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Seriously I have dealt with the same abysmal communication from fanime for the past few years and it seems each year it only GETS WORSE! And without any objections or input from the staff that even operate the forums, I feel that they really don't care about the attendee's feedback at all. I don't even know WHAT fanime has improved during 2015 in my POV, other then slightly better guests and slightly better panels. And ever since being a forum member I have stated excessive amount of times the reason I go to Fanime was originally for the guests and panels. And I will also state the reason why I still go is because what else is there to do during the memorial weekend? Trust me if there was a convention I could go to by flying and that wouldn't have me get up early in the morning or be on the plane for 8-9 hours I would. I would gladly switch to animazement if I could but I can't due to personal life reasons plaguing me and the amount of work it takes to get to the east coast.

Fanime has tried to change things by changing the hotel registration and while it MIGHT have made things slightly easier, we STILL face the same crashes and the same problem that has been plaguing the convention for the past few years. And they also answered questions as to why Fanime 2012 was absolutely terrible. Even if some questions have been answered, that convention attendees have long asked Fanimecon. That, however does not improve the convention. The same complaints are still pouring and I see many angry attendees infuriated by Fanime's lack of communication.

No guests announcements, no event announcements, information that's been held back from us that would have been vital to know. Just EVERYTHING!!! I could state the reason why Fanime is getting so much backlash but most of you who follow social media would know. I am just plain SICK AND TIRED of the lack of communication from the staff. Even if they do answer they all sound like excuses. " The reason why a lot of announcements are late because we have a lot of "pending' announcements awaiting final confirmations. We dislike announcing things as late as we do but it is something outside of our control." Oh really? can you please state why this is out of your control? Fanime you have had 6 MONTHS to improve or change things but it's clear to me that you guys still refuse to listen! Without any input from you staff I just simply think it sounds like another excuse.

If there is one thing I can say is this. All of us attendees are paying customers, and we should be entitled to good customer service in which Fanime is CLEARLY NOT PROVIDING! Communication is a key aspect to customer service. This is one thing I do not understand about the convention. How hard is it for them to communicate and provide answers to attendees that have very important questions? How hard is it for the moderators to answers question or at least attempt to get more info, considering at ONE or some are here everyday. I paid 50-60$ for a badge in which I won't get a refund and while I have a hotel room. There is no reason for me to go if do not hear anything about guest announcements before the deadline of hotel cancellations which is the 29th of April. I already feel screwed over so I might as well cut my losses while I still can.

You can call me salty, hater or whatever but all I can say is I'm simply a forum member first and foremost and I am here to provoke conversation or at best. Get some information from the staff. So... I want to know what your guy's thoughts are on Fanime's communication.

This is what I never understand about the convention. How come there is never any sponsorship? During 2014 I think I saw some sponsorship panels. Or are industry panels and sponsorship completely different? anyways, If there is some pride in having a big convention without sponsorship I think it's time the convention changes it's thinking. (note yes I know complain a lot and I still will continue to do so. Just in more of a calm fashion if I can)

I can don't see that many cons in doing in getting sponsorship unless someone can correct me otherwise. Anyways, 1. With sponsorship you will be able to bring guests otherwise you might not be able to get at all. The attendees will be happy and be more willing to fly or drive to the convention if sponsorship can bring in more big name Japanese guests. 2 What if it was big name companies like Good Smile Company willing to sponsor and sell their products? People love their products and how fast they sell is amazing. Or anime companies like Aniplex or Pony canyon. I've been to conventions like Sakura-con (Almost the same size in attendance as Fanime now) and AX. Because of those events Sakuracon was able to get Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Voice actor of Kirito. If anything company sponsorship can many things. If it means giving the company a nice, flashy vendor booth selling their products then I be more happy and 3. Who doesn't like learning the hottest new anime coming soon or the next figurine being made?

