With a new IDOLM@STER game grabbing my interest, it’s not too surprising the blog is in this hiatus-like state. Still I have ideas, and they must exit the system and go somewhere. Anyways, the holiday season is a good time to recap some stuff.
In 2023 I thought the cons in the USA would strike back from the COVID days in 2024. The State department has done a lot to shorten the visa times, but there are still some problems with that. With the political situation in the US being what it is, it’s probably more realistic to expect some hits in the next few years in terms of difficulties surrounding visa processing. But coming back to the last 12 months, some big cons did come through (AX, Animazement), but others didn’t (Anime NYC, and to an extent AWA). Some cons seemed more modest in terms of their steps forward (Acen, Sakuracon), while others were interesting to say the least (Kawaiikon, SoJ Miami, Holmats). Rather diving into each case, it’s just good to note many Japanese acts and events happened outside of the big cons also, like the One Piece concerts, or the Anime Orchestra thing (I didn’t end up going to). There were the Ado and Yoasobi tours, which to me were just as big of a deal. I didn’t get tickets to see Fujii Kaze, but that sounded great. There were also the Nier concerts, and Joe came back to MSG NYC. All of this is just some of the large number of anime-interested stuff building on top of what we already have.
I didn’t think anime cons in the US did all that much given the post-COVID bounce. I think part of this is fundamentally, anime events still haven’t recovered from COVID in a lot of ways. Texas cons suffered this year, with most notable AnimeFest and A-Kon shuttering. Canadian cons though, they cooked pretty hard. Edmonton and Vancouver especially was pretty great. Even Ottawa and Montreal did OK. Toronto was a weird vacuum, which is probably also due to the organization side not bouncing back.
Inflationary pressure and overall tourism bouncing back to pre-COVID numbers also did a lot to temper traveling in my experience. Japan experienced over-tourism at its key tourist traps out near Mt. Fuji and around Kyoto’s picturesque streets, and elsewhere. I don’t blame the locals trying to tamper it down using new laws and regulations, but everyone else, including the local hospitality industries, are still adjusting to the new normal. It’s hard to say 2025 will be any better–odds are it isn’t going to, especially with the continuing weakening of the Yen versus other currencies.
Yes, this makes me less wanting to go to Japan, but the people out at Bandai Namco has other ideas. I am not going to the Aqours final solo show in June, because I am already over-committed for the first half of 2025. I have already needing to sacrifice the Kanno NYC show at the end of March for Hotchpotch. There is already 2 weekends I wanted to go in the summer, not counting the annual Anisama festival.
Speaking of summer, the summer of 2024 was pretty brutal, and I expect the same for 2025 already. I logged like non-stop weekend travel for about 7 weeks this year, or 13 out of 15 if you include a 2-week gap I had, even if some were for family and vacation trips. For 2025, from Acen onward I probably will also have back-to-back weekends of traveling again, depending on if I go anywhere in June. July will have AX, which I probably should start booking now. July-August will have the usual gauntlet of summer cons, plus 2 weekends of IDOLM@STER events. I really should cut Anisama this year but that can wait until March…
Which is to say, like 2024, I welcome 2025 with worn vigor and tempered excitement. I think if Japan wanted to, they can do better than to bring Phantom Siita, and generate some real excitement. It’s the US-side of things that are the cold water pouring out to show the harsh reality of the domestic side. I’m glad people like Ado want to play along though. Someone has to stir the pot.
Happy holidays and hope to write more in 2025. Meanwhile I have a lot of anime to catch up.
Does anyone remember Super Duper? This certified Kpop inspired track was written literally by a Korean composer, is going on to 8 years old now.
Kpop has been a thing for some time, especially in Japanese music scenes–easily from the turn of the decade into the 2010s. What is it now? It’s basically baked into the influences of modern-day track makers and composers. ASOBI NOTES is full of these people. Music games like Deresute and Theater Days have to sort of refresh its turn-of-decade meta to catch that Kpop wave, while newer IDOLM@STER IP have incorporated those styles more deeply, with SHHIis and, well, everything about Gakuen IDOLM@STER.
Here is the contribution in Gakumas by Shiina Go, the video game music creator of some renown, putting down these pop rhythm tracks to give the character song more, uh, character. It’s not some big epic piece of “founding of a nation” as seiyuu Matsuda Ayane (CV of Ume) said during the stream, but it sure sounds like one? It’s not Kpop, but maybe laced a little with various inspiration.
