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I don't think they even look at birthdays. Just names and faces. Your student ID should be fine unless you've drastically changed appearance.

In the guide, I couldn't find which rooms autographs would take place. Will these be released later or did I miss it?

Also, I had a question about autograph etiquette that I hope someone experienced has an answer to. I'd like to go see Ai Nonaka, and my favorite character that she's voiced is Kafuka from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Merchandise from that series is...difficult to find, at best (also, no official English release of the anime series has been made - I'm pretty sure the subbers are terrified to work with it). I was wondering if having her sign the manga from the series would be acceptable, even though she was only tied to the animation. Would that be rude? Should I just suck it up and buy the non-translated anime?

Sorry, it was something about consistency and a single platform. It makes sense if updates need to be pushed out during con.....it would suck to update the pdf each time.

Ah, that's understandable. I didn't think of the possibility that it'd need to be changed easily. Thanks for answering my question.

The concern that folks were expressing were "why THOSE guests?"

Actually, the rumors floating around were that Nightmare might make an appearance, since one of its members would be there. No staff supported that rumor, but, at least on the forums, no one was saying "they're absolutely not coming as a band." Mostly, staff were playfully responding that it won't be Yomi, it'd be his brother, which wasn't giving us a real, firm answer because it was done in a joking manner. People got false expectations (through no real fault of the staff - false rumors suck), and responded negatively from them. That, and as you said with the Miku thing, were the only things that really needed explanation to me.

That question implies that something is wrong with the guests who take their time to come to the convention, and that is one question I won't address because it's downright disrespectful to the guests. Regardless of whether I acquire a guest or if someone else from GR acquires a guest, we will always welcome them warmly (unless they're really mean to us or our attendees).

I fully agree that it's disrespectful to complain about specific guests. I cringe when I see it happening. I mean, if you want to complain, fine, but do it in a place where guests and their agents can't see it at least - and be as respectful as possible. Whether you enjoy an act or not, there are people who worked hard to put it together and perform, and tons of people who did enjoy the act.

However, one thing that I hope Tony's stories are showing is that staff aren't doing things willy nilly just because we want to. I'd like to think MusicFest's track record shows that we are listening to what attendees want, and we are working hard to make your requests happen with the resources we have. We don't reply often times because we always get a lot, but the suggestions are always forwarded to us one way or another, and I'm doing everything I can to forge the relationships with labels and companies to make things work.

I love that Tony is taking the time to write these specifically because it does help dissolve that kid/adult relationship that I was talking about. I think that most of us are very happy when transparency like this is given to us, although I know that's not always the fault of staff for not being forthcoming with all these details (some details, like contracts, need to remain quiet until everything is set). And sometimes, giving too much information just ends up pissing people off when that information changes later (like, "we're working on getting Guest X to appear," and that guest ends up falling through).

People don't get to see the individual cogs (staff) forming the machine that is Fanime, so all they see is a machine and they treat it like a machine rather than individual people with lives outside that machine. When we get to see responses from staff like this, it is much easier to sympathize and understand. Don't get me wrong, you'll get haters either way, but I think it's nice to give staff a platform to talk about how much work goes into this.


You don't need to apologize for anything. You've been fantastic for years in a largely thankless job. I apologize that we can't show you how much your work means to us.

Sorry I derailed the thread a bit!

PDF download instructions/janky picture re downloading pdfs added
http://www.fanime.com/essentials/convention-guides/

Weird, I don't see any download instructions (Had to refresh my browser). Downloading IS enabled now, which is great, but you have to create an account to do it, which kinda sucks. I hate giving my email out to random sites :(

Do they have publishing rights that restrict you from hosting pdfs on the regular website? Just a curiosity, not a criticism.

I don't mean to sound hipster about it, but we really did know about this little trio of girls doing metal before they became a huge thing, lol. It would've been nice to have been the venue to give them their U.S. debut :(

They were my focus, but the MusicFest roster that year ultimately ended up being acts that someone else negotiated for. I still get the blame for that even when it was more like, "Since your acquisition fell through, do something with these acts." I think the only thing I ended up contributing that year was the sound check and concert schedule, but I still got ripped into for being incompetent, not knowing anything about music, not doing enough, not listening to what fans want, being lazy, etc etc etc. I just saw months of hard work go down the drain, but no one cared about that; the complaints were relentless. I can shrug it off now, but it was a tough time.

I'm sorry you had to be the one to shoulder all of the blame. I don't think this makes it any better, but I think we, as fans, were mostly upset that we were given no explanation at all. It seemed like Fanime was just doing whatever staff wanted without reason, and it felt like we were being viewed as children that weren't important enough to hear the adults talk. Knowing this story now, I am much more appreciative of your (and other staff's) efforts. If things had worked out, BABYMETAL would have been amazing. Hopefully something can be worked out that we still might see them one year.