I've seen what sponsorship can do and it's amazing so why not start getting some now or at least start slowly implementing it? I can give an example Touhoucon 2015 was a small convention that focuses solely on the game series were able to bring in the biggest name guests related to the series as well as non-related touhou guest but is known for other things. While they had an excessive amount of sponsorship unentirely related to the convention in the vendors hall and some booth areas but at the same time they must have used the funds from unrelated sponsorship to get guests related to the game series itself.

My point being is that other small conventions are slowly implementing sponsorship and I don't think that's a bad thing. Unless if the staff or other members of the forums have counter-arguments I'd be more then happy to read them, as all I want is discussion.

I wanna clear things out of the way. I already know my reputation around these parts isn't very good to say the least but that's mainly me complaining all the time. I get it now. It's going  nowhere unless it's the majority. it took me a while to get this into my head. I still have a desire to attend the forums and discuss. So I politly ask all of you to please give me another chance. I'm not going to complain anymore. I just want to discuss normally with all of you. (Note I am going to still attend the convention. I just won't complain)

Anyways, it's something I wanted to talk about. many other conventions these days have been closing down their forums. With the exception of a few. Big conventions like Sakura-con, Anime Weekend Atlanta and recently Anime Expo. What reason do they have for closing them down? Forums provide many benefits and I don't see that many downsides to them. If staff can't provide the information then other con attendees can provide it. They also provide a pleasant experience to discuss with other congoers.

I am looking foward to this year's AX and I know that it's gonna be WAY better then fanime 2015. As much as I admit I had a very good time at this year's fanime I know I'm going to enjoy Anime Expo 100 times more. Even a couple of the industry panels I went they were all promoting AX and the awesome guests they're getting.

Though what I am worried about is how AX is going to run this year. They've screwed up a lot of things before the convention is starting. Communication wise they're doing a better job but it's still very bad. And to those that went to AX 2014 it was the worst year I ever experienced when it came to organization and was also the year when AX had lied a lot, send MANY attendees to the hospital, abusive and clueless staff and pretty much everything you can think of was bad. if I wasn't a premiere fan that year I would most likely have the most horrific vacation ever.

What I'm hoping this year despite the online screw ups that it'll be executed fairly well this year. The only thing that I'm really anxious and dreading is on how I'm going to get a premiere badge for 2016.

To those that are going to AX share your thoughts in what your looking forward to this year as well as your worries. 

With the extreme lack of guests announcements or updates about anything of the convention. I am seriously concerned that there won't be a musicfest for 2015 or if there is going to be one, I'm expecting that the music line-up is going to be abysmal like 2012 or the 1st act of 2014.

Musicfest is the ONLY thing I remember each year (with the exception of 2012) and one of the only reasons why I even bother driving 2 and a half hours to stay around for the convention. If there is no musicfest or with an abysmal line-up, then this will be the last straw for me attending the con as its practically the entire reason why I attend fanime. 

So, after spending countless posts of nothing but constant complaining, it's clear that the con or staff is not registering my concerns. So instead of spending my energy on complaining, instead I decide to make a thread about what other conventions you guys recommend. If any of you guys do have any recommendations or alternatives I would greatly appreciate it if you post.

Hey fanime! As of this post its april 9th 2015. Are you just going to keep using your ink so hard that you can't extract anything anymore or are you EVER GOING TO ANNOUNCE YOUR GODDAMN GUESTS!? Oh and news flash everybody. Fanimecon has already announced some of their guests for their steampunk convention counterpart. Yet we have not gotten a SINGLE announcement for their anime convention which it originally started and is their cream of crop. And their has not been any announcements for the convention in general. I know all of you staff are reading this! I know one of you is online every single day! If you are. Why don't you provide answers why guests announcements haven't been announced. Or anything about the convention has been updated?

Oh wait... no matter how many times I ask none and I mean NONE of you are willing to answer! Is it because you can't answer not without getting in trouble? Thats right you never clarified anything like that because nothing has been provided. This is what I think. Either the staff is super lazy or you KNOW your guest roster is going to suck and you won't announce it until very late!