I bring up Juou Sena mainly because before her character song/MV was released, the teaser video from a week earlier looked like this:
On the night before her release, we then get this video?
Anyways.
There are other similar types of pop songs from the various branches of IDOLM@STER, and it’s easy to see how the first branch of IDOLM@STER with a Giga song would try to out do the OMGs or H4ADSHOTs from the other branches. Turns out it’s not yet upon us?
Just to give a quick half-year update on Gakumas–the initial excitement has definitely faded somewhat but behind all the hype lies a solid Slay-the-Spire-inspired video game that also loops a good chunk of the game into what Shiny Colors really ought to be in the first place. Each run takes 20-30 minutes, and while for the first 6 months we were preoccupied with grinding up levels (to unlock new cards) and to get the hang of the base 2 produce plans (logic and sense–each has a couple different builds), we are getting the “Watcher” equivalent now with Sena.
So far the Anomaly (or watcher?) produce plan plays closer to the power build for sense, except you can really chain those switchovers between Guidelines (modes?) for a lot of buffs such as added appeal bonuses and additional actions, and shredding the deck becomes kind of important. In fact, part of the mechanics is an exile system where some cards can be basically exiled and then returned when you go into the Full Power Guideline (mode). There are also some cards that can only be played during full power, and you can sort of chain between the modes for even more impact. There are also cards that has “growth” abilities which gives additional bonuses when you use those cards to enable a mode switch.
So far, yeah, it’s definitely more powerful than the other plans, at least in terms of ramping up to a certain score quickly. It’s less certain how high it can possibly ramp in total, but it wouldn’t surprise me the heights will be higher than ever once folks start to complete their inheritance decks and start playing for real.
On that note, Sena’s push into the game and the whole intro was really fun and I enjoyed her character story in the game. It paints an interesting character and, if anything, makes other characters like her from the IDOLM@STER a bit more grounded? Anyways, it’s nice to have an injection of fresh air at this point in the Gakumas product time line.
We know that the 3 rivals we’ll get in the first year of the game (Mizusu eventually, right?) will match with the first 3 idols in the series (Sena actually pairs with Kotone, which is something people didn’t really vocalize so far). Ume was most notably taken by Saki as the main character (while being her sister). MIzusu appears plentily in Temari’s character story. So will the other 6 also get rivals in year 2? I guess we’ll find out.
Spirit of Japan Miami is a first-year convention at Miami Beach. Literally located in the big con center (that was renovated last decade) just to the side of South Beach, this new con brought big con guests which drew people like myself. It also is the Funko Pop Private Signing Wonderland that you might have heard about. Still I got to see Fruits Zipper and that made things all OK? Maybe.
The story really started at around AX time, because Sayaka Ohara went to AX and I want her to sign my Aria stuff, naturally. Of course, because MangaGamer, it couldn’t be done there, nor did I get a ticket anyway due to POS fail at MG booth first day of AX. I didn’t really get a chance to go back to do that either. So I said to my self, “Ohara is going to this first-year con in Miami, let’s just do that.” So I did.
I didn’t think much about Hiroaki Hirata much, or that Yuki Kaji will do a zoom panel there. Then the con added Ryo Horikawa, who is a staple of this kind of events nowadays. Oh, Burnout Syndrome? I guess Fake Star is involved. Then there was Satomi Akesaka??? Fruits Zipper???? Wow they called in that A-Kon rain check! Wow Diana Garnet (again)! The list is impressive say the least, not to mention for a first-year con.
Turns out, this con is largely run by One Guy who is a Japanese-American business man who really want to bring the stuff he loves together. The face he made when talking about Yui-chan on Sunday says it all. I was able to talk to him briefly and it was pretty fun to see this sort of thing being thrown down.
The event is a combination of a cultural festival and a pop cultural con. There was a “dealer room” setup with AA art walls and random lifestyle brands, mixed in there some vendors with merch. And by merch, I just mean walls of Funkos. There was a board game part with tournaments. There is a corner with actual arcade games and a few playstations set up. I give them props for that. There is also just a corner with all the autographs, across from the one and only stage. Lastly the entrance and exit is right by the cultural booths where you can learn tea ceremony (I wanted this but it didn’t pan out time-wise), wear a yukata, learn to draw manga, calligraphy, and what have you. There is also a sake tasting thing in a corner that is gated (of course).
