This the 16th consecutive Sakura Con I've attended, and it sure has grown since that first one in 2000 (the 1st time it was called Sakura Con, not Baka Con). It went through growing pains and endured and then when it got even bigger it moved to downtown seattle and has stayed there since. And it was a lot of fun, for a while.
Nowadays, or rather the last few Sakura Cons have been less than stellar, with guests that just don't to appeal to me as much these days, same with musical acts and organization. For 10 of those years I covered SC and wrote reports and was critical of its flaws. This year I am just an attendee, which frees me from obligations I had before, and so I just sit back and take a look at what I liked and didn't.
Things are also different on the homefront as may have heard before. This was the first Sakura Con for my baby son, and the challenge to bring a baby to con continued from ECCC. We had planned to get to SC on Friday by noon, but my wonderful wife decided to make costumes at the very last minute--Dragon Ball Z. Finally finished Friday afternoon we took off. Unfortunately not only did we hit traffic, but we had to make a stop for a bathroom break, then my son started crying. At last, around 5pm we made it to the convention center, changed into our new DBZ costumes and hung out in the convention center. We didn't get much chance to walk around and check out the dealers hall, so we hung around a lounging area on the 4th floor, which is nicknamed "Brotography Corner." This is prime area where cosplayers and photographers hang out, meet up and take photos. We saw a few of our friends there, chatted, showed off the baby and took photos. I ran into Al aka Eurobeat Kasumi after not seeing him for a few years, and he took some of our Vegeta, Bulma and baby Trunks, and other photogs got into us as well. My hope for shooting a lot of photos fell quite short, but I snapped a few. After a couple of hours we decided to call it a night, so we all could settle in at the hotel and eat as well. I parked to car at a nearby garage rather than at the hotel as it was much cheaper. A rather quiet Friday for a first day of con for us.
Saturday would be similar to Friday unfortunately. I got up early to used the exercise room in the hotel, and to check on the car in the other garage. Due to various circumstances we did not get to the convention until after 3pm, missing the morning and part of the afternoon. We wore our Urusei Yatsura costumes and headed to the brotography corner once again for photo ops. We only stayed for a short while as my wife was having "malfunctions" with her Lum bikini. We headed back briefly to our hotel room to change back into our DBZ costumes then headed back. The 3 of us got a lot of attention, maybe because of my son's baby Trunks outfit being so cute, or perhaps Vegeta's pink "Badman" shirt may have hillarious to them. In any case we got a lot of photos taken of us all over the convention area. We checked out the dealer hall and artist alley, though we didn't have much time until it closed since it was already getting late. We headed back to the photo corner to meet up with my buddy Hector. We just hung out there for a little bit, then headed back to the hotel room to eat some food. We ate and drank, then decided we wanted to go back to the convention and play some music--something we've always done at convention--me guitar, Hector sax. I put on my Gakuen Naruto costume and we took off. We played on the first floor, and played all of our standard anime theme songs we learned throughout the years. Lots of folks stopped to listen and enjoy the music, even leaving some tips. Our baby was falling asleep and so we called it a night while Hector went home.
Sunday proved to be more active for us. We actually checked out of the hotel on time and got to the covention early afternoon. We were our Ranma 1/2 cosplay today. We planned to get Sumi Shimamoto's autograph though we were there a little late. I was taking care of the car while Kirsten stood in line, and by the time I got there the line was cut off behind my wife. I was angered because I hoped to have my DVD of Maison Ikkoku autographed. I stormed out of there and checked out the dealers room and took cosplay photos while my wife got her figure signed.
We bummed around the dealers room and artist alley for a little while afterwards, then lined up for a panel. Yes we finally were going to see something! We went to the Sumi Matsumoto panel, which would be the first and last event we would see at this Sakura Con. I have no obligation to go to the Opening or closing ceremonies, so I ceremoniously skipped those.
As we waited in line, I witnessed the only staff infraction I had time for. It seems to me staff members know how to do their job, just not politely. I saw a lady shouting commands to attendees to not congest the area around the panel waiting lines. It just seems common courtesy to politely remind attendees what they can do and what they can't, not act like stern schoolteachers or army commanders. It just ruins the experience for the con-goer, I think.
Anyway the panel itself was very good. She discussed her experiences with being a seiyuu back in there heyday. She even sang an excerpt that her character Nausicaa sung at one point in the Ghibli film. She also demonstrated Kyoko's voice from one of favorite series, Maison Ikkoku. She answered many questions from the audience, and we even got a photo with her after the panel ended.
The rest of time we were at the convention we just hung out in the photography area. Then we just decided to call it a night and head home. Another Sakura Con done.
More or less this year's Sakura Con was anticlimatic in my opinion. This mostly due to lack of time, or running out of time to see anything basically. Such is the life as we already had experienced at ECCC, of being new parents. Other factors ate up time, but as I've stated before we think now we have a better idea of what to expect when we take our kid to a convention, and know how to better plan accordingly. We did see some friends, got some photos and showed off our child who charmed everyone. We also hung out with a friend we been meaning to see for a while-this was most important. But also important, having have to pay for a convention now means I want to get my money's worth otherwise I'd rather stay home than waste money. Of course I also want the convention I'm attending to have cool stuff to see and do--something interesting. Sakura Con falters on that topic lately, but I'm still hoping they will surprise me with a great guest or event in the future. In the meantime I look forward to other superior conventions in the area, attending with the wife and child. And I hope the experiences are superior as well.