Category Archives: Conventions and Concerts

February 7, 2023

We’re Going to Master of Idol World 2023

By omo

For long time readers of this blog, you might recall back in 2013-2014 I did some stuff to prepare for Master of Idol World 2014. After that I wrote something like, 13 thousand words to try to sum up the experience. I am doing nowhere nearly as much this time. Why? Because I don’t have to. Flower stands are not allowed, and instead we have these Bandai Namco-sanctioned flags that you can fund, and there are at least several oversea Producer ones. I joined probably the most popular one of those, which looks great by the way.

I don’t have to plan a big meet up after the show, because charitable Japanese and Oversea Producers are doing it, so I am just going to theirs. It is definitely a different world in 2023 versus 2014. I might even have multiple things that I could go do, I don’t know, just not too focused on it.

The difference to me, I think, is mostly on me–I just don’t have that much time and attention span lately to spend on this stuff. I play some mobile games…and it’s already too much. I guess I only seriously play Theater Days, and even then that is a very light load. I sorta-serious play JP Priconne and semi-casually play Global Priconne, but those combined is still a light load. JP literally runs 5-10 minutes a day and up to 30 for CB, while Global is not much more. I’m so behind on those games too in terms of commu and what have you. I have a love-hate relationship with Blue Archive still, but I think I have to shed this game despite it being occasionally fun and frustrating. And it’s a light-weight game as these things go, being largely a Priconne clone.

All this is to say I still watch a bunch of anime, but even then that’s always kind of the struggle, since as long as I have been watching seasonal anime. I guess we are in February, where I don’t have any Baseball to watch and there’s just 1 game left in the NFL schedule. Speaking of which, is there a bar or somewhere in Tokyo where I can crew up to watch the Superb Owl and all the dumb ads? I guess I can do it in a hotel room (or, more likely, at the airport) thanks to unplugged television services, but it isn’t the same (at 8am).

When the NFL is the only main thing on my mind during MOIW weekend, is a good thing. There are other logistical items to note, at least some out of many:

  • The buppan (goods sale) area spans 3 separate locations this time–Tokyo Dome, The Science Museum (near Budokan), and Kanda Square (about 10-15 minutes walk from the Museum). Looks like Tokyo Dome won’t have all of the stuff, and the heavy lifting is going to be at Kanda Square. The music CD stuff will be at the Science Museum. Along with the lottery on ticket time, this could be tricky for folks wanting to pick up stuff. I haven’t had much time to look through the goods list, but there are a few things I want.
  • I’m going to an Asaka concert on Friday, just to get the juices going. Also Asaka with a live band is always a fun time.
  • I’m going to Lonesome_Blue’s first show on Saturday, so this is going to be tricky trying to get tickets out before MOIW lol. I hope I can make it from Shibuya timely and meet everyone. Ideally the day before.
  • Tokyo Dome has an amusement complex attached to it. There’s a MLB cafe. There’s the JP Baseball Hall of Fame museum. There’s a Ferris wheel…? A lot of stuff there. There is a collab with IM@S that weekend at the various shops there. This means I can literally line up for Shake Shack and get, I don’t know, an imas sticker or something. The details are all online.
  • After MOIW weekend I am going to have a proper vacation while shepherding my folks around town in Japan. That’s also on my mind.
  • And on a similar note I have to go to l-tike and buy tickets to Ghibli Park on the 10th, for May. Sigh.
  • For fandom extra-curriculars, besides the meetings after the show, there are some producers doing a display at a rental office/meeting space, and the usual call guide handouts at several locations.
  • At some point I should at least learn all the group songs, especially the SideM ones. Pretty sure I got 765Pro All Stars and Million down pat. For Cinderella Girls, I watched their show from November on live stream, so that’s something. I don’t know any Deremas calls for anything 2019 and onward, though. Now that calls are unbanned, Ps are gonna yell out loud. Do Shiny Colors even have calls besides Urya-Oi LOL. I’m pretty much up to date on Shiny except maybe just the latest series.

Did you know that same weekend has a ton of other events? It’s the weekend before Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t really matter to the Ps out there I guess. Worse comes to worse, there’s a stream and an archive viewing.

I think going to see all the IM@S happening in Tokyo is exactly the kind of escape and relief I need. I hope to see some of you there? This is like a very perverse victory lap.

2 comments | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Idolmaster

January 23, 2023

THE IDOLM@STER Million Live! 9th Live Impressions, Thoughts

By omo

After the missing years of COVID, I was able to return and attend a Million Live solo show. Before 9th, I attended stops of 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 2 stops of 6th.

