Forum - View topicJapan Expo USA 2013
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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That's like saying only San Diego (or CA) can appreciate Comic Con because if other cities really wanted a show with A-List Hollywood types and Comic Industry insiders they'd all have them. (many states have "Wizard World" and smaller level shows, that's the equivalent to other anime cons vs. AX)
AX could've had better (and has in the past), no argument. But, Any debate that JX had a better lineup than AX is purely personal preference. If we drop the American guests (AX had more, but really, who cares, minus maybe Felipe Smith (is he in US now?) all the US guests at BOTH cons could be seen at a half dozen other shows) JX had the head of Studio Bones, AX had the head of Production IG, plus the core of Studio Trigger. JX had the one actress/singer, AX had two seiyuu who were more prolific. JX had Sadamoto, AX had Noizi Ito. (granted, Ito has sone a couple of American cons, but Sadamoto went to a Fanime in the past, I'd prefer to meet Ito, but I'll grant possibly being in the minority on that) AX had a small edge on volume, but I'd really call it a wash. You can say JX had a better "experience" because you didn't need to fight crowds, but that's more a function of disappointing turnout and would not be valid if JX had the "expected" 15k attendance. I'm not saying AX had a great lineup, I'm just saying JX didn't blow my socks off either, and in that scenario for MOST people: known&familiar > new&unknown.
BS! Houston/Dallas/Austin (Texas) could match culturally, I'd wager Denver, CO could also, although I've never been. Chicago & New York could as well. Does San Fran have "better" versions of the cultural content? Probably. But since it's being presented to AMERICANS (and theoretically with the INTENT of spreading the culture) I don't think the subtle variation is relevant. Plus, if it is, then SHIP IN TALENT FROM CALIFORNIA. That is MUCH easier than shipping in guests from Japan and STAFF from France. I'd expect there's a half dozen other places that COULD pull it off also, but I don't have first hand experience to say.
Then the top level orgs were incredibly short-sighted and deserved to fail. Under that rationale, you are not bringing anything NEW/better to the equation. The only reason to pick that area/time is because you think you are BETTER than the established shows. Using the "built-in advantages" of the region is not being "better" it is merely "keeping pace". I still think it should've been in a different region, but even if you think the advantages are just so ridiculously large, then why not hold it in the fall or winter? There is ZERO good reason to hold it in California in AUGUST aside from pure arrogance. |
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tuxedocat
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You can count me in for volunteering if this happens. I would like to be a part of the first indoor/outdoor con. |
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Brohimesama
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That would imply that Comic Con only happens in San Diego. You're missing the point though, I think. The bay area is a tried and true location for Japanese media conventions, so it's a safe spot to have a first show. If you have taken a look at our site, you'd see that there are 4 Japan Expos in Europe. Every con needs to start somewhere. I'm not saying we will or will not expand to other locations in the US (because I have no idea if that is the case or not), but we might.
Like I said, in my opinion. As for Felipe Smith, I believe he came out for JX and is returning to Japan if he has not done so already. I'm not sure how you can compare Sadamoto to Ito because they are on two totally different levels. Sadamoto is a Gainax founder and did the character design for Eva, Summer Wars, FLCL, amongst other works. Ito has done good work but I would not put her on a platform near the level of Sadamoto.
If you have supporting evidence of this I'd love to see it. If you can provide evidence of significant Japanese culture (namely more than in the bay area) in Texas, Denver, New York, or Chicago I'd be happy to retract my statement. If I am wrong, then I would agree that there are better places to have hosted the first show.
That doesn't work as far as I know. Shipping in Talent from CA: If I had to guess, I'd say we don't pay them, and they don't pay us. We get people to show off stuff (free), and they get to play to a crowd they probably would not play to normally. Then again, some things would just be very difficult to transport if you're not local. Koto, ikebana, and katanas seem very difficult to transport by plane. French staff: From what I understand, the French team works year-round on conventions. They have lots of experience and helped us iron out a lot of kinks that we would probably would not have been able to fix without their help. After watching them work, I can say with certainty that they are better than most other convention workers that I've seen. We only really took the best of the French team for year 1 for infrastructure and at show maintenance, but the rest of our staff and crew are local Japanese Guests: I don't think you've done a lot of looking on our sites, but I think the guest list for JX USA and JX Paris are very similar. I suspect that there is some sort of agreement that binds JX Paris guests as JX USA guests as well.
Except the culture thing.
Or because the bay area is a safe pick and the only other convention that happened in CA that weekend as far as I know was Kcon.
How do you figure? We're not claiming to be the best, but we are different than other shows in the area.
