Forum - View topicNEWS: Breaking News: Halko Momoi Slams Anime Expo on Blog
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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My work newspaper has a bit on some employees who've been volunteering at Comic-con for yrs. It states the one guy oversees about 1,500 volunteers to keep comic-con running smoothly. So they've been doing it twice as long(I think they celebrated 35 yrs a yr or 2 ago). Still, why have they managed to run a con that even pacifies Hollywood types like Samuel Jackson, Angelina Jolie, the main cast of whatever fantasy movies/tv shows (Heroes again this year) when AX can't even manage half the crowd (over 100,000 at last year's Comic-con) & some foreign celebs? I can't imagine the Japanese celebs could be more spoiled than ours (Every year there's a note Mark Hamill will not sign Star Wars memorabilia). And if they know they've been getting these reactions for yrs, why haven't they fixed it? Jeez, if Comic-con won't share notes, someone could infiltrate as a volunteer spy to see how things work down here. |
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rektagunn
 Posts: 218 Location: enohana |
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I ask you this AX, is this the right way to treat the Queen of Akihabara?!
Don't get it twisted, people. The concert was a huge success! It might not be as "packed" as the S.K.I.N. concert, but judging from how everyone was dancing away and swinging their glowsticks in unison, Momoi-chan's concert rocked the house! And it's all because of her energy and her love for her fans. Us Momoists were merely returning her favor by cheering loudly and letting her know that she is loved here in the U.S. But as fans, we can only do so much. With all the missteps by AX, word will get around the seiyuu / industry / otaku community in Japan regarding the treatment of Momoi Halko and the other GOHs. And I wouldn't be surprised if AX receives some rejections from some of their proposed future guests because of this... I mean, geez, this is the Queen we're talking about here. She's one of the few personalities that comes close to having a unified positive consensus among otakus. And we all know how divisive we all are... -ObLaCxZ |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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When a guest of honor is mistreated enough that she's going to cry, that's all the bull**** I need to hear about AX this year even more. I love what Lord Robin has said about the whole con-staff issue though, because it is true. There needs to be a change in how they staff these things, and if they did, it would make attendees experiences more enjoyable.
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Dragynstorm
 Posts: 131 |
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Just to tell you guys, the SOS Invasion concert was delayed because of actual problems. First, the earlier concert started late, so that pushed it back about an hour, then there were sound issues. They didn't get the sound fixed until really late, and didn't even get a full rehersal in (which may be why some parts seemed so slapped-together
 ). The whole concert was really tense for everyone, especially the staff. So it's a bummer that the concert was late and not as spectacular as it could have been, but there are good reasons behind it, not just bad planning and laziness.
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PurpleM
 Posts: 21 |
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There are several threads at the official AX website that go heavily in depth about the horrors of this year's AX: hours upon hours of fruitless waiting in the sun, only 50 (or was it 100?) autographs from the SOS crew (this bit of news even ended up in 2ch!), extremely poor treatment of the Japanese guests by the AX staff, poor venue organization and layout, and other such evils. If you have some time on your hands, give them a read and by all means voice your opinions! http://forums.anime-expo.org/index.php?showtopic=6254 http://forums.anime-expo.org/index.php?showtopic=6237 http://forums.anime-expo.org/index.php?showtopic=6249 http://forums.anime-expo.org/index.php?showtopic=6264 Anyway, to stay on topic here, I read the account of one blogger who was at the Momoi concert and it made me so upset. Here's is the experience of another blogger who was at the SOS Concert. *Sigh...* Why do these things have to happen?  Clearly, the AX team needs to rethink their methods of doing things, but that's a topic for another thread.
