Fanime 2006-Feedback Thread

[blue-kun]

I really loved the Karaoke winner as well as the music performance played during the intermission.  That gal was soooo cute.  ^,^`

I really enjoyed Masako's perfomance during the Masquerade intermission. I just felt bad for her because she (as well as Eugene and JC) was really great, but not many people were paying attention.. which is fine because it was an intermission, but I think they deserve some kind of timeslot or situation where they can have a fully attentive audience!

Thanks!  Good to hear there were at least a couple of people who appreciated our performance!  ^^ (BTW this is Eugene from Luno.)

This was probably the most bizarre thing that happened to me while running Fanime's Masquerade. There was NEVER intended to be an "intermission" -- none -- we were introducing the next performance, a set by Maiyu and Luno (her band) and it took a few moments to set up her equipment. Everyone on my staff was in absolute shock when everyone started standing up, talking, walking around, etc.... right in the middle of the performance. We were honestly horrified. I was running around the theater myself trying to get people to sit back down, especially the cosplayers who were wandering around with non-peace-bonded equipment which was completely prohibited and against various violations. When I went to go ask the union staff to bring the house lights down to indicate that this was not an intermission, I discovered the lighting/sound union theater staff had disappeared on a break-- they figured since everyone else was getting up that it was a scheduled break (even though it was not in our script or our program).

I later found out that Fanime has traditionally had an "intermission" the past couple of years. The last Fanime Masquerade I attended was still at the old Santa Clara Convention center before they moved to the new SJCC, and we never had an intermission in Santa Clara, so I did not know that enough people expected an intermission. We almost did not make our cutoff time (11:00pm) because of this "intermission"- Maiyu-san had only planned for 3 songs and we already had people staged backstage for the next skit.  Fortunately, there was not this confusion with the USA Musume presentation, but I feel awful for Maiyu and Luno about the situation that I couldn't do anything to "fix".

My sincere apologies to Maiyu and Luno and to the audience as well that there was this accidental miscommunication with the audience and obviously with the union staff. We will NOT be able to afford time for an "intermission" in the future with our limited schedule in the theater based on blocked union time, so instead of making it confusing by having a special performance in the middle, we are just going to slog through all the skits next year and put any special peformance at the end during the judging break.

My apologies to all,
Marisa
Masquerade Coordinator

Whoa, that was indeed news to me, because even I thought our performance would be during an intermission...  But perhaps that misunderstanding was a good thing which helped keep our spirit up: We did notice people moving around, chatting and even leaving but didn't get all disappointed and upset at it, because, "Oh well, it's an intermission!"  :p

Thank you again for your help and support!  ^^/

Eugene

P.S. Oh, and:

sorry, that might be her stage name? i couldn't really hear what she/the group was announced as, but i know her as masako through someone else.. ^^;

Yes, Maiyu is Masako's stage name.

[kam_islash]

To answer that fellow's questions
1) Because they screwed up things for the lower staff, and because two years ago they allowed one of the worst animes ever to be shown at H night. You know which one I mean.
2) Because its in violation of the second amendment.

I am not trolling I am speaking my honest opinions.
It just so happens that some people find it offensive.
I'm not about to be some kind of Politically Correct guy for the sake of a few people who might disagree.

Say what you will but that doesn't change the fact that rap and anime don't mix.

Just listen to some lyrics of rap and tell me that its in any way artistic.
Try telling me that Eminem encouraging people to hate their mothers and kill people is good.
Or what about how they frequently refer to women as bitches and hoes?

[yOna]

I am not trolling I am speaking my honest opinions.
It just so happens that some people find it offensive.
I'm not about to be some kind of Politically Correct guy for the sake of a few people who might disagree.

Say what you will but that doesn't change the fact that rap and anime don't mix.

I'm sorry but that's not a fact, that's your opinion. So please leave it at that, and don't speak for everyone.

[Jakotsu guy]

Just listen to some lyrics of rap and tell me that its in any way artistic.
Try telling me that Eminem encouraging people to hate their mothers and kill people is good.
Or what about how they frequently refer to women as bitches and hoes?

Name ONE Eminem song that encourages people to kill their mothers.

Name one song about hoes.

[Rey-Rey]

I understand honesty and all but there IS such a thing as tact.

If you had a not-so-slim S.O., you wouldn't go around saying she's fat, right?

