San Japan 2014 Review

[Cinnamon_of_Slumberland]

Hey, there! This is my first time posting in this guild. 4laugh
I thought this would be a good place to review the last San Japan.

Overall Experience: 7/10 smile
Good, not great. I went with my boyfriend and our friend and we had a good time, but I think that was mostly us knowing how to have fun and being in beautiful downtown San Antonio than the con. Let me explain why...

Panels/ events: 4/10 xp
For the most part, the panels were excellent. Panels we attended were: Aspiring VAs, LGBT Themes in Anime and Manga, How to Publish Your Writing as an E-book, How to Run a Panel, The Twisted Horror of Junji Ito. We also went to the AMV contest and Masquerade.
Aspiring VAs was a little disappointing. It seemed very amateur-y. I have a degree in acting and what I really wanted to know was tips on meeting with directors and auditioning.
Another panel that had the same problem was the panel on publishing e-books. The panelist seemed like he didn't know what he was talking about and didn't communicate any information that was new to my friend (who was the one who wanted to go to this panel).
The "How to Run a Panel" panel was pretty average. I will say that for panelist giving tips on running a panel, they didn't seem to understand they needed to speak INTO their mics.
However, the LGBT and Junji Ito panels were excellent. The panelists really knew their stuff and came fully prepared with interactive presentations and kept things interesting while remaining informative.
The AMV contest and Masquerade were rather disappointing, though. We showed up nearly an hour late for the AMV contest and shockingly, they still hadn't started! We (and everyone else) left about ten minutes after that because they couldn't get the audio to work. The AMVs they did show (which we could barely hear) weren't that great, either. The Masquerade was...okay. There was free Japanese candy on the tables, so that was fun. The music selection was where it really seemed to fail. It was a strange hodgepodge of show tunes, swing music, and anime songs.
I would also like to add that there were several steampunk panels we wanted to go to but they were ridiculously early in the morning. We're pretty certain that's because the con is prejudiced against steampunks. stare

Guests: 8/10 whee
There was really only one guest any of us wanted to meet and I got her autograph and she even came around the booth to give me a great big hug. heart
I did notice there were pretty big lines for the other voice actors, though, so they must've been popular.

Artist alley/ Dealer room: 9/10 biggrin
There were really awesome vendors in the dealer room!! A lot of them were really overpriced, though. I mean, I know they always hike up the prices a little bit but this was ridiculous. I saw a backpack I wanted that was two times what it was worth. (I did end up purchasing it somewhere else after the con for half of what the con vendor wanted for it.)
There was also a vendor who told me to leave her area after I pointed out that the USD prices of a lot of the figures are written on the bottom of the box if you know where to look. She wanted $60 for a clock but when I turned the box over, there was a box with Japanese written in it and in the corner it said 25.00. I collect a lot of Japanese toys so I know that means it's value is $25. I wouldn't mind paying more because I know it's a collector's item but I wasn't about to be snookered into paying $35 more.

Customer satisfaction: 6/10 neutral
Overall, it's an okay con. The size of the con and the variety of panels make the price reasonable. Plus, since it's on the Riverwalk, there are a few more places to eat around there than other cons I've been to. Although, I think it's important that I mention this: this con does NOT appreciate it's patrons. I don't know what the hell kind of training they give their volunteers but they are SO rude. I have been to this con three times and I can say with certainty that of all the cons I've ever been to, I have never been to a con with such rude volunteers. It's like someone gives them a badge and they think they're the god of the hotel floor they're assigned to. Most con volunteers elsewhere will ask you politely to not block entrances or to move here or there. At San Japan, they SHOUT at you like you're cattle. Of the maybe six volunteers who spoke to us, only one was polite. If we ever go again, we plan on bringing big star stickers that say "Caught you being good!" to give to nice volunteers. xp  

[Cinnamon_of_Slumberland]

smithers456

Cinnamon_of_Slumberland

Hey, there! This is my first time posting in this guild. 4laugh
I thought this would be a good place to review the last San Japan.
:

Thanks for your review of the con. You did a great job at describing your experience. I'm sorry to hear that the people running the con were unfriendly. Don't they realize that people won't come back because they were rude. Also I've seen huge mark ups on items in dealers rooms before. Being a collector myself I usually have a pretty good feel for what's a scam and a decent price. Sometimes I can get a dealer to knock their price down when I point out why I think their item is over priced. Sometimes it's hard though if you come across something that you want really bad and it costs too much money.

I know! Really, if it weren't for that, we'd probably go every year. We only went cause I wanted to get some DVDs signed. xd  

[Cinnamon_of_Slumberland]

xinitia

Thanks for the review! It's always interesting hearing about different experiences at cons. It's too bad that the volunteers and organizers were rude.... that can often make or break a con....

Honestly, of the all the cons I've been to, I've never experienced the level of hostility the volunteers at San Japan seem to harbor. neutral
Buuut, we love going to San Antonio. So we'll probably go again if they have any guests we want to meet. But we will definitely be bringing some kind of frowny and smiley face stickers to hand out to the volunteers based on their performance. dramallama