Yet another San Japan is in the books as the anime & gaming convention takes over the Henry B Gonzales Convention Center once again this past Labor Day. For this year’s theme they went with sound/music. Here are some of the highlights that I observed during the three day con.
Keeping with the theme- Now one of the observations that I’ve made over the years in going to San Japan is that the convention tries to book guest that are inline with the overall theme of that year. This year’s theme was sound/music. Now while I can’t much about the voice over guests, the con did go all in with its the various musical act and DJs. There was DJs Maozon, Taku Takahashi, and Yuc’E, playing during the Saturday night EDM event, then there was the VTuber musical group Phase Connect, rock band Ash Da Hero, mariachi group Mariachi Entertainment System and solo artist Miura Ayme. There was literally various musical genres if one didn’t suit your tastes which was really great to see.
Katsuhiro Harada and Micheal Murry- Now while I do watch and enjoy anime, I’m a gamer at heart. Imagine my surprise when it was announced that San Japan was hosting Katsuhiro Harada and Micheal Murry. For those who don’t know who these two men are, here is some background of the two. Katsuhrio Harada (Harada from this point on) is the series director and producer for the Tekken franchise. He got his start as a voice actor for Marshall Law and Yoshimitsu for the first couple of entries and moved into a director role with Tekken 3. From then on he would either serve as the lead director or lead producer for the series, where he now serves as the series executive producer, a general manager at Bandai Namco overall and leads the company’s fighting game esports division. Now for Michael Murry, he is a game designer and a producer for the series, with him being the main producer for Tekken 8. He also doubles as Harada’s translator and travels with him to events.
Naoki Maeda- In addition to having having Harada and Murry in attendance, there was another influential game producer in attendance at San Japan: Naoki Maeda. If you don’t recognize his name, you will definitely recognize the game help produced music for: Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution. Not only did he work on music for DDR, but also worked on music for other BEMANI series, such as Beatmania, Dance Maniax, Pop’n Music, GuitarFreaks and DrumMania. It’s thanks to him that we have games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band and DDR’s competitor Pump It Up
Studio Trigger- Ever since San Japan had started to bring over industry guests from Japan, they have quickly become one of my most anticipated attractions to see at the con. This year sees the return of Studio Trigger showcasing their most recent works, New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt and the wildly popular Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. In attendance for Studio Trigger was Naoko Tsusumi, Yoh Yoshinari and Akihiro Sato.
Casuals with Harada- Now one of the more interesting events to be happening during the convention was that the gaming department of the convention was holding a special event where a few lucky individuals were able to go one on one against Harada in Tekken 8. People who wanted to try their luck against him had to register for the event and would get picked at random to have a casual match with him. I was actually lucky enough to be one of the twenty people to be picked. While I’m more of a Street Fighter guy and in general not really good at fighting games, I wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity
Food offerings outside the HBGCC- Now it’s no secret that food offering inside the HBGCC are expensive and overpriced, and that the city owned and run facility does not like outside food vendors that are not under contact with outside the convention center. Well once again this year, San Japan, in partnership with the Grand Hyatt Hotel, placed a food truck just off to the side of the hotel’s bar entrance. With the popularity of Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, the food offerings were Korean based. If beef bulgogi wasn’t your thing, inside the Hyatt was offering Japanese style hot dogs. With next year’s theme being based around food, let’s hope San Japan leans into it and has a bigger offering of food trucks.
Whole lot more space- As San Japan as started to use up all of the hall floors of the HBGCC over the years, not to mention the on going post-Covid recovery shut down, it seemed that there was a whole lot more space in each of the four halls. Now one of the most common complaints that has been voiced over the years is the fact that trying to walk through the aisles of artist alley and the vendors’ hall was a hassle. Between people trying to shop, people trying to find ceartin booths and people taking pictures of cosplayers in the middle of the aisle, spacing has been a problem. Since the post=Covid reopening, San Japan has done a pretty good job in trying to maximize the space. However I did notice that some areas of the halls had lots of “dead space”. One example is the arcade area of the convention. While local anime store/arcade Otaku Cafe provided the majority of the games, which were mostly music/rhythm games, it did not have the same feel to it as previous years when companies like Game Saru and Snow Phoenix would provide not just those same games but also full size 90’s arcade cabinets and what I miss most of all, the Astro City candy cabinets. Now I understand that its much more economical for San Japan to have access to their own machines, or in this case partner with a local arcade ie Otaku Cafe and I have been saying for years that San Japan needs to build up their own collection of machines, but it doesn’t feel the same without the candy cabinets.
For the most part San Japan continues to be the convention that everyone gets excited for. Now while there are now several conventions that take place in the same location as San Japan through out the year, San Japan is the main one that sets the standard. While I didn’t really recognize any of the voice over guests nor did they match the theme of the convention, the fact they had various musical artists holding concerts made up for it. My personal highlight of that weekend was being able meet and play against Harada in Tekken and listing and enjoying Naoki Maeda set at the EDM event. With a final attendance count of over 30,000 attendees, it seems that San Japan is finally back to pre-Covid numbers and growing. I feel that once it reaches that 50K mark in a few years that they will have to expand their dates. I do have one major concern about the future of the convention, and that is Project Marvel. To make long story short, the City of San Antonio along with the San Antonio Spurs are planning to create an entertainment district that centers around a new arena for the Spurs. The plan is to bring back the Spurs to downtown San Antonio with a new arena at the location of the former Institute of Texas Cultures in the Hemisfair area. This will include expanding the convention center even more, which finished its expansion/renovations a couple of years ago. Overall construction is set to start in a couple of years, with the projected opening of the new arena during the 2032 NBA season. Last time there was major construction/renovations, San Japan has to move things around. Not to mention the headache of trying to find parking in an area that is already a problem even on days with no events. Let’s hope that the con organizers are able to work around the impending construction. Other than that, this year’s San Japan was really enjoyable and I hope it continues into the future.