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Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Idolmaster, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

December 21, 2022

Anime Frontier 2022: Wrap; And Some Additional Thoughts

By omo

I was just looking on twitter randomly and noticed Holiday Matsuri. This is the annual event in Orlando, Florida, right before the end-of-year holidays. I can’t find easily the attendance numbers, but it’s held in a large resort hotel that maxes out at 10k in its largest meeting space, so it’s probably safe to say the con is not larger than 10000 per day in warm bodies. The guest list and content checks out for a mid-size con. There are several other cons in Florida of similar nature and varying sizes. None of them hit my radar because of the lack of both industry and Japanese guests. It’s not to say they never show up, just very rarely… Still, the programming at those events look really good and would be pretty great to attend, from a hangout point of view.

To the extend that there are quite a few anime-culture events that are destinations for the now-fit-for-travel Millennials, which is really the first generation who grew up with family-friendly (to the extent that you could be going before you were an adult) cons of this type, cons mixing with popular travel destinations are a thing. HolMat is on the doorsteps of Disney World, Anime NYC is in Manhattan, and Chara Expo was across from Disneyland are of any note for vacationers. There are the Colossal cons, which are basically resort cons. There are cons in Vegas. There are cons in Hawaii. And there’s always going to Japan for a couple weeks for Comiket or whatever event you fancy.

Which is also to say, “American anime cons” are its own thing. If you look at the programming available on HolMat’s site you can see it’s listed with about 13 or so events tracks, on top of various gaming, social, and the usual AA/Dealers setup. No JP guests, just a bunch of influencers, dub actors, cosplayers, DJs and the like. The content is highly tailored to indie or fan material.

On my way home from DFW, I can’t help but to think this is really what Anime Frontier should copy from to have a good jump in a year where they can’t pour in the outside help. This is what they sort of need to go in to a new place that has already established conventions around.

Anime Frontier 2022 was in Fort Worth Con center. It’s a nice and large space in downtown Fort Worth. It was also my first trip in that part of the country so I had a chance to walk around and take in the sights. If you can ignore the fact that DTFW is a giant parking lot for a good 1/4 of it, the experience was fine as the holiday vibe was on full. Given FLOW was the primary draw for me at the event and they’re gone by Saturday (I guess they were playing in Mexico City on Sunday after?), there was not much to do at the con either for the most part. The last guest they invited had to be cancelled on Sunday so I just switched my flights early to take off first thing in the morning.

I walked the dealers/AA room in full on Friday and canvassed it on Saturday. That’s probably a first in many years… Actually the quality of vending is just fine for this event, but the foot traffic and sales are low, given what I heard and seen. Gundam Base being there is a big boom but I wonder how well they sold. I was able to pick up a couple Gundam Aerial HG, which seems to be sold out in Japan but not elsewhere, or some such.

The panels at the con had a lot of industry content. What caught my eyes are the concert archive streams, but none of the show jumped out at me. The movie screenings were probably more pertinent, with Shin Ultraman on Sunday and Blue Thermal on Saturday. I passed on those and instead caught a showing of the Gotobun movie at the local theater about 8 minutes away from the con. I also went to Goldee’s, which is what I did at the other Dallas region con earlier this year. The BBQ game at these places are a full blown experience and worth every minute of it. Oh, I guess I did watch the USA Men’s National Team lose at the World Cup while having breakfast at the hotel.

Anime Frontier did have some fan-run panels, but it’s thin. There were 2 panel room tracks, that’s it. Maybe it’s a new con so few people had the ability to work it in their schedule, but this felt big time lacking. The con also basically shuts down by 10pm, and has no attached hotel presence like many other cons in these parts of the world.

There are a bunch of places in DTFW to eat, or you can cross over the highway to lounge out at spots at the south side, which is what I did on Saturday night. The places there are all legit but it’s very…what’s the word, a car kind of a city. It’s not the most pedestrian friendly. You can walk it, but it’s not a great walk. The food is good though.

As for the rest of AF, I think until they kind of gain momentum and bring the big guns to the South, I’ll probably just treat it like a “winging it” kind of an event like I did this time. Hotel and flight weren’t expensive, and probably can be had cheaper if I wasn’t winging it…

PS. I had a weird situation at this event when my hotel reservation were transferred to the wrong day in the system. I think it was using one of the event booking system. Thankfully everything worked out in the end and I confirmed it with the hotel directly.

