Kikka's coming back to the US in August

[Anderei]

She'll be a guest at Japan Expo in Santa Clara, California.

 
(Dempagumi.inc also have some decent music if you want to check them out too)
 
 

[Noa]

No, come to New York :(

[al kusanagi]

I'm surprised this wasn't already on here somewhere. This was announced over a month ago.

[Anderei]

Really? It only just showed up over at jplop too. I'm surprised they didn't mention it earlier.

[Shoujo Q]

Yeah I knew about it, but I didn't bother to announce it. I'm a horrible person. 

[showraniy]

Fucking California.

[Anderei]

[quote="showraniy"]
Fucking California.
[/quote]
 
At least it's not Paris?

[Shoujo Q]

You already had your east coast chance last year. Sure it was Atlanta, but it was still the east coast.

[eri]

Santa Clara?! Who the f visits Santa Clara?  It is like if beautiful, eclectic, interesting San Francisco had a nerdy, boring, loser cousin that worked as an accountant. What, are all the Silicon Valley engineers going to cheer her on?  UGH these events are always planned in the stupidest areas. At least come to Anime Expo in LA (again).
 
I was considering a drive up to SF for Reina because I love SF and half of my friends live there.  But Santa Clara? Ugh.
 
This makes me crankier than it should.  

[Shoujo Q]

Blame whoever decided to plop Japan Expo there. It wouldn't be my first choice either, but this is their first year so maybe they'll rethink their location next year? Who knows. 

[momoirosaya]

If it was Santa Clarita, I might've considered going, but Santa Clara bleh too far.

[eri]

Just a quick bump~ did anyone go? Or at least hear/read how it went?

[yuzuriha]

AEUG went and I think he interviewed her actually.

[boinsie]

I went!  It was frickin' amazing!  

Long story short, if (when! WHEN!) she comes back to the USA in the future, I'm doing all that I can to go again.   
Details from me and a few others over at JPlop (sorry for the link, but copy-pasting so much and changing tags and stuff is too much work for me on my phone at the moment, sorry... ^^;;;; )~

[pandapanda]

[quote="boinsie"]
I went!  It was frickin' amazing!  

Long story short, if (when! WHEN!) she comes back to the USA in the future, I'm doing all that I can to go again.   
Details from me and a few others over at <a href="http://www.jplop.com/viewtopic.php?f=16 ... ">JPlop</a> (sorry for the link, but copy-pasting so much and changing tags and stuff is too much work for me on my phone at the moment, sorry... ^^;;;; )
[/quote]
 
I am so jealous right now.

[eri]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="boinsie" data-cid="161407" data-time="1377530600">
I went! It was frickin' amazing! ...

Details from me and a few others over at <a href="http://www.jplop.com/viewtopic.php?f=16 ... blockquote>


Wow thanks for the link. I love seeing idols in random photos like that - you realize just how freaking gorgeous they are and that it isn't all photoshop etc.

[Madara]

Kitaoji went. I talked to her on Saturday. Hopefully she'll report here.
 

[kitaoji]

