After the pandemic has taken a toll on events the past few years, it must be a relief to many that offline anime expos and fan gatherings are slowly coming back in Malaysia, much less Southeast Asia. And if these photos of Paradigm Mall are of any indication, they’re back in a big way.

Anime Fest, an anime expo gathering from the Comic Fiesta team, is taking place right now at Paradigm Mall. The event has caused massive human jams in the mall itself and on the NKVE highways (to an extent, since weabs with jobs have cars too); it’s overcrowded to kingdom come.

The Malaysian Twitter space is abuzz about the literal human traffic, including some words from our own ex-KKP writer Burhan:

Day 3 traffic jam animefest pic.twitter.com/hD3tM04GCs

— Hashira ?? (@HashiraCloud) May 14, 2022

Went to animefest, thought of helping out a bit, until I saw the crowd of people.
( '?'o[??????]o pic.twitter.com/e8Hcmy9azY

— Sayko (@Saykoji89) May 14, 2022

Anime Fest 2022 Day 3
Crowd was super super super pic.twitter.com/do3aIxgVyx

— ?????? (@suzuki1412) May 14, 2022

https://www.facebook.com/ShoppingMallInMalaysia/posts/146104571284660?__cft__[0]=AZV_QU8-KYgZHI87XQyGWCOGBdh_vFsFeasiB2QCeV9grvvulTgdKchR23Y1Y5VEOo7ZC6gnZLP3HBHkEOgk-RxBWSq1uzC5gx9zTwVCUfXnjXHnVlg0ALF2FK5H8Xr5bD2akGNCKwuLbp6zQyOzALbO&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

Uwaahh, there's so much people here… #Animefest2022 pic.twitter.com/NXaV3EC4pi

— FuzzyFiz?MyVtuber? (@fiz_fuzzy) May 14, 2022

I'm stucc aaaaaaaa#animefest pic.twitter.com/dfMnWQ6YKN

— SykoKyza ?? MY Vtuber ?? (@SykoKyza) May 14, 2022

Aight, I'm out of Paradigm Mall finally ?

My advice? Don't go there pls, even if you have FOMO. Wait for CF proper at the end of this year instead.#AnimeFest #AnimeFest2022

— SykoKyza ?? MY Vtuber ?? (@SykoKyza) May 14, 2022

Pretty fun morning at anime fest!
Got to take some cool pics with cosplayers and spend way too much money on the Hakken! booth.
Planning to come back here on Saturday to buy more stuff from the doujin booth.
Also the huge amount of people, Imagine if its on the weekend#AnimeFest pic.twitter.com/eRWnj9MkR2

— kek (@kek_desu) May 12, 2022

Paradigm Mall isn't suitable for events like Anime Fest.

Air conditioning is almost nonexistent, everyone is sweating.

At least 2 escalators are not working.

— Burhan (@KosmikPlays) May 14, 2022

It doesn’t look like Paradigm Mall is spacious or wide enough for gatherings as packed as a big-name anime convention run by a renowned group. Despite this, people are still having fun at the event. Plus, having too many people in an expo is a better problem to have than no people at all, if you think about it.

anime fest 2022 @ paradigm mall ? #animefest #animefest2022 #AttackOnTitan #anime pic.twitter.com/sPyweSkE4d

— fries (@nabilahrizall) May 13, 2022

#animefest breaking immersion pic.twitter.com/NjgfmRWx0R

— Zawarldo Ch. ?? ???????????? (@ZawarldoC) May 14, 2022

[HELP RT] does anyone know his @ ??? forgot to ask for his social media bcs shes too stunned ??#Animefest2022 #animefest pic.twitter.com/RET2YJwDDL

— ??? (@AOMlNEKO) May 14, 2022

Anime Fest is going on from 12th to 16th May. You can still attend tomorrow and Monday’s event, but we can’t guarantee there will be less people than today.