Here are a couple reasons why now is a great time to have a show:
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Vapors
 Posts: 139 Location: Bay Area |
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Just wanted to point out, but the largest concentration of Japanese people are typically in Hawaii while Bay Area, NYC and LA have the next biggest populations (don't know which order). Furthermore, there are 3 Japantowns in the US (and 5 in North America). Those Japantowns are in the Bay Area (San Jose and SF) and LA. The other two are located in British Columbia in Canada. If I was going to throw a cultural festival, I would probably want to put it in a region that has a high number of the population whose culture I would be showcasing. You would hopefully be able to draw from a larger number of cultural groups to showcase as well as a population that could come out due to cultural pride. While this could be considered "lazy" it probably is a safer bet than if they had just plopped down in some other larger city. Probably New York City or LA would be the only other viable target city. Hopefully, timing wise they could choose another weekend. With SDCC, AX and SacAnime all within the same two month span, it does make for a crowded con calender. With Wondercon gone to SoCal, maybe they could considering moving the event towards the Feb/March time window? |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I think we need to agree to disagree, but if you're enjoying the discussion (or at least get a kick out of replying then I'm fully ok to keep going). I do want to just make two notes though.
I fully granted that I could be in the MINORITY on Ito, but I was giving MY opinion. That said, over 10 years ago (when the only credit to her name was "Fushigi Yuugi") I saw Watase Yuu outdraw Kia Asamiya by a RIDICULOUS margin. One had a prolific career and a well established track record, and the other was responsible for a current fad. Realistically, there's Hayao Miyazaki, Naoko Takeuchi, Akira Toriyama and maybe a few more people that you could count on 1 hand, and after that, it's all personal preferences. Sure, one may have more "gravitas" and "prestige" than another, but it's really just a question of "how popular is their work right now". Haruhiko Mikimoto did work on some of the most pivotal titles of the 80s, I'll bet if you had him at a con right now, most people wouldn't know who he was or care. (which is really sad)
I never said those areas had MORE, I said they could comparably MATCH. (by which I mean, groups that present at a convention, I won't deny that the bay area likely has a higher population of Japanese immigrants and related items, but heck, if that's the defining factor, may as well just host the thing in Hawaii) |
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Brohimesama
Posts: 10 |
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I'd love to hear more about the match then. I have friends in Texas and Denver who would love more Japanese culture stuff outside of cons. |
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Dfens
Posts: 459 |
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For all we know the heads who run Japan Expo got a good deal on the SCCC for that location and time of year. All I can say the weather was perfect not too hot or cold, couldn't ask for better weather. At least it wasn't a blazing summer. And Texas come on who wants to fly out their in the heat wave state all year round.
You can't just plop JX in the middle of no where, you need a state and region with a ton of local anime fans, and if the con is worth it people will fly in to attend. I don't think LA would work that is Anime Expo's territory and AM2 tried and failed. Santa Clara Bay Area wise works since it's 50 miles or so north or south is within driving distance, and even LA is a do-able drive for some, and that fact their is a major airport close by. Could the SCCC work again in the future, yes it has it's quirks but the convention itself has a lot to work on. Some positives. The venue itself has more than enough room for all the attendess, vendors, booths, and what not in one location. It's comfortably air conditioned with plenty of bathrooms. I liked how everything was linear that from one end to the other the layout made it easy to find everything. Parking is free and the area is not a traffic nightmare that is the downtown San Jose area. The ticketing/badge system is pretty much down to a T, no 3-8 hour lines of stupidity because they can't get a badge system that works. Also the fact you can't sneak in for free while others paid good money to attend. I didn't have to navigate the sea of people with cameras that only come for the cosplayers and don't even pay if they did their asses where stuck outside. Now we have the problems and complaints. I know I've said it many times but the autograph system has to be revised or rewritten people getting more than 1 autograph for the same person and locking out regular people from getting a shot at one is total BS. My best friend when I told him the nightmare of the first come sysyem knew it was a sham to beging with. Thier needs to be more vendors, and artist ally booths if they have to lower the lease for the space then do it, get them in their. As for the vendors I don't know why they didn't localize them to one location insteand of sticking them all over the con. More industry booths find a way to convince them to come and represent their perspective companies. Have more viewing rooms only 1 viewing room was kind of lame I know they must have had a only licensed shows policy since their was no fansubs. The theater was a real theater but the materials used sucked. At the Wolf Children Movie it looked like it was a SD copy because