[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]since Madara called me out, I'll write.  [/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]Work prevented me from going on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were two very fun days in Santa Clara.  And even though Santa Clara's in the boondocks compared to SF and San Jose, the convention center is right next to the new football stadium for the SF 49ers.  There is NO WAY the 49ers are going to settle for lousy transit access once they move, so you can bet that the county will be throwing as much as they can to improve service and infrastructure.  erilaz from JPlop reported that it took him 80 minutes to take Amtrak down from Richmond BART (it's about 15 minutes drive north of the UC Berkeley campus), and while that's still kinda sucky, keep in mind that it's Japan Expo's first year in the US and they most likely didn't have the budget (or planning time) to secure entrance fees to the Moscone Center.  Not that I expect them to, just yet.  South-of-Market just doesn't have the views for cosplay shots and one street over is literally the slum of San Francisco.  [/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]Conversely, it's really hard to get from SF on transit. Caltrain takes two hours and it’s not direct.    Fortunately, I met some of the JPH!P contingent who live in the Bay Area and were willing to give me a ride, so it was better for everybody.  Traffic was also fairly light, as all the sports activity was taking place in the city that weekend, and it was a nice drive to Santa Clara and back. I mostly hung out with the JPH!P contingent on both days, and considering that there were 8 of us, it was a decently-sized and still laid back group.[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]Okay, enough about getting there and onto Kikka herself![/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]Kikka took up a decent amount of time at the convention, but like what people said of Atlanta, all of her events were fairly low-key.  Everyone was there for Sadamoto Yoshiyuki, who is deservedly famous for his character designs in Evangelion and everything else.  Kikka fans didn't have to do anything to score photos and autographs and special bonuses; heck, they let everybody go for seconds and those who didn’t know about the ticket system and she STILL got to finish early.  The Sadamoto autograph ticket line was already threatening to take over half the exhibitor hall within half an hour of opening.  (And this was just the ticket line!)[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]Kikka had a panel, a meet and greet at the merchandise booth, and autographs on Saturday, and repeated the meet and greet and autographs, with a second concert on Sunday.  Her Saturday panel seemed similar to the Atlanta panel - she did a short self introduction, went through her sketchbook about her failure to stay healthy and to exercise ("it's all the tasty food in America!" ), asked us a fair amount of questions (still about food), and then opened it up to questions, all of which I've forgotten.   But the last douchebag-y question "will you go on a date with me" was snappily deflected by Yaz Noya (aka the Dragon Lady), as expected, and Kikka joked around as she was leaving for the meet and greet (on the other side of the hall) and told us to form "a single line as you march over, and make sure you grab someone new along the way!" She also noted how she was 3kg over her baggage limit, so "make sure you come buy my stuff because I don't want to bring it all the way back home!"[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]Well, we certainly didn't do that despite all efforts. :P  Some interested people stopped by, and we might have gotten a few people interested in the autograph line (there's this magical thing about autographs.  It's better than paying for CDs and t-shirts) , but there still wasn't enough interest -  boinsie's group photo shows most of the Kikka hardcore!fan contingent that weekend: fifteen of us. (The two guys behind boinsie were NASA aerospace engineers with too much free time on a Sunday morning and don't count.)[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]As TnB noted last year, the turnout was so low that anybody who went to the merchandise got a two-shot, some people went in to buy additional goods (mostly it was the photos), and Japanese-proficient fans had some nice conversation with her.  Alas, I didn't do homework beforehand so there wasn't much to say at either the meet and greets.  But I got high fives from her on Sunday!  Kikka slaps hard!  [/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]One nice thing about Kikka's status as "Official Reporter" meant that she got to do a lot of things wandering around the convention, posing with cosplayers, and as you can see from official photos, she could try anything and shop around and hang out at various booths if she cared to.  She also did some wotagei herself on Sunday at the Anime Masquerade, as people have reported and the sponsors tweeted, and almost no one noticed.  (We were out for lunch at the time; JPH!P needed good energy before interviewing several guests in the afternoon.) I wouldn't be surprised if she did it only at the sponsors' urging, but awed that she did it in stride for so long.    [/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]But yeah, I can see why anyone, especially Al (since he's got so much experience from concertgoing), would be pissed at any wotas.  There was space in this main hall, but from my experiences at some of the Japanese concerts and video footage of the fan events, you *have* to fight for space, and there's no way you could do it in Japan (or at Anime Expo, for that matter.), and that sucks.  If you can find the youtube video (someone teach me how to embed links?  ), Kikka was behind the hardcore partiers; I talked to their head guy while in line for Dempagumi, who had an entire vest of penlights, and for him, it's all about the experience and not about the artist.  Hence the wotagei for all of the idols... even the cosplayers-for-idols. [/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]And onto the Sunday concert![/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]We (meaning me, erilaz, and JPH!P's Rayle - the rest had premium tickets) only had to camp out for an hour in front of the main stage to get good seats, and we did that because we knew the good seats were going to be taken up by the Sadamoto Yoshiyuki fans, as his special panel was right before the concert.  But all was good, as (a) we got good seats, (b) J'Deez, the little girl dance group (I'm going to call them the group of baby Riho's, as it's easier that way) were energetic and fun, and (c) we got good seats. So it was low-key. No one really fought for seats until 20 minutes before Sadamoto's panel.[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent] And the Japanese fans brought a ton of glowsticks and handed them out to everybody... including the few wise Sadamoto fans that showed up early, who were dumbfounded and went "uh... what's this for?"[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]In place of those awesome VTRs that you see in the concerts, Kikka had a "history"  VTR, which I wasn't very impressed by, to the point that when the music started, I had about fifteen seconds to realize OHWOW KIKKA'S PERFORMING RIGHT HERE NOW WAIT WHAT.  She started with a medley of multiple songs, which was impressive, and she didn't sound out of breath at all as she kept going and going and going - and *I* was wondering when the songs were going to end.  She also got the crowd excited - I suppose a lot of the EVA fans stayed behind since their idol was gone, anyway - and must have worked on her English between Atlanta and now, as it wasn't as awkward as MM's was back in 2009.  And mostly she kept asking for "MORE MORE MORE" (noise from the crowd) and plenty of "NO NO NO I CAN'T HEAR YOU" (our voices were going, Kikka! There's only so much 20 hardcore fans can do!  ), and seemed comfortable enough to relax into Japanese towards the middle and get audience members to translate for her instead of having a translator at hand.  Not that Yaz or Rika Takahashi(she was the other translator at AX, FYI) do a bad job - but it's much better when it's just her alone and you don't think about the language and interpretation barrier.  Now *that* is epic to have your idol shove a mic in your face that close.  [/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]And that's really the best part about Kikka and the concert - although it's about Kikka, really.  I was at third row center, which is the front edge of the stage runway, so I got a damn fine view.  And even though I was smack next to some hard core wotagei (note: they were local, and the Japanese fans were suffering from jetlag anyway), it wasn't *that* bad... sorta.  The fact that Kikka (and okay, the baby Riho's) were at times within arm's distance was awesome.  And everyone respected the invisible "crowd control" line, which were mostly taken up by the cameramen filming her (and us).  I'm going to guess there will be DVD footage and J-melo footage and youtube footage.  It was a decently sized 45-minute concert, most of which was singing anyway.  The acoustics weren't bad, either; compared to being smack next to the amplifiers at Jpop Summit, there was plenty of dampening and control that had good bass, but not clubhouse!bass (that's for loud bars) and nowhere as echo-y as the LACC.  Good job, sound engineers![/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]And of course, there was Romantic Ukare Mode. There was no way she could get away without that, especially after Atlanta.  But I don't think the crowd turnout was as crazy as it sounded in AWA.  There was only one KIKKA-SAMA KIKKA-SAMA after all ^^;;; We hammed it up and she hammed it up and it was great.  Sorry Kikka, but I think any overseas gig for you for the next few years will have to include this staple![/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]All in all, Kikka seemed to have some good respect for the cosplayers and the hardcore fans, and we did our best to stay out of her way at other times so she could do her job (and have fun, too).  To the point where we were completely surprised when she came sauntering down the escalators as we were waiting for our Press friends (they were just behind her), wearing her concert-advertising sandwich board.  Forget MM's secret passageway trips in 2009; Kikka had the whole run of the convention herself.  She even asked a question at the Dempagumi panel.