I mean only 2 out of 4 days have passed, but... sorry to say... this year's Fanime is a huge let down at least for me and a couple of my friends.
The first huge let down was that no schedule book was provided to members like previous years. I mean I can understand if Fanime is wanting to go Green and all and save paper by not printing it on small booklets, but almost every info desk had little to no information on schedules. I mean the karaoke schedule were printed in the main Fanime Handbook... could have spared another 2 pages to print the schedule there? The mobile site was somewhat helpful, but wifi isn't offered everywhere in the convention center and with hotels charging way too much for wifi, it was impossible to know what the schedule was. Not to mention, lots of panels and events were canceled with no updates except on the mobile device website.
Another let down was the fact that a lot of fun panels were deleted off the schedules. Some I guess with valid excuses that's understandable, but others were just canceled with no reason. And on the topic of panels, were there always only 3 panel rooms... I could have sworn there were way more panel rooms than just 3... I guess it's just me and a couple of friends who think this year the panels were far less than previous years. Again on the panels... not much variety.... majority are repeat panels from years before with minor new info. I guess I can't ask for much. Some of the fun panels worth going were scheduled at late hours where most people are too tired of going or not wanting to wait for minimum 4-5 hours for a panel... (And I don't mean the hentai or yaoi) Then some of the good videos are scheduled early in the morning... I mean I just stayed up to 1-2AM finishing this late panel.... drove home, showered... sleep by 3AM the latest...and a funny and cool video worth watching starts 10AM... (so... get up at 8:30 - 9... breakfast... drive back to con... yada yada...) 6 hours of sleep is fine for many people but staying awake 18 hours of constant walking, standing, holding in that temper to punch that person blocking your way... (seriously... don't block traffic!) you get tired out very fast. And being tired... you get irritated easily...
Another that I personally didn't like were the removal of many video rooms. In between panels with nothing to do is for videos. I know this is Fanime... meaning majority anime... but the Asian Video Rooms were my favorite and were very popular previous years... the asian video rooms were always half to 3/4 full previous years. This year... only 1 room.... not much good videos offered and practically empty everytime I passed by or went in. I didn't really bother with the anime rooms so can't really say much there. (As some people say... you don't go to an anime convention to just watch anime. You can do that at home. :D [i guess asian films are an exception?])
Third let down... though I guess was expected... (as previous years) Horrible.. and I mean horrible crowd control. I knew it was going to happen but I was hoping there was at least some control. But Saturday... during the rain... The main entrance... impassable... it was virtually impassible without getting a little physical and shoving people out of the way. (I'll admit it i had to get a bit rude trying to get in) People taking pictures... I mean... honestly go head and ask for pictures, but have some courtesy to move to the side and out of walking traffic... Many times... we see cosplayers and photographers blocking entrances or exit. I mean I ran into people (literally bumping into them) and cos-players many times because the halls were virtually impassible. I mean I don't want to be a photo bomb nor do I want to be in your picture... but when you have other people sitting next to the walls and photo taking happening right in middle of traffic... it's not gonna be a happy ending...
It's probably just me who is finding this year a let down... When the schedule was released a couple days before con and I got to see the panels... I was already a bit let down by the non-interested panels... but other factors made it worst... This is mostly my last full weekend fanime.... If panels are worthy next year... i guess a day pass for me... :D
The first huge let down was that no schedule book was provided to members like previous years. I mean I can understand if Fanime is wanting to go Green and all and save paper by not printing it on small booklets, but almost every info desk had little to no information on schedules. I mean the karaoke schedule were printed in the main Fanime Handbook... could have spared another 2 pages to print the schedule there? The mobile site was somewhat helpful, but wifi isn't offered everywhere in the convention center and with hotels charging way too much for wifi, it was impossible to know what the schedule was. Not to mention, lots of panels and events were canceled with no updates except on the mobile device website.
Another let down was the fact that a lot of fun panels were deleted off the schedules. Some I guess with valid excuses that's understandable, but others were just canceled with no reason. And on the topic of panels, were there always only 3 panel rooms... I could have sworn there were way more panel rooms than just 3... I guess it's just me and a couple of friends who think this year the panels were far less than previous years. Again on the panels... not much variety.... majority are repeat panels from years before with minor new info. I guess I can't ask for much. Some of the fun panels worth going were scheduled at late hours where most people are too tired of going or not wanting to wait for minimum 4-5 hours for a panel... (And I don't mean the hentai or yaoi) Then some of the good videos are scheduled early in the morning... I mean I just stayed up to 1-2AM finishing this late panel.... drove home, showered... sleep by 3AM the latest...and a funny and cool video worth watching starts 10AM... (so... get up at 8:30 - 9... breakfast... drive back to con... yada yada...) 6 hours of sleep is fine for many people but staying awake 18 hours of constant walking, standing, holding in that temper to punch that person blocking your way... (seriously... don't block traffic!) you get tired out very fast. And being tired... you get irritated easily...
Another that I personally didn't like were the removal of many video rooms. In between panels with nothing to do is for videos. I know this is Fanime... meaning majority anime... but the Asian Video Rooms were my favorite and were very popular previous years... the asian video rooms were always half to 3/4 full previous years. This year... only 1 room.... not much good videos offered and practically empty everytime I passed by or went in. I didn't really bother with the anime rooms so can't really say much there. (As some people say... you don't go to an anime convention to just watch anime. You can do that at home. :D [i guess asian films are an exception?])
Third let down... though I guess was expected... (as previous years) Horrible.. and I mean horrible crowd control. I knew it was going to happen but I was hoping there was at least some control. But Saturday... during the rain... The main entrance... impassable... it was virtually impassible without getting a little physical and shoving people out of the way. (I'll admit it i had to get a bit rude trying to get in) People taking pictures... I mean... honestly go head and ask for pictures, but have some courtesy to move to the side and out of walking traffic... Many times... we see cosplayers and photographers blocking entrances or exit. I mean I ran into people (literally bumping into them) and cos-players many times because the halls were virtually impassible. I mean I don't want to be a photo bomb nor do I want to be in your picture... but when you have other people sitting next to the walls and photo taking happening right in middle of traffic... it's not gonna be a happy ending...
It's probably just me who is finding this year a let down... When the schedule was released a couple days before con and I got to see the panels... I was already a bit let down by the non-interested panels... but other factors made it worst... This is mostly my last full weekend fanime.... If panels are worthy next year... i guess a day pass for me... :D