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5633 Location: Southern California |
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And that is exactly why AX needs to be run by a professional convention staff now. More than likely, no guarantees, but more than likely that would not have happened with a professionally trained staff. |
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W-General
Posts: 280 Location: Ithaca, NY, USA / Taichung, Taiwan |
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The sound issue STILL didn't get fixed. It was played on WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER FOR CHRIST SAKE. The music lagged several times, God Knows and all the songs before it only had ONE CHANNEL coming out - you couldn't hear Yuki's guitar part. Hirano-san also had trouble hearing the music herself because her singing lagged the music by almost half a second, which means that she was hearing the music BOUNCING BACK from the far-end of the wall (yes, sound travels slowly)
I wouldn't say Patricia Lee was lazy or didn't care about the concert, but she was certainly unprofessional on stage and looked like she only saw the rehearsal stuff 5 minutes before the concert started. Very very very disappointed at AX. Where's the professional staff? Professional sound crew? The volunteers knew NOTHING at each event and each time I asked, the answer was different - questions ranging from seating, ticketing, to what we can bring in to the signing session. Looks like Hirano-san finally made a blog post: http://www.hiranoaya.com/cgi-bin/diary/sfs6_diary/ "During my make up session. The second day is the live concert. The situation was simply chaotic, but I'll somehow make it." Ha! |
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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You know, I really like Patricia Lee. With all the mess-ups that went on, I wouldn't be surprised if she got the script only 5 minutes before the concert. It seemed to me not that she was unprepared, but that they didn't give her any time to prepare. They just her the script and threw her on stage... I'm just assuming this though, as it would make sense since the whole concert seemed so unprepared. If she actually had time to rehearse but just didn't though, then I'd be greatly disappointed with her... |
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W-General
Posts: 280 Location: Ithaca, NY, USA / Taichung, Taiwan |
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Well when the SOS members were speaking or doing things, Patricia Lee and Johnny Bosch often cut them off. There were occasions of random apparent "outbursts" such as throwing the script onto the ground, etc. I'm not sure if that's for 'comedic effect' - it could be one of those great American mysterious comedy styles - but the SOS members certainly were not amused at all. I remember seeing Chihara san look totally bewildered on stage when there was the script tossing - Japanese people just weren't prepared for such outbursts, even if it was pre-scripted. The language barriers certainly DID NOT HELP. I bet they were just simply confused as to whether it was on purpose or not.
And don't get me started on how the concert delay meant that the SOS-dan members could not attend the Meet and Greet Guest of Honor reception (I paid $20 JUST to see Hirano-san). This would've been what is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to talk to them in person, but was ruined by the Anime Expo and convention staff failures. No apologies will be enough to calm my anger. Since I live in New York, I don't think I'll come back to AX again, unless they manage to bring the SOS girls back again - which I think is highly unlikely considering the type of treatment they and other guests received. I should start thinking about going to one of the Japanese Haruhi concerts (which was so successful that Hirano-san cried out tears of joy at the end) |
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Subaru19
 Posts: 118 |
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I would argue though that Japan does have a rather "suck it up and deal" mentality (as much as a culture can have a "mentality", but I think you get my point  ). So maybe the fact that she sounds whiny and bratty is just that she even mentioned how bad it was. From what it sounds like it wasn't too far from the truth regardless.
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W-General
Posts: 280 Location: Ithaca, NY, USA / Taichung, Taiwan |
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What Momo-i said was the truth and I am glad she decided to speak the truth. AX staff was just terrible. Why else would SOS-dan limit the autograph session to 50 people and no personal items or interactions? My explanation is that their producer wanted to 'get back' at AX for all their suffering.
I wasn't at the closing ceremony though, was SOS dan there? |
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
 Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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Just an observation or two from someone who
(a) attended AX from 2005 onward, including this year (b) spent last year running the *second* largest anime-themed event (Otakon) First: If you want professional staff, you're going to have to pay professional prices. That means that everyone currently bitching about paying $50 or so for a weekend's worth of entertainment will be complaining about paying twice that much. (Even a single competent part-time admin assistant would run the organization something in the neighborhood of 50-60k per year.) Now as I understand it, there *are* some paid positions within SPJA and/or Expo staff. (There are none within Otakorp or Otakon, outside of services that we contract out for, such as accounting and legal.) So i don't think that would have solved the problems. Second: The amount of sponsorship money coming in to SDCC almost certainly dwarfs Expo's sponsorship money, and Otakon doesn't accept direct sponsorships. And comparing the three on the basis of how much money you *think* they take in is a bit futile. Third: One of SPJA's board members apparently has some connection to ComicCon. I think a lot of their issues at con were due to problems with venue and miscommunication, but their organizational problems overall certainly played a role. Going into a big con with that many musical acts, while lacking an official head of guest relations, seems ...unwise at best? Technical difficulties happen. Mistakes happen. Especially with a new venue to deal with. Having to rope off part of the Artist Alley to line up for autographs (regularly) is poor planning. Having no plan for bag check when the concert requires it is poor planning. Having no CEO in place when for two years is definitely a problem. Hearing a large number of key staff say in a public forum that they felt locked out of the planning process? That's just bad overall. |
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FiliKlepto
Posts: 17 Location: Nakano-ku, Tokyo |
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I agree with the general confusion, but I would direct the blame towards the apparent lack of rehearsals and the fact that they simply threw a script at everyone and expected them to follow it. In addition, the script they gave Chihara-san was in English, not Japanese, so she wasn't able to follow along with the situation. I doubt that she was even briefed about what would happen. Also agree with you on the language barriers issue. There should have been a staff translator accompanying the seiyuu on stage and explaining the situation because the translator there was not helpful in that respect at all. If there had been someone accompanying the seiyuu, that person could have explained the situation as they went along. This would also have prevented Patty and Johnny from appearing to cut them off, as it would have been obvious that the seiyuu was trying to say something with the designated translator/speaker there. I personally blame a lot of the confusion at the concert on the translator chosen for the show, especially when she kept trying to MC and direct the order of events when she should have just been translating. In fact, did anyone notice that she mistranslated some parts and forgot to translate for a large part of the show? Why was a professional translator not hired? Did BangZoom! think it would be easier to use one of their own staff just because she was Japanese, rather than hiring an outside person? As for the throwing of the script, it was a "scripted outburst" but definitely caused a ton of misunderstanding. There was supposed to be some frustration to anger Haruhi and cause closed space, so that the only way to appease her was by bringing Hirano Aya out on stage to sing. Terrible idea. I think whoever wrote the script should feel bad right now; it was so inappropriate to stage something like that! And none of this was explained to the Japanese guests, so they were completely confused and visibly put-off by it all. (Also inappropriate was the manner in which the translator took Patty to task. I don't remember the specific wording, but that's another mark against the script writer as a Japanese person would not be that blunt and rude in public.) Also, JYB is not a member of the ASOS Brigade, so let's not let his actions be reflected on the other girls. Of course, I don't believe that he did anything particularly inexcusable; he was just as lost and confused as everyone else, and trying to get through it as best as he could.
