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I would love to add my voice to this, but I suspect they'll never come for FanimeCon. The last times they came to the USA were when the US Dollar was between 80-90 yen, and now they probably can't make it fiscally feasible.

With them becoming more relevant in the anime scene again thanks to FLCL 2 (they'll be providing the whole soundtrack again), I'm holding out hope that someone will find value in sponsoring their appearance in the US. It's been far too long, and I was too young at the time to go to the nightclubs they performed in when they were last here. Fanime would definitely be the biggest thing they've done stateside, and they still have a sizeable following despite being considered older J-rock.

WHAT? the registration pick up badge area for early reg was a joke dude. no one knew what was going on, the scanners didnt even work, and no one realized there was a printer at each station. i went to the table where you pick the baggies up looking for a printer, and then realized there was a printer at my table, the guy handing out the badges had his hands full of people trying to get their badge, it was SO unorganised. seriously awful. there was no arrows, guidelines or signs printed on how the process even worked. also, people checking badges are awful, i walked up with my badge in plain sight and he nearly grabbed me asking "BADGE?!?!" it was right in front of his face, maybe dont hire 90 year old staff members wtf.

other than that, no gripes!

Haha, I guess my experience was different because I was among the first group to get badges on Thursday, when there was smaller lines. What you said is valid, though. Maybe more direction on where to go/what to do, because I was a bit blindsided by the new system for a second. The person manning our table did her job well, so it was only a matter of a couple minutes to be in and out for my group.

[Pros:]

Although there are similar threads already, I'd like a general, structured place for feedback.
If you have negative comments, make them constructive and related to the convention itself. Not stories about how your friend Brad was a real jerk all weekend.

Pros:

• Registration: Simply flawless. Please don't change this system.
• Shuttle service: I didn't use it, but those slick looking vehicles looked awesome and I heard many good things about them.
• Opening Ceremonies: Loved being front-row for X4's performance in Stage Zero. Staff also promised they would not kick us out of the first row to make room for other staff/guests, and they followed through on that promise.
• Fan Panels: CWF and the Anime high school murder mystery panel were great large-group events full of hype (despite, you know, the "human students" being giant cheaters...)
• Dealer's Hall: THANK YOU FOR MARKING THE AISLES. The one improvement that I didn't even know I needed. Finding stuff and my friends was 100x easier this year. Kudos to whoever named the Pork Cutlet Bowl aisle.
• Adobe Events: I went to the one on Thursday and it was really fun and informative, even for someone like me who doesn't really do digital art. BRING BACK ADOBE FOR 2018!
• Artist Alley: I cannot get over the fact of how amazing the artists are. Some of the things they make are better than official merchandise. It seemed like they had a better time in registration this year than previously, so I hope they will continue to be treated well for the great things they do for Fanime.

Cons:

• Autographs: Really bad communication there. It is not unexpected for people to wait over an hour to be first in line, so to pop out and say "You need to leave until 15 minutes before it's time" twenty minutes before it starts and take out a sign stating this policy at that time rather than earlier where it would have been the most benefit, it's pretty obvious that people are going to be angry. There was literally no way to enforce this on-the-spot policy other than clearing out the entire hallway, which didn't happen. Instead, we all stood in a disorganized mob by the door since lines weren't allowed, which was even more chaotic. This happened on Friday and I still heard of people complaining about the policy for Saturday's autographs (so lessons weren't learned). This could probably be fixed by issuing tickets to those in line early, so that they will leave until it's time to get an autograph. Fanime will also not have to cut off lines of people who have waited only to be turned away with this system.
• Artist Alley: Those first few rows were so badly congested, it was an actual safety hazard. I never even saw the booths in the first three or four rows simply because it was impossible to leave the moving throng of people. There needs to be far more space in the aisles, especially in the front. There looked to be plenty of empty tables in the back of the room that could have been removed for space.
• Street safety: I already addressed this elsewhere, but I'll add it here. There should be police presence in the evenings around the blocks with heavy foot-traffic. If I'm walking to the Fairmont to enjoy Fanime-sponsored entertainment, I would hope that I am not harassed on the streets. It happened this year, and it puts me off of going to night panels because I don't feel safe walking outside at night.
• Some Fan Panels: Certain panels were not making use of their allotted time. I walked into TWO HOUR panel about 20 minutes late, and the presenter was already done presenting. They even said, "I didn't expect people to stick around this long" (not even an hour into the panel). If Fanime is compensating them with badges, they certainly didn't get their money's worth. The application process might need to be reviewed to make sure people actually have enough content for the hours they're requesting.
• The Fairmont: I mean, I didn't stay there personally, but it seems pretty clear that they do not want to do business with the attendees of Fanime. Between cancelling reservations and moving people all over, to making them sign pretty explicit anti-convention policies (yes, room-stuffing is bad and you shouldn't do it, but don't start saying you're actually enforcing these policies AS PEOPLE ARE CHECKING IN. Email ahead of time if you have to so that people can make arrangements). All I can say is that I will never give DTSJ's Fairmont my business, and perhaps they would like it that way.

