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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2434
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 1:48 pm Reply with quote
Quick reax from jumping to the Crunchyroll Expo section: the lack of video rooms and gaming is something that Crunchyroll acknowledged in their feedback session at the end of the con. Basically their story was that they planned this con with six months' notice when they would ideally like a year (and they said they will start planning the next Crunchyroll Expo next month). Both video and gaming rooms were on the nice-to-have list, and eventually fell by the wayside given the rooms and time they had to work with.

Pretty safe bet they'll have these next year (along with other common features that were asked for, like a bag check, cosplay repair room, safe space / quiet room, etc.). I'd also be surprised if they're in the same facility -- it sounds like this facility was what they could get with less than a year's advance notice.

I would be interested to hear a comparison between the first year of Crunchyroll Expo and the first year of Otakon Vegas, both being cons that had significant advantages that a typical first-year con would not enjoy.

[Listens further…] Oh hey, want a big Spring convention? Come to Anime Central sometime… it's the weekend before Memorial Day. Seems like Anime Boston would also fall squarely in Spring.

As for my own thoughts on Crunchyroll Expo, I put them in a Twitter Moment if anyone wants to read a 50-tweet brain-dump.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 2:10 pm Reply with quote
I have made no secret of my jealousy for those who attended Crunchyroll Expo. It seems as if it had the dual advantage of being patronised by many of the most notable people in the anime bubble, and also being small enough for all of such people to congregate without impediment. The perfect arrangement, I say!
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Nate148



Joined: 24 May 2012
Posts: 465
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 2:40 pm Reply with quote
zac your twitter handle at the start and on the page needs to be updated just FYI
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HeeroTX



Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts: 2046
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 4:55 pm Reply with quote
invalidname wrote:
As for my own thoughts on Crunchyroll Expo, I put them in a Twitter Moment if anyone wants to read a 50-tweet brain-dump.

I appreciated the tweet-dump on CRX. One thing I'd say my own opinion on though: IMO if CRX was really "all about the fandom" then (as I said when they announced it) they'd have located it in middle America or at the very least, it'd be a "roaming" show. Slapping a new con with heavy industry support in California does nothing to endear them to their people OUTSIDE of California (which I assume is a large portion of their userbase).

As is, it's just another industry boosted con mainly appealing to the West Coast, and will likely forever be in the WIDE shadow of AX. And I say all this as a long-time PAID subscriber of their service.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5500
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 5:11 pm Reply with quote
I'm still really sad I missed Jacob's group watch of Death Note, I still had a lot of fun watching it, but I definitely think it would've been way more entertaining with a group chat screaming at that ferris wheel scene
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2434
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 5:21 pm Reply with quote
HeeroTX wrote:
One thing I'd say my own opinion on though: IMO if CRX was really "all about the fandom" then (as I said when they announced it) they'd have located it in middle America or at the very least, it'd be a "roaming" show. Slapping a new con with heavy industry support in California does nothing to endear them to their people OUTSIDE of California (which I assume is a large portion of their userbase).

Ee, chotto… I mean, I kind of get you, but if you're in Texas and I'm in Michigan, what "middle America" location would work for both of us? A 10-hour drive to St. Louis? If they located it exclusively by being close to the most number of people, a big East Coast city would almost certainly be the pick (like Philadelphia, being between DC and NYC, and reachable by rail from other coastal cities), which doesn't help either of us. Your "roaming con" idea is more viable, but begs the question of how much effort and money they want to sink into this.

One thing they made clear in the session for premium members is that Crunchyroll Expo will not decrease their commitment to or support of other cons around the country. They showed a slide with the icons of top-tier cons that Crunchyroll is a major sponsor of, including AX, ACen, A-Kon, Otakon, Anime Boston, etc., and vowed that would continue. When I've seen them at ACen, they've had bonuses like a hangout lounge just for premium subscribers, or front-of-line privileges for autographs when they brought Wake Up, Girls! over in 2014. And they sponsor lots of cons… I just checked my program from JAFAX here in Grand Rapids (attendance 5,000) and they were a sponsor of that too.

So yeah, the location doesn't work for me, either -- I was only at the con because I had to go out to the Bay Area on business sometime last month, and managed to wrangle the timing to let me stay for the weekend -- but I can't really hold it against them. If anything, we're lucky they didn't do it up in San Francisco, where hotels are $400/night instead of $150.
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 5:38 pm Reply with quote
Sympathy For The Devil.
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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 6:43 pm Reply with quote
There were a number of panels that I saw myself enjoying at Crunchyroll Expo from YouTubers and other people I was familiar with - more than most conventions that I look at, which is exceptional for their first year.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 7:46 pm Reply with quote
First off, congrats on getting the domain back.

From what Zac and Jacob said about Ancient Magus Bride, I'm guessing they haven't seen the first three episodes. Correct me if I'm wrong. Having seen the first three episodes when CR screened them in theaters, I will agree with Theron when he said in his review of the episodes that if it continues at the quality of the first three episodes, that it will be the show to beat next season, if not the year. It will become apparent whether it matches the hype soon enough anyhow.

I'd be more excited for BBB&B and Kino's Journey if I weren't concerned about the directors and lead writers. Hearing that BBB&B will do the same thing as the first and bookend it with an original story makes me even more worried about the writer's thin resume.