it looked like shit and it was compressed since both sides of the screen were chopped and solid black. Now this might have been Funimations fault on the copy they provided for the con I don't know. Line up some real music guests, people will pay extra for them if you can land someone popular I'm talking about what Anime Expo managed to land talent. Guests you need some more real show stoppers, Sadamoto was the cream of the crop but would have liked a few others as well. Like which was mentioned earlier in the thread I was kind of upset that those 2 one of kind Sadamote art pieces where not autioned off here. When I saw them hauling those things away I was like what we can't even take a closer look/take pictures. How about bidding on them for charity. I know my savings would have taken a hit but depending on the price I would have been willing to swing up to and maybe a little over $5,000.00 dollars. Whatever you do you need to get people in the door and make it so jammed packed with things to see and do that they want to come. If they are going for a tradeshow/culuture theme I don't know if it's going to work unless they get some hook that will get people excited to attend. Other than Sadamoto attending I can't think of anything that set JX apart from other established cons. Their must have been some deal or connections to get him when other cons can't. I'm kind of itching to see what other guests they have lined up in the pockets that normally appear at the JX Europe. I know the lack of food in the area and hotel accomidations problem can't really be solved. Even though for the most part I had a good time and I'm a 10 minute drive away unless they got say someone like Shouji Sato to attend as a guest I don't think I would attend again and might put up with the headache which is Fanime since their is more to do and more people to hangout/socialize with. |
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Brohimesama
Posts: 10 |
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Okay so lets be productive instead of essentially shit talking good guests, Dfens.
Who would you like to see in future? |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I admitted at the outset that Denver was a shot in the dark based on 2nd/3rd hand info. But for Texas: -Dr. Susan Napier teaches (taught?) at University of Texas, and she's a researcher of Japanese cultural exchange specifically related to anime industry items on par with Fred Patten and Helen McCarthy -While we may not have the VOLUME of restaurants, we're close on the DIVERSITY of Japanese cuisine. In Austin alone we have a really good Ramen-ya, Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, Onigiri, shabu shabu and more. -The local JAS has a wide array of cultural items from immigrants, including: Ikebana, Koto, Taiko drums and Kendo (I'm sure they do other things too, these are just the ones I've personally seen) -The Austin botanical gardens has a good relationship with sister city Oita, and has various flora and landscaping put in place by visitors from there -In the past, the JAS of Houston worked with the consulate to bring in some Japanese guests for lectures, including Yasuhiro Imagawa and Shinichiro Watanabe -During SouthBySouthwest every year Austin has a "Japan Night" where it's all Japanese bands playing sets for visitors -I don't know much about dance, but I know there's been traditional dance performances at the local "cultural festivals" |
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Fi3o
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I bought a regular 3 day pre-reg ticket, attended all 3 days, and did the short survery about my experience, but I don't think that was enough. I'm pretty new to conventions, and think this was so much better than the only other convention I went to with friends: a cheaper AnimeOnDisplay in SF. I was bored out of my mind there. I live in San Jose, so I was really glad there was a reputable convention with a nice list of Guests in Northern California instead of Southern California!! There's so many different cons there, why not here??? We seem to have better weather here too. Plus, I'm still afraid at the thought of driving in LA traffic or getting tired traveling long distances @@
I also looked at Fanime events/guests, but it didn't give me as much incentive to attend as JX with Iwadare, Iwamoto, Kozaki, Minami and Sadamoto just the 1st year. They all happen to be be people I want to see. I guess we have to thank the Europe counterpart for this right? ^∇^) All the other guests I didn't really know about turned out to be great too! On Friday I was able to go through the hotel from the convention center parking lot, then around the building to the entrance. I got stopped by staff on Saturday, and had to walk around the hotel & convention building to enter on Sat. + Sun. I didn't like how there wasn't a convenient way to cut across straight to the entrance. If there was a shortcut, then not enough directions were given... I think the Santa Clara Convention location was pretty bare, deserted, and inconvenient too. And wonder what made the Japan Expo staff choose this location instead of the Downtown San Jose location? Although traffic around there can be a nightmare, the event is Fri-Sun so it shouldn't be much problem. There's also many more eateries around in Downtown San Jose than Santa Clara. Was it because of cost? If JX had been held in SJ, would the parking have been free? I have never been inside the SJ convention center so I'm not sure it would have been a better location. Even if it's not SJ, I really hope JX will be in the SF bay area next year for easier access to Bay Area residents. Because again, SoCal gets all the good stuff, it's time for NorCal to get some more too!! Q__Q I