MangaGamer at AX 2010: The Booths
July 7th, 2010, by
Posted in Conventions
, Tagged: 0verflow, age, Anime Expo, BaseSon, Bushiroad, Circus, Front Wing, MangaGamer, NEXTON, OVERDRIVE, PRODUCTION PENCIL
MangaGamer occupied two islands of booths this year in the exhibition hall, instead of having a totally enclosed 18+ booth like last year. They brought a lot more companies this year, and this can be seen in the variety of booths they had. However, the main feature of their booths was probably the live stage, where they held a total of six miniature concerts over three days.
The major players had their booths as usual. One of the islands was mostly occupied by CIRCUS, who had various t-shirts, key chains, posters, CDs and fabrics for sale. Singers Aina Kase and rino also signed their CDs at the booth, while artists Yuki Takano and Yuka Kayura drew custom sketches for customers. OVERDRIVE had a booth on the other island, selling the all-ages and physically packaged version of KIRA KIRA along with other merchandise like CDs. Love+, d2b’s latest album (and not to be confused with the Nintendo DS game) was prominently featured, but there were also copies of a Touhou album by bamboo for sale. Illustrator Shinji Katakura was present, doing commissioned sketches, and singer UR@N was around signing CDs. BaseSon/NEXTON also had their little area selling Koihime Musou related merchandise.
What’s interesting this year, however, are the other companies MangaGamer brought. HOBIBOX, who was here last year, had a corner of an island, selling hardcore electronic music as well as 07th Expansion games. The head of SHOT MUSIC was there, selling their latest release, SUPER SHOT2, which was a remix album of songs from bishoujo games that was released one week before Anime Expo. The first six chapters of Umineko were available for purchase, and there was a prominent sign encouraging buyers to visit Witch Hunt for the game’s translation patches. The eight main arcs of Higurashi in Japanese were also available for purchase, as well as a packaged version of MangaGamer’s released of the question arcs to Higurashi.
Collectible card game publisher Bushiroad also had a booth with MangaGamer for the first two days, and had an area where they taught beginners how to play their games. Bushiroad publishes such CCGs as Weiβ Schwarz and Chaos TCG, which feature characters from bishoujo games.PRODUCTION PENCIL also had a booth, selling their PENCIL LIVE 2010 t-shirts as well as wallscrolls and posters of games from their brands Lillian and PajamasSoft.
The highly anticipated âge was selling Minami Kuribayashi CDs (one featuring songs from âge and one featuring the more mainstream songs from anime) at their booth along with models of mecha from their Muv Luv series. Their artists were also available to do customized sketches. Front Wing’s booth for days 3 and 4 had some merchandise for sale, but it was dominated by the presence of their artists. Akio Watanabe was quite busy during the day, working on sketches for people. Apparently, only a handful of sketches were done each day. The most popular sketches seemed to be of Komugi from Soultaker/Nurse Witch Komugi-chan and the characters from Bakemonogatari, with Hitagi Senjougahara beating out Komugi Nakahara (Soultaker version) in popularity. 0verflow of School Days fame also had a booth, where they sold pillow paraphernalia from their latest Cross Days and displayed on a netbook their English build of the trial version of Summer Days that was released as an April Fool’s joke a few years back. Lastly, there were representatives from at least two other major game companies present, although probably not in an official capacity.
The major crowd grabber was obviously the series of mini-concerts they held. MangaGamer erected a miniature stage for the concerts, enough for a couple of people to stand on, just like last year. Each of the first three days, there were two performances, one held at 1:00pm and one held at 4:00pm. Each concert had three vocalists perform approximately five songs each. Aina Kase performed in all the concerts, and the other three switched up. UR@N dressed up in traditional Japanese attire, Aina dressed up in a pop idol outfit with her zettai ryouiki, rino dressed up in a more sedated attire and Minami sported either the waitress uniform from Sky Temple (a family restaurant in the âge game universe) or the school uniform. Of course, each concert was accompanied by a sizeable crowd, with glowstick users in the front. Parts of the concerts were broadcasted live, either through Nico Nico Douga or Ustream.
