Another year and another San Japan is in the books. This year’s theme was sports and as luck would have it, San Japan’s logo took inspiration from the the collegiate sports organization Big XII. This year’s convention (to me at least) felt a bit weird. I can’t put my finger on why it felt weird, it just did. So instead of a traditional straight up review, this will be a hybrid of sorts. Part review, part observations that I’ve noticed. First let’s start with the review portion.
GOAL!!!!
Do As Infinity- It seems that with each passing year, the musical guests of honor that San Japan books are getting bigger and bigger. This year’s act might be the biggest so far as they had book Japanese pop/rock band Do As Infinity. Most people who are not familiar with the Japanese music scene might not know who they are, but every anime fan, non-fan and everyone who grew up watching the Saturday night anime block on Adult Swim do as they composed several theme songs to Inuyasha (Fukai Mori- season 2 ending theme, Shinjitsu no Uta- season 5 ending theme, Rakuren- fourth movie ending theme, Kimi ga Inai Mirai). This was a big deal for fans of the anime as this was the band’s first time back in America in the last 15 years. There was a bit of an issue on about ticketing, but I’ll save that for the observation section. While this concert wasn’t my cup of tea, from the various friends and other people that I talked to who did attend the concert, it was amazing and to some a childhood dream come true.
Gundam pods- While I am not a hardcore Gundam fan, I do enjoy some of the shows (Wing and the Build Fighters/Divers being my favorites) and do indulge in building Gunpla. Thanks to the popularity of their Star Wars arcade pods, Bandai Namco revealed that they were developing Gundam versions of the pod. Most fans thought that the only way to experience the pods was to travel to Japan or to a . San Japan was fortunate enough to find an arcade operator that has the pods and was able to book them for the convention.
Double header VA guests- When San Japan books their guests, they like to try to get VAs from anime and games are “in” at the moment. This year they managed a double header as they booked a few VAs from My Hero Academia and from Overwatch, two currently popular and trending anime and video game. The lines to see these two groups of guests where pretty long and they were very accommodating by having multiple signings throughout the weekend.
Other musical acts- If J-pop/rock wasn’t your thing, San Japan always books multiple musical acts for the congoers to enjoy over the weekend and San Japan XII was no excpetion. This year’s act included the Tri Force Quartet, Shihori, and for the second year a YouTubers concert that had the following performers: Rebecca Parham, Annapantsu, Charlie Green and Caleb Hyles.
As for complaints and or issues that I had or saw during San Japan, they were the usual “not enough time”, “panel schedules overlapping”, “line lengths”, etc. Basically the same issues that are now so common that I and most con attendees just pretty much ignore thanks to San Japan having so much to do. However there were a few things I observed that didn’t really fit into a good or bad section. With that being said here are those observations:
Observation 1-The arcade: One of my favorite areas of San Japan is the arcade area. Boasting one of the largest arcades in any convention in Southwest Texas, there is a large selection of games set on free-play. These range from 90’s games that defined the American arcade experience to the Japanese sit down candy cabinets that still exist in Japanese arcades. However I did noticed something: most of the candy cabinets were all set to various fighting games. Last year there was a wide range of genres ranging from beat em’ ups to shmups. In fact it seems that there were less cabinets than before. I looked at last year’s program guide and from what I could tell arcade operator Game Saru wasn’t one of the operators in attendance this year.
Observation 2- and more con: San Japan is primarily an convention that celebrates anime and everything related to Japanese otaku/nerd culture. In the past few years I noticed that Western nerd culture has started to make its way into San Japan. The YouTube concerts, expanded tabletop area, Western cartoon artists and game developers are just some of the examples of Western nerd culture that have been introduced to San Japan.
Observation 3- Dealer’s room: As I was walking around the dealer’s room all three day of San Japan, it somehow felt like they downsized a bit. So I checked the previous program guide. It seems that reason for this feeling is that booths got rearranged, some shrunken down and at least ten venders not returning.
So those are some of the things that I’ve observed during San Japan XII. These are not necessarily bad things, just something that I’ve started to noticed with each passing San Japan.
Over all San Japan is a great convention to attend, no matter what fandoms or interests you may have, as the con staff try to welcome everyone and want them to enjoy themselves for the weekend.
