Time for a rundown of my time at Crunchyroll’s own convention. The anime streaming service holds its second annual event, and they have grown a tiny bit. Located in San Jose, California, and taking place over labor day week end during September 1-3. I managed to get a press pass, and set off to document this adventure. So here we go.
I’ll start off with the positives of this convention. The guests of honor list was definitely something to see. A lot of influential names in the anime industry and popular youtubers in the anime review realm. Most notable is the fact that major Hollywood director Robert Rodriguez was present to talk about his adaptation of the manga/anime Battle Angel Alita (Which is a big deal for a convention of this size).
One particular guest I saw up close was Doki Doki Literature Club creator Dan Salvato. A game that went viral with its misleading cute nature that eventually becomes mind bending horror. Salvato was quite a mild mannered man, and was very open about his process of creating the game, and his thoughts on the game’s reception. He kept quiet about things planned in the future, which in a way fits the nature of Doki Doki.
Another positive point was the merchandise booths at the exhibitor’s hall. Not only a wide variety of booths, but a lot of convention exclusive merchandise. Again with the topic of Doki Doki, there were convention exclusive items at their booth, and quite a few exclusive shirts seen at the Crunchyroll store.
Of course there were negatives to Crunchyroll Expo. The most apparent is the fact that there was not much to do. Once you see the specific guests you like and buy the merch you want, there isn’t a lot to go to afterwards. The panels were entirely guests of honor, and not much fan run panels. Which cuts down on the unique and sometimes zany events seen at other conventions.
There were cosplay gatherings, but a little too few (around five in total each day). Considering cosplayers will find any excuse to show up and dress up, this was quite lacking.
On top of that there wasn’t a karaoke room or a dance. Something rather simple to provide for a convention of this size.
I’ll admit that I’m coming from a bias of wanting events that are more interactive in nature, so I give Crunchyroll credit for providing a manga library ,arcade room, and video rooms. The unfortunate thing about most of these though is that they shutdown with everything else at 7:00 pm. Which to me seemed to early when you consider that the masquerade and music performances occurred much later. This would have given something to do for those who would have not necessarily have interest in the two mentioned above.
On a more professional note, those doing press work were not allowed to film video footage inside the convention center or during interviews (unless you had a union associated film crew). This really limited a huge chunk of what a large portion of video based press members could document. As well as interviewers having to do a round table process in groups when seeing guests of honor (unless you had a large union crew). Crunchyroll Expo should either limit who gets press badges or expand the rights of all press badge holders. This “middle ground” didn’t really work. The convention really dropped the ball on this.
Overall, there were definitely good things, but it still needs some work. Hopefully such a new convention as Crunchyroll improves as it moves forward.
To end on a high note, here are some pics of cosplayers that I enjoyed. Until next time.
About the author: Glitch is a digital demon from planet Fanboy, and is here to teach us humans a thing or two. You can find more of his reviews(and nonsense) over at digitaldemonglitch.com