On the last day, instead of a concert, tororo-dancho gathered together some unsold items and held an event to sell them, each item coming with complementary Subway sandwich, Pepsi and a t-shirt. Finally, around the time the exhibition floor closed for the last time, several dealers came by and bought up a lot of MangaGamer’s remaining stock, including a large pile of KIRA KIRA discs.
July 8th, 2010 at 12:41 am
I really wish I was there to buy some of their stuff,
although, what I find amazing about the western shoppers (including myself), we will buy the poster/wallscrolls/figures/pillowcovers just because we think they are good/cute/moe…. but we have no idea who is the character that is shown on those items.
“including a large pile of KIRA KIRA discs.”…… what? people didn’t like the *physical* copy?! or is it because it was the all-ages version? either way, I will still support the physical copy for the future releases should they be offered.
July 8th, 2010 at 4:36 am
I wonder how many people who always say “I’d buy Mangagamer games if they were selling physical copies” were there and didn’t buy anything.. ~_~
July 8th, 2010 at 9:44 am
>>1 (random.idiot)
Actually, they printed a lot of discs. The discs were pressed, so they must have printed several hundred at the minimum per game. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see other dealers at later conventions selling these.
July 8th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
I would have bought the KiraKira hard copy if it was 18+. Too bad they couldn’t press that version.
I did buy the Higurashi hard copy though (via proxy/friend). So atleast some of us who said “we will buy if there is a hard copy” followed through. ^_^
July 8th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
My experience at the booth was quite a pleasant one, filled with language barrier blunders, a surreal feeling seeing artists and producers live and interacting with them, listening to mini-concerts, and having lots of fun.
If the Kira Kira game was 18+, buying it would have been a quicker decision (or if there was some promo code like from a previous year, that would have been more incentive inducing). Strange how I don’t aim at the 18+ component of a visual novel, and yet if I had a choice between getting a game’s all-ages version and an 18+ version, then no doubt I’d choose the 18+ one (I suppose due to being less restricted or not truncated). I ended up buying the to complement a non-color drawing by Katakura Shinji to cover a $50 purchase, and then knowing I bought directly (somewhat) from mangagamer. Really, additional items do seem to help, and the fact that items from one booth wouldn’t qualify for another, it’s really multiple booths in the same area. (Or $30 purchases of CIRCUS merchandise qualified for the free CIRCUS T-shirt, but not a $30 CIRCUS artist shikishi. I would have known better had I been there since day 1 since I wouldn’t be seeing missing items.)
Honestly to see things I can recognize online, live in front of me, and actually know what artist drew the design in which tapestry was amusing to share with friends (as opposed to buying the item because it was cute not knowing which character it is or who drew it, but that’s okay because it could be an original character). That and I was with someone that had far more artist drawing knowledge than I. Since I didn’t recognize the guests very well, sometimes I lined up for autographs anyways (lesson for that is … to either prepare or bring merchandise related to the guest’s work, or have a signing board instead of a slightly ruffled 8.5 x 11 letter paper).
I vaguely noticed the Umineko discs (and forgot about them probably), though being there only for day 3 and 4 it looks like I missed out on several items. For that same reason, my initial intent to visiting the booth was to meet Fumio in person, since that was the main name I recognized from the mangagamer guest list simply because he drew for the game Hoshiuta. This ended up timely because he only arrived for day 3 and 4 (which explains why his autograph session was from 1:00 to 5:30 PM which I thought was a bit odd until I learned why … which was that his busy schedule only allowed 1.5 days). Then I learned of much more critical facts of the guests and better matched faces with works soon after. Naturally I don’t know their faces, so even if I knew ahead of time who did what, I still couldn’t tell who who was when name tags weren’t really there.
The language barrier made it harder to ask a lot of questions, and since I had been suffering from information overload prior to arriving, it was hard to ask simple questions since I had no idea where to begin, as well as too much to ask in too short of a timespan. (For example I had forgotten or rather didn’t look up many artist names so when I was going for a CIRCUS shikishi I asked like, what’s the character restriction, who drew what, is that said artist here, will the said artist be here, etc.) I did that twice because of two different circus games.