don't have a deep pocket, and only window shopped so I was glad there's Japanese companies like JFC Foods, and Yakult giving out free samples of their products and others promoting Japanese culture. However, I do feel bad for the artists & vendors since it didn't seem like they're selling their stuff. It seemed like only Martial Arts demos brought a crowd over to the young artists/creators corner. Attendence rate for many panels were sad too... ó__ò) Please do try to attract more attendees and industry companies next year! I found out about JX only 2 weeks prior on Kinokuniya's website. LOL Get rid of Aramark or any mediocre & overpriced food vendor, and do something similar to the Food Fairs Mitsuwa does, showcasing food from certain regions of Japan would be nice. I look forward to that Kukuru takoyaki shop that comes once a year etc. Have some activities like a summer festival or any other festival people in the states don't see often might attract families or general audience too. I only ate breakfast and snacks I brought all 3 days because of overpriced food, and leaving to get food would mean missing out on events I wanted to attend. I hope there will be delicious food with okay price next time. I noticed on the 1st day that only QR codes are used, so what was the barcodes on the ticket for? = __=) I hope there's some way to speed up the checking/scanning process, especially for the autograph ticket queues because the waits were painfully long on Saturday when most people showed up. I printed out my QR code too small so the scanner had a hard time recognizing my QR code. The staff could have put tape on the ground to create a border for the right & left lines ahead of time to prevent people in lines from blocking paths. Also, post giant visible notices (like at the entrance) about which line to get into for autograph tickets or have some staff tell people where to go because some/many? people were confused about which one to go to. It'll probably save some time, and people won't have look for names pinned at the lines. 8 x 11 papers are way too small if you're far away, and in line. I think the autograph first come, first serve system for pre-reg ticket holders turned out to be alright for every guest except Mr. Sadamoto since there wasn't as much people as expected. Premium ticket holders really got the advantage there. He is just too popular and the chance of winning at 15% is pretty low. I'm glad to have had the chance to see him even though I wasn't fortunate enough to win both days... JX should make the premium benefits better next year, because I didn't see the need to spend an extra $50 other than to hopefully ensure the chance of getting Mr. Sadamoto's autograph. That bag of goodies turned out to be cheap stuff, and the prints were also available at autograph sessions. (T __ T) If attendance does go up next year, I hope JX will work out a way for regular ticket holders to get a chance at first come, first serve for all the guests too. There can be a session where premium ticket holders are basically guaranteed a ticket, and another first come, first serve session for regular ticket holders ONLY, and maybe with less slots. Maybe make a limit of 1 time per day per guest, and max of 2 times per guest. The fact that there wasn't nearly as many attendees as projected this year made my experience as a regular pre-reg ticket holder better because I got most things I wanted. Buying the pre-reg ticket and being able to enter 1 hour earlier than people who didn't seemed to have worked out well. The giant paper at the autograph desk lines said we're only allowed to get an autograph only once during the whole expo. But from previous responses on this forum, it seems like we can actually get more autographs from each guest as long as it's on a different day or method (1st come or draw)? Am I right? If we could have even one more chance to get another autograph from a guest of our choice, it would've have great. I really wished I had brought my other stuff and asked for a Donyatsu sketch from Mr. Kozaki since I only brought one item for him to sign... and assumed we can only get see a guest once because of that paper. :/ Japan Expo kind of failed on giving the latest final information, or maybe I just didn't fully understand if we can actually get extra signings. I missed out on that 2nd chance if we can get more than 1 ticket for each guest. That paper also said only official products can be signed when in fact, we can also bring/buy a shikishi board to be signed. There was even some people who asked for autographs in notebooks etc. I think JX should be clearer about what can be signed other than official products for poorer people like me who don't have the money purchase every single official product. I don't think I encountered any French staff other than the one at Sadamoto's autograph line that said there was 15% chance of winning; so I thought the staff were pretty nice. I didn't know some allowed people to get 2 tickets at once, I wish I had known, that would've saved me some time. I noticed the same staff working at the same places, but I didn't know they had to work long hours without much break. Otsukare Sama Deshita~ (─‿‿─) I hope you guys got something worthwhile too... I think the Japan Expo size this year was pretty small scaled due to me attending all 3 days. I found myself walking around being bored on Sunday while waiting for panels or demonstrations I wanted to see since I've already seen the booths, but there's probably many more people who attended only 1 or 2 days. All I got was plenty of free posters and some freebies. I wore a jacket at all times since the AC was keeping the room at a nice cool temperature. My overall experience was pretty great because the guests happen to be people