I actually attended day 1 of Animethon and days 2-3 of Anirevo 2024. Part of this has to do with the stacked guest list for Animethon this year. Part of it also has to do with how the flights and prices were to go to Edmonton from Vancouver. Lastly, part of it has to do with that I had never done two (full-sized) cons in the same weekend, and wanted to give it a try. So I did.
I’m still in the middle of a series of four weekends of anime cons so I’ll keep this not so wordy and more focused on the journey. It really started on Monday when a series of rainstorms would pummel the US Northeast. I went to Yoasobi’s stop in NYC on August 6 in the middle of a downpour. I think the weather forecast said it would drop 0.97″ of rain in one hour at some point that night. Needless to say I got wet. Later on this series of rainstorms would affect airport operations in the area and cause delays, albeit not a lot of delays, but enough to cause some real problems.
I decided to fly American Airlines out to Vancouver on Thursday night out of EWR. This proved to be a rough journey as I had to connect at DFW, and the equipment was delayed getting in, because it was also delayed from the even earlier leg. My 1-hour layover turned into basically 5 minutes and I had to rush from Terminal D to Terminal B, and a friendly and super fast gate agent was able to make it work. Thankfully the plane going from DFW to YVR was also delayed at gate for mechanical issues. It did mean I was able to make it to YVR on Thursday for my trip to YEG on Friday early morning. But it also meant I landed just before midnight in Vancouver and got about 2 hours of sleep for my 6am flight on Friday to YEG.
After the schedule for both cons were released, I figured Anirevo has a very light day Friday where the main 3 items at the con were the opening ceremony (which is often skippable even if it’s good content for the general audience), the Oshi no Ko panel, and Igoma’s autograph session (1 session out of 2). On the other side of the Canadian Rockies was Sally Amaki’s concert, a Konomi Suzuki panel and autograph session, and a KIHOW autograph session (since TomxHack half of Myth&Roid was sick at home). All the guests also would appear at the Animethon opening ceremony. Plus, I would also be able to say hi to twice as many people, and go to Edmonton for the first time in my life.
The flight from YVR to Edmonton (YEG) that I took was from Flair Airlines, a Canadian low-cost carrier mostly serving customers based out of YEG. The flight was uneventful, but the airline doesn’t do a good job posting delays, and it forces all the customers to check in at the desk if they didn’t buy a carry on. This means I got to the airport a tad too early, and the flight was delayed for about an hour due to crew timeout, which I only found out 2 hours before departure, which meant I could have slept at least 1.5 hours more. I tried to make that difference up by sleeping at the gate, to varying success.
Flair’s service schedule between YVR and YEG was mostly in the early morning, late night, and 1 flight in the day. I guess it works out just as well for someone going to a con for a day there, but the quality of service at the airport during those non-business hours are not great, and generally everything is closed at the airport. I did get to Animethon, which is at downtown Edmonton, in time for badge pickup (took about 5 minutes in a fast-moving line) and the opening ceremony.
Animethon moved to an online autograph lottery system for the first time this year, which had multiple rounds where people can get randomly drawn as winners, up until “standby” time after the session has started. To access the system you need to buy an badge online which spits back at you a personalized link that lets you reserve each session. This worked well enough for attendees, but some improvement can be done such as having a closer watch on how fast the lines go. Konomi Suzuki and KIHOW’s lines Friday went super fast and I don’t know if every standby got them, although they probably could have, for example.
Other notables about Animethon is that it had about 16k in attendees this year, and Edmonton is a place without a lot of stuff going on for it in terms of youthful-ish activity or nightlife. It seems like the city government really wants to lean into the event as a way to reach out to young people. I mean, it makes sense, other local governments have made similar appeals before that I’ve seen. Anime cons are definitely a way where local government can support younger people. The opening ceremony featured several local politicians saying more or less what I’m saying. It also helps to fund the event, which partly explain how suddenly the guest list exploded for Animethon in 2024.
Anyways, living on 2-3ish hours of sleep is not a great way to enjoy the con, and my flight out at 10:20pm meant I had to vacate the con at around 8pm, which I did. That let me hop into the Sally concert and eek out a smile in the group pic? Sally always puts a smile on my face anyway. In retrospect the cost was just a LCC ride and a couple friendly Uber/Lyft drivers convos away between two places in Canada that are probably as opposite to each other as you can get up in mapleland. It was a great side trip.
