The COVID-19 pandemic has been trying for a lot of industries, anime included. Japan is currently in the midst of a rising number of confirmed cases and their animation industry has been heavily affected as well with numerous projects both serial and theatrical being put on the backburner. The music and event industry has not gone untouched as well. Concert performances and conventions have been cancelled worldwide in an effort to stave off super spreader events.

This doesn't mean that everything has to stop, though. Thanks to the internet, content can be streamed straight to would-be attendee homes.

Anime Festival Asia, better known as AFA, has decided to host their own online event, AFA UNITED. It'll be kicking off in just a few short hours at 8PM SGT (GMT+8) on 4/26/20. AFA UNITED's objective is for AFA to maintain the relationship with those who have either gone to AFA in the past or would like to in the future. They'll be replaying performances and talk sessions from past events featuring artists like SCANDAL, JUNNA, Lotus Juice, May'n, Minori Chihara, and many others.  Depending on whether or not you've been to AFA this will either be a chance to relive the good ol' days or see performances that are new to you.  It's likely we'll also be seeing special messages from some of those same guests that were specially recorded for AFA UNITED. 

I personally have not been able to make it to any of the various AFAs but they are events I will attend based on the testimony of my colleagues.  We at t-ono.net have been lucky enough to interview many of the guests featured tonight and with any luck we'll be able to do so again.

The broadcast will not be archived so you will have to watch it live. It's a little inconvienient for us in America (5AM PST, 8AM EST) but such is life when watching programs from Asia.

Please check out https://animefestival.asia/afaunited for details and to watch the stream!  They've also got some t-shirts if you'd like to make a purchase in support of AFA.  

The direct link to the YouTube stream is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmiBYJFqeO8

A list of all the participating artists and their social media is as follows:

Amaki Sally (22/7) https://twitter.com/sally_amaki
Ayaka Ohashi https://ohashiayaka.com/
Azusa Tadokoro https://www.facebook.com/tadokoroazus...
bless4 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWfW...
BLUE ENCOUNT https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN1Y...
ELISA https://www.youtube.com/user/elisaSMEJ
Eri Sasaki https://erisasaki.net/
Eriko Nakamura https://www.artsvision.co.jp/talent/697/
EXiNA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKUR...
fhána https://www.facebook.com/fhanamusic
Hisanori Yoshida http://twitter.com/yoshidahisanori
JUNNA https://junnarockyou.com/
Konomi Suzuki https://twitter.com/Suzuki_Konomin
Lotus Juice https://twitter.com/lotusjuice
Luna Haruna https://www.facebook.com/harunalunaof...
May’n https://www.facebook.com/mayn.official/
Mika Kobayashi https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIzj...
Minori Chihara https://www.minorichihara.com/
nano https://nanonano.me/
ORESAMA http://www.orsm.jp/
Punipun https://www.instagram.com/punipun7/
ReoNa https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyUh...
Rico Sasaki https://twitter.com/sasakirico
Rithe https://www.facebook.com/ritheania/
SCANDAL https://www.scandal-4.com
Sora Tokui https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ8W...
TRUE https://true-singer.com/
YURiKA https://twitter.com/_YURiKA29_