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The forum user of Pyronikari (aka Mikey Pham) used to be quite a pain here on the Fanime boards. Now it looks like his hidden crimes finally get exposed. He has been grooming and abusing young girls for years, and one of his victims has come forward.
https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sraem1?fbclid=IwAR1TWddr2GMMUQYYiF7PSRJVR-lVVY3j_wqHHd1yLzUmkuTr09F7ONoivnU

He hasn't been on here since 2014 but only if I could time travel. I hope eventually he gets kicked out of as many conventions as possible.

Big yikes. I had some forum run ins with him at times, and back then I was more then a little cringy and naive about some things so it dose irk me a bit. Still that is some crazy shit.

This just means we'll have to celebrate twice as hard next year. It'll like two Fanimes going on at once!

Got to bring twice the cash as well

 I am deeply confused

FanimeCon is canceled this year because of Covid-19, but should be held as normal next year

Anime is certainly the focus, but other genres and mediums certainly do have their representation here. Plenty of cosplayers in costumes other then anime characters. Panels can range from a whole host of different topics beyond anime, including presidential campaigns for eldritch horrors.

The crowd can get pretty dense, but I don't think extremely so. In the Concenter crowd movement is fairly well managed by staff.
Parking is about as bad as you can expect it to be in downtown San Jose. You can certainly find some if you arrive early, but otherwise, it may be a bit difficult, and regardless a bit expensive. Unless you are planning to get a hotel room (which I do despite being a local, but being your first time may be a bit much), using the transit system is probably advisable.

Beyond that, the event is open all 24 hours of a day from Friday to Sunday, as well as Monday Morning and Thursday Night for preregers. Be prepared with cash on hand for the local restaurants which will be a bit more expensive than average do to being in downtown, or bring some food of your own (I would also advise against utilizing the food courts in the convention center itself unless the price is no object or you are trying out one of the specialty stands in the dealer's hall). While most of the stuff in the dealer's hall is anime related, a very near sizeable chunk of it is Video Game merchandise, and certainly, almost any nerdy pursuit is represented in some fashion, so if you are interested in that be prepared to have a way to store anything you purchase (I believe there are lockers somewhere around the convention center for such purposes) In that regard, also be sure to check out the Swap Meet Thurs/Fri night. It is a good place to potentially find some old and rare stuff.
Also, be prepared for the general weirdness you will experience. A lot of attendees are quite flamboyant and energetic and tend to be doing weird stuff often enough.

There was a Jojo themed one in 2018, how did that one turn out?



https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2018/05/01/show-off-your-stand-at-jojo-escape-room-in-california

It was fun. It is quite a bit different then other Escape Rooms I have participated in, the same premise of solving puzzles is there. They did have to make it work for dozens of people at once though.

Got it done.
Probably will be good to go for Hotel runs.
Usually aim for stuff that is not The Marriot/Hilton, so rooms are usually failry easy

I'd say that Silver Island was underwhelming. An okay idea, with not-so-good execution.

- The "advance tickets" idea, I'm fine with. Keep that.
- Starting the events at 8pm felt weird. Especially for the screening rooms.

Eh I don't mind the start time besides it conflicting with other events.

- Night Market: you can go to Artists Alley and get a similar, if not the same, effect. It didn't even have a Fakku booth XD

That was my take as well. I was expecting 20 inch Dragon Dildos and got Artist Alley with some nipple slip

- Casino Night looked cool at least. The table games seemed to be more Vegas casino style rather than Indian casino style.
- Adult Game Room: meh.
- Didn't bother watching the stage shows. No further comment.

I didnt check any of those out other then passing by them. Didnt even know where the Adult Gaming Room was.

- The HMV show was run just fine...but something about the line for it, I didn't like...

Didnt get to go, our driver was too lazy to get into the car and we were going to stand in the shuttle line.
The general hentai video rooms were easy to get into. No real complaint on the setup except perhaps the rooms being too small for larger scale events.

