Real Talk By: J.Valdez

This past weekend we were able to attend Matsuricon! It was my first time attending, as well as our newest member of Playlegit, Kat.

I didn’t get to attend as many events as I had planned, unfortunately my day job had me running on fumes by con time. But I was able to get a good amount of pictures. I was also able to talk to a lot of con goers, some new, some friends I’ve made throughout the year. I attended a few panels as well.

The convention itself was a lot of fun, as I said this was my first year attending Matsuricon, but it was my 8th con this year. It seemed to be a bit too spread out at times, maybe because of the other events going on at the same time. That also seemed to limit the space we had at the convention. Some attendees expressed that they wished the dealer’s room wasn’t in the convention center so that it wouldn’t have restrictions on selling snacks like pocky, or other Japanese snacks and candy. While I did find it a bit small (Edit: Re reading this made me realize it sounds a bit negative, it’s not a negative thing at all, they had limited space to work with, and they were still able to fit a lot of quality vendors),  I liked the vendors themselves, they had a lot of really good stuff for sale. I bought a kuybey hat, and I’m guilty of  never buy anything at conventions.

The rave is always one of my favorite events to attend, not only for the music, the dancing, and the general fun atmosphere, it’s also where I like to take video and pictures the most. Since it was so long, I kept going out to wander from time to time, but everytime I walked back in, there was still great music playing, and lots of people dancing and having fun.

I also enjoyed the game room, played a few games on the many consoles available. The more popular options seemed to be the arcade games, specifically the music ones. Those were always occupied, but the staff made sure people still got a chance to play. DDR as always looked very fun and inviting, but I’m way to uncoordinated to try it.

I want to take a moment to thank the staff, there was a lot of staff at Matsuri, and while some people may have not liked when they were told to stop running, I think they did a good job overall. People were reporting some problems they had, after the weekend was over, I know some were reported during the con, and the staff took care of those. I found them to be friendly and helpful, so future attendees, remember you can trust them to help you if you feel harassed or wronged at any point. There was no shortage of staff throughout the weekend, and they want to make sure you enjoy your time there.

Here’s a small video of the weekend featuring a couple of interviews, and the rave.

I’m going to leave you with the picture gallery, I’ll upload all the rest Here. These are just some of all the great cosplays that could be seen throughout the weekend.

I think this is my favorite badge of the year.