I’m back in Hong Kong to spend the holidays with my family. It’s great to be home! Mostly I’ve been shopping and eating, but yesterday I went to the Asia Game Show with Stephen to check out video games and cosplayers.
Compared to US geek conventions like Comic-Con or Anime Expo, it was a lot smaller. But much more crowded.

Sony was the major sponsor and took up half of the exhibition hall with booths dedicated to PS3 and PSP games. Little Big Planet was heavily featured.

So was Metal Gear Solid 4, the best game of 2008 according to IGN. Here’s a statue of protagonist Solid Snake.

They were also playing trailers for the latest Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy XXXLLLVVIIIIXXXXXXASDF.

They had playable demos of the newest Naruto fighting game, Narutimate Storm. Here’s Kakashi’s special, Raikiri.

There was an 18+ only area for the more violent games, like Resident Evil 5. We didn’t go in because the line was too long.

The other half of the exhibit hall was filled with vendors selling everything from laptop bags to cosplay costumes to SD cards. The cosplay costumes were pretty cheap, only HKD $150, or USD $20.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a con where there wasn’t someone selling cute fuzzy animal hats.

One vendor was selling hentai pillow covers — one side had a distressingly young-looking anime girl and on the other side she’s in a state of undress. Ew.

I’d say the biggest difference between Hong Kong cons and US cons is the cosplay. In Hong Kong the vast majority of cosplayers are young women, whereas in the US there are probably more male cosplayers. Also, the average level of attractiveness is probably higher in HK cosplayers. Plus there were a ton more rabid fanboy photographers circling around the cute girls at the Asia Game Show than at any other con I’ve ever been to, except maybe Comic Market in Tokyo.
This girl, dressed as Haruhi Suzumiya, had a pack of 20+ guys snapping photos of her for at least 20 minutes straight. It was like Britney Spears being mobbed by the papparazzi.

Except unlike Britney and the papparazzo, she was working her poses for them.

Naruto was the most popular series amongst the cosplayers. Here’s a 9-tail Naruto.

Sasuke from Naruto.

Will Sailor Moon ever go away?

D-Gray Man.

This was the only white cosplayer I saw. He was a captain from Bleach, but he didn’t have a number painted on his uniform. I think he bought his costume in the exhibit hall and put it on right there and then.

Vampire Knight was also pretty popular.

Skip Beat.

US cons are always filled with Star Wars characters, but I only saw one at the Asia Game Show, a Darth Vader.

A goth loli French maid.

The hair looks like Dragon Ball but I don’t recognize the clothing.

At every con there is always a dude in a dress. This guy was a good sport and let people take pictures with him.

There were lots of characters I didn’t recognize. If you can identify them, leave a comment.











For more pics, check out the full album.