ANIME CALIFORNIA, LONG BEACH, SEP 2-4

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I'm just going to drink with seagulls

Gonna be working it, actually.

I owed someone a favor.

>>9156380
What department?

one of the last cons i get to attend for awhile given life and such, i'm trying to plan at least 2 if not 3 photoshoot but can't figure out the days and time with my cosplay partner, and then there's the photographer..

I also wanna finally go to a CGL gathering instead of being a chicken

Apparently there's AA tables left aince some people decided to go to SAC.

I'm probably gonna make this my relaxation con.

Anyone still looking for a room?

would love to see ya gulls but imma be in sac, got commissions to git

I'm going but I have absolutely no idea what to expect. The site says it expects 8,000+ people? Is that realistic?

>>9159681
It attracts a large crowd because it's the last anime convention of the summer, but 8000 doesn't sound realistic.

It's a social con, kind of like ALA, but smaller.

p.s. if someone organizes a gathering, I'll try to roll through at some point. There are usually a lot of seagulls at AC.

Last year I only attended Sunday to do some work there, but I still don't really know or remember the overall atmosphere. I'm debating going the whole weekend versus just Saturday, but this isn't a con where I'd want to bring a huge costume right? My friends tell me it's pretty laid back and casual...

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>tfw beanie invited you to his room at ax but dropped spaghetti and didnt go
>tfw seeing pic of all the cute girls there in the kik group next day

m-maybe ill keep my spaghetti in this time

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Im heading down there for this con, itll be my first one ever.
I'm flying down there friday and my friend is gonna join me on saturday and sunday.
We're both first timer, im not sure how i'll fair alone friday

>>9161882
also, is there suppose to be a schedule of events? like a timetable or something?
The site litsts some events but is very vague as when itll take place

>>9161912
They seem to be very behind on it and very conflicted. I was planning to go and panel, heard nothing from them so figured my panels were rejected, then just the other day was told that my panel was accepted.

My guess is a schedule wont be made available till day 0 of con if they are running this behind.

>>9161941
it went up this morning

https://www.animecalifornia.com/events

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>>9161882
>im not sure how i'll fair alone friday

I'll be there solo as well. If the loneliness becomes unbearable for you on Friday, send me an IM, I'll be your friend.

Kik: Vonhulse

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We're gonna have a /cgl/ beach episode, right?

Do they sell alcohol at the 18+ music events? I'm assuming they're like concerts or something right?

I'm going but I still don't really know which cosplay to bring. Probably gonna bring Raoul Duke since that's pretty beach friendly but no clue for the other days. Any JoJo's or Metal Gear going?

>>9164020
It's rare to find alcohol at an anime convention, unless it's AX and Lounge 21

Still looking for roomies, got a block room, looking at 225 for the weekend if we can get 2 more bodies.

>>9165683
225 per person?

>>9165975
If we can get four people, yes

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>>9165976
It's all my buddy could get, room is under his name.

>>9161392
>cute
Where?

>>9162394
It looks like Friday's going to be running late into the AMs huh, do people actually stay for these type of late night events?

>>9167050
As someone who works cons, yes.

>>9167060
You volunteer, not work

>>9166951
Savage

>>9167050
A lot of people wander from parties to the con events, or just can't find parties and settle.

>>9167050
yeah it's usually like "hey it's something to do"

Can you get into the general center without a badge or no?

Tomorrow's the day guys

I'll be hitting it up starting from the amv contests, anything before that didn't seem interesting to me, anyone wanna meet up or something?

Meetup at 8, followed by drinks?

>>9168173
you gonna be there sky?

what days?

>>9168243
Just Friday, have to go to LA on Sat.

>>9165981
hahaha you fucked up

If meetup ends up happening at 8:00 PM, I'll stop by briefly to say hi with (the non-cgl chapter of) dick squad.

Someone scope out a location tomorrow morning, please.

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Here's my schedule. Gonna dig some holes at the beach :)

>>9161392
>yfw you know most of those girls in the pic
ah shit

>>9168758
Come hang out with us then, anon. They're all pretty great.

Still not sure who other anon is, though

>>9155376
No kik or discord for this small con?

>>9168759
is fri still popping? I might drop by

>>9168389
Yeah I told him I figured it why. It's a regency room upstairs on 16. At least we get free breakfast and there's snacks throughout the day.

>>9168774
900$ nigga? you better have 8 niggas living in the room because holy shit at that price tag

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Finished revamping the two of these today. Be sure to sign my petition.
>>9168173
Are we going to meet at the con center or by the beach? Beach sounds more comfy but not sure if it would work with some people's cosplays.

