Shiver me timbers and hoist the sails as another San Japan has come and gone with the 2023 theme being ships. At first I thought they meant ships as in pirate ships but nope. Ships is actually slang for relationships as in the pairing of fans’ favorite couples. Either way let’s see if this years’ convention was filled with bountiful booty or if the OTP wasn’t meant to be.
Total hall takeover (almost)- Over the past few years that San Japan has been inside the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center, it has continued to grow and take up more and more room inside the halls. Which is good since the con continues to add in more events, attractions, vendors and other activities for con goers to participate in. In its second year back post Covid shut down, San Japan has not only reached its pre-Covid floor space, it has essentially almost taken over all four major halls in the HBG convention center, for the most part at least.
Addition of new events,activities etc- With the increase of size of San Japan it makes sense to fill up that space with more things to do and see. And fill up that space they did. In addition to the usual dealers hall and artists alley, San Japan included VR Zone provided by Baz, Laser Tag by Nomad Mobile Laser Tag, live wrestling by Premiere Event Wrestling, a statue/figure museum room by Planet Otaku and a cosplay museum curated by Southern Cospitality Cosplay. And this is just only within the convention center. Each year I have heard many congers request new things to experience in San Japan, and as the saying goes “Ask and you shall receive.” And this is just the beginning as San Japan announced that True Dungeon will finally be making its way back to San Antonio for next year’s convention. There were even two official after parties for the con.
Ever expanding arcade hall- One of the things that San Japan likes to boast about is that they have one of the largest arcade halls in South Texas. And for the past couple of years up till the 2020 lock down, this was true. When the convention returned to in person attendance in 2021, it was obvious that a lot of the areas of the con were scaled back to comply with Covid in person protocols, this included the arcade hall. This year saw an increase of various arcade games that were available for con-goers to play on. There were the usual fighting, rhythm and musical games that we have seen in years past, just now more of them which is great. We even saw games that were making a first time appearance at the convention, such as the train simulator Densha no Go, Dance Rush and so many others that I cant pronounce the names of. There were a few minor issues with some of the cabinets not working, but nothing too major to hinder everyone’s enjoyment. Though I do wish that there were more American arcade games in the hall, and I’m not talking about Arcade 1Up replicas but actual original hardware. But that’s really a small nit pick, as long as San Japan continues to bring in games that we have never seen before things are looking great for the arcade.
Outside food vendors- In between having a great time at San Japan and walking for what seems like miles in the convention center, people tend to get hungry. But as many San Japan con-goers know, the food that is served in the convention center is way overpriced and the only option to get any food is to trek across the street to the River Center Mall’s food court. The reason for this is, and this is putting it very simple terms, that the city of San Antonio has a contract with a catering service that works various events that take place in the convention center and having outside food venders, i.e. food trucks, would breach that contact. This year however it seems that things are easing up as there was a pop up food truck near the riverwalk side of the convention center next to the Hyatt. There was even a small pop up shop provided by Otaku Cafe that was selling Japanese snacks inside the Hyatt and the restaurant/bar inside the Hyatt has a themed menu just for the con weekend. I really hope that the convention center and the Hyatt keeps allowing San Japan to do this and hopefully we get to see different pop ups each year going forward.
While everything so far has been great for this year’s convention, there are a few things that I personally wasn’t feeling, so to speak. The panel selection was a bit lackluster this year, I didn’t really recognize any of the guests that were invited and I think this year could have been a bit more clearer. By that I mean at first when it was revealed that the theme for 2023 would be ships, my mind went to pirates. Plus it made sense since the new season of One Piece was just released and the new live action show also was released. Instead the theme revolved around the idea of ships, ie relationship, pairing two characters with each other. Also I have been saying this for almost a decade but San Japan really needs to start investing and building up their own collection of arcade machines. With a new strain of Covid on the rise, and inflation affecting the cost to transport the machines to the convention, it would benefit San Japan greatly to have their own collection of machines to fill out the arcade hall. I’m not saying for them to go out and bulk buy a ton of arcade machines all at once, but for them to buy and gather machines here and there slowly. Another thing I would like to see more of is more industry guests from Japan. Be it musicians, artists, producers etc.
Overall San Japan was a success this year. I hope to see it continue to grow and expand, which is fitting since the theme for 2024 is quinceanera. Let’s hope they go all in with this theme and make it as spectacular and extravagant as any quinceanera.