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts

December 3, 2022

Anime NYC 2022: Wrap

By omo

It feels weird blogging about Anime NYC while attending its sister con, Anime Frontier in Fort Worth. On the other hand, AF is basically the same setup as ANYC, just much smaller…and has Gundam Aerial HG in stock.

Anime NYC comes back from its Omicron-shaded 2021 edition and is a victim of its timing, yet again. This time it’s still not its fault. Japan opened its doors in mid-October which made booking guests feasible. Record high inflation and strong US demand for entertainment in 2022 means every international act is trying to play here, resulting in a slog of perfomer visa applications. This is partly why fhana and Flow dropped out of A-Kon earlier this year, but this is also why ANYC, despite various tries and attempts (as heard from the grapevine) couldn’t really come through with much. With help from CR, the Mogra DJs made it to the US, including the once-denied-by-visa DJ Wildparty who was supposed to show up at Porter Robinson’s show earlier in October. Rock band [alexandros] was literally announced on Friday of the con with a concert on Sunday, curtesy of Bandai Namco and their huge Gundam push. There’s a video out there of them talking about their visa limbo. It is a very 2022 eventer feel for Americans.

Anime NYC 2022 is a big Gundam con. I would say a good fifth of the programs are related to it including guests, screening, and the Alexandros concert. Bannam brought two huge Gundam displays and a large Gundam Base shop, along with other Bannam stuff. It was so big that it took me a while to find where the Tensura and music stuff were sold. Mixbox had a booth as collaborated with MAL, so I guess that technically is also Bannam? Bannam brought over the producer and director to Hathaway’s Flash. I finally got to tell Murase how I feel about Witch Hunter Robin! Maybe it’s blessing in disguise it wasn’t Reina Ueda at the con. Anyways they had a big presence.

Sort of overshadowed by them are Aniplex, and Toei. It’s hard to overshadow the huge One Piece displays they had at the hall, though. Literally a giant Luffy balloon towered over everything there, with regular cosplay gatherings riding on the hot Film Red stuff that’s going on.

Aniplex did their usual best, and I thoroughly enjoyed their panels, or at least the ones I could go to. Kagura panel was a ton of fun, and you can watch it streamed still. The big Mahoyo displays though…it is a vibe, as they say. I guess I need to dust off my Switch for the holidays.

Being mostly an industry thing, ANYC let the big companies bring their stuff, and it worked out because Bannam, Aniplex and Toei are real deals and I am impressed with what they did. Gundam Base did brisk business all weekend. If you spent $500 there you could get front row Alexandros concert. I’m not sure people realizes the value of this.

Alexandros are bros through and through. Two of them are fluent in English so it helped. It’s my first time seeing them in person but these guys are chart topper rockers (and I guess played in NYC in 2018). Still wild that they came with basically 2 days of notice. We were able to coax an encore out of them so that was good.

For reasons, I actually missed out on most of the Mogra stuff. I hated it, but it can’t be helped. The show was combined with the JP DJ with this LA DJ (she’s Taiwanese?) who played basically half the time. LIO from NIOLION was there with Teddy also, who I was able to see on Sunday.

The last thread from ANYC in terms of programming was the Tensura stuff. The movie just came out in Japan and was right after ANYC. Mindaryn and RON from Stereo Dive Foundation came over to do some music from the movie. In fact, Mindaryn had to fly back on Saturday because she has a movie event literally the day after. The mini-concert at the Tensura panel was fun. RON also did a solo show the Wednesday after ANYC (literally day before Thanksgiving) which was basically the same set plus a bunch of his older stuff. RON has written a lot of anime and game music so his solo work from SDF is kind of just scratching the surface of his catalog but do check it out.

What else is there to say? The con is huge–49K plus unique warm bodies, and it’s only because they weren’t booking the entire Javitz. The lines were a non-issue this year due to the lottery system. That said the lottery system is a bit of a mess, so I hope they clean that up for 2023.

On that note, Flow said at their panel at Anime Frontier that they want to go play in NY, because they only played in NJ and toured NY during their off day (sup Anime Next). Maybe this is a sign.

As for the rest of the con, I actually spent most of the time there, despite working Friday. It was crowded, and the exhibit floor was pretty much buzzing most of the time. Since panels were lottery for a good number of them, I didn’t really try to go. I didn’t even get to see Kawasumi… and the aforementioned miss on Mogra DJ left a bad taste in my mouth because I wanted to see them (and even paid VIP..)…well it’s partly my fault, but everything was announced kind of last minute, including the schedule of when the DJs will play. I think those issues aside, ANYC was actually a good time that renergized me (even if it was at the tail end of a eventing spree). Good time with friends were spent, especially making this ANYC special as covid’s grasp on events continue to weaken.

