A (Mid) Week Talk #24

Welp, I can't just let you guys in the dark, right? So, let's talk about yesterday.

Comic Frontier or ComiFuro or CF. An event held in Indonesia at ICE, BSD, Tangerang, every 2 times per year. And for two days straight yesterday, I participated in the event.

It was one of, if not the best, conventions I ever participated in. (I only went twice)
In just two days, I met with most of my friends online at that convention, and it was an amazing feeling to finally meet them all.

Ok, ok. Let's start from the beginning!
See, if you don't know, I used to be a Hololive massive fan back in 2020. But in 2024, I decided not to be involved with them anymore. I quit the fandom basically, with one or two reasons that I don't really want to talk about.

In that period of time, I met plenty of great people online. We got connected through Hololive. So, even though I quit the fandom, I'm still a part of that group.

We promise to meet through this event. For many years, we never met...
until yesterday.

Quite funny to think about it, right? I quit the fandom AND THEN I got to meet them. Wild. 😂

Anyway, on day 1 of the event, I only went around to buy stuff. And in that day, I got an offer from Gramedia (Shout out to them, btw, they provided me with so many hardcover manga and light novels. I bought most of them from Gramedia, and I'm very thankful.) to have a meet and greet with the author for "Roshidere" or Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian.

Even though I was not a massive fan of Alya, I just had to buy it. It felt special to see a Japanese Author for the first time. I'll get to this bit again when we talk about day 2 because most of that stuff was on day 2.

Alright, day 1...
It was chaos. I couldn't meet with any of my online friends. It was a mess, to say the least. I ended up only buying a new custom keyboard, a custom PS/Xbox controller, and books/standee from the Gramedia booth.

From day 1, what I got from my friends was chat. Even that was chaos. 🤣
Got to know my friend Vect for the first time, too! Shoutout to @vectoreza on Twitter/X! My man has been helping me through chat and day 2. He was the goat. 😤

But hey! Even when I only got to roam around on day 1, I got to meet at least Hololive ID fans. Like holy hell, you should see the amount of energy they shun upon the star. They were madmen and women.

I wish I had FOMO on that day because I didn't go to the very first Hololive ID concert. It was their huge moment in their career, but I had to skip it because I had a responsibility to my church friend. See, I went to that convention with my church friend, and he couldn't go alone, so we drove together in my car. It would be such an irresponsible thing for me to drive him past his curfew. He was still a minor, so I couldn't leave him alone, right?

So, yeah, that was a massive L, but I'll take that. I hope Hololive ID keeps on rising. They deserved that concert.

Anyway, DAY 2!
As I was in line to get into the convention, we finally met! Vect!

Again, man. Thanks for your help. I couldn't believe how lucky I am to have met you alone and catch your vibe before meeting the others, because I would definitely curl up before even meeting Rix (@RiXRiX69420), Yuki (@Yukikaze_D_2), Dayat (@M_Hidaya7), and Arc (@Arcturus270102).

After that meeting in the morning, I also met my friend from work. She didn't use Twitter/X and I didn't use Instagram, so I don't know how to shout her out. Lol
Trust me! She's real. You've got to see my Twitter/X Tweet/Post to see her face. I'm not delusional and make up a story. 😃

And finally after that, I got to...
Wait, almost forgot, I also met with someone that I never heard of, but is a fan of Hololive.
(@sosai5551) He asked me to call him Will. So, I... will. (I'm sorry. 🤣)
And I also met with Azril! (@azril_101)

Ok, for real this time. After those meetings, I finally got to meet the author of Alya, and my God, he was gorgeous. Too bad due to the rule, I wasn't allowed to take a picture of him, but please trust me when I say he was gorgeous. His voice also so... 😤😤😤

Like, damn, man. I love his vibe.

I think I can talk about his Q&A here. So, I would like to share.

Q1. Inspiration for making his novel.
A1. In the beginning, he was thinking of making an isekai story of a Japanese girl trapped in a different world and learn the language of that world. After quite some time, he wanted to introduce her male lead, who was also from Japan. So, in that story, the girl hides her feelings in Japanese.
But then he thought that was too much for the plot of a story. He wanted to be simpler, so he went with just a regular guy and a girl who spoke another language. RUSSIAN.

Q2. This one was weird. Like seriously. Someone asked, if Sensei got isekai to his own story, would he be willing to sit next to Yuki?
A1. Thank goodness he's not the Rent-a-Girlfriend author, and said that Masachika deserved it more than him. 😂

Q3. This one was quite fun. Someone asked if Alya had the opportunity to taste Indonesian cuisine, what would she like?
A3. He said that he had nasi pandang the day before his Meet And Greet, and he thought rendang would be "good" for her. 😂

That was it from the Q&A. Quite short, but it was fun nonetheless.

After that, we had the opportunity to get his signature. It was quite nerve-wracking to be up close with him. It was a wild experience.

Then the final thing we did was play a jankenpon to win a good. I wasn't lucky, but the guy next to me was. He got his hand on the original Japanese hardcover book with the author's signature inside. Am I jealous? Not really. Do I want it? OF FUCKING COURSE I DO!

Seriously, that was a quick one-hour meet-and-greet session. It didn't even feel like one hour. It felt like ten minutes.

After that, the big moment! The moment I've been waiting for. I got to meet with my abang. ABANG DEEEEJEEEEEE!
(@Daniel7iao)

Man, what a journey. This guy was like my first ever online buddy since I was into Hololive. He was like my own big brother, that's why I always called him abang (Big Brother). A very special one that is.

It is a very emotional moment, at least for me, to meet with who I consider my first-ever Indonesian online friend in real life. I wish to cherish that very moment with photos of us at that convention.

And that was my experience of Comic Frontier 21. I wish it had lasted longer, but good things couldn't last long. Hey, we've got next year... right?

Well, I would say that, but it is highly unlikely I will go on CF 22 because it will be hold in May 2026. Haiyaaaaa

BUT! It is highly likely I will go to CF 23. SO! I will probably be seeing them again then.

Ok, then. That's it for last week's AWT. I know it's not your typical AWT, but hey, I need to clarify my disappearance for two weeks, right?
I will continue normally this week.
I'll see you there. Hope you guys had a good week! And wish you guys a good week this week.

P.S.
I would like to apologize to my friend, Joe (@SussyJoe_08), too.
I promised to meet him, but I had a tight schedule and the space was quite crowded, so it was hard to meet someone at that event. Like, I wish we could've met, but I'm sorry we couldn't. I couldn't keep a promise 100%, but I wish we could meet up in the future.

P.S.S
Jimmy (@GunweebJimmy)
I wish I could have met you. I'm so sad we couldn't meet, but if in the future you have a plan to go back to Indonesia. I will... no! I'M GOING TO FIND YOU! No seriously! I MUST!