Summary of my Experience at Anime Matsuri 2024
Firstly, sorry for not getting many photos taken. I ended up so busy and active this year that I just didn't think of taking many pictures. While I'm sad I didn't get more pictures, it is a sign I had a lot of fun this year. It was my third year attending the convention and I had an absolute blast.
First up, my Cosplay Lineup and Highlights while dressed as each.
As always, I tend to do at least one retro character that doesn't see much love these days. And the first one I went with was Albedo from Xenosaga. There were a couple of people who recognized it, more than I expected to be honest. A theme across the board for all the cosplays is something that happened to my original wigs, and they all had to be replaced with less-than-ideal premade, but thankfully they were mostly easy enough hair styles it didn't matter. A highlight of Albedo was performing Brother My Brother at Karaoke, and anyone who has gone through Xenosaga will get a bit of a kick out of that coming from Albedo. :p
The second day was Sanji, and this was overall the funniest day I had. Opened up with me going to the Anime War panel instead of the Opening Ceremony (The first day is mostly people settling in and picking up badges, so the opening ceremony is Day 2), and this had a very small con feel to it. It was just packed enough to be lively, but small enough to be a bit more of an intimate experience. It is also the one I may regret the most for a missed opportunity. See, the premise of the panel is each round is a different topic that you go up to present your answer to, and the crowd decides who wins and stays to the next round. No one seemed to want to go up for the first round, which was best Waifu, so I opted to go up even if doing so as Sanji felt a little on the nose.
Now, the plan was to start off by saying how all the ladies of anime could easily be the best, but make a comment about how there is a rule to this game to make a choice, and that I am the kind of man who could never ignore the woman in front of me and pick my opponent. One issue, I am 75% sure she was legal, but she definitely had a more petite frame that made me question that. I couldn't really ask her age first without spoiling the end of my bit, so for the sake of not catching charges I had opted to make a case for Pawoo from Rust-Eater Bisco. Overall it was an absolute blast though, lot of energy and it's the kind of panel I love to go to.
I also opened the day with Sanji at Karaoke singing 'Livin' La Vida Loca' and ending it with Careless Whisper, the most Karaoke I have ever done at a con in my life. There was a rule that all songs had to be family-friendly with no swearing but.... a lot of people just kind of did it anyway. :p
Las day was Anaido from ID Invaded, and not much happened day three. I was tired and just kind of wandered about before turning in early since I flew out the next morning. All in all, all three days were great.
And My Haul of goods.
Organization
I will never start arguing that once a con hits a certain size, there is an over-reliance on volunteers who are not qualified to be operating a con that operate a con. This isn't strictly a Matsuri thing, but there was a fairly big instance where days before the con the one organizing the Formal Dance quit the volunteer staff in a pretty dramatic huff. It seems something like this happens every year, and I don't even think it's out of the owners not caring and just ignoring the volunteer staff, it's because too much is put on volunteers rather than paid professionals. An event on which the owners profit like this shouldn't be held largely on the backs of unpaid volunteers doing more work than some actual jobs people work for l living.
Smaller one or two-day cons I get, especially once run out of a hotel and not a con center. But Matsuri is one of the nation's largest Anime conventions, and often even the Mayor of Houston gets involved. It's a big deal, and it needs at least a small team of professionals to keep things organized and running smoothly. I don't want to dump this all on Matsuri, as I mentioned this is a bit of a nationwide trend, but since I went to Masturi that's what I'll bring up. :p
Artist Alley and Vendor Halls are oddly limited
While I've only been to a handful of conventions, Anime Matsuri has both the largest Artist Alley and Vendor Hall while having the least variety of shows and games represented. I get it, it's pricy to buy a booth here and you need to make sure you make your money back, so it incentivizes you to stock up on things that are going to be reliable. But at the same time, it can make the bustling vendor halls feel pretty baron if you aren't there for the biggest things. I kind of just have to shrug and accept I wasn't going to find any good Rust Eater Bisco or ID: Invaded merch here. It's an issue I honestly don't know how they can even resolve to be honest. But I would like to see a more interesting variety of stuff at this con.
Overall
I had a blast at Anime Matsuri this year. Met a lot of people, had much fun with Karaoke, and made a few new friends. Decent enough haul from the Vender and AA, despite my above issues, and so many great outfits. I am unsure if I will be going again next year, few things I need to decide on in my day-to-day life before that decision, but if I do I'm sure it will be fantastic again.