[Blue-Six]

Who were those guys, anyway?  I heard a little of them as I was passing by, but didn't recognize them.  :o

[milkmandan]

is it possible to have constant updates for the events that change at the con?

you know how sometimes a video room will get its schedule changed around or something?

during the week of the convention can we have someone post these changes onthe website ahead of time
or even provide the memebrs with an updated schedule so that we know whats been changed?

i remember going to a video room, and had to READ the schedule changes right in front of the room. which got annoying.

[mkaida]

Can we please pertain to feedback about the con.. and not other forum members?

I would like to know what we can fix about next year, and what was good about this year so that it stays in for next year :)

[RyuHayabusa]

kam_islash: This is your 2nd warning from me. If you are going to post closet-minded comments, please do not.

To all other members:

Please give back on topic concerning the feedback to the con. If you guys have a problem with kam_islash, please take it off the board and through PM  thank you.

[jinnai_animexcalibur]

Dude, theres more better Rappers beyond your MTV picks.

By being ignorant, you lose.

Try some real rappers like Biz Markie, Del the Funky Homosapien, Beastie Boys, Mike Shinoda, Mountain Brothers and Chan.

...notice i also mentioned indie asian-american rappers...and they get respect in the african american community.

Hip Hop comes in many styles, and you're only choosing one style (Hardcore/Gangsta Rap) and ignoring the rest... NOT a good way in trying to win us OVER.

If you want to discuss further styles, we can in a mature respectful way. If not, you're trolling.

Above all, its more than music, it's ENTERTAINMENT. I don't see you hating on horror films or porn flicks.

I'm out, enough with trying to educate the ignorant and the racist.

:END RANT:

[Leishu]

Back on-topic:

I conceptually loved Stage Zero. It seems to be the beginning of a really great and unique and, most importantly, fan-centric trend for Fanime. Its execution was shaky, but only because, quite honestly, it was an extremely experimental process. From the watcher and passerby's perspective I'd say it was a smashing success and I look forward to what new and exciting things the minds that created it can produce.

[EternalMalachi]

I don't remember where exactly, but I believe that Anime Improv was suggested.  I've seen it done at a smaller con and it was pulled off quite nicely, for the most part.  There was plenty of audience involvement as well, in the form of cheers and boos when the actors did not follow character.  At the con I went to it was put in its own room, but I could see this being a Stage Zero activity.

And I really didn't pay much attention to Stage Zero, aside from watching a few questions at the Quick Draw game show thing.

I think that if Stage Zero is to continue then there should be a schedule of events and a synopsis of shows in the Fanimé booklet.  And I don't mean to have full 24 hour schedules, but like key events every couple hours and random stuff in between, ya know?

[otakuapprentice]

personally, i didnt think stage zero was going to be really good. Boy, was i wrong. i ended up spending the majority of my time there, which caused me to miss a large number of panels. thats why i plan to be one of the hosts for nect year's Stage Zero. hopefully that happens.....

[Blue-Six]

Did that "icon" (eye-con?) just explode the thread?  :shock:

[the otaku god]

Feed back


Drallcome said : Having Hentai night every night was great this time!

Response : We are glade u liked it. We have fun bring it to you fans.

Darkstar said : I know you guys like to have a lot of different media formats, but you have to make sure that you have the machinery to work with it -- even if you get a bit submarined. Happened to the room I wanted to watch Friday morning and again for Midnight Madness.

Response : yes I know. We are so sorry about that. We will fix this problem so that next year you and everyone else won’t miss the anime they had there harts set on seeing. That is a promise!

Kazuko said : and it was a good idea to put that border for ID checking for the yaoi and hentai rooms :3

Response : yeah we do this so u can see whats playing in the rooms with the doors open and chose if u want to see it or not.

Uzutake said : For the yaoi marathons and such...Gakuen Heaven and Gravitation arent rated R or anything...they're Shonen Ai, not Yaoi. Maybe have a Yaoi marathon for people 18+ then have a Shonen-ai one for people ages...13+? Ionno, but I'm pretty young and LOVE LOVE LOVE yaoi.

Response : yes we know some titles are not 18+ but since some are we feel it needs to remain 18+. Also we are not in charge of hot yaoi nights. We leave this to experts so if u ever want to thank the people who do this pls thanks yaoi con. they do a great job every year!

