Category Archives: Conventions and Concerts

Anime Central 2022: Wrap

I went to Anime Central 2022. Given the state of the pandemic, I was somewhat surprised to see any Japan-based guests at all. Well, beyond high levels of hope (as they say, hopium), it’s easy to expect something good, but frankly that’s quite unrealistic.

It’s unrealistic, as the logic goes, because given the strict limit on re-entering the country of Japan for much of 2021 and early 2022, including the ever-changing travel restrictions that could upend travelers on short notice upon new development during the pandemic, it’s hard to promise a con and start the visa process so much in advance. It could take at least 6 months, usually up to a year, to get that P1B or whatever visa. All the while you need to ensure that a guest could make the trip and return to their regular work-life in Japan without interrupting their schedule in case they catch COVID. Given that Omicron is very contagious, it’s hard to predict in a social work visit like traveling to play at a show at a con, how that could expose the talent to COVID. Some bands and musicians can probably pull it off, if they have slack in the schedule in case a positive test is recorded. This can explains the likes of ASCA and Nano, maybe.

So, yes, other cons this 2022 Spring season do have marquee JP guests–namely ASCA at Boston and Hawaii and maybe Nano in Hawaii. Not-BACK-ON Blank Paper is going to be at Otakuthon (could be a safe bet this year). Diana Garnet also made the oversea trip last minute, but she doesn’t have visa issues. Other cons turn to less straight-JP type guests with DemonDice, or DJs like TeddyLoid and Moe Shop. That’s Acen’s JP guest roster. There are also two very popular VTuber guests at Acen, but what do they even count as?

DemonDice is best described as an indie hip-hop artist in Japan, but is really an American woman who is trying to make it there. It can also be said that she is the persona behind Hololive EN’s gen-1 hip-hop vTuber Mori. DemonDice typically does her set at cons via Fake Star and Teddyloid plays along with her set as well. I rather like Mori’s hits but DemonDice is unfamiliar to me. She’s the kind of artist that performs in small hole-in-walls but at the con she does her thing in front of thousands.

Acen continues to be that rowdy rave con of that I remember, so Saturday night’s rave featured top acts that really hit the spot. Moe Shop dropped Hyper Bass and Good Night Baby, so that’s good. Teddy dropped his Nijigasaki song, which was a surprise. There were also a few anisong that he remixed the past couple years that were released separately. It helped that I just saw Bandai Namco Festival the week earlier and it tuned me into Denonbu.

Witnessing the long lines for DemonDice and HoloEN reminded me that those subscriber counts underneath Gawr Gura’s name on her channel page translate to real human beings. Maybe not 1-for-1, but close. I went to the HoloEN panel with said Shark and Bae, and it was rather enjoyable. They had remotely-controlled cameras to shoot the crowd. Instead of a chat people just used props and signs to chat back. I think the format worked, so props to team Mike and Sujay and others. From what I hear it was much better than ANYC’s panel for HoloEN.

Besides these usual nonsense, Acen was more an excuse for me to get out of the house and meet up with friends I’ve not seen in some time. It’s also a great excuse to ditch the lackluster guest lineup and visit Chicago proper for once, given that I’ve been there a number of times but never downtown. I went to a Cubs game and hung out, it was a lot of fun. I ate all the hotdogs that I wanted.

Which is just to say, this is all made reasonable with not catching COVID at the end of it all. Mid-May 2022 in the midwest, infections were trending up, and I took some reasonable precautions like wearing a N95 mask as much as I reasonably could. The rave and big con chokepoints definitely were dense enough that it felt necessary, even with tall halls of the con center and hotel ballrooms.

Acen softened its COVID policy the week of the con and kind of left some people in the lurch. It went from vax and mask required to just mask required in some areas. I think it’s unfortunate and they didn’t handle the change in COVID policy well, but in the end it probably didn’t matter that much given the nature of community spread and most people still wore masks at the show.

Just to conclude, I think Acen had to happen, the crowd was for it, but it dropped a few things such as the COVID policy and what not. Still the outcome didn’t matter too much. I will write more about COVID and my thought about cons in this moment in a separate post. Otherwise, without so much at stake personally, these cons are laid back and fun if you mix in some RJ stuff. And especially surprise guests like 4 of Happiness and 1 from iScream show up to rock JP-idol style!

Continue reading

The æ„›: Million Live 8th Live Impressions

I write this just as after Aimi announced that she will take a roughly 2-month break from work activity to treat a chronic health condition, so let me start this by wishing her a speedy and complete recovery. During the final MC segment on day two, Aimi jokingly gave us her æ„› as she is christened, so the rest of us (including those also on stage at the time) joked that she is now just 美 (her stage name is 愛美 as written in Japanese). She said we can return it on White Day (or something). But, now, I wonder what she was thinking when she said that! I guess there’s the archive stream I can review.

So despite the gasp of hope we had late last year, the Omicron variant shut down Japan’s borders yet again and inside the country cases has exploded to new heights just late last week. None of that means anything compared to the power of æ„›, as in Japan’s take on Valentine’s Day. Million Live has its big number live as a Valentine’s Day event, a first, which is really just a regular concert with a Valentine Day’s theme.

So, here are thoughts about Million Live 8th. You can still watch it until the end of the week here (paid stream).

Oh, new anime teaser dropped.

