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What kind of complaints did people have?

Largely that the con is heavily micromanaged, with a lot of stuff happening behind the curtains in the autograph room.  There used to be a hard rule of no one being allowed in the area until half an hour before an autograph session, but that seemed to have been relaxed this year (minus the one idiot female staffer who kept trying to get people to move). I have personally witnessed some not so kosher stuff happen in the autograph area, including particular guests having complete breakdowns in front of staff and attendees over simple requests.  Another big complaint is that SakuraCon nuked their forum because they didn't want an area where people could complain and SC actively deletes any 'complaint' posted on their Facebook page.  This seems to be the new mentality when it comes to conventions; If you delete the criticism, attendees are obviously happy.

I attended Sakuracon just recently, and it seemed fine.  Generally good organization, one of the best concert setups (NO CHAIRS in the front, all chairs in the back/side, which is really the proper way to do it for most anisong guests), and the guest reception was pretty amazing for getting to talk to guests, even though the one I was *most* interested in didn't end up attending.  For my group of friends who're generally willing to travel around (and out of) the country for music/seiyuu guests, the general sentiment is we'd be willing to go back next year as long as the guests keep coming.

Having attended the guest reception for the past few years at SakuraCon, this one was the worst.  At prior venues, no one was ever kicked out because the venue shut down at 9pm.  Or 10.  Or 11.  I've usually hung around and stayed until 11-ish during previous receptions, which was great because some of the guests will stick around and tell you some interesting stories about their experiences.  I was hoping to see Mori get all liquored up; He's an entertaining drunk.  This year, SakuraCon opened the autograph area as a place for panel overflow, which was new and was appreciated.  As for the concert concern, it really depends on the con.  When AX holds concerts at Club Nokia, the entire bottom floor is standing only.  When AX holds it inside the LACC, everything is seated.  Animazement and Fanime have seats, and PMX is front row seats for VIPs while everyone else stands behind them.  IMO, having the option of sitting down is nice; bouncing up and down for a good hour can take it out on even those in good shape.  One thing I do like about SakuraCon is that they usually provide earplugs (there have been some years where it was not given).  Not that I expect a concert to give me earplugs as I bring my own, but it is appreciated.

Ah yes the nuking of forums.  My response to that is I just end up moving my complaints to twitter, where it's open to anyone searching on twitter, as opposed to a relatively closed off space they could manage instead.  I guess if they would rather we air our grievances in an even more open area, *shrug*.  I don't mind the micromanaging too much personally.

I did hear complaints about guest reception this year vs. other years but that seems to be an issue with the Fairmont being more strict.

As for seats, seats cause the audience to sit, which is a big no-no.  Especially when the guest wants people to STAND and stupid staffers still keep trying to make people sit (AX is really bad at this, and apparently Kawaiicon staff is just as ignorant).  We've made it a point to let guests know that if they want the audience to stand (which is almost always the case), they need to tell the audience to stand.  People here *really* don't understand Japanese live culture.

I have attended SakuraCon for a couple of years.  Let me be completely honest with you.  They have OODLES of problems.  The only reason you don't know about these problems is because SakuraCon deletes every complaint it gets on its Facebook page.  It also eliminated its forums three years ago. They are slow to respond to questions regarding scheduling, panels, guests, etc, and often do not respond at all.  With SakuraCon, I have always felt that their motto should be "If you don't like it, go somewhere else".  It's a very "take it or leave it" type con that favors those with cash to spend.

What kind of complaints did people have?

I attended Sakuracon just recently, and it seemed fine.  Generally good organization, one of the best concert setups (NO CHAIRS in the front, all chairs in the back/side, which is really the proper way to do it for most anisong guests), and the guest reception was pretty amazing for getting to talk to guests, even though the one I was *most* interested in didn't end up attending.  For my group of friends who're generally willing to travel around (and out of) the country for music/seiyuu guests, the general sentiment is we'd be willing to go back next year as long as the guests keep coming.

As for Fanime itself, at this point, I find myself looking forward more to my friends performing on Stage Zero than the rest of Fanime's official events, to the point I'm starting to wonder if there's really any point in buying a badge.

And I have absolutely no interest in CA and wish it'd just be its own thing at a separate time instead of diluting the weekend/making hotels harder to book.

If there are pockets in the costume I'd recommend just unclipping the badge and keeping it there and showing it when needed.

I'm basically the opposite. I go to stage zero for the performances and zone out for the game shows, which itself seem to have trouble even getting interest from people even with the prize offers.  Late night though, I would agree variety would be good if it was just people playing Portal. The sentai marathon thing from last year was fun to see randomly.

I hear ACen is having some awesome angela concerts, plus some friendly WUGers from Japan. That con definitely knows what's important.

Fanime spends our registration money on VTA advertisements apparently.

Man, I totally thought this was gonna be a Wake Up, Girls! thread when I read the first two words.

I'd be rather surprised. I mean AOD plays it with their guests of honor.