Should I go friday or saturday?

>>9161882
Strange to choose such a laid back con for your first convention....and flying to it.

IS ANYONE HERE?

>>9169087
No, people have work and school.

>>9168804
The beach sounds fun tp be honest.

>>9169094
>college/uni
>on a friday

Just got to the Courtyard Marriot, should be a good weekend.

Come visit, anons. Console gaming area is having a Bomberman tourney at 1pm friday, and Smash wiiu tourney at 4pm friday.

We want more people for the Bomberman tourney.

>>9169087
We're on our way now, to avoid traffic. We don't do cons during the day time, so not sure what we're going to do once we get settled.

>>9169244
Want to drink up?

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>>9169402
Maybe! About to go stock up for the weekend, because all I have right now is Everclear

Shit, they stopped selling alcohol at the con, now what am I to do

Meetup still happening?

I'm just passing through long beach but I'll stop by if you guys are having a meetup anytime soon

RIP

Is it Fleet Week or something?

Any meet ups going atm?

Fuck it, I'm making one. Where do you guys want to meet?
Beach seems nice

Is there a hotel we can just go and chill?

The beach sounds good
Would be down some of my peeps has drinks.

>>9169663
Someone else would have to host since I have no room

Artist alley was slow as fuck today. Hope it's better tomorrow.

Meet up in at the front of the convention center outside? Then head to the beach?

>>9169686
Word, we here

Plenty of parking over here by Ocean Blvd and Coronado Av

>>9169692
Unless you guys have a better place

Were y'all with the dude in the Kaz cosplay?

Getting drunk in our room. Gonna be up for a while if anyone wants to host a party.

>>9169730
I'm a party of one
At the beach

Party in room 401 Mariott Courtyard

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Dance is ded, guys.

>>9169754
Which Mariott?

>>9169754
Someone confirm this.

>>9169754
It was fucking nothing

What you gays up to?

Will today be better?

Anyone else go to the opening ceremony and want blow their brains out?

>>9169890
Dying

>>9170161
I'll save you if you're a girl

>>9170043
Yes

RIP AC 2014-2016

>>9170233
The first two years were great, where did it all go so wrong?

>>9170233
This is my first year going, it's so dead in everything I go to. Where is everyone? Attended panels and workshops in the AM and PM and it was the same shit.

DED CON

>>9170287
Last year was alright this is a fucking mess the venue is way too big for such a little con.

We are at sacanime. Where is everyone?

Anyone wanna hang out. Im so lonely ;_;7

Staff gull here.

My side of the convention was pretty busy (gaming) but yeah, I preferred AC2014/2015 when in the hotel, and all the departments got their own room. Traffic flow was much easier then.

Also I like hotel cons. Way comfier.

>>9170526
I'm working with you, who are you?

>>9170557
I am in console gaming. Had my venom horn in today.

Had to deal with some extreme levels of autism during the smash tourney.

Would host a room party but I don't want to drink with a bunch of autistic teenagers.

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cool kids had a room party

Sorry too busy sleeping and turning up to meet up, but if anyone sees me around tonight at 10, say hi

Party in front of the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. There's a big fountain near where others will meetup.

I have yet to go to this con. Is it your typical small con? Why the fuck does it keep changing locations and will they stay in Long Beach after this year?

>>9170868
I dont even know what people do there gor 3 days.

This con is sad as fuck. I only went one day on Saturday and they already sold out single day passes. I had to buy a three day pass just to check things out inside. Never again.

>>9170870
At least ALA keeps you buys for three days...I think.

People starting to meet up around the fountain in front of the arts center. There's a DJ around a corner.

Were at the fountain, say hi. Yaoi trash

>>9170722
lel I was there and all those faggots were bitching about controller shit. I seriously don't understand that shit when those controllers are like new.

Where the fountain party move to

>>9171003
My pants.

"Party con" my ass

WHO UP

>>9171062
I'm too drunk so I shouldn't be up

I live local to this. Is it even worth attempting to go for Sunday? After reading this I'm thinking no.
Also, any fun with the hula dancers at the Terrace theater? If the con sucks I may just swing by the hula mau.

>>9171052
There was more party when it was at a hotel. Being mostly at the convention center sorta made it harder.

>3rd day here
>don't even know why
This is awful

Overall, I had more fun playing Pokemon Go with friends than anything else at this con.

Dead con was dead. Next year I'll bring friends and throw an open door party.

>>9171309
Hopefully they'll consider moving back to a hotel in Orange County until it grows.

>I skipped saboten con for this

What a waste even fanime was better

>the cute girl that likes cats at the gaming place has bf
Damn she was probably the only girl I would have talked to

Con if fucking dead. Who wants to come see Kubo at 4:20 at the Cinemark across from the con center?