Overall, I say bring the Hentai events back to "the mainland." Take back the Marriott rooms, lol. But what should take its place at the DoubleTree, you ask?  ;D

I agree. It isnt like they segregated the 18+ panels that were just Hentai Video Rooms with commentary. What did they even use the Marriott rooms for this year?
The DoubleTree just cant host any large events given the distance and its apparent capacity. Odd events are fine (perfect location for the JoJo Escape room last year, as an example), and perhaps the Casino setup they had was alright too. Don't know what they could shift over there though. The Manga Lounge? Artist Exhibit (if they are still doing that)?

Alright I would like to extend this thread for 2020


Please, Do NOT Do "Silver Island"

I play FateGO and Kancolle, though I still only run the latter on PC as was the original intent.

All depends on how far south that pattern shifts.  Unfortunately, with weather like that it really can't be accurately predicted until just a couple days out.

You arent wrong, the current report says it just going to be partly cloudy then sunny for the weekend. But who knows it might change to rain all weekend  :P

Hmm the report has shifted down to chance for showers on Fri/Sat  :(

https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/USCA0993:1:US

Looks like Thursday we will be having some light showers, but the rest of the weekend should just be cloudy, which isnt too bad.

Did anyone get the feeling this plan is an attempt to phase out the 18+ material in general?  I mean, I get that the staff want to try and separate the all ages stuff and the "adults only" stuff, but sending it all the way out to the Doubletree just seems like a death sentence. Why couldn't they have hosted this stuff over at the Fairmont or somewhere more local to the Convention Center, I wonder?

I got the same vibes yes, though I am sure it also has to do with the con just growing in size due to the increased attendance every year. It is understandable too, but I also agree it seems a bit overkill. Smaller events should be what is being hosted over there. I guess it will be interesting to see how it turns out at least though.

The Shuttle situation was my first thought when it was announced. Even if they did increase the number of shuttles going back and forth, the sheer number of people that attempt to go to the big events like hentai nights would easily strain the route beyond usability. Hentai Nights do have large lines that have and do extend the length of the convention center itself. and with the added traffic of people going back to their rooms, or going to other events at the double tree, I just can't see it working out.
This will especially be fucked for people trying to get back to their rooms, and very annoying when people waste half an hour or more to go see a line wrapping around the hotel building.

Of course, I could be wrong, and maybe people will just be so turned off by the idea that very few people will show up to the events because of the distance. Though that is also almost as bad as overpacked busses. I can understand the need to expand for the ever-growing Con, but any main events need to be in the main convention center.
I guess we will see what happens though, maybe we will be pleasantly surprised.

mkay

Oh its been an issue for years and they have attempted to use a variety of systems to prevent people from abusing it. I was surprised it took them as long as it did to limit it as they did last year, and it makes sense to require registered names on the room to be the only ones to be able to get in. Pushing the loyalty program in is kind of overkill if they already have the names registered, but it isn't a big deal. The loyalty program is easy to sign up for and doesn't require any credit card information or the like, at least when I signed up for it after reading the line on the breakfast. Just get any people you know will be in the room on the roommate list and get them to sign up (that is if they want breakfast).

Same here, very smooth, even when I needed to change some details.

Just a heads-up that emails for Hotel Booking went out. Mine says 1/16 @ 7am.


Good Hunting to all of you.

There was only one guy selling tacos. Should have been more. Especially since word is that La Vic's took a nose dive in quality.

La Vics seemed fine to me.
They did skyrocket in price over the last year, however.

Generally the same as previous years, Hyatt had spacious rooms and decent elevator travel. Notably though, this year they trained the vetting system for the breakfast again this year, opting for tickets dated for specific days instead of armbands. Not to bad, but was bad is that they only gave enough tickets for 2 people per room, so half a full room could not go to breakfast. Very disappointing given previous years.
Also one of my rooms had an AC that was on the frits and only worked here or there (it was making an odd struggling noise). It wasn't too much of an issue, but the room could be a bit warm at times.