I felt kind of bad for asking Kayura Yuka if she was able to draw various characters I liked to have drawn not named Otome because I wasn’t sure how shikishi worked (and thought it was possible to draw beyond the set characters they presented). Had I known she was the one that drew Otome primarily I wouldn’t have blundered with the request so badly from not knowing who drew what. I can read about which games she drew in, but other than Otome (and no knowledge about Princess Party) I have no idea how to figure out which characters she drew (or doesn’t draw). I couldn’t prepare for this because I didn’t even know of the existence of shikishi or the fact that requests are restricted to a character the artist can draw and no variability (like a wink or facial expression I guess for the case of Fumio) could be done.
Had I done my homework I would have noticed that say, Tanihara Natsuki wouldn’t have been there (I think he was drawing for Lump of Sugar, but I really have no idea), but at least Kayura Yuka could draw Asakura Yume, so I opted for that since I respect circus’ drawings and wanted a Kayura Yuka drawing.
So I opted for a Yume non-color sketch order on day 3 to pick up early on day 4, in which I went to pick up the drawing before Kayura Yuka was done on day 4, saw it colored, forgot I ordered a sketched one since she was currently drawing it at the time, apologized, saw the sketched one in progress looking really good, came back at the end of the day to pick up … with that (possibly same) colored Yume sketch despite paying for a sketched one. I don’t know how that happened, maybe the original fan who requested a Yume colored sketch that was on the queue before me saw the newer non-color sketch and was like oh I want that one instead and got it between the time I was last at the booth (between 1 and 3 PM) and has priority over me anyways … so I ended up with a colored one. It was the end of the day and that was the only Yume drawing left I saw (or rather, they handed me the one in clear display to me even though my number clearly linked to the entry that didn’t say (color) next to Yume’s name). I gave the exhibitor the tag, they checked it thoroughly and confirmed it, and gave me the colored shikishi on their own accord so I’m not complaining (and I really didn’t see any other Yume sketch on the batch they had for pickup. So I really don’t know what happened with the other Yume shikishi pickup.) I also didn’t want to say “I ordered a non-color one, not a colored one” when the day was at a close, there’s no way I’m having Kayura Yuka draw when she’s finally done. Rather it was much easier to say thank you and express my joy of her hard work and move out of the exhibition hall due to it being closing time.
Stopping by phiage was great. I waited too long for the discounting of the smaller goods (60% slash is huge but I wasn’t aware of base values so I didn’t want to go impulsive) because it was packed away earlier than I expected. I saw Takanashi Mio being drawn so I was like oh my the artist for that game (rUGP system I think is what stood out most about it other than Mio) is here! Because of the CIRCUS situation I asked who was the original artist. Then I was like trying hard to ask the exhibitor to ask the artist if he can draw Schreiber Lieselotte but since it wasn’t a Japanese name and was much harder to pronounce clearly, they couldn’t follow what I was requesting in English. I was trying to speak in Japanese next to make the statement easier but that made it even harder because I couldn’t structure the question clearly. Thankfully there was a print of the character list, so pointing did the trick.
There was also that mystery with Himukai Kyousuke where I can’t remember when I paid. But my budget did show the difference in funds matching meaning I did (or be short exactly the amount somehow. I really don’t think I paid for a colored Yume drawing instead of a non-color and then forgot to pay for the phiage one.), but I still can’t remember when I did pay on day 3 since I thought when I was in the process of paying on day 3 they told me not yet and to bring the funds on day 4 at 10 AM when I retrieve the shikishi (or maybe my memory is sucking and what they actually said was come on day 4 to pick it up because at the time it was past 3 PM on Saturday). There’s no way the artist would have drawn if the request and transaction weren’t made. If I really didn’t pay they would have mentioned it (or we all forgot and I didn’t even recall seeing my request on the list at the time so … I don’t know). The exhibitor normally collects the funds, but early day 4 the artist handed the finished product to me and I was so happy picking it up, chatted for a good several minutes (like how I heard about the game, which was caused by two blogs’ first impression on the trial, the cover art, and Mio), and then soon headed over for last day autographs since they were packing up and returning home so we parted ways. (Then I’m like wait a minute … counted my budget carefully, and mathematically it matched so I’m sure I did.) If they’re here again next year … I’ll check regarding that … (or perhaps I did pay and forgot that I did. I hope that’s the case, but I still can’t remember.). Really bugs me if I didn’t, but either way I can’t do anything now, so I’ll just enjoy the shikishi to the fullest. It’ll represent the enjoyment I had directly interacting with my favorite visual novel artists.