>>9171688
I'm down to watch it.

>>9171688
Waiting outside of Cinemark dressed as Kaz. Kubo sounds good. Entrance is kinda tricky to find. It's upstairs above the emoji street sellers

>>9171696
>emoji street sellers
Long Beach needs to nuked from orbit

>>9171688
First con I actually left after the first fucking day. I had more fun outside the con

The staff was so rude, honestly ruined the whole thing for me

>>9171985
Fucking tell me about it I went to the Yoko Kanno music panel and one of the fuckers fell asleep and started snoring during the panel. Then his friends show up and the cunts have the nerve to start talking during the presentation.

>>9171896
There was fucking nothing to do at the con itself. Every day was just go walk the vendor line then leave and do something outside the con. I wasted my money buying a fucking weekend pass

>>9172073
Should have bought more from my table, fag

sooooo how was the con?

>>9172332
IMO fanime was better and even that was bad. I mean at least fanime had shit going on, CA was... a con I guess

AC needs to go back to being in a hotel like its first year in Anaheim

>>9172332
It was amazing, the con had great guests, an amazing location, and it was very fun and energetic. It was probably the best con I have been at all year.

>>9173271
AC staff member, pls go and stay go.

>>9172332
Not as good as last year definitely, but I still had fun. I only went Saturday, though. I probably would have been bored with multiple days. I went to two panels, one photoshoot, and chilled with friends.

>>9172332
Worst con I've ever been to.
Con was dead on arrival. The small turnout worked last year because the venue was small, but in a good way. Every area felt full if that makes sense. And hotels work wonderfully for party cons. The new venue in Long Beach was garbage. Not only is it way farther away, it did not match the turnout well at all. The venue itself was pretty damn small, but not in a good way. You walk in. There's stairs up leading to panel rooms. There's stairs down leading to the Exhibit Hall/Artist Alley/Gaming Hall/Tabletop Hall. It is all crammed together and does not work as a whole. The "gaming hall" was just like 10 PC's and a few Wii's and Xbox's. Gaming Hall was ass. The Smash tourney was full of turbo autismos and the only Wii game was a GameCube Bomberman game. All the while some dumbass Just Dance type game was the only one projected on the big screen.

Nothing happened on Day 1. The formal dance was also a crash and burn. Everyone was just clinging to the walls and on their phone. Day 2 was worse. Karaoke got delayed by 2 hours, by then I lost all interest for it. A bunch of gatherings such as the BNHA one got cancelled. The """""""rave"""""" was hilariously quiet.

I was excited for The Dub Show as I had good experiences with it in the past. This time, it was a complete cringe fest. The people they chose had no fucking idea what to do and usually they just stood on stage quietly and uncomfortably giggling rather than actually participating. Hugo and I went up just to shitpost and make a Tendies story. Hilarious for us, but probably weird for all the retard Normies and Aspies in the audience.

Fountain Con got immediately busted by cops. My mates and I almost got mugged when outside of our hotel. By Sunday it was a zombie con and I left early and just watched Kubo. Best part of the weekend...
Doesn't help that my friend got banned from AC and my phone stopped working on Day 1.

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>>9173597
I know I sound super bitchy, but it's just last year's AC is still the most fun I ever had at a con. I took some friends to AC this year (their first AC) hoping we'd all have as much fun as I did last time and it made an awful impression. This year was just so unpleasant and uneventful. A lot more bad shit happened at Fanime, but at least shit HAPPENED at Fanime unlike AC2016.

It was an okay con for the most part. There wasn't a whole lot to do overall, but it places at being better than Hanadoki Con and PMX 2016 but not as good as ALA. I think it would have had more potential at staying as the last good hotel con since all the others have transitioned to using convention centers. This one didn't have enough crowd and programming to warrant its own convention center.

The weather was pretty nice though, and it wasn't far from restaurants and coffee shops. Our hotel was also right next to some beer fest event, so it was pretty exciting.

I heard that there was a lot of drama going on about sound tech that caused some strife with some bands. It might also explain why the halftime show at masquerade was absurdedly long. I think they were trying to make up for that band not performing the night before, so it was well over an hour waiting for the results.

Overall, I liked the con. I think it helped having friends who I don't see often there, so it was chill to just hang and talk and take photos. I got old school con vibes from this one, much like a very early ALA and PMX era. It has potential since it takes place at a good time when a lot of people want to enjoy another con that's not as intense as AX and have a chance to wear some summer cosplays before autumn sets in. I imagine though Friday being sparse had a lot to do with traffic and people still having work/school.