Join the staff you might say to see if I can change things or make a true change? As far as I'm concerned one is already doing that for us and has not made any progress so far.

"i'm really digging how you never answer any of your attendees on any form of social media. you handled your line fiasco, but how about you do something about this lack of communication?"

"Soooo... Guests?"

"Any updates on guests? Or who's getting into Artist Alley? The convention is seven weeks from Friday."

All quotes from facebook, They complain about two things. No guests announcements and LACK of communication with any of your fans. And if you value your fans then COMMUNICATE THEM AND ADDRESS THEIR CONCERNS! But no, as from what I've seen my vocalization is going to remain fruitless and the staff will continue to ignore me. So go ahead and continue to ignore me fanime. Continue to disappoint me and other certain fans that feel the same way as I do. Don't want to disappoint me? Then address and me prove me wrong!

Seriously, I am sick and tired of almost everything being late and the only thing that isn't late were the opening for hotels. Which in fact were opened very early. The past few years fanime has posted everything late. Some of you may be excited for the convention even when programming hasn't been posted yet. But for my case I am REALLY sick and tired and I'm also, very angry. I've already complained several times about it , but I'll emphasize it again. I am ESPECIALLY sick and tired of guests always being announced very late and somewhere close to the end of April when the con is about to start at April. And I want to know why. Why is everything about the convention always late? Programming, registration for certain things and pretty much everything else.

I payed 55$ for a badge and several people, including myself. Have been struggling just to get a hotel room at the convention. So for a convention  with a very large attendance and with "1000" staff why are we still dealing with everything being late? This is highly unacceptable and I think all of us deserve better.

This is what I notice. Whenever a convention decides to announce things very slowly or not announce anything 1-2 months prior to when the convention stars. That means either the convention is hamstringing things together or they're is doing this on purpose to hide something until it's inevitable to announce whatever they have. This just means the staff or the convention knows with what they have is crap or just not confident in general. And I have this feeling for the past few years.

If anybody is paying attention to fanime's social media, when have they announced ANYTHING? I'm looking at facebook and twitter. the time is the same.

December 18, 2014 " Our Housing and Registration websites will be down for scheduled maintenance from 8 AM to 8 PM PST on Saturday, 12/20."

January 10 " Interested in performing on Stage Zero? The information on how to do this is available on"

March 25 at 3:05pm " We are accepting video entries for our Fanimecon Anime Music Videos. All rules can be found here:"

Is that seriously it? Is this all the announcements they have been posting? From what I'm noticing other conventions already have posted or announced stuff like this. At most even when they're not posting frequently about something. It's usually always something noteworthy. Like maybe a guest announcement in which fanime has absolutely failed to provide even though the convention is drawing pretty close.

Seriously every other convention I'm looking at already HAVE at least 1 guest announcement of some sort, or if anything they post several things showing that they are getting ready for the event they're trying to prepare for their fans.

So why ISN'T fanime doing the same?! I have barely seen any improvement over last year when it came to announcements or programming in general. Yes, fixing the registration line was the best. But that's not enough to accommodate for what I had to deal with in order to be able to attend 2015! For a convention that has over 1000 employees, they're not exactly showing that they're ready for the event. Considering the rare announcements, terrible registration with the hotels and the fact that they have not posted a SINGLE guest announcement when several other cons have already posted guests they're having. It shows those cons are capable of running an event and being able to satisfy several attendees. Fanime has shown barely any competence that they can run their own convention or satisfying a lot of their fans, which is why quite a few current attendees attend to their competition. I wanna know what all the staff have been doing for the past few months because clearly, they're not exactly showing they've been doing the best job of running things. They're all nice but I've yet to see any remote competence.

I want answers. I want to know what the staff have been doing and why everything has been barely announced. Why they haven't posted a single guest yet. Because at this time, I feel that fanime is just hamstringing everything together. I may live close by to fanime and it's only a 2 hour drive but you can be surprised how demanding just driving for 2 hours is. And since the convention is located in San Jose, its no picnic walk driving around. I'd pay 55$ And this is all I get from fanime? I expect better and want better. Considering, on how the staff that run the social media for the convention goes, I highly doubt they'll even answer me. Or even the forum staff well answer me.