So Marriott had a contest for the cleanest room upon checkout (done by raffle with all qualifying rooms), with the 1st place prize being 3 paid nights for their hotel next Fanime. I was wondering if anyone knows how they will contact people. Did anyone here win anything? Did the other hotels do this also? I know I personally stepped up my cleaning game on Monday.

[*clears throat*]

*clears throat*

.....

THE PILLOWS.

...that's all.

"« Last Edit: Today at 12:35:55 AM by eww »"

I couldn't really tell what was edited by eww. It looks the same to me. It should be common courtesy to leave a footnote indicating what you've altered.

I mean, how would you like if I snuck into a lengthy post of yours and altered your words around? Again, I can't even tell what you did but it kind of bothers me. What did you change?

The person who edited your post was Ewu, aka, Eric Wu, the head chair of Fanime. Usually he does mention it in his edit, but perhaps he forgot this time. He changed a certain word in your post to "dance," as he and all the other moderators all do whenever that "R" word is mentioned. That word is tied to an image that Fanime doesn't want associated with their late-night dances, so they make a good effort to keep the word from being used in relation to it. Hope that straightens it out.

Does anyone have any negative stories to share or where they just bothered by their mere existences?

I do, in fact, have a story to tell. I was walking to the Marriott after the CWF panel at the Fairmont (a rather short distance that has plenty of foot-traffic) and I got propositioned to by one of the homeless men. He got my attention with a "hey baby," and asked to go back to my hotel room with me. That put me on high alert and all of the "how-to-protect-yourself-from-strange-men" things I've learned in the past were flooding my mind. Thankfully, though it looked to him as if I was alone, I was actually with friends who were a bit further behind me so I knew they would come to help me if I needed it. And even though it doesn't (and shouldn't) matter, I wasn't in anything revealing...I was wearing a kigurumi with the hood up. I am concerned over the fact that he might have followed me had my friends not been there, and I am also concerned over which other women happened to cross paths with this individual that weren't so lucky to be in a group. No one should make me worried that I will be followed or sexually assaulted that close to the convention, walking to and from convention activities. Protecting the few blocks that have heavy Fanime traffic should be of importance to both Fanime and SJ police dept.

Also, I'm kind of bothered by the fact that you're "speaking" for female teens, especially since you're not one. Like what you're implying, I mean.. It almost sounded insincere and like you threw that comment in to get people to side with your point which really bugs me. Downtown is a college/university area. Teens that are legally allowed to be out that late and other adult women are in that area often at late hours. That being said, I am not going to undermine or try to guess at what it's like for them or anyone to walk through any given street at given time of the day/night. Idk, I just thought that little one line think-piece-statement at the end was really gross.

As a former teen female (who spent at least three of those teen years attending Fanime) I want to assure you that otakuya is spot-on with their observations, so you don't need to feel offended on the behalf of women. Unfortunately, it has always been a personal policy that I am attended by at least one guy friend or a group of friends when I am out at night during Fanime. Men have some of the same concerns of walking alone (being robbed, beaten, etc), but women unfortunately have even more concerns that have been instilled in us since we were children that our mothers taught us (and that their mothers taught them). We (as women) don't exactly have the luxury of assuming that every single homeless person that we encounter is harmless. Is that fair to homeless people? Of course it isn't, but that overcaution is what is keeping me safe and not having to defend myself against sexual assault in person and in court. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that there is a percentage of people who are homeless due to mental illness, and while not every person with mental illness is aggressive, some are. Again, it's not fair to judge a whole group of people based on a small percentage, but I'd rather play it safe for the short duration of Thursday-Monday and have a stronger police presence.