EternalMalachi said : there was a mistake on Saturday night that said "Geneon Presents Akira 2." Got all excited for nothing.
Video Programming:
Not too thrilled this year. There were a couple Asian Live Action shows I enjoyed, but no much in the way of animé. I'm guessing something happened where fansub animé is no longer allowed to be played? Two years ago I was running from room to room all day to catch new animé I wanted to check out. Was much more laid back w/ only a couple shows I had to catch. This year, however, there were only 2 shows I wanted to see: one was the Shadow Chronicles preview that I missed because I was feeling ill, and the second was a typo on the schedule. -,-` All the rest of the animé that played was basically stuff I can just borrow from friends. *shrugs*

Response : hehe yeah that was my fault on the akira 2. what happen it was written in my notes akira 2hrs40mins. So when I cut it out I took akira and accidentally added the 2. so I’m sorry about that.  Now as for fansubs u are just not looking for them cause if u ever gone to our website would have seen our awesome list of fansubs. http://www.fanime.com/video/view.php?cat=4 here is the link. We here at fanimecon pride our selves on the amount of fansubs we show. We have not forgotten were we come from. Also remember this we have the most video rooms then any other anime con.
U know it really hurts me when people say we don’t show fansubs or we sold out. we are a con that live for the fans and stand tall on our saying “by fans for fans”!

YoureMyHiro said : 3. A wide variety of screening rooms. It was great to ALWAYS have something to resort to if the dance ended or the Gaming crowd had died down and you just wanted to get in some good viewing.

Response: thank u! its so nice to know we were able to make u happy.

EternalMalachi : If the animé rooms could have a set up like the Live Action Asian Cinema rooms, with what show showing at what time w/ a brief little synopsis, that would be most helpful, I think.

Response : we wish we could do this but it would take up to much space since we have over 200+ tiltes showing during the con. But if u noticed we have all the info on the website. A lot of people printed out all the titles we were showing from there home computer. Just an idea.

FanFicGuru : Video Rooms- Good, some of them weren't that heavily guarded as far as badge checking, but for the most part it was checked. Good selection this year, and the Bleach marathon definitely was a hit as well. Bravo.

Response : well we don’t check for badges for the video rooms. We do how ever check for ids for events that 18+.
We are happy to to see you enjoyed the titles we were able to bring to you. And yes bleach was the bomb this year.

Kyokun : Decent selection of fansubbed anime. I was especially happy with Rozen Maiden.

Response: well what would make fansubs better for next year. We did show over 130+ fansubs. As for rozen maiden we are glade u liked it.

ip136 said : ++ I was sooooo happy about the whole previewing stuff on Thursday for the pre-reg people. Showing The Maxx was 'boss' and very 'rad'.
++ The viewing rooms were large and awesome. It was great the diversity of anime that was being played

response : yes someone went to our thur night showings. U like the uncut ver of the maxx? That had to be one of the best American animes ever made. It nice to see u liked the titles we showed. Did u see a lot of the anime u never seen before like studio 4 c, angel egg, or hell girl?

Zouri said : Viewing rooms: 5 Stars: Great Selection and large rooms. The Bleach marathon was fun and I was surprised to se Yakkate Japan there too (I didn't get to watch much though, I was dead tired). Air was definately fun to watch and the One Piece movies are always a blast.

Response : yes!! Another satisfied customer

Darkstar said : Back to video: Almost wish they'd have people (not all the time) at the Info booths, especially with all the fansubs, that one could go up to and say "I like X, Y, and Z animes. What do you recommend from all these fansubs..." Didn't watch as much as the anime itself as I would want to.

Response : well u could ask them Or the staffers at the video rooms. There’s some Food for thought.

LastElixir said : -Anime selection - I think this was a bigger issue imo. There were 2 huge flaws in the selection.
One being the selection itself. I understand that there are people with different tastes and understandings toward anime, lots of hardcore fans, old skool, newbies, the works. What I don't understand is why is there series like Yugioh being shown. I would definately call some of the selections made rather "low end", and could've been replaced with more quality series that people can gain from. Maybe it was just me, but it felt like there were more empty chairs than the last couple of times I went to fanime.
My second issue is, why so many marathons? Don't get me wrong, great series were marathon-ed like honey and clovers, school rumble and bleach. But I think theres limitations on how much episodes one person can take. It might have been better if more shows were shown in pieces rather than sets of 25. People can take breaks without missing anything. It kinda sucks if someone gets tired after episode 10 and have to miss the rest.

Response : well u have to understand we are trying to make lots of people happy. The yu gi oh eps were showing were from the 1st season from japan and if u were a fan of the ser u would know it was never shown here in the us cause they said it was to violent for kids.
As for the empty chairs if u stayed in the rooms u would notice they got filled over time. Now for the marathons, we do these for the fans of the ser.  Its kind of a way for them to get together and enjoy the ser they love. Maybe exchange stories about what’s different between the tv ser and manga or about there favorite characters. Its Like I said its for the fans.