However, I think I should also say that there were people who genuinely enjoyed the MusicFest that happened that year. It really wasn't a failure at all (though I think staff should have been more explicit in the fact that it would only be one person, rather than the band, that would be performing. That would have alleviated much of the unnecessary disappointment due to false expectations).

I remembered that there was a fan-made android app in the works and downloaded it just now to test it out. It doesn't have all the features that Guidebook has (mostly just condenses the website for easier viewing, but it has a nice list of nearby restaurants and their locations, so that's cool).

However, while checking out that app, I discovered that the developer managed to extract the guide into PDF form! Turns out, he's storing it on Google Drive, so anyone with a link to it can download and print it. So if anyone else wants it, it's currently located here: PocketGuide.pdf.


As for the release being done 3/4 days before the convention, I'm of the mind that I'd rather have it be late and accurate than early and inaccurate. There are always last-minute changes that can render the guide useless, and the longer they wait to release, the less these changes will occur as everything gets finalized. Even releasing it 3/4 days early, there were some mistakes in it (thought not as many as would have been if it were, say, 2 weeks early). 3 days is an acceptable timeframe for us to plan with, so I don't understand the complaint there.

First of all, thanks to staff for getting the program and pocket guide out early (link for those who haven't seen it yet). They're even on a flashy new website for easy viewing!

I was wondering if it were possible to get a PDF version of the pocket guide to print so I can highlight it and start planning my schedule. I think others would be grateful for one as well. As far as I can tell, there's no print option on the current website.

Thanks!

Edit: Looks like someone (Jerry Murry of the unofficial Fanime android app) managed to extract the guide and put it in PDF form. If anyone else needs it, it's currently here: PocketGuide.pdf

Edit 2: The official guide is now downloadable in pdf form! Thanks!

Wolfgang deserves a huge high-five for that truck idea. I remember seeing it and giggling, "Did they actually hire a truck to block the protesters?? Genius."

Unfortunately, they moved to the corner of the Marriott after that, directly below my room so I could hear them constantly. :(

I love these stories so much. I finally got an answer for the missing guides...poor Marie. I would have been devastated in her position. All that work. But what did you do with them after it was too late to give them out?

I can't wait to hear the story about FLOW coming back. I was lucky to see them both times. I'm glad you put your foot down to support the MusicFest, because it's truly become what Fanime is known for. I think a lot of that is due to your effort (and staff, of course).

[why is Hayao Miyazaki not at this years con]

Also why is Hayao Miyazaki not at this years con? I personally am outraged and disgusted they did not think to book him. He's a pretty big deal.

There could be several possible reasons for this. I'll bullet point them. I'm not making this to start an argument, but only because you've asked several times and I think you should have a serious response. (I am not staff, so these are only possibilities, rather than facts).

• To my knowledge he's only visited one American convention, SDCC. Unless Fanime becomes as large as Comic Con (it's nowhere near that right now), it's highly unlikely that a guest of Miyazaki's caliber would be attainable.
• Miyazaki alone would probably take up the entire guest budget.
• The man is the biggest name in Japanese animation. His schedule would probably be difficult to work with in order to get him here.
• From what I've read, he doesn't like attention. Being a headlining guest at a convention doesn't deter attention.
• I doubt Fanime has connections to secure someone like him. Relationships must be built with the right people, first.
• Where would they put him for panels/autographs? It's guaranteed that his appearance would add to the amount of attendees that go just to see him, and I don't know if there is a venue to suit that amount of people

There are probably many more viable reasons why it isn't possible/practical at this time to invite him. I'd love the chance to see him, too, but I'm not holding high hopes of it happening any time soon. And for all we know, they have tried inviting him and have either been turned down or were met with no response.

All of these tips cover most of the important points, but I'll add something that probably won't be considered by most sellers that happened to me in my first swap meet.

I was selling several used cosplays, and one of my more expensive props caught the immediate attention of one of the other sellers and he offered to buy it before the doors even opened to the public (before I even put a price on it - he was apparently going to each seller and scouting stuff out before it was available to everyone). I found out he resold it that night for probably double what I asked for it (which I set that price because I was hoping to give a fellow cosplayer a good deal and an affordable cosplay). While he's perfectly within his rights to do this because it became his property at the time of purchase, I was a little disheartened to see another cosplayer pay much more for it from him. So from this experience, if you are like me and want to sell to actual buyers rather than resellers, my tip is to be wary of people wanting to buy from you before the doors open. They could be legitimate buyers, of course, but if they're going and buying up all the best deals ahead of the public, they could also just be buying to resell at higher prices.