>>9173653
Let's not kid ourselves, Labor Day sucks for SoCal cons. Pacific Media Expo learned the hard way last year, and ACal learned this year. Hopefully they learn and just move back to the weekend before Labor Day like the past two cons

>>9172748
FanimeCon also has 25,000 people and run 24 hour programming. Not even Anime Expo runs 24 hours.

>>9173667
I agree with you on it not being on Labor Day weekend anymore, but I was referring to more of a August/early September time period.

>>9173653
yeah i had talked to someone about it, there was a sound issue (apparently AC's sound guy was being a dick?) and Blamed Lolita dark for it, and the bands stuff wasn't working 2-3 songs in and they walked out. they preformed the half time show instead of dance corp to make up for it. the band was alright despite going on a song or two too long, but the band should have opened the show so people wouldn't have to sit through the entire masquerade to see it. I regret not entering the masquerade because last year i won something and this year there were only two decent entries and one was redoing a performance they did at AX.

I actually liked the venue because the Panel rooms were easy to find, everything was low key and chill (i mean the only line i waited in was badge pick up on day 1) and there were lots of spots for photoshoots and the lack of crowding made it really easy for strangers to not be in the shot. i regret not staying in a closer hotel? but they shouldn't have had it on the weekend they did.

>>9173783
Yeah, they went a few songs overboard. I understand that they wanted to make up for it, and I heard them apologize on stage. I had heard a similar story but wasn't sure whether it was true about the sound guy. There were some pretty hilarious moments when people were pulled on stage and looked like they didn't know what they were doing.

I was in the backstage waiting with the contestants for the results, and we weren't sure when they were going to end. They told us around 10:10 or so, and even after the performance was over, we saw the judges waiting off to the sides since I'm assuming that they were having to transition the equipment out from the stage to make room for them and the Survey Corps groups. I think it would have been kind of awkward had we left early, since we ended up actually winning something lol. But we did see groups who left because it was legitimately running long.

I hope you can enter next time, anon! For the most part, it was a smooth masquerade in terms of how they kept the groups in the back and the people were overall really nice.

>>9173806
>>9173783

I loved the masquerade! Definitely the stand out from an otherwise lackluster AC. Also, Congrats on winning something

>>9173597
Why'd your friend get banned?

Staff anon here.

The whole "lets put everything inside the exhibition hall" bullshit is the absolute worst. Especially for security. It also made setup a bigger headache.

I prefer individual rooms for each department, since it helps control the flow of traffic, and also we can actually LOCK the doors when we are done.

>>9174216
yeah i noticed that the AA and exhibit hall stuff was just being guarded by one staffer with a tape blocking it, which seemed weird.

>>9173806
my partner and i regret not entering because we probably would have won something. though we entered at AX but didn't place (plus AX ran their like shit.)

It felts like less people went this year. Could any anime California staff confirm or deny this?

>>9174368
I was at AX masquerade too and it was a horrendous experience how they ran things. I pretty much just wanted to meet J. Hart lol. AC definitely did a better job at keeping flow.

>>9174216
I noticed that too. That definitely sounds like a headache.

>>9174368
This years AX masq was my first time in a contest, are all contests this disorganized?

>>9174684
Not necessarily. I actually think AX was the worst experience I've had, even while people continue to say that Fanime's is worse. I think it was the best experience craftsmanship-judging wise, but the whole, "you can't leave" rule was really off-putting.

Some of the members of our group had to leave because they had to work early, and they almost didn't let them go, even though we were done with our skit. Secondly, they were inconsistent about setting up set pieces, even though most groups that had sets or props that needed setting up needed more than 2 skits prior to them to begin set up, as long as they were out of the way.

I hope your experience doesn't deter you away from other ones. This one was pretty bad, and I heard the past 2 before were far worse. I feel like they emphasize too much in putting a shallow face for the audience, but most of the fellow contestants, especially the foreign ones, were also disappointed in how limited they are.

But I do hope that next AC masquerade has a bigger turnout. It was quite fun.

>>9174709
I also forgot to mention, if anyone understands why we couldn't take selfies or any photos in the back stage for AX? AC and other cons have never had this issue.

>>9174711
>if anyone understands why we couldn't take selfies or any photos in the back stage for AX

I didnt hear about this? IF true thats ridiculous. But then again, it is AX so they could give some bullshit excuse about safe spaces or copy right stuff

>>9174709
Alot of the rules they gave us did not make sense, or were they really enforced in my experience. I never found out what our score was because I just didn't want to even bother anymore.

It's nice to know that other masq are more organized but I expected better of AX since they are supposed to be big and have more budget.