Milkmandan said : I know this is a stretch since only a minor portion of people will care, but for viewing anime that is NOT licensed. It would be nice if you guys put which fansubbing group's version of the anime you are showing. Its a little extra, but it does help those who care about groups translations and what not.

Response : we can see what we can do but this is the only complaint I have ever heard about this. If there is a big cry out for it will try to  do it.

Wasteland said : My main complaint is about video rooms 6 and 7, which happened to be showing 90% of the anime I wanted to watch (yeah, I'm a shoujo addict). If there were more than around 10 people in the room, some of the people will not be able to see the subtitles, since the subtitles were at a lower height than where people's heads were, so I always had to end up sitting on the floor, or slouching a massive amount to the people behind me could see. If you're to use those rooms again next year, even though it would make the visible screen smaller, I'd recommend tilting the projector up, so that the bottom of the visible screen is just above top-of-head level, then most everyone should be able to see the subtitles comfortably. Anyway, it was still a nice improvement over the TV that was plugged in one of those rooms last year!

Response :  haha u remember the tvs sets last year. Well this is the problem we run in to every year. I find it best to sit in the last seat near the center of the walk way or sit 2 seat back.

mDuo13 said : Video Rooms 6 & 7: Having projectors instead of TVs was great. Unfortunately, those rooms have rather low ceilings, so when anyone of somewhat average height or taller sat down, everyone behind him or her completely lost sight of the subtitles. It was extremely frustrating. I also encountered video problems in rooms 6 and 7 more than once: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha had terrible playback issues. It was like the file was corrupted, because it kept looping back, displaying artifacts, and stuff. Also, I went to see Hitsuji no Uta, and they didn't have the DVD at all, so they just showed more School Rumble. Okay, I have nothing against School Rumble, but it's a lot easier to find than HnU! Oh, also, I was upset when at 6am in Video Room 1, Macross came on instead of Haibane Renmei. I was hoping so bad for it, too!

Response : yes I know. We did have problems with the dvds players since they were not compatible with the avi file. We are really sorry about that and I assure u we are working on it so it doesn’t happen next year.

Glitch said : One big complaint I can't let go.Some of the viewing rooms didn't have the schedules up outside the doors.Which meant we didn't know if their had been a change in schedule.I came into one room expecting one thing and seeing another

Response : well they were but people steal them. Sorry about that. Will see what we can co about making it better next year.

E-Chan said : On the Video Rooms and Scheduling again. At '05 Fanime there were schedules on the video room posters. They told you what would be played in that room and that room only. I found those more useful than the booklet because it had times and a brief synopsis. I didn't notice that this year. Was I just blind?.

Response : we can see if we can do that next year. Remember though it cost a lot of money to do that and we do have 11 rooms.

[Tony]

Then explain the delays every year.  There are Union people running the board directly on stage right and I am certain there was a union person at table in the back.

I just explained. =P There's delays because we have to use the Union, and the only way not to use the union is to pay an arm and a leg or something.

[milkmandan]

OK here is a LARGE STRETCH suggestion. but damn if done, it would prove very nice.

I personally am the type of person that CAN handle browsing the web on my little phone with a 2 inch display.

SO with that said.  would it be possible to create a mini Fanime Con website made for mobile web users, and this page be constantly, by the half hour, be updated with current changes?

For example a video room gets its schedule changed.  Somoene with mobile web can check the Fanime Con site and see the schedule change.

The site doesn't have to be fancy, just something that is simple quick and informative.

I would totally go nuts over that >_<

[EternalMalachi]

EternalMalachi : If the animé rooms could have a set up like the Live Action Asian Cinema rooms, with what show showing at what time w/ a brief little synopsis, that would be most helpful, I think.

Response : we wish we could do this but it would take up to much space since we have over 200+ tiltes showing during the con. But if u noticed we have all the info on the website. A lot of people printed out all the titles we were showing from there home computer. Just an idea.

I meant to have it set up room by room.  The live action rooms had individual schedules for each room and THOSE schedules had the synopsis.  Basically, whatever was in LA Room 1 was listed on a big board outside LA Room 1.  Why not have a set up like that for the rest of the video rooms?

Plus, since its not just a normal schedule, I don't think there will be as high a risk of people ripping it off.  Unless of course the Live Action rooms had that particular problem and I just haven't heard about it.

