It’s that time of year once again, as otaku converge towards downtown San Antonio for San Japan aka San Japan XI. For its eleventh year, San Japan went with a magical world theme that ranges from magical girls, to heroes getting transported to another world. With that being said, let’s jump straight into this review, starting with a performance from the world’s strongest idol group.
In the name of the moon
Deadlift Lolita concert- Let’s get straight to the biggest highlight of San Japan XI: the Deadlifit Lolita concert. For those who don’t know who Deadlift Lolita is, it’s an idol group consisting of pro wrestlers and gym junkies Lady Beard and Reika Saiki. The concert was quite the entertaining spectacle, as this was the first time San Japan had an idol group from Japan perform. As I entered the ballroom that was holding the concert, I could see a wide diverse of fans waiting for the show to start. There were metal heads standing right next to J-Pop/rock fans. There were loilita fans pumping their fist in excitement right next to wrestling fans. It was a great sight to see such different fandoms come together to enjoy the show. As Deadlift Lolita took to the stage, the energy went from zero to a hundred in an instant. Everyone was hyped. Maybe a bit to hype, which I’ll get into later. The most surprising part of the concert was the “intermission”. As Lady Beard and Reika were taking a quick breather and talking to the fans, two heels from local wrestling promotion Heavy Metal Wrestling (I think) “invaded” the show and started beating down on the two. For the next ten minuets or so, it went from being a music concert to a impromtu wrestling match. Not wanting to let the fans down, Deadlift Lolita proceeded to fight back and after a while they managed to fend off the heels and get back to the concert. Out of all the concerts that I’ve attended at San Japan, this had to be one of the most fun I’ve had.
Expanded arcade area- As a gamer, one of the complaints that I often hear (and have made myself) is that there isn’t enough arcade machines. While last’s year’s arcade area was a great improvement, San Japan kept true to the statement they made that they will have the largest arcade area out of any anime convention in Texas. It was a mix of old school American style arcade machines and Japanese candy cabinets. There were rhythm games that came from straight from Japan, which included Pop n’ Music, a Project Diva, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy All-Star Carnival and Groove Coaster. There were fighting games, shumps and even a couple of Initial D machines. Aside from the long lines, this was the best arcade setup I’ve seen, not just in anime conventions but other conventions as well.
Expanded dealers’ room and artists’ alley- Last year’s dealers’ room and artists’ alley were a bit on the empty side due to Hurricane Harvey. Of course this wasn’t San Japan’s fault, as many who live in Texas knows that the weather can change at any given minuet. So to make for the weather screwing everyone over, both the dealers and the artists areas were expanded and had more dealers and artists than any previous San Japan. There were even some new faces to each. One thing that I would have like to have seen is more NJPW merchandise. NJPW over the past couple of years has been steadily growing in popularity in the States. With next year’s theme being sports, hopefully someone will sell NJPW merch.
Kanae Itō- Every year San Japan has a couple of voice actors come as guests. They tells stories about their experiences in being a voice actor, how they started and give advice to those who want voice acting as a career. But do you ever wonder what the Japanese equivalent, a seiyuu, thinks? Well San Japan had that chance as for the first time, a Japanese seiyuu was booked. Her name is Kanae Itō. She voiced many characters, such as Amu Hinamori from Shugo Chara!, Ruiko Saten from A Certain Scientific Railgun, Yui from Sword Art Online and many more. Kanae-san was a very interesting guest to have because for those who have never been to larger conventions where having a seiyuu is normal or for those who never have been to Japan, we’ve only read about them online and seen them in video on You Tube. This was a really a great experience and I hope San Japan continues to try to bring over more seiyuu in the future.
PC gaming added to console room- One of the main requests that I have heard from those who make the gaming room their home during San Japan is PC gaming. After being asked over and over again, PC gaming was finally added to the gaming room. Although there wasn’t much in terms of tournaments other than CS:GO, there were plenty of PC based games for PC gamers to play. Hopefully more PC centric tournaments get implemented, such as Harthstone, DOTA and LOL.
Double the maids- When the maid cafe first about three years ago (San Japan: 8-bit), it quickly sold out. Over the years it continued to sell out even as they added more time slots and a mature after dark cafe. Not wanting to disappoint all of their masters and mistress who had to miss out, the maids and butlers of Sweetness Cafe decide to double their efforts and opened up a second cafe. This second cafe was an “open” cafe, meaning that you didn’t need to buy a reservation before hand in order to enjoy the company of pretty maids and handsome butlers.
Corrupted magical contract
Mosh pit out of nowhere- The only aspect of this year’s San Japan that I didn’t like took place during the Deadlift Lolita concert. What happened was that a group of big guys just started to randomly shove, kick and swing at each other and other people around them. Usually, or at least from what I’ve seen, you can tell when people are about to mosh. A circle starts to form as those who want nothing to do with the pit move away. Then once everyone is cleared, the mosh begins. However, as I said before, these guys just out of nowhere start to mosh into people who were trying to watch the concert, myself included. Those who wanted nothing to do with the mosh pit started to press against others in front of them in attempt not to get hit. At one point, my tripod was damaged and I almost fell on top of another person due to one of the moshers shoving me. I get that the mosh pit is a part of the culture of metal, however the majority of those at the concert were not hardcore metal heads, but nerds and otaku. People could have been seriously injured. Luckily when no one else was moshing along side them, the instigators stop. Hopefully if there’s to be another metal concert, San Japan will designate an area of the ballroom for a mosh pit.
Despite almost getting crushed in a mosh pit out of nowhere, San Japan XI turned out to be one of the best ones that I’ve attended. The expanded arcade, dealers’ and artists’ areas were a vast improvement from last year and previous years. Being able to sit down and hear a Japanese voice actress experience was a very eye opening as we got to see the perspective from the other side. Having a secondary maid cafe open for those who couldn’t get into the main one was a nice touch. And of course the highlight of the weekend was attending the Deadlift Loilta concert/wrestling show. It’s going to be hard to top this year, but the staff at San Japan always seems rise to the challenge. With 2019’s theme being SPORTS!, I can tell that this will be another successful year as well.