Anirevo Saturday and Sunday are decided less chill and much more line-up heavy. Thankfully there was nothing super early that I had to deal with, other than getting a badge and having breakfast along the downtown Vancouver waterfront at a cafe. It felt like I was an Asian tourist or something. The Oshi no Ko live recording panel was pretty wild in that it recreates the afureko environment so much so that it felt like work, or that it is kind of boring. The acting was fun to watch, but they spend a lot of the time talking about edits and directions for each demo cut that becomes a drag. There was also a lot of them all at once so it becomes slightly hard to follow everyone’s directions. Anyways, I enjoyed it.
The autograph situation at Anirevo follows last year, which premium badges get a priority line and it’s capped properly this year. Badge checking was enforced more so to prevent hopping, but we suspect many perps from last year were actually at Edmonton this year instead. Anyways, this is the last year, according to Anirevo, that they will offer this perk for the Premium badge. For the three Oshi no Ko seiyuu guests, you can at best get a shikishi or your badge/program signed. For ZAQ and TRUE, you can get their merch. It was a good time otherwise.
Due to the price I paid in the alternative of going to Athon, I had to grab Igoma’s autograph on Sunday, which pushes me out of the running for TRUE’s panel and autograph. Still, I was able to go to ZAQ’s panel Sunday, and one autograph from ZAQ, Rumi, Igoma and Megumi Han. It is wild that I did last saw Megumi Han at Animazement 2013, and I’m just glad she’s such a big time voice actress now in Japan, and so quickly since. That gap of 11 years I followed dozens of seiyuu with less success than her, she’s literally like the 90th-percentile or higher at this.
The big event at Anirevo is the Saturday Night Concert. The Animusix brand lives on. ZAQ and TRUE threw it down, although I think my friends and I agree it was “okay, if good” but not lit like Calgary’s set for TRUE or the average ZAQ set. I think the covers really saved me, as ZAQ did Tutti and Guitar to Kodoku to Aoi Hoshi.
Overall, besides fatigue and cost, there was no huge drawback going to two cons. Pretty sure I spent about $100 USD total including a VIP badge for Sally and a 3-day badge, and about another $200 on flight and rideshare. The anexiety of not making my DFW connection was the worst part, but I guess it’s just lesson learned that I should just work at the airport the next time I go out there, just like what I did last year…
PS. Can’t talk about Vancouver without talking about eats. I got some FIFTYLAN. I had some nice Shanghainese dinner on Sunday. We went to a nice seafood joint Saturday, not because some guests went there in 2023 or anything. There was an interesting bear that we took photos of, hmm. Nah that cannot be it. I rather liked that place actually, it’s in a touristy part of town and very walkable, plus nice bayside/riverside views. The happy hour begins at 9pm which is perfect for uchiage timing.
I went back to Japadogs by the Waterfront station on Saturday…and ran into Anirevo staffer buying for their guests, so I had to wait extra long, LOL. There was a cafe down the street that they went to and we also went to, which was expensive but very nice. And full of foxes.
I went to a nice place for lunch Friday at Animethon with a friend, it was chill and full of nobody, certainly pricing out most attendees (my bill was more expensive than Sally’s VIP event let’s just say). I do enjoy the food though, and the story about a famous steakhouse used to be there and went into bankruptcy or something. Most importantly, I felt so much better after that nice lunch. Travel is a pain if you don’t take care of yourself! Don’t forget to take care of yourself!
Otakon this year came and went in my whirlwind August. It is the first stop for this eventer choo-choo…uh, did you know Otakon has a train theme last year? This year the theme is “30” because technically it’s not yet the 30th anniversary but just 30 years? Anyways, I have Anirevo next week, Spirit of Japan in Miami after that, and finally staying home for AnimeNYC before ending the month at Anisama. So yes, it’s recap really rapid-time.
This year the guest list is actually impressive. So impressive that I know I won’t have them to see them all. I actually missed out on most of the male seiyuu cast members from Blue Lock….most, because I was at the autograph area for some of their signings so I was able to see them from afar. For the josei seiyuu fans, this year’s lynchpin is Uchida Aya. Some friends flew in from all over the country just for her, and why not? She is fun and cute, and definitely entertaining.