I gave away a bunch of these Minami Saki photo books. They come with a DVD. Not sure how many people even know her at this con... Why do I have these? Someone gave them to me lol.

PS. Eats… if we take the full time from Friday to Wednesday after SDF’s concert… Went to 3 izakayas and they were all pretty good. The Henn na Hotel in Midtown has a proper izakaya inside of it, just really expensive. We went to 2 other places around Grammercy, one being a staple and another more traditional. We ended up getting “hot pot” which is just meat foudue Japanese style. It’s weird. Other spot has become a bit of my regular place with tebasaki and boozy milkshake made from nigori sake. We had late night dimsum on Wednesday after ramen for pre-show pregame. I mean what else is open at 11:30pm the day before Thanksgiving, am I right?

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Gundam

November 3, 2022

Anime Weekend Atlanta 2022: Wrap

By omo

It’s been about 5 years since my last AWA. Some things didn’t change, others did. For starters I started to just call it “awacon” in chats this year because it’s a bit less ambiguous and it’s what the website and twitter handles read like. Second, the cell connection was terrible at the con. I’m not sure why, but it’s really bad, and worst than I’ve ever had it at any other con, including AWA 2017. I have had better luck at AX and Anime NYC than at AWA, and those cons have maybe 10k more people or more on site on any given day and moment. I also run a full-blown TMO (via Fi) connection as well as a work Verizon LTE sim. Between the two (and downshifting to 4G for the TMO one) sometimes I can get connection. On Saturday this was basically not really possible even.

If I was doing a gripe panel with AWA this has to be my first complaint. Full stop.

Without internet there are a bunch of things I would like to do but didn’t. One is to see who I know is at the con. Another is to look up and research people at their panels so I can be better at asking questions, if any were to be asked. I was able to go to one and a half panels. I spent about half an hour at the Renaissance lobby on the “boarding pass” PC talking to United rep to change my flight. There’s also the issue with my Passkey hotel reservation. Long story short there were a lot of internet/tech issues at this con that may or may not be a big deal that affected me.

So, what did I have to do–call Hyatt because somehow when the reservation went from Passkey (the con block hotel management side) to the individual hotels, my dates were off by 1. After calling reservation for Hyatt, they confirmed that the dates were off by one, and they cannot change it without additional cost. I did end up calling the hotel who told me my dates were actually correctly transferred. Then I changed my hotel reservation anyways–because originally I was only going from Thursday night to Saturday night, and then I changed my mind to stay for Friday to Sunday.

I also had to do the aforementioned United thing. Same-day changing my flight from Thursday night to Friday was easy and free, but it was impossible to not pay to switch from Saturday to Sunday for some reason, via the app and web. I decided to just do it and not worry–maybe leave a terrible review or something.

Because I have no internet, I didn’t really ask much during the BPM15Q panel. I also wasn’t connecting with some local Ps until late Saturday when I was just chilling at the Maggiano’s across the highway. No, I don’t really want to trek back to the gazebo area from there, sorry. Not to mention I didn’t notice the tweet until hours later. This does mean I missed out on some uma cosplayers, sigh.

Anyways, back to AWA this year. I was only interested to see the Japanese guests, and the con did not had a lot of other special content this year. Still I was able to check out Diana Garnet again, and this Voia guy. Seems legit. Both of them served as opening acts for other JP acts like ASCA and BPM15Q. Burnout Syndromes was put up after PIXY.

So yeah, this is kind of a stacked lineup, if you know what these acts are. ASCA was a big reason what anisong kids wanted from AWA. I didn’t particularly leaned either way about ASCA honestly, but I wanted to see her again and hear those best hits. I wanted to see live HOWLING. It does feel she got more into it at AWA versus Boston during the concert, even if the vibe isn’t as chill and cool compared to the ASCA artist image. Which is fine because, well, what she really is in some ways.

Burnout Syndromes to me, before AWA, was a forgettable anisong band with tie-ins for shows I didn’t really care about. The one song that I kind of did, Good Morning World, is a Jump title and I generally have little affinity for acts following Jump anime even when they all bring their A game to big anime nowadays. That said I didn’t have a bad opinion of them or anything, their music had something to offer as far as typical big-label bands go. Thanks to certain someone’s pushing I went to see them and got to learn a lot more about this band, and it really made things interesting to me.