Continue reading

On Million 7th Reburn, Online Events

Since I only watched IDOLM@STER MILLION LIVE 7thLive Q@MP FLYER!!! Reburn (that is a mouthful) online, I did not actually travel to Fuji-Q Highlands Conifer Forest to participate in the audience. There is a world of difference between going to a concert live in person, versus watching it in the comfort of home (although I enjoyed the comfort of someone else’s home, not mine). As a fan of the franchise, and especially the live concert part of this franchise, I think there is enough in the remote viewing experience to count for something.

Anyways, I will save the pontification later. First, on ML 7th.

(I had wondered by what “Conifer Forest” meant but it gets clearer if you see it.)

Continue reading

The Otakon Fundraiser

I have a lot of various feelings about Otakon generally, and it is facing an existential crisis due to COVID-19 shutting down the con and impacting its finances. No surprise–many expected the pandemic rolling into the second year to put some cons six feet under, given the way many cons are run. Naturally my feelings are, uh, mixed.

Let’s mostly put aside the execution of the Otakon fundraiser, but I need to rant a bit about it. A 401c3 US Educational Non-Profit based in Maryland is once again asking for your donations. I don’t think there is anything wrong with it at all–except that it complicates their business model as Otakon never really had to play the fundraiser game. It ran more like a normal con (for profit or otherwise) but it also did not really keep a lot of money on hand. More over, the burn rate for Otakon, as we now know through direct communication, is something like $250,000 USD per year, even during the pandemic. Those are all key details that were eventually revealed–they could disclose this important data point from the start, and that they half-ass the ask is just a reflection of a bigger problem. Those keeping tabs on Otakon’s historical financial disclosures already have a good ballpark estimate. Knowing how that con is run somewhat, it does not come as a surprise how things are coming to ahead and they need to make the savings withdraw on public sympathy.

Aforementioned bigger problem is the main problem I have with Otakon: It does not feel that the leadership has a clear focus on what to do with the con besides treading water. Maybe that is the result of the rotating committee structure, and every year feels a bit like its own thing. Maybe it’s bending over backwards a bit too much to play that straight and narrow Educational Foundation stuff.

That’s the thing. Anime conventions, from my point of view, are better compared to country clubs. A bunch of people come together, pool their money and resources (time, energy, connections, knowledge, and more) to hold a party so everyone else not running it can participate at whatever level they are comfortable with. Maybe this is walking 18 holes and not playing it. Maybe this is doing a panel on drivers, or selling golf carts, whatever. But the economics of it only works if there is critical mass, and the larger such mass the more expensive event you can put on. If you want big name guests, they are expensive and can only really happen at large cons. There are only so few of these in North America, and so few with enough credentials and networks, and can put that budget into that kind of thing. That’s my point of view anyways. I realize for many others, this is not as big of a deal, but this does roll/trickle down in that Stone Soup allegory that makes any con worth going to–the networking effect of enough draws relevant to your interests and your friends’ interests make the party happen.

As someone who’s actually been to every Otakon (East Coast ones at least) since 1998 I am kind of done with it, in that while over the years I enjoyed this con and many of the things it did, I also see that it isn’t going to really level up its game. Things also have changed a lot since 20+ years ago and it is not like there is a lack of anime cons around here. Actually, there kind of is? But only ones like Otakon’s size and overall organizational quality. It isn’t because we don’t have a scene for it, it’s more because, well, it’s not easy to run a con like that. There are many smaller cons around that do many of the things just as well as Otakon, but Otakon occupies its spot–both in the calendar and in my con spending budget (time and money).

Which is just to say, I already made my donation and I hope the best for them, but as an attendee who is somewhat invested and someone concerned about anime cons, I think replacing Otakon with whatever that will happen in the vacuum of its possible demise is likely not a net negative in the long run. It’s not just me being the usual silver-lining optimist, but I do think this con really can be renovated or something, like the BCC. Too bad COVID is either going to make that even less possible, or kill it outright. Neither is great…


Practical Eventing Problems

With the new Walkure tour announced yesterday, I think one thing is clear is that as Japan (and other first-world nations) slowly emerges from pandemic-induced shutdowns and slowdowns, the US is going to be lagging these countries in international travel allowances.

By most metrics, the USA has done a below-average job as a first-world nation in dealing with the Coronavirus. Unfortunately the price to be paid from an eventing point of view is that international travel will resume slower for Americans going to and from other countries that have successfully reduced the spread and the number of infections.

Given most big character-franchise lives tend to announce events on a 3-to-6-month rolling basis, we might be clearing the initial hurdles in Japan with events rolling out early 2021. Will oversea tourism resume in Japan? Until this happens it would be quite hard to travel there to attend any events.

Maybe you can think that once a vaccine is available things will be better. I think that’s true generally, but it would be hard to know if this extends to how tourists are going to be let in. For one, it only seems responsible to do so after the vaccines are widely available and administered, and the timeline for that is likely as long as developing the vaccine in the first place.

Perhaps it is a backstop of sorts, regardless the challenge that lies between today and those goal posts. There is that postponed Tokyo Olympics, so I think things will come to a head early 2021. Of course, I don’t think athletes and their support crews will have trouble going to Japan, but I think Japan will be economically and politically pressured to allow tourism by this summer if things are playing out to the best case scenarios.

That means the domestic events from November onward until then will be blocked for a lot of oversea fans! And that is in a best-case basis. This is not even addressing the lack of Japanese guests in oversea events (read: US cons), which is a different ball of wax with different sets of risks.

Of course, Japan is not risk-free now, nor will they be in the coming months as more of their social distancing limits are lifted. I imagine until they also get widely vaccinated, leisure gatherings will be reduced. Venues are still limited to 50% capacity for now, so we’ll see in november if this means things are really spiking–and if full-blown events are really going to happen again soon.