[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]So it was a great weekend.  The autograph and crowd control was impressive.  No flimsyOffice Depot tickets - they had individualized QR codes and draws to reduce the ambiguousness of autographs (the longer you wait, the more people try to jump the lines) and scanners everywhere.  I even managed to get Sadamoto's autograph on Saturday (but on Sunday, it was super clear that people were running out of luck) and he was happy to stay extra long for the additional fans (it was 5 minutes past his timeslot when I was done, and there were easily another 30 or so), and he really took his time sketching for fans who brought their artbooks (I took a picture of a Gendo autograph sketch! It was AWESOME  ).  The dealers weren't bad - but not dominating.  They brought a lot of cultural exhibits, so there were wabi-sabi and art exhibits and performances, which was a nice touch.  There were more tour agencies and study abroad exhibits than I'd expected, which was new compared to the exhibits of 2005/2009 when I last went to a convention, and after annoying so many people to find out where they were giving out free "Japan California High Speed Rail Consortium" bags (they were at the Consulate's booth), I chatted it up with one of the vice consuls who was running the booth about HSR and establishing contacts with JREast and vehicle builders, because HECK YEAH it's important to improve passenger rail transport and the Bay Area is desperate for new trains. [/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent](I happen to work in transit engineering.  Talk about work and fandom crashing together in the same place!   )[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]And if it weren't for Kikka (and mostly Rayle egging me on), I probably wouldn't have attended the Dempagumi and J'Deez performances.  Dempa I can forget - 200 BPM bubblegum and too much crowd craziness I can avoid (but they were idol-y, nonetheless), but J'Deez were talented baby Riho's.  They loved one of the JPH!P reporter's nails.  They were proud when Rayle commented about their shiny sunglasses. They initiated handshakes at their panel, even with Rayle's fake!blood-smeared hands and though we were satisfied with high fives.[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]But universally (I mean EVERYBODY, from staff to crowd controllers to guests to attendees), the Gamushara Ouendan was the best act of the whole convention. :P  I mean, when you have 5 grown men in full out gakuran shouting at the top of their lungs and giving awesome HIGH POWERED cheers (15 seconds long, but you have to see the energy), there is no way you can frown.  They would cheer EVERYBODY. Kikka. The guests. Everyone who attended their autograph panel.  Everyone who stopped by their pop-up merch booth. Batman cosplayers. The cosplayers at the Masquerade (they have a kickass 8x10 FOOT flag).  The Japanese staff members.  I don't think anyone could have left them without grinning hard.  Heck, the hardcore wotagei contingent gave them a mix in return![/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]By coincidence, I was wearing an actual school-authentic gakuran (honestly, I bought it secondhand from Yahoo!Auctions for fun and it arrived in the nick of time on Friday), which totally got their attention, and totally won their respect when I said that I wasn't cosplaying anybody because military uniforms are cool like that.  We kept crashing into each other on Saturday and Sunday and were totally nakama buddies by the time I went to their last autograph panel to get one for my friend (so they gave me a second one and added a WE LOVE YOU - geez, that's embarrassing ) and to more or less thank them for making it so energetic for everybody.[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent](And yeah, Kikka gave me an "osu!" as well on Sunday when I bought her CDs.   )[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]So yeah, Kikka totally knows how to work the crowd wherever she went. She hammed it up and was so confident in so much shameless self-promo. Her handlers were approachable; Kikka and Yaz loved playing with the now-famous baby (babies have SO MUCH POWER) at the merch lines (and when they bumped into each other after hours) and JPH!P chatted it up with her French handler (she's got two more - the old baldy and the portable DVD-video/documentary cameraman).  The line management was appreciated (the only thing we complained was because of the low turnout, there was no point in doing it - but the Sadamoto fans were happy with it, since they had the brunt of the line-waits).  The industry turnout was decent (although if I see more tour exhibits, I will hurt somebody).   [/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent]All in all, yeah, it was a good convention :) Totally looking forward to another Kikka appearance for the experience.  Maybe I’ll actually work on being a fan of hers.[/font]
 
[font=Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent](And yes, Kikkake wa YOU! is a great song.  )[/font]
 
 

[yuzuriha]

That sounds awesome. <3
 
 

[arcobaleno]

That sounds like it was a lot of fun!
 
I loved the part about them handing glowsticks to the Sadamoto fans LOL

[Elpis]

That does sound awesome. I wish I could've gone but I live no where beat Santa Clara. ????