During the drive up to Philadelphia for Tandokucon on Saturday, we kind of expected a lot of disorganization with this being the convention’s first year. It really wasn’t that bad. Fortunately, Tandokucon started out small (I’d guess about 1,500 people were there), basically just renting out half of a hallway within a giant convention center.
Haruhi had nothing to do with it, but Itsuki was there.
The staff got a crash course in planning panel space. They scheduled the big group voice actor panel in the smallest of the panel rooms, which only had a seating capacity of 108 people. As soon as I saw that I got the impression the person who planned the schedule didn’t do enough research to know that the group voice actor panel is among the most well attended events at a con. The staffers, shocked by the size of the line opened up the wall to join two panel rooms to make about 300-400 seats available and there still wasn’t enough room for all the people who wanted to attend that panel. It took a while to get sorted out, but it got sorted. After that for us there was about a three hour gap in the schedule with nothing that we wanted to do.
There’s other crap that’s not worth complaining about here that will hopefully be ironed out for next year.
Anyway, Tandokucon was a decent way to pass a Saturday. I always enjoy the voice actor panels. The most interesting thing to see at the voice actor panel was watching Johnny Yong Bosch pitching his voice up to find Renton from Eureka Seven. Didn’t realize just how much he has to pitch his voice for the role. JYB’s band Eyeshine was also a musical guest. They were good, but the sound engineering at the venue wasn’t so hot. This is the first time I saw Chris Ayers and he was cool in the anime geek sorta way — always a bonus when the guest is into this crap just like the rest of us.
More so than Otakon, the crowd at Tandokucon was strikingly different from fans on boards like AnimeonDVD. If it wasn’t Bleach or Naruto, references to other shows got little reaction from the audience. Almost every question at the four panels I attended were Bleach or Naruto related. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, just noting how different the con population was compared to what I watch. I’ve never seen a single episode of Bleach or Naruto. It’s easy to think the vocal minority on message boards and blogs are the majority, but clearly they are not.
Man, I’ve been to over twenty of those panels and haven’t asked a single question. I probably should.
Loot. I only bought one thing, the fourth Marmalade Boy collection. Glad I saw that from the corner of my eye. That thing has been out of print and out of stock for a while, so now I can finally finish Marmalade Boy.
Really? I thought it was really poorly run, and the organization wasn’t there. No planning and no effort does not make a worthwhile convention, or weekend.
It was poorly run, but I was able to enjoy myself in spite of that. I guess since it was only a half hour drive, it wasn’t a big deal to me if it wasn’t that good. I’m sure if I had rented a hotel room to go to the convention I’d be a lot more upset. We were kind of joking with ourselves about it, as far as how it probably looked from the guests’ perspective. JYB and his band walk up to the registration desk with their equipment, presumably to ask where the hell they were playing? That’s what we imagined they were asking when they did and just laughed. (The concert was two blocks away).
I had a good time, but that was really only because of the guests, imo. They pretty much saved this convention for them. Not that I really noticed, even though I did see them floating around here and there, but from going to other forums, it seems the guests really made themselves super accessible to the fans, more so than at other cons. That may just be because it was such a small con, who knows. Anyway, I was very happy to get the opportunity to attend the panels, they had such great voice talent there.
I agree that it was poorly organized the more I think about it. Mainly because of the times they had some of these panels. Liam O’Brien’s panel would have surely been larger if it didn’t conflict with people presumably lining up for the concert. I can only imagine how empty Lex Lang’s panel was, which took place during the concert.
They should have had the video game room set up for the panels, since it seemed they only had ddr and a couple of gaming consoles. Video game room should have been in the screening room, and the screening room should have been put in that teeny room they wanted to use for the panels.
Concert was fun. Still peeved about some of the knock-off junk in the dealer room. Also, it would have been nice if they at least had someone selling bottled water or some snacks.
It’s the same here in New Zealand… if you’re not a Bleach, Naruto or FMA fan, you’re in the minority, and thats saying something since most of the prolific collectors I know here aren’t fans of the above three
I wonder, is this part of the whole demise of the anime fandom?
Anyway, good score on the Marmalade Boy
Congrats for finding Marlamade Boy, its always good to finish a collection. Sorry to hear that this years Tandokucon wasn’t that good, but it will get better with time. The local one year has been running three years and has gotten better with each year. I’m not surprised that something mainstream in America, like Bleach and Naruto, is the only thing American anime fans will really talk about. Just wait, maybe you will see some Death Note questions next year as Death Note just started showing on Adult Swim. Everyone needs to know more about the other great animes out there, but we are sadly limited here in America on great animes.
With my luck someone will announce a cheap Marmalade Boy re-release just because I bought it. That’s fine, since it will mean some other people get the chance to see it. There’s just something about it with just that right amount of soap opera cheese.
Mainstream fans who only watch Cartoon Network aren’t the poison that’s killing anime (though they could be some cure if convinced to check other stuff out via legal means).
I’ve been seeing Bleach and Naruto fans are everywhere lately! It would be great if some really cool anime series were as popular. I was never able to get into either show.
Perhaps Death Note will be crazy-popular in time for the next con season.
My sister said the same thing about Death Note probably being the cosplay for next year. There’s already some of it going on, but it’ll probably move up quite a bit.
I find it funny that you thought there was actually 1500 people there. The Tandokucon staff claim about 5000 and most congoers said a few hundred. I wonder if that included the panhandlers and bums that just walked into the panels trying to get money off the little kids who really needed some adult supervision.
lol, I may have counted them too.
C’mon guys.
It’s their first time! Philly in itself was pretty brave for having the con in the first place! Give us a chance…
The Philly area is known (I think) for its historical value but under that is the “ghetto” people who try to run it. I think “Con Mom” was just worried about how the people AROUND the con would act.
I, myself, was almost attacked by people shouting “Holloween is over asshole”
I’m not sure if this happens at other cons too but it really scared me.
In any case, give the Con time to grow and expand. I think it’ll get better over time.
~Roxi~
Hopefully, there is a next time. The site has been quiet. I would like to see a new and improved version of it.