I've been pessimistic and cynical ever since I decide to join the forums, and I have valid reasons too. A lot of attendees are excited for fanime but others are also extremely dissapointed for what the convention has been offering or doing. And I will continue to remain this way until the staff or someone changes my way of thinking.

Surely I'm not the only one that thinks of this? If any of you want to correct me or argue my post, feel free as there is a reason why I made this forum in the serious business section.

I've been going to Fanimecon for 2007 and always had an immensely good time. But ever since 2011 the convention has being bringing me mostly disappointment after disappointment. And even though it's 2015 and the convention hasn't even STARTED. I'm already becoming disappointed with the results. This is the second time the hotel registration site crashed and its even worse then last time. Not only that, in my opinion most of the guest roster for 2014 was absolutely TERRIBLE compared to the previous years. It was almost as bad as the 2012 guest roster. Possibly even worse.

The only saving grace fanimecon had during 2014 was their musicfest. I was incredibly disappointed with the first act. I found it to be extremely cheap and it's someone you would see at a much smaller convention. And overall disappointing. Trust me I was not the only one who was disappointed. I literally heard at least one person booing the first act. Which has NEVER happened in any of the previous musicfests. If someone's booing then it's clear fanime is doing something wrong! But thank god Home Made Kazoku made everything up for it.

I might as well also give my small feedback about fanime 2014 since no one had made a proper forum for it.

Pros: - the main act of musicfest

- The vendor hall and much more organized and what looks like an even bigger artist alley

- They FINALLY fixed the registration line!

And... that's pretty much it.

Cons: programming for the first day SUCKS! I was so bored and I had nothing to do most of the time. So all I did was shop at the vendor hall and artist alley. But oh wait! That probably benefited fanime since I'm spend A LOT of money there! Because of how bored I was. I think that effected me spending more compulsively then usual...

- This was probably fanime's 2nd worst musicfest yet. And I say 2nd because at least they had a super amazing act. in the 2012 one, fanime pulled a giant middle finger towards everyone and even lied to their fans.

- Like I said in the top. The guest roster was terrible and we got some guests NOBODY cared for or even heard of.

- The effort it took to get a hotel.

And so this brings up to my point and the original topic I was going to discuss. I apologized if I rant but I felt like I had to get it out of my system.

And so my question to all of you is. Is Fanimecon even worth going to anymore? I've been going for so many years now but I feel I should just cross fanime off my list and find another convention that has a better guest roster and OVERALL more organized and better overall. For example one forum member from another convention website that he/she was so dissapointed  that he/she flew all the away to North Carolina for animazement and was not the only one. Quite a few fanimecon attendees did the same. And I might as well start doing the same. What do you guys think? is the convention worth going to? Or should I take my business elsewhere. If yes it's not worth going to. What other conventions do you recommend going?

Yeah... what are the chances of ANY of our suggestions being taken into account? With the past few years with guests I NEVER even heard of or are just simply easy and cheap to get. I'm still very cyanical with what guests we're getting this year.How bout people in anime industry NOBODY has a clue who they are? Or maybe we'll get some American voice actors that hasn't even gotten a noteworthy role in an awful long time? In which at that time no one will care as well. Simply from the give past. I have a feeling some of the guests were there JUST to fill in the void. And you know what the funny thing is?                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Sacanime gets WAY more and BETTER guests then fanimecon has during the past few years. 2011 was the last year that what I considered Fanime ever had a truly magnificent guest roster. Each year the convention gets bigger but is it getting better? I'm starting to think no. It's been much harder to even get a hotel now and each year I haven't seen many guests that I'm truly excited for. I swear if I don't see any names that many anime fans would know or truly adore. I'm taking my business elsewhere.