Is JPAC aka Anime Festival KL a scam?

TL;DR: There are too many promises made by the organisers that are both unrealistic and suspicious.

I’m inclined to believe there is a high chance that JPAC/Anime Festival Kuala Lumpur is a scam, mainly because of several reasons:

  1. When they first started, their server was hosted on someone’s STREAMYX connection. That means they were hosting the site out of someone’s home/office PC. Considering they’re billing themselves as the “largest” anime event in Malaysia, this shows a damn obvious lack of planning and overconfidence.
  2. Both their websites are written with quite horrible English. Massive typos and really horrible grammar.
  3. To add, there are also quite a lot of error pages on one of their sites. Either they were too enthusiastic, or they just weren’t plain prepared for the amount of questions and scrutiny they were going to get.
  4. They plan to hold a Hatsune Miku concert (hologram concert) if they reach 9k fans by Friday. However, there are a few people I know who’ve done the work who point out that SEGA has already confirmed the final Hatsune Miku concert will be IN Japan, early March.
  5. The last is a pet peeve. I find it very hard to take a representative seriously when they say the valid concerns are “nonsense” and the person who writes it has a userpic of him half-naked. Um. No.

The conclusion is? All signs point to it being a scam. However, because their main draw is Hatsune Miku, a lot of fans are blinded by the idea of their idol coming down to Malaysia. I’m especially skeptical since KLCC treated Comic Fiesta peeps quite badly last year. Yet JPAC says they managed to secure 4 halls. Really? Wow!

As a good friend says:

Hello young and spirited cosplayers.

As you may know, there is a scam event that is going on, as known as Anime Fiesta KL/AFKL, organized by Viva Company.

I, as a caring (lol), human being, would like to warn you, PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE do not fall for this event, its a fraud, its a scam, and its has be recognized for it’s suspicious activity.

Alot of things has been promised by them. Like Miku Concert and 4 halls in KLCC.

Boys and Girls, I happen to help researching about the Miku concert. Sadly, the concert team is going to be disbanded early March, on the Last Miku Concert in Japan and will be signed up to a new management and will resume another season of concert tour(maybe), God knows when.

About the 4 halls, there is a kind cosplayer who actually gone to the KLCC management asking about the booked halls on the event date. And we found out, all the halls are booked, NOT BY AFKL or VIVA. its by some other companies.

And later I tried researching the VIVA company, and to find out, it is only a small hotlink booth, reload prepaid, selling 1 year warranty phone, etc etc. And its only nearby MY house.

AFKL/VIVA CLAIMED they are the organizers of LOS ANGELES ANIME EXPO / LA AX. As far as I know, VIVA NEVER INVOLVED in organizing LA AX. The organizers of AX is Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA).

As a cosplayer to another cosplayer. PLEASE do not fall for this scam. Go to RAGE! instead if you can travel. Just do not fall for it. I am just damned worried of all of you.

5 thoughts on “Is JPAC aka Anime Festival KL a scam?

  1. If I recall correctly, what the Japanese event organizers said was that the second concert of Daikanshasai was the “last” Kanshasai. The implied meaning was that it was the last Miku no Hi Kanshasai, but not necessarily the last VOCALOID concert they’d be holding. Note that the Mikupa 2012 banner has no such labeling if you visit SEGA’s official page.

    • Hi Anon

      Yes I have. Haven’t had time to update a new entry for this. BTW I hope you don’t mind, the link you gave me was pretty long and I got a “Page Not Found” message from Facebook when I clicked on it. Have replaced the link with the right one.

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