I'm interested in seeing and not much crowd. I definitely want to see JX to grow, but at the same time I don't want to fight crowds either. Like waiting in line for guests like Mr. Sadamoto, and getting disappointed. Someone should've announced when the first come, first serve tickets ran out. (= __=) Schedule-wise, most things worked out for me since I attended 3 days and had more time looking at booths. I was pretty much only interested in Autographs, events going on at the Main Stage, Hall Stage, some Game & Live Programming and Martial Arts. For me, I would want to see Kozaki again just to get him to draw donyatsu for me, and sign other stuff. I would like to see more video game music composers, character designers, anime producers, mangaka, singers, bands with some caliber... ◔◡◔) Namely Suda51, Hideo Kojima, maybe more video game companies/studios... only Sega with Hatsune Miku Project Diva was sad! Need Namco, Sony, Nintendo, Atlus, Square Enix or anything ~__~ promote lesser known games and stuff, maybe games that seem like it will never be localized... ／l、 ﾞ（ﾟ､ ｡ ７<Nyaaa? l、ﾞ ~ヽ じしf_, )ノ Finally, I hope JX will post more pictures or videos, especially the finished drawings, and panels done by different guest,on FB or whatever and announce it if not already. My pictures suck in quality compared to many others I've already seen. I would like to add as many pictures as possible to my digital archive!! |
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Fi3o
Posts: 4 |
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I forgot to mention in my previous long post, but I would like to see Light Novel authors, Visual Novel authors added to the guest lineup in the future too. It seems like they're being overshadowed everyone else? I'm sure plenty of people enjoy reading light novels, but barely any get official translations. If possible, I would like to see the illustrators for their novels as well. Although I can't say what the turnout will be if they do show up...
LN: Ryohgo Narita, Nisio Isin, Fuyumi Ono, Yukito Ayatsuji (Naoyuki Uchida), Kazuma Kamachi, Satou Tsutomu, Otsuichi (Hirotaka Adachi), Shoji Gatoh etc. VN: Ryukishi07, Type-Moon, Nitroplus, etc. Mangaka: Hiromu Arakawa, Hiroyuki Asada, Takashi Shiina, Minagawa Ryoji, Takehiko Inoue, Gosho Aoyama, Takeshi Obata, Yusuke Murata, Kinoshita Sakura, Mizushiro Setona, Kusunoki Kei, Morinaga Ai etc. Some original story writers/Mangaka duo: Masashi Asaki/Shin Kibayashi, etc. (can't think of anyone else right now) Some authors that publish online like Gangan Online, Famitsu, UraSunday, Mag-Garden...etc. ONE (モブサイコ100, One Punch Man) Yusuke Murata's version made his One Punch Man more popular Karuna Kujou (アホリズム aphorism) |
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Asrialys
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You were only allowed one autograph per guest through either method each day. However, what I heard on Friday from another attendee (and it sort of implies it on the website), each person was only allowed one autograph per guest per festival. Basically, only one chance. However, I guess this was false. I did get two autographs from Kozaki from Friday and Saturday's sessions.
What they mean is that if you're going to supply an item related to the guest's works, then it must be an official item. For example, you can buy an amazing illustration of Rei Ayanami from Artist Alley and expect Sadamoto to sign it. Autograph boards and notebooks basically have no label and are often fine. I don't know if that was true for Sadamoto, since the staff felt it necessary to make a point that all items must be official merchandise. As far as I know, none of the other guests' lines received such verbal notice.
Technically, that shouldn't have been allowed 
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Ashurachan
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There are several smoker areas inside the con. It takes up four different halls, and there's plenty of space between them to accommodate smokers, plus in the middle of the main hall there's a garden ^ ^ |
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exedore
Posts: 20 |
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We looked into doing something with VN's this year, but there were a couple problems. First, the decision to keep the con family friendly meant we didn't really want people whose primary output was 18+ to have to do a panel and not be able to talk about it - because that sort of thing regularly comes up. Second, getting Japanese guests immediately around New Year's or Obon is always difficult, both because of family obligations and Comiket. Third, an increasing amount of the Japanese VN industry participates in BGMFes, which is a VN-based music festival started by Overdrive's Bamboo. Fourth, VN's have no traction in France. Now, if we'd been in March or around Halloween, #2 and 3 would have been far less of an issue. Source: I am con staff (posting own opinion only) + ex-US VN worker. |
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dracilcegon
Posts: 6 |
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Lol what "real music guests" are you talking about? AX had exactly one this year and that was Porno Graffitti. AX was frankly quite disappointing and unless they get better guests I'll give next year a miss. But my understanding is that the guest relations person responsible for the great guests they had before now works for Otakon so we'll see what happens next year. JX to their credit got a group that while not mainstream, does have proper wota cred and also appeared at JX France, which is more than can be said for the other California conventions I've attended this year. |
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