Yesterday, I took the liberties of putting a countdown on my smart watch. Now I can feel the hype every time I check it.


(The girls change every hour)

I'm not a moderator and I don't know what happened to your thread, but I have a theory as to why it was removed (if that is the case).

It sounds like you wanted a hangout for people with similar interests, rather than an official Fanime gathering. If that were the case, the more appropriate subforum to post to would be the Meetings, Gatherings, and Get Togethers, rather than the "Cosplay!" one. Maybe a mod tried to redirect your thread to the other one where it would be more suited and something happened where it got lost? Although I'm sure there'd be record of it, which Ewu says is missing.

I do wish that when threads were moved or split, there was something to alert the people in them, though. Sometimes I lose my posts because of this, and have to look through my post history to figure out where they were moved to. Unless there's a way that I don't know about...

I hope I'm not the only one who finds it sad that Back-On announced it before Fanime.  I could understand if the band jumped the gun and announced it months in advance, but with less than 1 month to con, we're depending on a guest to tell us they're coming.

:-[

I was a little surprised at this, too. Though I had a friend who works for a small convention in guest relations who told me that sometimes it's in the guest's contract that they want to announce themselves first. I don't think Back-On would have any way to really benefit from that kind of agreement, however...

I have a theory on why they're waiting to announce and which date they'll do it, but I'll be disappointed if I'm right. :(

When I think about about it, Ai Nonaka does have a singing or music career. So if their not gonna get another separate Big name act. I hope she'll be the one performing!

I'd love to see her do a few songs to open! A lot of her anime stuff is in groups or duets, but I don't think it'd be bad to hear them anyway.

On their official Facebook page here.

You should still laugh.  With the exception of 2013, Fanime always gets solid music guests.  That's their bread and butter right there.

Show me who suggested Soeta as a guest on the list this year.  Or the Chalk Twins.  Yeah.  I thought so.

You're right. I was mostly speaking of the MF guests because in the past, those have been the only guests that I've been interested in. They've been consistently good in bringing requested guests for that for nearly (nearly) every year.

In an attempt to not derail this thread, I'll just mention that US-based guests get requested very frequently, so it doesn't surprise me that a cosplayer and chalk artists were invited. They aren't exactly my type of thing, either, but I'm seeing those kinds of guests (popular cosplayers, specifically) more frequently in convention rosters lately - so I'd guess it's Fanime following trends. Whether they're good trends is up for debate.

Then I would appreciate it if you would mind telling me that who is. I am kindly asking you to please tell me who it is or at least give me a hint of some sort because I am reading and trying to decipher and count who it is. I've been given the impression that fanime never usually listen to our requests.

You want to know who Back-On is?  They're largely an anisong type group...though "Flower" was used in a J-drama.  They're a good group to see live, though.

I think citrus is referring to the fact that I didn't say who the guest was in my post, rather than asking who they are as a band. That's my fault. I was acting like it was common knowledge because the information had been posted by someone on the forums for several hours prior.

Of course there's always fanime never listening to us and giving us stuff we don't want or ask for.

I'm laughing at this part now, because the band they got (which as of this time, hasn't been officially announced by Fanime, but the band announced it themselves) has been requested 4 times in the span of these two pages. They are absolutely listening to what we ask for.

There's at least one that I spotted while looking through the twitter updates you mentioned in your other post. Rainbow Rumpus Party House (which...if that's NOT Homestuck-related, I have no idea what it would be) is on Sunday.

On a positive note, more guest announcements just went up!

I'm super excited for Ai Nonaka. Great job on staff for getting her to come to the US for the first time!

Whoops, it looks like the website might be wrong on that last bit of info. She was invited as a guest to Otakon in the past, so unless she didn't make it, this'll be at least the second time here. Not like that makes a difference to me at all, however. I'm just thrilled she's coming.


Aaand scratch all of that. "Western United States" is on the website. That'll teach me to read in super fast excitement!

Thank you, Erik_anderson, for putting my sentiment in much better wording.

I don't think that Fanime operates as a for-profit organization. If it did, I think they'd be charging additional prices whenever possible (for example, many cons charge additional fees to attend their music act, whereas it comes with the price of the badge for Fanime - and that badge price is still reasonable when compared to other cons of similar size). They'd probably rake in some nice revenue from that, depending on the guest, but I don't see that happening. And they make the concert available to all attendees, not some random lottery system where scalpers can make money.

From my experience with staff, they've all been very helpful and willing to listen to suggestions I've made. They've even implemented some of the changes I've suggested. But those changes only happened because I asked... If I just refused to attend without giving any feedback and said that I'll come back when they figure out and change what I don't like, I doubt I'd ever get what I wanted.

Feedback is key to positive change, and they've vocalized their desire for that many times over the years.