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[breugxalder]

Well.

[Schwelty]

Hell no. I've heard waaaaaay too many horrible things about this con. I have also heard that the staff and volunteers act all high and mighty and believe that $50 registration at the door by their third year is 'reasonable'. Reasonable my ass. No con should ever go above $40 during their first couple of years. $40 during the first year was outrageous. I mean, how full of yourself can you get? I'm very disappointed to hear that Matt and JoEllen are attending this overrated con.

[Emotiongear]

Hi, I'm John, the convention director. I'm sorry you think this con is 'overrated'. Registration at the door is $48 for 3 days. Before that it started at $30 for pre-reg. The point is to encourage people to pre-reg early to avoid long lines at the door.

You might still say it should be cheaper for a 3 year convention, but not many 3 year cons can provide what we have planned. We always listen to everyone's ideas, comments and suggestions and we try to accomodate everything and everyone. We have come a long way in 3 years. Just off the top of my head for this year we have:
Over 100,000 sq ft of convention space (including outdoor events)
Over 70 panels/workshops
Cultural Events
We are supported by FUNimation, Bandai, VIZ, Paramount, FOX, etc
Dragonball Evolution Premiere
Crispin Freeman, Stephanie Young, Luci Christian, Chris Patton, Blake Shepard, Cynthia Rothrock etc
State of the art concert with... (I wish I could say who it is but I cant yet) <-- I think the concert alone is worth the entry fee, but you can decide later.
Over 6000 sq ft of gaming space (over 30 japanese arcades, huge console room etc)

Not many 3 year old conventions have all that. But we still try to be as competitive as possible. We have free parking, our hotel rooms are $99/night, the food is cheap etc.

We had quite a few problems in our first year, most beyond our control. We apologized over and over and promised to make up. If you attended our second year, it was obvious we worked very hard to fix as many issues as we could and make our attendees happy. For our 3rd year, we are trying even harder. We listened to everyone and changed many things. I believe this is the only way this convention can be truly successful.

There's no need to list out all the changes we have made but cosplay-wise, we now have our contest seperate from the concert with a stage especially prepared for the cosplayers. There's also service, you can watch, drink ramune and eat pocky. We have more sponsors than we had last year, hence more prizes and even more cash prizes.

Finally, Matt, JoEllen, Diana (and others we havent announced yet) would not endorse or help us if they did not believe in this convention.
All I'm asking is you please give us a chance. If you have ideas or suggestions, please tell me. I promise to listen and do everything I can to accomodate you.

[Schwelty]

Thank you for shedding some light on all the rumors and bad image I had of this convention. You did it in a very professional manner too, which is really impressive to me and is very much important to me when going to convention. How the staff solves problems that arise and acts overall during the con.

I still think $48 is asking a little too much. It's a two dollar difference from the door price. I talked with a head staff member and found out that the band is not charging you tons of money because they're a big name band (I assume). And shouldn't so many sponsors mean less money? I will, however, definitely take into consideration how incredible you find this con to be and will think about going this year since the big man of this con himself responded to my comment. I'm most interested in finding out if $50 is worth the whole con if I do go.

[Emotiongear]

Actually, $48 is the door price.

The pre-reg price is now $45. It went up from $40 on January 1st. Group reg is still $30 per person for a group of 10 or more. If you have a cosplay group of 10 people, you only pay $30for the weekend.

The band actually costs a lot, but we think it's worth it. The production cost of the concert is also high. But they will only accept to come if the quality of the concert meets their standards.

Besides the cash prizes for cosplay, we're also giving out 100's of dollars in dealer room vouchers to the cosplayers so they can shop, while supporting the dealers. This way everyone's happy.

If you do decide to come, please tell me if everything was worth the price of the admission. Thank you so much.

[skypirate]

Anime Matsuri is one of my faves. Great hotel, great convention center, great location, cool guests, cool bands, fantastic surrounding area, free covered parking with a skywalk to the hotel, plus I like the people who run it and their enthusiasm. See you there!

And they know how to light a stage.

[Emotiongear]

Gren just joined our cosplay team, I'm sure everyone knows who she is. She'll also be helping us out in making sure our cosplay is great and all the panels are wonderful.
We are doing all we can to make this con a great one. We cant do it without the cosplayers support though.

[Ama Uzume]

This sounds like it's shaping up to be a great con. It's so refreshing to see the director of the con himself responded to someone's post. I hope to have fun.

[Maury V.]

Originally Posted by skypirate

Anime Matsuri is one of my faves. Great hotel, great convention center, great location, cool guests, cool bands, fantastic surrounding area, free covered parking with a skywalk to the hotel, plus I like the people who run it and their enthusiasm. See you there!

And they know how to light a stage.

Everything Mr. Skypirate is right! Truth be told their first year had a couple hiccups but their second year was seriously awesometastic! I'm looking forward to returning this year!

[breugxalder]

Somethings for cosplayers to be excited about for our cosplay line-up for Anime Matsuri are...

Lots of panels
Hosted by some of our guests: Lillyxandra and Gren (To name a few)
Iron Cosplay
Four teams go head to head with three minutes, duct tape and a slew of random scraps and items to recreate costumes and be judged on their accuracy.
The Cosplay Masquerade
Our big show, bigger and better than ever~

<Blu,
Cosplay Coordinator :3

I'll be down the road at Kamikazecon. If Kamikaze falters, which it most likely won't since it's always been awesome and is one of my all-time favorite cons, I'll head over to Matsuri.

Having two options will be pretty entertaining.

[Azrael-sama]

Last AM was pretty nice compared to the last years. I think it sucks that there are 3 cons going on in April on the SAME days. I would go to AM this year but Sakuracon is at the same time. I think this is what is happening with a lot of other people.

[MewKilalaMew]

Actually.... Anime Matsuri, Kamikaze, Sakura con and Kawaii con are the same weekend ~.~

I will possibly be heading to Kawaii con so I will most likely not be going to any of those..but if I don't go there I may go to Sakura con...if not out of state...I'm not sure which of the two in state I will go to.

[FilthyWarumono]

Holy shit, this convention sounds AMAZING and I've never even heard of it. And I go to ALOT of conventions.
Now I need to look into where/when this con is. XD;

[breugxalder]

Well just hop right on over to our website.

Anime Matsuri