Homelessness, as a whole, is not an issue that Fanime can (or should) try to tackle. What they can (and should) do is protect the commonly used paths that their attendees walk during that weekend. They actually did have one year where there was police everywhere, both inside and outside the convention center and let me tell you...I felt very safe that year. I would love if they partnered with the SJPD to make that happen again.

What does Alcoholics Anonymous have to do with anything?

Wrong AA. Artist Alley.

Though that did make me laugh.

No idea how you'd fit it in, but it would be nice to have a blind box trade for your itabag gathering. I always get my least favorite character in blind boxes, so if someone organized a trading event, I'm sure plenty of people would like to swap with others for their favorite girl/guy for their itabags. This would take some planning a preparation, though.

If it was one of our staff that convinced X4's people to unblock their youtube for the US, thanks - you're awesome! The videos play for me now. Now I can get properly hyped!

(Should I start the next MusicFest request thread? Seems weird starting it before the previous con even happened, but I don't want a bunch of music guest requests getting lost in the main guest request thread that's already been posted...)

[For anyone who isn't sure if they want to go to MusicFest this year:]

It's X4 & Yuya Matsushita. Never heard of either, but am sure they'll be great.

X4 is actually Yuya's group. I don't think he'll be performing his own solo music, but hey, he might. The main reason they mention Yuya specifically is because he was one of our musical guests when FLOW came back for a second time in 2011.

For anyone who isn't sure if they want to go to MusicFest this year:

When I went to the 2011 concert, I was specifically going for FLOW and didn't give Yuya a second glance. My friends and I had written him off as a filler act before FLOW. Boy, were we wrong. By the end of his performance, we were all cheering loudly and were enthralled with his performance. You could tell he gave 110% to his act. That night, I definitely became a fan. I think I still hold 2011 as the best MusicFest I've been to and he is part of the reason. So for those who haven't yet seen him (and his group), give them a chance. You might be very surprised.

Had that second clue not tripped me up, I would have placed X4 as my top guess since the first clue. Tricky, tricky MF staff... ;)

I know it's probably a long shot, but does anyone in guest relations think that maybe they can convince...Teichiku Records? to make the groups' music videos available in the US to watch on Youtube? Doesn't seem to do them any favors when the go-to source for Fanime attendees to find out what X4 is like is blocked. Thankfully, I've found one easy, legal way to support them through Google Music's streaming service, which has a few of their albums on it, but music videos would be even better.

My friends and I are 99% sure now, thanks to the last round of hints. Looks like I was wrong about being wrong...Haha.

Should be a good concert.

MUST they make this a social media game? is it unreasonable to ask that they stop playing games like this and just announce who the music group is? I'm not here to make anymore fuss then I have in the past. I just wanna know who it is so I can make final decision plans. Whether going to another convention would be more healthy for me or sticking around for another time and simply accepting how the convention would be better.

Is it going to be a rock band? An idol or boyband group? ANYTHING would be helpful.

Awww, you know they do it just for you!

I can get why it'd be annoying for someone who still hasn't decided to come to Fanime, but for my friends and I, we're Sherlock Holmes-ing this thing with spreadsheets and research. We originally had 22 possible groups, and I'm going to go through the list now and eliminate those who don't fit the second clue. So...the guessing is fun while we wait for everything to be set in stone. If anything, it means that we're really close to having an announcement soon.

Edit: We've gotten the list down to about 10 groups. Who knows if we're even close to right, though.  ;D

This also leaves Yuya out(one day he'll come back..... Dx )

Actually... he's still in the running as part of his 5 member group, X4. They're one of my top guesses for who our guest is. I just wish that it was easier to listen to their stuff, because nearly everything on youtube is blocked in the US.