Male Idol anime are on the short list of genres that I pass on watching, but I think I will at least give SideM a chance. While Love Live is what got me into idol anime, Idolm@ster is IMO the best one, so I'd be interested in seeing what the male version looks like. I don't know if it will make me stick around or draw in many outside fans of the male idols, but I'll at least check it out.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 11:11 pm Reply with quote
I really want to go to CR Expo. Maybe as much as AX, to be honest. I might have to make that happen in the next couple of years. It sounds like being in my corner of the internet, but in real life. Which, sounds pretty fantastic.

In regards to Idolmaster Side M. I don't really know how much sway the name by itself will have, to be honest. Sure, it's a well known name, but an almost polar opposite audience. The male audience who is familiar with Idolmaster is probably unlikely to be interested in watching guys dance and sing, and I don't think there was a very significant female audience for the original Idolmaster either. It doesn't have quite the same cross-gender appeal, I don't think.
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Roxas4ever



Joined: 25 Nov 2006
Posts: 152
PostPosted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 11:55 pm Reply with quote
That awkward moment when you are super chill meeting big names like Johnny Weir and Butch Hartman, but you cannot keep your shit together trying to talk to Jacob after his Sunday panel Anime hyper;;

I'd love to hear what it's like for Jacob and Zac, though, getting approached by fans. I'd imagine it would be kind of surreal, since being internet personalities is a little different than being a main stream celebrity.

Crunchyroll Expo was really good. I was really pleased. It was my first bigger con (we don't get "big" cons over here in MN, surprise surprise), and my first time on the west coast, and I'd say it was a really positive experience. It was interesting how it was more of an industry con than a fan con. (i.e. More big name guests, but no fan panels, not very much cosplay, etc.) I was also genuinely surprised at how few attendees there were. I know the number that was thrown out on Friday was about 15,000, but it definitely didn't feel like that many. I suspect next year will be at least 25,000.

Crunchyroll Expo also did a lot to improve my opinion of Crunchyroll as a company. At the Premium Member panel (open to everyone who has a subscription to Crunchyroll), the founder and COO talked about their vision for the company, and what they are doing in response to names like Amazon and Netflix moving in on their territory, and it just felt really open and honest and it left me feeling really good that my money is going to this company in particular.

Also, Kore Yamazaki. She was amazing. We got to watch her work on the latest chapter of Ancient Magus Bride. That was a once in a lifetime experience.
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2434
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 5:57 am Reply with quote
Roxas4ever wrote:
Crunchyroll Expo was really good. I was really pleased. It was my first bigger con (we don't get "big" cons over here in MN, surprise surprise)

How far of a drive would Chicago be for you? Anime Central is usually the #3 con by attendance in North America (behind either Otakon or, more recently, Anime North) and is packed with stuff to do.
Quote:
It was interesting how it was more of an industry con than a fan con. (i.e. More big name guests, but no fan panels, not very much cosplay, etc.)

That upper-floor "stage" by the parking deck had some fan-panels, but it was still mostly very prominent community members like Anime Feminist or Evan Minto's "Anime Burger Time". The panel on the history of idol anime was the only one that I saw that really seemed like a straight-up fan panel.

Agreed on lower-than-usual amount of cosplay. Other thing for me was that I crossplayed on Saturday (I'm the character from Rumbling Hearts at the end of Victoria's "Bee on the Street" video), and saw only one other dude in a skirt the whole day (by comparison, there was one year at ACen where I swear a third of the Homuras were dudes).

Quote:
I was also genuinely surprised at how few attendees there were. I know the number that was thrown out on Friday was about 15,000, but it definitely didn't feel like that many.

It wasn't. At the feedback session on Sunday, the number they were throwing around was between 10-11K.

Quote:
Crunchyroll Expo also did a lot to improve my opinion of Crunchyroll as a company.

Same. Even if they were to lose money on the event (i.e., if registrations didn't cover costs), the goodwill and social media buzz probably helps them a lot. I keep saying Crunchyroll's best growth prospect is probably converting free-with-ads members to paid subscribers, and events like this could help with that.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13540
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 10:09 am Reply with quote
As of the time of this writing (8:06 AM Arizona time), Nozomi is $318,112. Because of Labor Day weekend, I see perhaps maxing out @$335K by 11:59PM Monday AZ time.
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Roxas4ever



Joined: 25 Nov 2006
Posts: 152
PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 10:18 am Reply with quote
invalidname wrote:

How far of a drive would Chicago be for you? Anime Central is usually the #3 con by attendance in North America (behind either Otakon or, more recently, Anime North) and is packed with stuff to do.


Really? I knew ACen was the biggest con in the midwest, but I didn't realize it was THAT big. I'm about an 8 hour drive from Chicago. ACen's been on my radar for awhile, but I've never had anyone to go with. That didn't really stop me from going to Crunchyroll Expo this year, though, so I guess I can't use that as an excuse anymore Anime hyper

My usual stomping ground is Anime Detour, but I've also been to Animinneapolis and No Brand Con (over in Eau Clair, WI).
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13540
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 2:00 am Reply with quote
In wanting to spread the word about the campaign, since Sunday night to
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