>>9174711
Iirc they said some BS about copyright and that its filmed by thr organization but we will never get to see it.

If anything I think its because they did not want us to hound any goh they had backstage.

Got any photos?

>>9174711
>>9174726
This is true, i was planning to live instragram the whole masq experiece, at the morning meeting they said we weren't allowed to post anything about the event especially photos.

>>9174740
I ALSO WANTED TO KNOW OUR SCORE, because like while we didn't expect to place we wanted to know how close we were and why we might not have, we asked one of the judges how we might improve and she gave some vauge "you glued things you could have sewn" which seemed irrelevant given that we had a time management issue.

>>9174726
They told us in the meeting that if they caught you taking photos backstage, you were disqualified. I assumed it had something to do about copyright and them wanting to publish their own videos, but they haven't even released the skits through their site. They even said that we couldn't have our skits recorded other than from AC Paradise and their main videographer, and that they acknowledged that sometimes a few skits were still filmed but they would try to take them down.

Even if you go check now, only a few people in the audience filmed some. The AC Paradise versions are only available on the site, and AX made a teaser about posting all the skits, but they haven't as far as I checked over the weekend.

>>9174740
I never found out either. I wanted to ask, since there were only like 5 winners and lots of skits were really good, so it would have been worth to see what made them choose one over the other.

>>9174758
If this is true, the Best in Show group had trims hot glued on. Nothing wrong with it, but it seems like too vague of an excuse to give out if it doesn't sound consistent for all groups (probably except Novice?)

>>9174781
yeah luckily we had a friend in the audience record us. because it's so nice to have that on video because i searched it and found barely anything.

I mean again, i'm okay with not placing there were some acts that REALLY deserved something. (i think the odin sphere duo looked amazing up close and were robbed ontop of some others)

>>9174793
I agree with you. The Odin's Sphere group did a great job. For a while, given how many odd rules there were, I was under the impression that they were filming masquerade for a show or something, and that was why they didn't want people taking pictures in the backstage.

>>9174808
i thought that too and they posted a "preview" video on the AX Youtube page a month ago

>>9174758
I also entered the AX masq and I did receive my score sheets, but that was only because I went to the Masquerade office on Day 4 and asked for them.

>>9174603
Glad you enjoyed the Masq! Things flowed very well; the basis of this being communication between all parties to ensure everyone was on the same page about what was going on.

For the record, that's possibly the most fun I've had at a Masq as Master of Ceremonies. Ever. Thanks for showing!

>>9176176
you and the girl (i forget her name ;o;) where GREAT on stage, the only cringe bit was the whose line is it anime people but i'm gonna say that were just having an off night because i see that they're at lots of cons and they couldn't possibly be that bad and get panel space.

>>9176176
You guys put on a great show too! I hope you're both back next year!

>>9174547
Different staff anon. From registration perspective, it looked like we made a profit, but there were less people than we expected to be there on Sunday. Yeah, will admit though I had a great time, it was pretty dead for a lot of stuff. Couldn't make it to any panels, but I think the con needs to grow into the new location. Still trying to find a place to call "home" for the con though

well

RIP

>>9178091
what ?

>>9178091
>Trolling the best con in the year

Haters please go and stay out.

>>9177026
It's not easy finding a place to call home, and it definitely doesn't help having to share your venue space with multiple events. What I'd really like to see with AC if it's even fathomable, is for it to find something that makes it unique? Like in 2015, the SoCal Regional qualifiers were in the hotel. They advertised it in the program guide. Your badge couldn't get you in even to WATCH. Why label yourself an Anime and Video Games convention when the Video Games side is tiny, no guests are being represented really for it, and the biggest VG related thing happening that weekend is inaccessible to all attendees without having to pay for a second ticket??

The con needs SOMETHING to make it its own worthwhile trip, whether it's incredible dealers, Killer guest line ups each year, high quality game room/tabletop gaming, or powerful live programming that encourages viewership/interaction.

>>9174758
>>9174781
That sounds ridiculous. Reminds me of some bad ruling Anime Conji tried to force about not being allowed to even wear your cosplay the day of the masquerade so you don't "spoil the surprise". To disqualify you for posting your own work is just dumb.

As for the score sheet thing: Still upset that's a rubric. It needs to be tossed. And that sucks that you tried asking for some advice and they really couldn't give it to you :/

Was there a "main" hotel where all the con people stayed at?

I was at the Hyatt and hardly saw any con goers

>>9181681
The garages filled up fast, this tells me that Anime California was a commuter con this year. They also need to have stronger enforcement since I saw lots of people ghosting on Saturday.