For one, Burnout Syndromes is pretty diverse musically. It’s hard to suss this out partly because their sounds do change a bit between different anisong tie-ins so I don’t always connect them. They’ve been around for a while as well, so it’s hard to get a good sample of what they really sound like “today.” Being diverse musically also didn’t help with communicating their vibe.

What did communicate Burnout’s vibe was seeing them play and speak in person. That vibe is a, uh, dorky group headed by one music mastermind, the frontman, composer, and leader Kazuumi Kumagai. Apparently the 3 current members of the group started in middle school and are still together after all these years. It’s both very simple and yet very artistically clear what and who is doing all the figurative talking. Their music makes sense once you get to see the people behind it. Well obviously it’s the guy who is doing the singing too, but musically there’s this “literary” slant however super-flattened it could be in some ways. Like the hat he wears half of the time. The one rap song he did was a good example. Do people rap with that kind of head gear typically? It’s safe to say this group, even if it’s not up my alley, at least has something worthwhile to see. It’s like a humanities-nerd kind of a vibe.

At the end of the show they were repping their stream that’s later this year that will also have a foreigner-friendly option for watching. I’m not sure if it’s a bridge too far for me, but if you dig Haikyuu songs maybe it’s worth it.

I’m not going to go too deep into ASCA, because I sorta already did, other than to say she’s cool and check her out. Then again ASCA has the kind of anime tie-ins that I watch and it’s always a treat to see her do Hibari in person. And this is someone who didn’t watch too many of the alt Fate stuff. I missed her panel on Friday because I got in late, but she was collaborating with some local streamer type person. She also popped out at the end of ASCA’s show on Saturday? Anyways, I don’t know what is going on with Sacra Music marketing, as usual.

If we go back to two weeks before the con when AWA announced BPM15Q was attending and performing their first US show, I was largely met with surprise and indifference. I vaguely know about CY8ER but I didn’t know much about the Ichigo Rinahamu personality, and all the music and projects Rinahamu started and is still a part of, and this seems like something actually worth flying to alone if everything about BPM15Q is as they say. Turns out, it is as they say. This is the core or basis in which one of the most interesting idol groups in the last 10 years.

Thinking back, this whole idol circus stuff is something now I am somewhat familiar with. You do the photo sessions, you do the watashikai and signkai, you talk to them, to do the wota moves and calls, and you enjoy yourself. As with typical East Coast cons, the number of people who indulges and knows the ropes are probably in the handfuls, at any given event. Having probably the worst slot at the con (last show on Sunday afternoon), BPM15Q still made the con for me. Imagine people finding out about them at the show–the reception of BPM15Q at the con would have been a lot better.

I can see why Rinahamu is who they say she is, because she’s definitely left a mark in my mind. In another way, nicamoq also left her mark, but she’s playing it more straight and my comm skills are probably not strong enough to really enjoy this…funny/charming idol. I don’t know what to say, just that Rinahamu slayed it at the concert, and it was what one could call an “unforgettable experience.” I’m not so sure it’s actually unforgettable, but it’s like being branded by cattle iron sort of thing. It left a very deep impression. It’s something about Rinahamu’s face, her expressions, the way she pumps up the crowd, the way she ad-libbed the stage positions and dances, and it’s really a full package deal.

The show itself is basically just the two of the members dancing to Teddyloid’s backing. It’s basically nearly non-stop dance mixes. There was a cover portion where we got Go, Butterfly, 君の知らない物語, and Renai Circulation. Musically this is the kind of denpa-inspired idol music, but updated for the 2020s. I had a nice place by the railing on the Hamu side of the catwalk, and I went as ham as I could at times. I had a blast.

Fake Star brought all these talents to AWA, including BPM15Q (but except ASCA), who is direct from Sony/Sacra). There were VIPs for PIXY and Burnout. There were photo sessions for BPM15Q all 3 days and sign sessions all 3 days. People went to Burnout’s sessions after their Friday night show, but most didn’t know about BPM15Q and their show was at the end of the con. This means literally a dozen or two people were at all their sessions. It’s too bad, but at least I didn’t have to compete for anything.

It’s not with much expectations I went with AWA, but I left with some deep memories that I hope doesn’t blossom or fester into something else lol. The lack of cell signal does sting because I couldn’t hang out with anyone easily other than the folks I already made plans with before the con.

I wish I can see BPM15Q’s show again, that is the foremost thing this con left me with. I got to shoot the chitchat with some folks. I had fun escaping reality into fuwa-fuwa denpa dream idol land. I enjoyed some music culture. I said hi and seen some faces that I have not for ages. It’s all good.

Leave a comment | posted in Conventions and Concerts, Modern Visual Culture