It’s really nice to get back to my “home” convention and run through it as if nothing happened since 2019. I enjoyed the humid Chesapeake Bay summer as much as I ever could enjoy…humidity. Otakon was packed to the gills with things to do in 2022 and things I wanted to do, even if much of it is just hanging out. On top of seeing some old timers that I haven’t since, I would chalk it up as a great time, if too short time all together.
Author Archives: omo
About omo
On Cons, Japan, IDOLM@STER
Rather than the usual newsletter I just want to throw this out there to organize some thoughts and info. It’s also an update on my personal leisure time as whatever they’re called, for however much left that I have spent not on family or work-related things. Or watching anime–I guess I am in the middle of a Made in Abyss marathon.
To segue from that, I’m trying to catch a glimpse of Mariya Ise at Otakon 2022, down at o’ Washington DC. Consider this an open jiao if you catch me. Maybe try me at the “official” off-venue rave? Since Aniparty is there.
Otakon is throwing a big k-pop show on Friday and a music affair on Sunday, with Kaoru Wada back in town with his musician friends like Yuki Hayashi (who was at AnimeNYC last November). There’s also a rock act Saturday. The busy weekend probably got a lot going on that I’m not even aware of. I looked at their Guidebook just now and there is conflict city all Saturday. It is terrible honestly.
I am also trying to figure out how to go to Japan, now that it’s open to some tourists, plus people who can apply and get an entry certificate to get a visa. Everybody needs a visa to go to Japan now, besides people who can “re-entry” and other citizen-types. Yes, it makes going to Japan a lot more expensive and a lot more difficult, if just the fact that going as a tourist means registration and monitoring, plus nobody knows what happens if you actually catch COVID (or rather, besides mandatory quarantine and tour cancellation). For people going to concerts this is a brand new world. It’s possibly also a fleeting situation since you never know if another variant will occur and rewrite the rules like how Omicron did during Delta’s reign last winter.
The answer that I figured out thus far is that you can do a private tour. It’s doable, it isn’t cheap, but it’s feasible. So I’m going to try to do one and see how it is and let you guys know. I can say for sure it’s “not the answer” anyone is looking for already, but it is a solution to some problems one person may have. If you have a lot of money that you want to burn, this may be it if you can also physically endure the “tourist in Japan” part as that’s mandatory. For people who just want to go to a lot of lives and stay nerdy in between concerts, this is not it, because again, you need to do tours. If you want to just hole in your hotel room, this is not it. If you want to enjoy Japan frugally, this is not it. If you want to meet friends, this probably is not it unless your friends are not picky about you being a part of a monitored tour and can adopt to your schedule. Furthermore, I’m not even sure if this is kosher by the terms of the tourist agreement set by the Japanese government. Sort of just going based on what I was told here.
There are a lot of risky “downsides” as well given that the high level of operational standard required for foreign tourists in Japan. It’s got extra chance of tour cancellation and forced quarantine, for example. It’s not really “fun” and really the tourist program Japan put in place is just to save face as a G7 country still practicing its xenophobic isolation policies in the name of COVID prevention.
This is really for people who absolutely need to go to Japan for that One Thing. Like, to segue nicely into the next topic, the next “Master of Idol World” or as the announce has it, a five-brand concert next February at Tokyo Dome. On the bright side it is for sure they will stream it and probably even do theatrical live viewings overseas (in HK/TW/KR). But, yeah, I really want to go. I also really want to go to the Million Live show next January. This is gonna be rough.
So yeah, it is suboptimal, to use a nice word, but such is the state of things. As the latest variant of Omicron rages, cons are back. It’s timely and it’s got various levels of risk, but it is what we got in this post-COVID world.
A-Kon 31: Wrap
Let’s do this foodie pics first, because it accurately depicts the order of importance to me of what happens at this con. To recap, A-Kon 31 announced fhana and BACK-ON and subsequently un-announced them about a week before the show. In their place we got Shihori and Diana Garnet. We also got surprise-SG5.
CattleAck BBQ is one of Texas’s best BBQ joints, and a perennial top-3 in Dallas-Fort Worth region. So I went with some folks. This tweet sums it up well.
The con itself deserves some mention, as it’s my first time attending A-kon. For one, it’s one of America’s oldest cons, and it has its share of highs and lows. Without getting into it too much, 2022 featured a completely new venue as they move into DFW area proper, literally 2 stops away from the airport on the local train, between DFW and Love Field. It’s a nice location as it used to be just wilderness and the new development is, well, new. The con center is next to the Westin, and around the area are other nice hotels, foods, and venues. There’s an open space with free rave music on the weekend even.
The weather in early June was actually pretty cooperative for Dallas. Nothing I can complain about really.
Toyota Music Factory is a pretty new venue that was built there and it felt a tinge of LA Live, dare I say? But the venue was new and pretty good. Shihori and Garnet made short work of a small crowd, but I had fun just trying to feel that concert mojo again.
What was really impressive was the fan idol/odorite showcase at A-Kon. The IM@S, Aikatsu and Love Live groups made the thing felt like a fan-made Bannam Fes (which I watched not that long ago as of attending A-kon). For a fan production it is pretty high level, but it’s also clearly still on the crest of cringe. If you enjoy idols like I do I think this is all very precious though, so it’s fun seeing some of these acts trying their best given what they got. There was a full on Million group that wore 3rd cosplay outfits and that got to me pretty goddamn hard.
The fun part about this is also SG5. Turns out they were socializing with all the other fan dance groups the night before at a party which is amazing, lol. SG5 closed out the fan idol showcase with some serious firepower and yeah, clearly professionals at work. After the show there was a post-show autograph area where you can go and buy stuff, so I got an autograph there and a 2shot. I also talked to some of the other fan performers and it was fun to see them just do their thing.