Regarding Fumio I thought it was interesting that majority of shikishi requests (8 out of 15 at least) were of Tomoyo (no surprise), but that he was a guest at AX as a staff member of FrontWing so … it’s like wait there’s almost no FrontWing character requests. Seriously, I finish a 12:30 – 1:30 Horie autograph session and head straight to Fumio because he starts at 1:00, and it was 1:41 PM and his Saturday shikishi was fully booked already (within 41 minutes are you kidding me! Wow! Hot premium I say!). I used the next few minutes to tell the exhibitor to tell him how much I like his work and that I’m happy to see him in person and (because of the no photograph rule) I requested a handshake and bowing for greetings and introductions. Then I realized I could still order a shikishi and pick it up on Sunday since I didn’t see any indicators on the paper that Sunday was booked by any means, so that’s what I did and the shikishi was done by 2:45 PM the next day. Fantastic. That triggered my mangagamer shopping spree, except since they were mostly shikishi, I don’t think that actually helped mangagamer itself much. At least shikishi requests goes (maybe) directly (mostly) to the artists themselves so that was a good feeling too. They were working non-stop (well, their drawing hand really)!
I wasn’t aware of the Watanabe Akio situation that some people complained about. Though from what I read, it doesn’t seem too surprising it occurred, but as a bystander I just go oh this artist draws some really good bakemonogatari characters. Still, the artist himself is at no fault whatsoever and was more of an exhibitor thing.
Quite frankly being able to see and interact with actual staff of visual novels was far more pleasing than the products themselves, and for that same reason making purchases much more satisfying and direct. It’s like sure, I can buy a premade print, a tapestry, a desk poster, or other small items, but the option of getting shikishis blew that away because it was amazing seeing the artists’ drawing magic. The items there are probably purchasable online and such (and my budget broke its limit anyways), but getting shikishi directly made by the artists live is a very rare honor and was certainly for a limited time and had demand that maxed out their schedule. That beat everything.
Yeah for a first time AX attendee not knowing how anything works, I’d say that was quite a great experience. Mini-concerts were quite the treat. I’d love to experience this kind of trip again, even if it’s just to see the guests. (Or go on a shopping spree but that’s a distant second because convention expenditures can really ramp.)
I suppose if dealers come by to clean out the physical game stock, even if it’s for resale, it’s good for mangagamer I would gather since it technically is selling out all the items. The booth looked like it was fun for everyone (I asked some guests and exhibitors to be sure), so I’m quite ecstatic about the potential the booth could contain in upcoming years! It’s like oooh, what could be in store next year! The possibilities are endless! Got to save up again, it’s worth it! Got a buddy hooked on wanting shikishi but by then it was the end of the day.
The booth by far was the best part of AX. It was very easy to hang around and stop by often for hours around there. Due to their large variety and product contents, it was also useful as a rendezvous point for everyone I knew that was attending.
I will definitely learn more Japanese. Would have made things much easier and more fluid and less painful for the exhibitors who couldn’t understand English very well (that and I spoke too fast like I did at the panel).
And that’s my side of the adventure at the booth. Hope everyone who was there had a good time because I sure did and wouldn’t mind coming to AX again for this booth alone if it turns out this good.
July 11th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I would have bought but I spent all my money asking the artists for character sketches in color.
July 13th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
I bought the all-age version, I would have liked the +18 version or for the all age to come with a code that let you access the +18 but oh well. The whole experience was pretty interesting, and with guests who could sign related merchandise I ended up spending more there than I originally thought I would.
I did get to watch one of the most entertaining sells I’ve seen in a while with one of the members of the circus booth popping his head out from behind one of the door curtains and saying “hello” and then retreating back behind it again only to repeat the process at random intervals several more times.