Fanime requests that all press write up reports about their convention. Enjoy!
Pre-Con Day / Thursday : The morning started bright and early at 7AM arriving at the San Jose Convention Center Hilton. Checking in early at the Hilton went smoothly and we got our rooms a little before noon time.
The Saints Row Cosplay Event happened on time at 1PM, hosted by our ACParadise.com members, and it proceeded smoothly. The gathering event attracted many photographers and fans alike. Photos can be found here http://www.acparadise.com/acp/events.php?eid=126
The early morning of relaxing and settling in came abruptly to an end, however. The line for attendees to pick up badges was quickly growing and surpassed the size as compared to previous years. A majority of the attendees waited for more than 4 hours due to errors with the Fanime badge system database this year. Basically anyone that lined up after noon did not get their badge. Suddenly a complete black out happened at the con center after hours of waiting. This resulted in even more delays on badges until the Fanime Con staffs insisted everyone to leave and come back tomorrow after their hours of incompetence. Attendees were frustrated and upset, and a majority of the attendees evacuated to the Swap Meet which has relocated all the way to the Fairmont hotel this year.
Industry and Press badge was also delayed due to the computer issues but with the black out happening right after. The staffs left the room beforehand and resulted professionals to obtain their badges the next day. Not even Staff badges were exempt from the fail, as they were supposed to be at Con Ops after normal Staff hours. Con Ops stated that staff badges were not available due to the black out, despite the black out having ended hours prior, and that Staff Badges are already pre-printed. Seemed that Con Ops had a long day with all the errors and decided to quit completely at being helpful.
Friday : Early in the morning, the attendees and professionals tried again to obtain their badges. After an additional 3 hour wait on top of yesterdays waiting, attendees finally obtained their badges. Industry and Press had a harder time, as a reported half of the database for Pro pre-reg badges were missing. The Fanime staff sat there dumbfounded repeatedly trying to search the database over and over when during that time, when they could have input our data in half that time. Instead, we were sent away to re-input the data they had lost, but afterwards we did that, they handled it pretty quickly regardless the hassle.
In the early evening, we had our special, Eureka 7 AO event with FUNimation Entertainment. Eureka and Renton official cosplayers were on hand to Evil of Humanity Beast IV Reproduction the guest of honor Shigeto Koyama, whose works include Eureka 7 AO, Panty and Stocking, Star Driver, Gurren Lagann, and the reboot Evangelion series. We screened the first three episodes and then had a Q&A Session with Koyama-san. Afterwards our cosplayers helped with a raffle with prizes donated generously by FUNimation, with the grand prize being exclusive Japanese Eureka 7 AO posters signed by Koyama-san himself. Here's a photo of our official Eureka and Renton cosplayers ,Shii Arisugawa and Anti-Ai Chan, with the Koyama-san, the designer of Eureka 7 AO and the Brand Manager from FUNimation, Tristen Citrine. http://www.acparadise.com/acp/picview.p ... 5466&s=911
Afterwards our lucky cosplayers got a custom autograph and sketch right on their costumes!
http://www.acparadise.com/acp/picview.p ... 5486&s=911
Saturday : At 12PM we supported our ACP members: Muralasa, Kix and Hichan as Triple K for their performance at Stage Zero. It's the USA Musume 10th Anniversary so they stepped up to dance and sing!
Stage Zero Performance Triple K Videos : Part1 & Part2
http://www.acparadise.com/acp/vid.php?v=6786&s=h
http://www.acparadise.com/acp/vid.php?v=6787&s=h
At 2PM, the Aniplex Panel began with Imari Yumiki as Saber and Wayne Kaa as Gilgamesh http://www.acparadise.com/acs/display.php?c=9056
If you were lucky to be there first, you got a limited Blue Exorcist lanyard, donated by Viz!
The panel previewed upcoming content, re-releases, and some new things they have acquired such as Fate/Zero Season 2 and Bakemonogatari.
Sunday : Cosplay Spectacular Day
Full Official ACParadise.com Cosplay Spectacular Video Coverage : http://www.acparadise.com/acp/cons.php?cyid=4627&t=3
Highlight Skit of the Convention : We Are Sparking performed by badman , Binkx , Ichnob , iroha
http://www.acparadise.com/acp/vid.php?v=6816&s=h
Cosplay Spectacular went quite well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. There were many excellent skits this year, and they got their recognition from the crowds. The festivities were hosted by convention personality Darryl Hwang and Tadao Tomomatsu. Marisa, the masquerade coordinator also announced that this would be her last masquerade. We hope her a happy retirement.
Overall : This year was quite a downgrade from all the previous Fanime. It was pretty disappointing on how disorganized it was. However, a convention is only how fun as you make it out to be. So despite it being Fail-ime, we enjoyed good company. We will look forward to next year if they learn from their mistakes and problems they had this year in order to make dramatic improvements.