I'm glad I didn't buy tickets to go to the guest of honor meet-and-greet; I was seriously considering it, but I did end up meeting them on Sunday. They were all so kind and wonderful, and talking to Hirano-san was the highlight of the century, but in retrospect I feel bad that they had to go through so many difficulties. I agree that the SOS Invasion Tour won't ever grace the halls of AX again after the inexcusable treatment they received this year; I just hope it doesn't stop them from ever coming to the U.S. again.
Indeed. Maybe we should check the tour out together! Now, to relate all of this back to Momoi Halko (is there a thread for us to talk about the SOS Invasion Tour? because feel like a hijacker here and don't want that), I would like to stress my anger at the convention for their heinous treatment of the Japanese guests. Like Momoi-san, Hirano Aya finally updated her blog with an unhappy post. She said that there were a lot of difficult circumstances about the concert but that she would get through it, and when you think about that in terms of her not being able to be vocal about her negative feelings -- gah. She must be incredibly upset. It's so sad! Especially when compared to her excitement before coming to America (a few posts earlier she was showing off her new manicure she got for the US trip) 
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bob_loblaw
Posts: 229 Location: Tanning in Hell |
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It's been close to six years since I've been to AX. And I find myself not missing it all that much. I used to go because of one particular dealer who only showed up at cons on the west coast; I'm an east coast native. After I dumped my life savings with this guy, on Day 1, I'm pretty much done. I never attended company panels, except for animation studios like I.G and Gonzo; I can find out about all the license announcements while I'm there or after I return home.
Don't get me wrong, I had great fun, but that was mostly because of the people I went with. I think that's a feeling that can be shared by most folks here, right? The first time I went to AX (or any anime con, for that matter) was the best experience I had, by far. I and two other friends went and we all broke our "anime con cherries" that year. A lot of cool things happened to us with Japanese guests, meeting some like-minded fans and visiting local friends in California. Every year, since then, just wasn't the same. It felt routine, at times, and just got to be exhausting to prepare for and go through. Just out of curiousity, for those wanting to see AX run by a year-long professional staff, are you willing to accept the price-hike that will no doubt some with it? |
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W-General
Posts: 280 Location: Ithaca, NY, USA / Taichung, Taiwan |
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The thing is, it wasn't a new venue. They've held it at LBCC before. I still found it most ridiculous that different groups of staff couldn't contact and communicate with each other. From the premier ticket line Me: "What's the hold up?" Staff: "We're waiting for the laptops." Me: "Well where are they?" Staff: "With the tech group." Me: "Well where are the tech group?" Staff: "We don't know. You must understand that even in AX, the groups are divided very clearly. We've been trying to get hold on them but just can't. They're probably still at the hotel. You must understand that they're very tired, only had 5 hours of sleep." Yeah by then I've had quite enough of the bullcrap that is AX. 5 hours? That's more than the amount of sleep I've had combined in the first 3 days of AX. Each night I come back from AX events at 3am and then I have to wake up at 5am so I can go line up for the impossibly to get Haruhi event lines. And they're complaining and oversleeping about only 5 hours of sleep? I hear that LA Convention Center is poorly located for an Anime Convention. I highly doubt I will be attending again, unless they bring on guests of the same caliber (for me) as SOS-dan. Maybe I'll go if they bring SOS dan again...or if they bring Jam Project over, but no one else. |
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