I was able to go to SG5’s panel on Sunday and get more 2shots. Real Idols in America hurrah. During the panel, I learned more about the situation behind their prior works. These LDH-branded entertainers have real chops and maybe this is all very produced? But who’s idea is this? It’s amusing.
Besides that, I guess I did do a lot of chilling in Texas, talking to folks who I haven’t seen in quite a while is always good, to catch up in person versus over social media. It was a nice retreat from the daily grind. I took a quick walk around the con, but didn’t explore every corner. It’s a fairly large crowd for a relatively small space between a couple hotels and the con center, I think. There is a lot of outdoor areas though.
As a con, I don’t have a whole lot to say, as a result. I can talk about the con experience as I had it, which is that A-kon 31 was a bit of a mess, and the least organized one I went to among Acen and AB, but that doesn’t mean a lot in this day and age. It’s a new venue after all, so I had came into it with that expectation. I also heard it was run by some newer folks. There were also some interesting things they did…like a foam rave, or showing films at the Alamo inside the shopping/entertainment complex the con is part of. I think the overall experience was okay, as long as they fix some line and crowd control issues. It’s also unfortunate they dropped the ball on guests! Still, I guess I didn’t mind the lemonade much from the lemons A-Kon gave me. It help cut the grease from all that BBQ.
PS. Covid was definitely a guest at A-Kon because masking was poor if at all, despite con’s policy about it being mandatory. I guess this is how that part of the country rolls, unfortunately. On the bright side much of the con experience is outside, and other than inside some panel rooms or parts of the Westin, you’re either outside or in big open spaces. Even the very crowded dealer hall probably isn’t as bad because of the better ventilation of a modern convention space.
Anime Boston 2022: Wrap
It’s a bit unusual for me to write up these cons so long since I attended them, about a month ago. But here we are.
The COVID-induced ennui does things, I guess? But at the same time, there are plenty of good reasons to not go to cons for fun, as AX discourse showed us. That’s coming right up isn’t it? Well I am not going despite that Aniplex still came through with two big seiyuu guests…
People like Aoi Koga came into prominence in and around 2018-2019 and in a way you feel about them a certain way, as their biggest impact was during COVID. It can definitely be said of ASCA, which Sacra/Sony Music brought to Anime Boston as a guest. It is my first “normal” anisong concert since February 2020, so it felt a certain way. ASCA already performed once in Hawaii for Kawaii Kon so this is her second stop. She’s also going to Germany for AnimagiC next month, but the thing I want to state from this encounter is having that anisong experience with calls is a thing she has not had as a performer until recently because Japan still bans calls at shows.
Since ASCA officially debuted in 2019, she’s not really had a solo show with calls, as this COVID-era new artist said as much. It was moving to hear the handful of us doing the calls. Well, not really sure how many people caught on in the audience during Howling, but howling at ASCA at AB’s Friday night concert was a ton of fun. It was also stirring. It’s like having old synapses firing that you forgot were there. You feel in ways you have not in some time, and yet that sensation feels new.
This is the kind of rending of emotions that I welcome in a post-COVID world, much like old friends reunited since the era of quarantines and travel bans. This is why this summer, for better or worse, travelers will be bustling, COVID counts be damned.
The problem in that scenario as things play out isn’t so much just the pandemic, but that these events and organizations are also now putting on a show to record crowds, many having to weather the storm and lost much in the process. Anime Boston did probably the best job out of the 3 cons I attended this year trying to mitigate things. Overall they were well-staffed and for the most part the con ran okay. Crowding was an issue during peak Saturday, but it was still manageable if chaotic.
The autograph ticket line was set up using spare panel rooms, which meant lining up to get seated, and they handed out tickets by moving people in rows of seats. That was fun. At con badge line was basically none by the time I arrive Friday afternoon.
What was hellish was that MIT and Harvard both had graduations that Saturday, which meant hotel and flight prices went through the roof (airlines and hotel industries are part of that “events and organizations” aspect I guess) for AB’s dates. It’s bad, because those 2 (large) schools postponed their 2020 and 2021 graduations to 2022, so 3 years worth of grads walked on the same weekend. Luckily they had a batch of hotel rooms in the con block open up in April which made things a bit less painful. The drive from my home to and from the con was also pretty crazy for traffic, because other schools across CT also had graduations (did you know there are a lot of colleges in Connecticut). The NBA Playoff Conference Final was also on Friday, which adds an extra layer of logistical fun, I suppose. The Prudential Center (basketball venue) is literally the venue attached to the con upstairs. Oh, it’s Memorial Day Weekend, which is a huge travel day in the USA anyway to start. Anyways, it kind of was a terrible date to have a large fan con in Boston.
I was only at Anime Boston for about 24 hours, which is unusual for a change–had family stuff to deal with that long weekend. During that time I tried to make the best of it. I walked the Dealer’s, which was mostly just to say hi to a bunch of folks. It’s a little sparse but not too bad. I should walk the AA but I didn’t get around to it. If I had stayed until Sunday could have caught a BoSox game. Ah well, maybe next time.
PS. Not much fooding. Just a pic.
Legal Seafood is like last resort at the venue. Both because it’s a bit pricy and it’s not that good, and it’s open when everywhere else is full. I think it’s still an okay place to take first timers to, but I’ll get the fried scallops next time.
I went to Eataly on Saturday for late lunch and that was way better and costed a bit less. I should have went to grab some groceries before I headed out of Boston. Cannolis are my sins.