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[Hime no Toki]

This thread is for posting your thoughts/opinions on Sakura Con 2012!

From your experience this year, what were the pros and cons? What were the highlights and lowlights? Would you return again next year?

Also, you can discuss the particulars of the convention, such as the events, panels, masquerade, dances, etc., as well as what you thought about the con and hotel staff, the hotel, convention space, food, dealer's room, attendees, and whatever else pertaining to this year's Sakura Con!

Remember to make your commentary polite and keep things civil!

[kuroki-neko]

yay i get the first post.

everything was great at sakura con. there where no real pros or cons on my end.

[JasonTerror]

for me, im glad i chose SC for my first con. i had LOADS of fun..
parts i loved, would totally be the 3 panels i attended: love line with zapp and friends, the crazy anime dating game (18+ version), and the KH 411. they were all awesome so congrate to all that took part, you all did amazingly!!

the 3 photoshoots i attended were also awesome!!
the day0 photoshoot was a little less fun, but thats cuz i didnt know what i was doing, but talking to the kool luxard and the totally freakin awesome blindfolded riku that day made me start to come outta my shell, so thatnk you both for that. your the first ones that made me have a good time.

the final fantasy shoot was a little MORE fun, but i dont talk to people very easily without them talking first, so i didnt get too many pics there,but there was a good enough portion and people DID complement my costume so that made me feel good about it.

then...o boy..then there was the kingdom hearts shoot....my favorite by far..i had a freakin blast!! i was so happy when i walked through the door and someone screamed OMG MARLUXIA YOU HAVE TO GET IN THE PICTURE!! that was RIGHT when i got outside....loved it lol then the talking to others and taking picstures was super fun. def coming back in more kingdom hearts next year. hope you all are back!!!!

all in all it was a great time, though i was SUPER hot in my orgxiii coat and it sucked..but it was too fun to care

o and for those that like hotdogs and the like, GO TO CYBER DOGS!! when you walk outside the front doors, go right, and walk up the street, you will pass the convenient store and the stais then get to a streetlight, and its accross the street on the corner. they have the best hotdogs ive ever had!!

[kuroki-neko]

now that i have had time to think, in the final fantasy fight my intro vid was cut short.

and if there was a list posted of photo shoots it would have helped me out alot and make the 15 pics i got X5 more

[JasonTerror]

Originally Posted by kuroki-neko

now that i have had time to think, in the final fantasy fight my intro vid was cut short.

and if there was a list posted of photo shoots it would have helped me out alot and make the 15 pics i got X5 more

wow yea..now that you mention it..i have a con suggestion....im sure its been suggested before, but they should put a list of shoots IN the schedule book..i didnt even KNOW there was a shoot list til i needed to go to the info booth to ask where a panel was. if i didnt have to go ask, and if i didnt happen to take the time to look through the photoshoot forum on the SCMB, i wouldnt have even known when they were..

[kuroki-neko]

Originally Posted by JasonTerror

wow yea..now that you mention it..i have a con suggestion....im sure its been suggested before, but they should put a list of shoots IN the schedule book..i didnt even KNOW there was a shoot list til i needed to go to the info booth to ask where a panel was. if i didnt have to go ask, and if i didnt happen to take the time to look through the photoshoot forum on the SCMB, i wouldnt have even known when they were..

yea i did not have access to the froums so i had to roll the dice to come across a photo shoot to get more pics.

[Eurobeat King]

Pre-registration on Thursday at-first seemed bad, because they moved it across the street and the line for it was outside, so everyone waited in the freezing cold until right before noon. And once it opened at noon, it didn't take more than 15-20 minutes for me to get my badge.

I will say it was better to open pre-reg. at noon, rather than wait until 3:00pm like the years before.

[ferrinator]

my only issue was the music at the 2nd rave. it was terrible. the beat was changing so much that it was hard to get into, and the stuff played was just plain bad. myself and a number of people i was with were extremely disappointed.

[LeekFish]

I'm not super happy with the panels department, to be honest. :I My panel couldn't even get mics or audio equipment (if I had known beforehand I could have at least brought louder computer speakers!), and apparently the previous J-Rock panel in the same room had the same problem (honestly, you'd think that they would at least have had some for a music-based panel.) Not to mention they made an error in my panel description in the program book and on the main site by copying and pasting it twice which looked plain silly (you'd think they'd proofread that kinda stuff.) The panel room we had was also pretty tiny considering I had even told them on my panel submission form that at Fanime 2011 it drew a crowd of at least 200 to 250 people, so I noticed there were a lot of people forced to sit on the floor/stand in the back. We also had to check in at the programming room, but they never actually mentioned where it was in the emails and it wasn't listed on the maps, so I had to ask a few staffers for help before I finally found it.

I appreciated that the panels coordinator apologized for the lack of audio equipment, and some things probably couldn't be helped, and all was well that ended well. But I would hope that next time they'd be a little more prepared and perhaps let panelists know in advance if audio hookups aren't available. =/

[IoSono]

My only complaint is about the decision to host the Masquerade in such a small room; hopefully next year I'll be able to get it lol.

