Hi everyone!
As someone intimately involved in the planning and execution of this event, I would ask everyone to have some consideration - for both the staff and for Yoshiki - for how things happened.
It might help to view this from Yoshiki's perspective. I am not claiming to speak on his behalf, but here's what I could ascertain...
First, he was ill all week. There was a chance that he wasn't going to be able to come. We didn't get official confirmation until the early afternoon on Saturday. In fact, we were expecting only his assistant to come! But just as his assistant was about to board a plane in his stead, Yoshiki made the decision to come. He really wanted to meet the people at FanimeCon - even despite being sick. All of us staff were touched at his character.
Second, the plane was delayed, which didn't help things. Luckily, the flight and drive to the convention center was smooth. It did take him some extra time to get composed and ready for his appearance, but that's typical when you just come off of an airplane.
Third, with his injured hand, it became apparent he wouldn't be able to do many signings. We had to make up a system with very limited time, and that was the best we came up with. I'm sorry it worked poorly, but we had to do something to limit how many autographs Yoshiki would have to do.
Why did he stay? It seemed that the panel gave Yoshiki a lot of energy. We were ready to get him back on a plane home, and booked a limo to SJC. In fact, I left the panel midway to start walking over to the Civic to wish Yuya and FLOW good luck at MusicFest. But as we were greeting Yuya, we got called back - Yoshiki was feeling really good about everything and took us up on an offer to go to dinner! Now, you don't deny Yoshiki wanting to hang out - so we booked out of there to meet him.
Yoshiki was very excited by the fans, and he immediately began chatting with his assistant about tweeting different things - eventually talking about wanting to cause "a riot" at Stage Zero. (Yoshiki is a bit mischievous, it seems ;D) Eventually his assistant left to go pick winners, and brought back two girls. Yoshiki was quite kind - took pictures with them and such, and bought them dinner.
Yoshiki was having so much fun that he actually missed his first plane. We realized he might actually want to stay the night, and so booked a hotel room for him while he was at dinner. But eventually his assistant insisted he had to go catch the next plane. We got a new driver - now headed to SFO instead of SJC - to make it happen. Just like that, he was off.
It suffices to say that it was quite the whirlwind appearance. We tried to handle things as best as we could. I know that both FanimeCon and Yoshiki himself wished that more could be done, but it was a very spur-of-the-moment thing for all of us, and we managed the best we could.
I hope this helps to explain all that went on that day. Hopefully he can come back again - we would certainly love to have him (and make more mischief!) :)
As someone intimately involved in the planning and execution of this event, I would ask everyone to have some consideration - for both the staff and for Yoshiki - for how things happened.
It might help to view this from Yoshiki's perspective. I am not claiming to speak on his behalf, but here's what I could ascertain...
First, he was ill all week. There was a chance that he wasn't going to be able to come. We didn't get official confirmation until the early afternoon on Saturday. In fact, we were expecting only his assistant to come! But just as his assistant was about to board a plane in his stead, Yoshiki made the decision to come. He really wanted to meet the people at FanimeCon - even despite being sick. All of us staff were touched at his character.
Second, the plane was delayed, which didn't help things. Luckily, the flight and drive to the convention center was smooth. It did take him some extra time to get composed and ready for his appearance, but that's typical when you just come off of an airplane.
Third, with his injured hand, it became apparent he wouldn't be able to do many signings. We had to make up a system with very limited time, and that was the best we came up with. I'm sorry it worked poorly, but we had to do something to limit how many autographs Yoshiki would have to do.
Why did he stay? It seemed that the panel gave Yoshiki a lot of energy. We were ready to get him back on a plane home, and booked a limo to SJC. In fact, I left the panel midway to start walking over to the Civic to wish Yuya and FLOW good luck at MusicFest. But as we were greeting Yuya, we got called back - Yoshiki was feeling really good about everything and took us up on an offer to go to dinner! Now, you don't deny Yoshiki wanting to hang out - so we booked out of there to meet him.
Yoshiki was very excited by the fans, and he immediately began chatting with his assistant about tweeting different things - eventually talking about wanting to cause "a riot" at Stage Zero. (Yoshiki is a bit mischievous, it seems ;D) Eventually his assistant left to go pick winners, and brought back two girls. Yoshiki was quite kind - took pictures with them and such, and bought them dinner.
Yoshiki was having so much fun that he actually missed his first plane. We realized he might actually want to stay the night, and so booked a hotel room for him while he was at dinner. But eventually his assistant insisted he had to go catch the next plane. We got a new driver - now headed to SFO instead of SJC - to make it happen. Just like that, he was off.
It suffices to say that it was quite the whirlwind appearance. We tried to handle things as best as we could. I know that both FanimeCon and Yoshiki himself wished that more could be done, but it was a very spur-of-the-moment thing for all of us, and we managed the best we could.
I hope this helps to explain all that went on that day. Hopefully he can come back again - we would certainly love to have him (and make more mischief!) :)