The thing is that you can do that at pretty much any other anime con.  What generally sets anime conventions apart are the guests.  And if a con continuously fails to deliver on that aspect, well, then it will just disappear into being just another faceless local con that depends on attendees making their own fun.  That's fine, but I may as well go to SacAnime or some other non-anime con instead, especially as the prices keep going up.

Currently, the only thing left that's actually unique to Fanime is the 24 hour access, and the Fanimaid performances.

I know some people doing Kancolle, and I've already seen at least one Shimakaze at AOD.  I'll probably be wearing some Kancolle shirts as well.

Sure it's hard, but if all the other major cons outside of California can do it what is Fanime/AX's excuses?

Bummer. So that means if we want a short line we're stuck with a CA design.

I'm also with Tetsuo.  Haven't been very impressed with the Japanese musical guest announcements from the California cons this year so far.

Not sure what they're doing with the $1-1.5 million Fanime is getting (assuming 20k attendees at around $50-$75 badge price) but it certainly doesn't seem to be guests.  I've resorted to treating California cons as a make your own fun kind of thing as a result but I'm probably going to start dropping California cons for other states if it keeps up.

Definitely looking to the Fanimaid performances again this year though.

Love Live: School Idol Festival (Android/iOS) - Rhythm game
Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin (PS4) - ARPG
Kantai Collection (Browser) - Random number generator ship girl collecting game

Yeah, while my question was pre-reg before, I also wonder what happened to the people who went over to Doubletree to register instead of waiting in the 6 hour at-con registration at Fanime. Did that money go to Clockwork Alchemy instead of Fanime?

So it was mentioned that Clockwork Alchemy gets its money from the fans who registered for Clockwork Alchemy. In light of the above post, I wonder how many people picked Clockwork Alchemy last year just to avoid the Fanime lines but were otherwise primarily FanimeCon attendees?

They can barely organize one con and get guests/hotels/etc. up in a timely manner.  Two cons would just end up making both cons a complete mess.

A pretty relevant article regarding anime music DJing in Japan just came out recently: http://asia.nikkei.com/Viewpoints/Culture/Nerds-can-dance-anime-culture-infiltrates-nightclubs

Here's a recorded stream from halfway into the Anison Matrix mentioned in the article: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/43338753

But I've found I generally prefer their Xi-lium events to their Anison Matrix events like the following (I'm a pretty regular watcher of the Club Mogra streams):

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/43365315
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/43369558


Probably my favorite DJ that's easily recognized is Momochi http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/41259643/highlight/471154 because she knows the dances to the songs she plays (this is from Anicrush Vol 2 from last year).

If they can regularly do 6+ hours of straight anime and/or J-Pop music, there's definitely more than enough music out there to go around.  But the thing is, the dancing/DJing done there is quite different from American styles.  What I've heard is famous/popular Japanese DJ guests who've been invited to anime conventions in the US have actually end up being pretty unpopular because people just want to do regular club/rave dancing or expect really remixed music rather than learn the Japanese-style anime song event culture, even with the DJs trying to teach them about it, which IMO is a huge shame, but whatever.

I haven't really been to Fanime's dances for a few years except for maybe what little I spent in Day 0, but what I saw at Anime Expo and Otakon Vegas in the past year has been pretty terrible in terms of either the crowd behavior or music selection.  I'm definitely on the side of people who want to hear stuff that they wouldn't normally hear if they went clubbing outside the con.

Or just do it the AX way.  Open up a few hotels for next year right after con ends.  Then open up more hotels unannounced later on in waves.  They don't cause server overloads that way and that's a bigger con than Fanime and they also use cmrhousing.  But that requires Fanime staff to be *really* on the ball.

Oh that's a good catch!  They might have discount hotels there too and then you have the option of trying a different con if you felt like it.

But the point I was trying to make is that if they're tying housing to badges AND they are literally the ones in control of deciding LOL YOU LOSE at housing (as opposed to your own personal circumstances), then they need to be willing to start offering refunds if people can't get housing after buying their badges.  This is why the lottery idea is just completely stupid.

Yes it is completely stupid to try and give everyone who wants to attend Fanime a fair chance to get a room.

A housing lottery that costs an unrefundable $55 (for the badge) that students, underage people, or other people with tight budgets have to pay first and possibly get nothing in return (because now they got no housing and can't attend) is fair?  You have a weird definition of fair and yes, that is completely stupid.

But maybe you should try reading and responding to the whole post, including the part where I give a better way of implementing a housing lottery system that doesn't require an unrefundable $55 to gamble so you aren't punishing people with tight budgets under your "fair" system.  But there's still the general problem that lottery systems can be pretty easily gamed if you're willing to do the work/pay.

Fanime is not the only con with a huge resource shortage.  PAX has a huge badge shortage+scalper/counterfeiting problem and there was a big thread right after PAX Prime last year with people arguing back and forth.  The reality is there's no truly "fair" system that will make things better.  All people are really doing is picking which subset of people to exclude (usually people will suggest a system that increase their own perceived chances), and the only true solution is to increase the availability somehow.  Which is why I've said (I think in another thread) it's time for Clockwork Alchemy to be its own thing held at a different time and free up those hotel spots for Fanime.