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Kota Kinabalu: Anime, Cosplay and Gaming conventions like the ongoing OtaFuse 2017 in Suria Sabah have huge potential to be a Sport Tourism product that can attract international visitors. OtaFuse 2017 is a two-day event exhibition focusing on Japanese Pop Culture organised by the Japanese Animation and Comic Fan Club Sabah for the seventh time this year since 2010. Its organiser Mohd. Hanafi Light said they are expecting about 3,500 visitors excluding participants, this year. "This is all started from passion where we gather people who like Anime and Japanese Culture into one place to meet new friends and showcase their talents. "This is an event where youth would normally attend but we get older participants who are really into the culture, so we plan to express the youth's talent with the Ministry of Tourism and Information now fully supporting us in hope we could attract more and more people. "We also hope that the Youth and Sports Ministry will support us in future that we will be able to achieve a goal of 50,000 visitors like the ACG event in Kuala Lumpur," said Hanafi. Hanafi also added that Suria Sabah had fully sponsored the venue as this will be the third time using the Exhibition Hall. Another highlight of the convention was the special guest's like cosplayer BaoBao from Hong Kong, Rikka from Kuala Lumpur and special guest cosplayer Yuriko Tiger, an Italian talent and model who is currently working at Japan. Yuriko said this is her first convention abroad and had never been to Kota Kinabalu before but she was very happy to see the amount of fans coming to the event to meet and greet her further adding that the locals here are very friendly. Another Cosplayer, Rangga Kanchiel, said he came all the way from Bandung, Indonesia to participate in OtaFuse 2017. "I am surprised by the number of participants here on how friendly and passionate they are since I have once participated in the C2E2 Comic and Entertaintment Expo in Chicago, U.S.A. Meanwhile, two tournaments were hosted during OtaFuse, popular fighting game Tekken 7 and The Lab: Longbow Virtual Reality exposing the hidden talent of the ever-rising popularity of E-Sports. Virtual Dimension co-founder Geoffrey Sinn said that he is surprised that not many people in KK have ever experienced VR technology before and is glad to showcase his exhibition booth during the event. "Doing this roadshow is a good thing as we get to introduce new technologies to the people where they may acknowledge the existence of VR but have never experienced it before," said Geoffrey. Other highlights of the event were the Arts & Crafts Alley featuring local artists showcasing their artworks, as well as booths selling Japanese Anime merchandises and hobby collectibles. - Locksley Ng Source: Daily Express