[Mangochutney]

What the sweet fancy jesus was up with on-site reg this year? 7 hours in line is grossly unacceptable.

[OniCourseMusha]

I'm a huge formal social dances at anime cons that I do my best to help people with dancing and enjoy having a great dance with new partners. I had a lots of fun at the Masquerade Ball but there's couple thing I wish they can improve. I wish they have a system when they have projector screen to show which music to let people know what kind of dance fits in with the music being played. The room they used was too small to have people who wanted to show up at the ball. AND I wish the ball was longer instead of being 2 hours.

Pro: Great location. Arcades are free! Ran into many nice staff. Great size vendors hall and artist alley. Cosplay contest divided up in different time slot for skits and walk ins.

What a way to start my first Sakura Con! And it's one of my favorite that I cried little that I won't see the people I got to know until next year....unless some can actually make it at either Fanime or Anime Expo.

[krysrussell14]

So my feedback will be from a Back of House and Masquerade staff , and cosplayers point of view.

So, I was there pretty much all day Thursday setting up the main stage for the concerts, not too exciting, but nothing to report really, other than seeing Moi Dix Mois without their normal hair, makeup or clothes on, they looked totally normal, which was odd lol.

Friday I cosplayed most the morning, and then went to the learn to dance panel. I was a host and got there a tiny late, but proceeded to join in with teaching the waltz and swing, which was cool. Then came the actual masquerade:
Yes, the room was probably too small, no there really wasn't anywhere better to have it. It has been talked about it being moved to somewhere bigger next year.
I did love how almost everyone was up to dancing, I pulled probably 5-6 people out of their chairs to dance and had a few people ask me to dance also. (remember I was a host, so I was dancing a lot). I even had someone offer to teach me to blues dance.
The whole mask thing kinda bugged me. There were people who actually refused to wear a mask even when one was offered to them >.> Don't know what the heck that was about.

Saturday: I cosplayed for a little then went to help with the sound check for Kanon and Moi Dix Mois. Nothing too exciting there really. Then Kanon did her concert, and we moved all the stuff to get Moi Dix Mois going. There is seriously nothing better than being backstage for that! Also since my bf was doing security (looking for people taking photos), he caught a lot of the pics Mana was throwing out (I guess they weren't flying very far). He kept one for me and one of my co-workers, then tossed the rest into the crowd. After we started tearing down for the Dj's to get ready, and my bf ended up helping MDM pack their stuff and got a pat on the butt from Seth XD and I tried to help Seth find something but he didn't understand what I was trying to ask >.> Oh, and I heard Mana talk :P
That night I went to the Swimsuit contest, which sucked because I couldn't see ANYTHING and I am 5'8". They really need to have that on stage or something. I also walked around the con with my light up hoop, but did not go to the EDM dance because the music sounded weird and you weren't allowed to take hoops in. I also stopped by the manga library (was great, I also loved how thoroughly they checked badges after curfew) and the AMV's that were after 1 am.

Sunday: I slept in a little this day, and went to the dealers hall for a while. Ended up buying a 95$ H.Naoto frill cutsew I fell in love with. I ended up waiting in line for MDM signatures, which only took about an hour, and got my tag from my shirt signed by the designer while I was there. Then went home

Overview:
Back of House staff is very stressful, but worth it for sure
If you're afraid of not getting into the masquerade, be a host. We get in an hour early.
Staff preservation may have not had great food, but it helped.
Mana is amazing, but Seth is hotter.
I definitely would be staff every year after this

[pook]

I will keep this to one complaint because I want it to be considered:

Five hour+ lines to get badges is simply unacceptable. Sakura Con needs to find a more efficient way to get people through lines. I've been going to conventions of all sorts for years and SC is the only con that ever has an issue with lines being longer than the most popular Disneyland rides.

I realize the length of line is partly because of a small number of registration booths and the fact that people are not just paying for badges, they are being entered into the SC database for ANCEA membership or whatever... but it is really disheartening that year after year SC makes their visitors wait in obscenely long lines. 5 hours. 5 HOURS? I'd guess that the average con attendee may only spend 8-10 hours or less at the convention, which means that 5 hour wait on Friday eats up more than half of many attendees con time.

Many people say "Just pre-reg!" as a way to dismiss this issue, but so long as onsite badges are sold, onsite registration lines should be of a huge concern.

If the staff cannot somehow conceive of a better way to control the massive lines (which is silly, they can absolutely fix this so I don't understand why they haven't yet) then they should at least provide refreshments and games for the people who have to give up HALF OF THEIR DAY to stand in a sweaty, cramped, loud and headache-inducing line.

I would be nicer about this complaint but I first noticed this issue a few years ago, didn't go to SC for a couple of years, and came back to SC 2012 appalled that this issue persists.

I had oodles of fun with everything else but LORD ALMIGHTY THE REGISTRATION PROCESS NEEDS TO BE FIXED!

[ishizzle]

I didn't like how I didn't get a Blue Exorcist lanyard when I pre-registered and picked it up on Thursday. /disappoint

I heard some people got banned for life for taking a pic or vid at the concerts. IMO Even though they were wrong, banned for life is a little too harsh. Maybe a five year ban instead? =\