Edit: Never mind, I think our second clue eliminates his group.

Edit²: Never mind on my last "never mind"...

Just FYI to anyone reading, MusicFest's twitter has begun dropping hints of who they got to come.

• First hint: 5 member group.
• Second hint: They've traveled to the US before.
• Possible hint: May not have been to Fanime before.
• Third hint: their first studio album reached #10 on the Oricon weekly charts.
• Fourth hint: Lyrical content of one of their songs:
  
• Fifth hint: First major single hit # 3 on the Oricon daily chart & # 10 on the weekly chart.
• Sixth hint: The group originally formed in 2015
• Seventh hint: Song title:
  

(That already counts the pillows out...time to start promoting them for Fanime 2018...)

I think the reason it looked like Hilton and Marroitt were already selling out are because they didn't offer the days you needed.

I'm pretty sure this was the reason. Tuesday's not the date people usually pick to check out, and when you change the dates, hotel availability will change too. Fanime probably doesn't have deals with all the hotels to secure a Tuesday checkout, is my guess.

I was in the first 7 AM block and I can say with certainty that every hotel had every type of room open when I booked. I  checked up on the page a few times before the next 10 AM block started, and there were still rooms in even the connected hotels. I don't think they're released in blocks.

[Waitlist Information]

Seems to be a mixed bag of experiences regarding the new-ish system. For me, it was painless. I refreshed the page a few minutes to 7 and saw that it was up, so I went ahead and booked in under three minutes. The only reason it took that long was because the default dates were Saturday-Monday, and I didn't notice where I needed to change them until I was on the pre-confirmation page and saw the mistake. But luckily I caught it before submitting the info. I still much prefer this set-up to the mess that was years before.

Waitlist Information

For those who didn't get the hotel you wanted, the waitlist is a good resource. To get on it, you MUST reserve a room through Fanime's website (doesn't matter where, just somewhere), and call (800) 924-4232 (Mon-Fri 6 AM - 6 PM PST). Ask to be placed on the waitlist for whichever hotel you want. They will want your current hotel registration info, which is why you need to reserve a room before doing all this. IF someone drops a room from the hotel you want, you'll be on the list of who they give that open room to. These rooms are supposed to go to the waitlist before being open to general public (there was a mix-up last year regarding that), so it's important to be on the list rather than just wait for dropped rooms to be open to everyone.

The waitlist has been a success for me every time I've needed it, though it's not guaranteed. Dropped rooms do happen, even in popular hotels. My group will likely drop one Marriott room if some of our 'maybes' turn into 'no's' for how many people are going with us, and that room would go straight to the waitlist. But once it gets to the final days for people to drop hotel rooms without a penalty (April 28th), you're going to essentially need to "play chicken" with the system - as in, you're going to have to hold on to your room in the hopes that someone ditches theirs last second and you may be stuck in the room you booked, or you're going to drop the room you booked because you don't want to take the chances of being stuck there or needing to pay a fee to drop it. Hopefully you get a room before this situation plays out, but it does inevitably play out for some people each year.

Hopefully this information is helpful to those of you who are refreshing the hotels page and waiting for your time to reserve so you know that all hope is not lost. There's still a chance to get the hotel you want if you put the work into it.

I'd like to see Aquors from Love Live! Sunshine! They performed at 2016 AX as well :0

Since I attended their event at AX, I feel that I should clear up the fact that they did not perform there. It was only 6 of the 9 girls, and their event was mostly a "get to know us and the franchise" thing. No live singing or dancing was involved.

Regardless, I'd love to see them perform, too. I'm loving their music and the new season they're in.

[Pillows]

Pillows - Alt/rock - FLCL soundtrack

It really warms my heart to see so many people (on twitter) asking for them to come to Fanime. I was worried that people wouldn't know who they were in this newer generation of anime-watchers. I think that the announcement of FLCL 2 coming out next year might have revived some interest? The good news is that what may have been holding them back from touring in the US for years seems to have been resolved last year (a certain former guest bassist supposedly had some visa issues), meaning there might actually be a shot at getting them! They haven't been able to come here since 2011, so it'd be great to have them make their US comeback at Fanime.