[ADORABLEAZN06]

anybody likes to watch k drama here!!!
i got addict to one of the korean drama
is called "im soory, i love u"
its very good!
i l\really like the singer in the story, he reminds my friend!!!!

hahahah!
they look hella alike!!!!!

[Mr. Wendell]

I humbly thank everyone for the positive comments about Stage Zero.  I also humble thank everyone for their constructive comments and suggestions to help improve Stage Zero in the future.

Stage Zero in its first year had its ups and downs, but from the many comments I have been reading, it has been an overall success.

Let me try to address some of the concerns:

We did have some ambient light issues during the day, and sometimes it was hard to see the screen, and hopefully we will be able to rectify this issue next time.

As for being annoying...I know I was a little like that, but hey, no offense taken.  I had to be a little loud and obnoxious, because we were trying to get people to notice us.  Happily, we've learned some valuable ways to bring an audience to our Stage.

I must give a lot of love to the other hosts and staff of Stage Zero.  Many thanks for their hard work, especially our Stage Zero director, Sean Barber, who worked diligently to make sure things worked well throughout all four days of the convention, including pre-convention preparation, convention setup, and the ability to be versatile with all the changes that we put onto Stage Zero in coordinating with programming.

Programming was very tough to manage, as many things got rescheduled or cancelled, and moved about, or brought to us.  Hopefully the staff will try to be able to rectify that issue, and I think an open schedule for Stage Zero would be something to consider, since our Stage was so random, partially by us, and by changes in programming.  We constantly had people coming to us to make announcements for their panels and events, which threw us off our game big time.  I know that we'll definitely try to find a way to get those announcements and changes without having to torture the hosts with sudden changes.

I don't believe that we currently need another host, because as far as I'm concerned, I would give much priority to the hosts of this year's Stage Zero as we were only in the first year of this experiment, and they deserve a second chance.  I'd love to have Seanie back.  If Rey-Rey was willing to trek up to our part of California, he's got a spot here.  Also much love goes to Oniko, having busted her butt with stage direction, and even becoming an unofficial host of Stage Zero, and if she wanted to be a host again, her spot is reserved.  What I really would like to see are more people to help Sean Barber and running the soundboards and technical stuff, because he was more overworked than us hosts (although it is a very draining experience).  We just need helpers so that our hosts will be able to have their rest, or have time to be their usual chick magnets selves *coughRey-Rey&Onikocough*.

We did have some traffic issues with Stage Zero.  We appreciate the call to have seating for our Stage, instead of having people sit on the ground, and we will try to find ways to make sure there is suitable space to walk around the audience should there be big events at our area.

As for the rappers for Stage Zero, I know that made for many complaints, due to some language that isn't kid-friendly.  Much respect for Sean Barber and Jae Kinetic for holding it down for these artists.  However, I do not have much negative feedback for this.  As a person who appreciates anime and hip-hop, I do not have a problem with having hip-hop at an anime convention, but I'm sure the staff will work to make sure that it'll be a selection of artists that will appease the non-ignorant and open-minded Fanime crowds, or at least something that won't scare the little children.  At least we could have had Shing02 (rapper who did opening for Samurai Champloo, and lives in Berkeley... just an idea)

I appreciate that people actually want to see J-rock, J-pop, J-hip-hop artists and their music videos on Stage Zero.  I would love to show more of these music videos, but our resources are limited.  That being said, if anyone is willing to provide us with Asian music videos, we'd be more than willing to take them in and, after screening them, we'd put them into the video rotation for our Stage.  Like Jason said, we're not all anime music videos...

I wouldn't mind a J-rock/J-pop cosplay competition.  That might be an idea to consider to have for next year.  Then again, I think I speak for a majority of the hosts of Stage Zero: if someone is more than willing to cosplay as Koda Kumi and wants to perform for our Stage, I'M ALL FOR IT!!!!  :lol:

Gaming tournaments would be cool, but I have to think about the technical issues for that, and I'll have to talk to the directors.  It just, for now, would seem too much for technical support to handle, and I trust that the gaming room does a fine job hosting those tournaments.

People seemed to like the "randomness", and with the changes in programming for our Stage, we did our best to keep our audience entertained.  We will try to bring more random games, and will try to find ways to entertain you with our antics and overall good times.

Once again, thank you all for making Stage Zero a success, and we hope that we can improve for next year.  Keep the feedback coming, and we shall keep an open ear.

Oh, by the way, that guy who got kicked is okay, after speaking with him the morning after.  He had a pretty nasty sore, after endless kicks, a sword hit him "there", and a superkick as hard as Vanderjagt kicking the winning field goal for the Pats.