes someone's head in or how Gundams are shooting at each other in outer space.
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| "Gawr Gura", one of the most famous virtual YouTubers |
In recent years these anime girls and getting more and more popular. One example would be the rise of "VTubers". I've once discussed "VTubers" (Virtual YouTubers, i.e. those anime girls doing livestreams of themselves prancing around on YouTube) on my radio show last year with one of my friends, which is a very dedicated anime fan where he's got pictures of anime girls on literally everything. His clothes, his files and folders, and what not. And I still don't understand why people would rather watch a cartoon girl instead of, I don't know, Pokimane? The Botez Sisters? (Okay fine I don't know that much female streamers) Is it because the anime girls are cute? Or is it that they genuinely deliver good content? Are they really that superior to one of them beautiful female streamers?
Anyway, before I went too far off-topic, here's how I ended up in the anime convention: Me and my friend were wondering around in Central. As we're walking along the promenade, we found ourselves outside the Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. So, as we have literally nothing better to do, we went in, got our tickets, and squeezed our way in the busy exhibition halls.
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| ACGHK 2025 was held on July 25-29 |
The Animation-Comic-Game Hong Kong (ACGHK) is an annual anime convention held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. It's been held since the 2000s, merging from various conventions. Although it's considered a major or massive event in Hong Kong, I've never been there once in my life due to my limited interest and knowledge in Japanese anime in general. I did find the ones I used to watch enjoyable, but I'm simply not quite interested in starting a new anime series or a new comic book. Afterall, my entire childhood life is heavily influenced by Western Cultures.
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| Inside Hall 1 |
So, we squished our way into the busy Hall 1 (This year, the exhibition took place in Halls 1 and 3), surrounded by massive posters of Gundams and the Transformers. We're immediately drawn to all the fancy Gundams on display. Apparently, those are the works of various Gunpla (short for Gundam Plastic Model) builders world cup contestants. I managed to find one or two Gundams that I recognise and I've included a few cool ones here for yall to have a look:
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| The Classic MS-06 Zaku II Gundam |
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| ZGMF-X56S/α Force Impulse Gundam |
These are probably the ones in the entire event that I found most interesting, as I actually know what they are, and I used to build them with my dad when I was a kid. So, I kinda know the older Gundam models, but I have no clue what the new ones are.
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| Anime Girl 2D Figures and postcards on sale |
Moving on from the masculine Gundam display area, we came across loads of stores and displays of anime girl figurines, some of which is in rather revealing outfits. Me and my friend actually had a "debate" on this, discussing whether it's appropriate for younger audiences. But of course, as I'm a boring old fart that's stuck in the past believing in traditional and Christian values, what on earth do I know?
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| Anime Girl Figure (no clue who that is) |
We then managed to squeeze our way through to various other exhibitors and shops on different anime series. But then, I met someone cosplaying a character that I recognise!
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| Myself (right) with a Roronoa Zoro Cosplayer (left) |
I'm actually surprised to see someone cosplaying Roronoa Zoro, the iconic swordsman from the famous anime series One Piece. The Roronoa Zoro Cosplayer is very popular as well with loads of people trying to get a picture with him. What an absolute legend.
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| The Classic RX-78-2 Gundam |
We then circled around to the other side of the exhibition hall where more Gundams are on display, and I managed to get some pictures in with various cosplayers (I've got no idea who they're cosplaying at the time, but I thought I'll get some pictures in with them so I can show yall what to expect in events like these.)
I've got another one here with this orange hair character holding her paper underwear for some reason. I can't find what that character is so let me know in the comments if you do. (she's low-key cute though)
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| Hall 1 |
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| We also stopped to play this unreleased video game called Super Robot Wars Y |
We then queue up to get into various shops (they literally sell the same crap, figures, keychains and what not with an anime girl's face on it) before squeezing our way through the crowds to get to Hall 3.
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| Hall 3 |
Hall 3, on the other hand, is filled with more anime girl related merch such as T-shirts, stickers, keychains and etc. But also, an area where cosplayers hang out for you to take pictures with them. Here are more pictures of me with various cosplayers:
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| Myself (left) with two cosplayers (centre and right, no clue who they're supposed to be) |
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| Myself (left) with a cosplayer (right, no clue who she's supposed to be) |
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| Myself (left) with a cosplayer (right, no clue who she's supposed to be) |
Here we have a rather peculiar one of me with a male cosplayer cosplaying a female character (still, no clue who he's supposed to be). Personally, having made fun of, well, all cosplayers in general about how they dress weird and look funny at bus stations, I realised that it's just a form of artistic expression. They spend ages to get the hair, costume, and makeup right, and it's not a simple job. I've once stood in the platforms of Finsbury Park for hours, in a freezing cold January morning, just to get a perfect shot of a passing Adelante. Therefore, I deeply admire the dedication cosplayers put into bringing their characters to life.
However, there's widespread debate on whether male should cosplay a character in the opposite sex. I personally think that cross-gender cosplaying is inappropriate (male cosplaying female, unless done properly, determined by the audience). I would argue that it misrepresents the characters' initial design and there are most likely to be male characters in the same anime or manga that you can portray anyway. Why would you, as a man, try to portray a character that you can never accurately portray without going through a sex-change surgery? Often times the less convincing portrayals done by male cosplayers are just ridiculous and it's insulting to the character itself and the audience. I'd love to learn your thoughts on this, so please comment what you have in mind regarding this matter.
Anyway, after I got pictures with these cosplayers, we're notified that the event is concluding for the day (we actually stayed there for 3 hours), so we left Hall 3, joined millions of people and walked slowly towards the exit of the Exhibition Centre.
So, did I enjoy it? I'd say yeah. The atmosphere was great, I saw some cool stuff, I even got pictures with the cosplayers, so I think I've gotten the full experience here. Will I go again next year? Probably not. Unless they've got something that's really interesting to me. This is more of a one-off thing that I'll do, given that I'm not familiar with most of the stuff on display anyway and it's not interesting enough for me to learn them all. But yeah, we'll see. Would I recommend it to somebody that's got limited knowledge on anime and manga like me? I'd say yes, only if you've never been before. The atmosphere's great and they have special performances on from time to time (not while I was there, unfortunately). It's still a great event and definitely worth checking out.
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| Victoria Harbour at night |
As always, leave your thoughts in the comments down below. I'd love to know your thoughts on this post.
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