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-By Stephen Kelley-
-Posted June 23, 2005-
-I tolerate this century but I don't enjoy it.-
A-Kon 2005 Impressions
A-kon has come and gone, and it is time for me to get back into the groove of things. After being sleep deprived for quite a few days, I am now having to get some semblance of a normal sleep pattern going again, and try to get used to working again.
My first impressions were that this con may have been smaller than the one last year, which I basically assume is due to the fact that a less popular band was there, and the thousands of Visual Kei groupies were at home this year. This was good because the security was better, lines ran smoother, and the con was more geared towards anime than music as it was last year.
I noticed that the line was not an issue this year as I got right in, and the people who had to deal with the line were only in line for a few minutes, not like the epic 66 hour standoff against security that we had last year.
The concert this year was on Friday night and contained three groups/artists. The opening act was a punk/hip-hop group called ZZ from Tokyo. Their major claims to fame are one ending theme to fan favorite anime show One Piece. ZZ is a 5 piece band that sounds somewhat similar to a cross between sublime and Linkin Park. Even though I have really burnt myself out on Rap/Rock bands since high school, this band was almost refreshing to the genre. They were more like a jam band and really looked like they were having fun.
The only bad thing that happened was that someone got hurt. As the band started their show, they kicked beach balls into the audience so that we would happily bounce them around. This was fine until one ball made contact with a very shoddy chandelier and brought a 7 inch cylindrical light shade down on someone's face. Since I had decided to not sit in the front row to help myself enjoy the concert more (I like to jump around) I actually did not see this happening, and they did not stop the show. It was not till afterwards, when they were cleaning up that I heard the story. Phil was apparently right in front of the guy that got beaned, so his account of the incident is quite a bit more accurate.
After around an hour of watching Adams Mark workers clean up the shattered glass, it was time for Kumiko Kato’s set. Kumiko is a fairly new singer that has been touring the US at anime conventions for a few months. I was not all that surprised that I really did not like her music because I really do not like R&B inspired pop music. Kumiko sounded to me like a Japanese Christina Aguilera or a similar artist. Between songs she did this really fake “I LOVE YOU GUYS” to get the male audience members to hoot and holler and did nothing more than shake her ass and sing along to pre-recorded music. I doubt I will be buying her CD.
Kumiko then announced that two original members of popular Jpop group “Dream” were going to be coming out very shortly. Dream is normally an 8 piece pop group that has either disbanded or temporarily separated (this was not made clear). Dream easily made up for Kumikos performance. I really enjoyed how, even though there was dancing, the main emphasis was the music. Dream's music is Techno based pop music very similar to Dance Dance Revolution music. Dream is known to anime fans for their song 'My Will', the closing theme for "Inu Yasha" as well as music that has appeared in 'Initial D' ("Night of Fire"), and 'Hikaru no Go'.
Their music was very catchy and infectious, you could not help sing along to the chorus, or clap your hands during their set. All in all, I would say Dream was well worth the concert. ZZ was also good, and I could have done without Kumiko Kato.
The dealers room seemed really lame this year, as most of the stuff was either available online or at my own job. I mostly bought various grab bags and a Totoro T-shirt that got me quite a few compliments. I also dropped 5 bucks on a fan made anime DVD called D7Peacemaker which was all right, I would not have been happy had I spent the normal asking price of 20 bucks though. I also picked up a copy of a Korean film called Oldboy on DVD from an import store. I guess I was disappointed because it seemed like last year there was a more diverse amount of stuff, but this year was nearly all Gashapon, capsule toys and plushies. That is cool, but I wanted certain things that they simply did not have.
I did get to see some good anime though to off-set the downsides. Gantz was a great show, and I am glad we watched it, because I plan on getting the DVDs now. It is a mature show, but its not too over the top to make you sick. Gantz reminds me of stuff like Akira from 15 years ago. We also saw the US premier of Kodocha which the VERY first thing the CMSU anime club watched for a club meeting over 3 years ago. I liked the dub quite a bit, especially how they fixed common errors like incorrect word usage the fansubbers used to make it more comical.
All in all this was a good A-kon, better than last year by far. For next year I hope they concentrate on getting the dealers room up to snuff, and keep jpop house away from the concerts, as that was my major problem with the concert last year. There was no Satan-like security head that everyone loathed, and no yelling from the staff. The major plus was that we got our schedules VERY early, which is in sharp contrast with last year after they had a last second printing error. Good con, but not GREAT.
Article by Stephen Kelley
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