/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

The only good fucking anime convention left in the south. Thank god.
I can go the rest of my life without A-Kon, Matsuri, Ikki, SJ, Mecha, Oni, or Tokyo in Tulsa. But a year without Afest hurts.

Is this con actually good? I moved here in 2019 and only went to Anime Austin (small con, but it was ok) and Ikkicon this year (which was beyond garbage)

I don't know why this con is loved so much. I stopped going years ago as it was boring as fuck. There is no way that they can bring in Japanese guests this year.

>>10653750
It's really not. I go every year because it's like 15 minutes from my house and a good excuse to dress up with friends. The guests are really the only thing this con has going for it, which probably won't be a thing this year. Don't go out of your way to go to it but you'll have a decent time if it's local.

>>10653755
no one goes to animefest to sit at panels for japanese guests. those panels always have ten people at most. the majority of people who go there could care less about your memeguests

>>10653750
It's a really good party con. Its chill, and has that personal hotel/ con attach. You can go down to the convention to interact, then head back up to your room to chill, talk, drink. It's big enough, too, so you have plenty of space. Not to mention, it's downtown Dallas, so it's always going to have a lot of people at it. And there's a food court attached to it, so everything is in one place.

>>10653750
Damn is Ikkicon always that bad? Or just 2021 Ikki being garbage?
I plan to go to Ikkicon 2022 because it is New Year's Eve and I stay close to the area.

>>10653878
It keeps tanking year to year.

Anyone else feel like this was out if left field? They announced they canceled 2021 back in April and then announced its on for a week before Christmas 4 months out???

>>10654083
they did say they were going to try to do it this year. just the previous date was canceled.

>>10654083
They were probably forced to run it in 2021 by the hotel. If they don't take place, they have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, causing AnimeFest to go bankrupt.

>>10653755
It's not the bloated monstrosity of the masses that A-Kon's become.

>>10654124
Typically the contacts are for the dates agreed to, and if they somehow had a clause to postpone why not announce that when you cancel? Why wait until so close to the event to announce its happening?

>>10653750
I've definitely had some great times at this con, I typically go to cons for the panels and there's usually at least a couple of really good panels at this con every year, they tend to get interesting guests as well (last time I went they had the artist that did the character designs for Lain and Texhnolyze). Having said that, I haven't seen any swap meets there that were any good during the times I went; I know that's not really something that most people would care about, but if you're intending to show up with your old crap so that you can trade it for other people's old crap you might be disappointed. I also had some unfortunate memories attached with this con from how things went the last time I went, but they're not really the con's fault.

>>10653781
>It's a really good party con.
I remember when A-Kon was the party con and A-Fest was the chill con, I guess now A-Fest is the party con with the former's de facto demise. That food court is really good, I never realized how spoiled I was until I went to the A-Kon that was at the Fort Worth Convention Center and saw what food courts some other large venues have to work with. Having said that, it doesn't really compare to the absolute chad one at the Riverwalk that San Japan goers get to use.

>>10653732
I think SJ is still good if you like going to a con for vidya meetups or just vidya in general; they have some organization that lets them borrow Japanese arcade machines that, unless you live near a Round 1, are hard to find in typical arcades, as well as some separate game museum that occupies one room the whole con and lets people play boomer shit on authentic hardware (I usually put in a bit of time with Super Metroid each time I end up in their area). Beyond that, the rave is worse every year, I'm almost tempted to go to one of their hentai panels instead next time I end up at SJ. The panels might also suck now due to how they nuked a bunch of their staff last year after some controversy.

>>10653781
>no one goes to animefest to sit at panels for japanese guests.
This is always why I go to afest. Actually knowing Japanese probably increases the experience tenfold though.

For people that don't go to cons for the guests, what do you consider a "fun" con? I never go to any raves or dances or anything, so I consider a good artist alley/dealers room, good panels, and good friends for a fun con.

>>10654083
Greed will do that

>>10653732
>Mecha
Well you got your wish

>>10653878
Shows like ikki and Matsuri have high turnover/staffing problems at the root of most of their issues, so 2021 hit them harder than most.
Who knows if they can recover,

>>10653539
>Kino
what does this mean

>>10657113
an epic show anon