VOCALOID News Network at Otakuthon 2016 Recap

Hello everyone! As you may have known, I (Luna from VNN French) had the (last minute) privilege to attend the annual Otakuthon from August 5th to 7th in Montréal, Canada. It was my first time going to a convention and I must say, while I was mostly excited, I was pretty nervous about what would happen during the weekend. However, after such an amazing event, if I can go back again next year then I totally will go. Now to roll with the events of Otakuthon!

 

Merchandise

My first stop was the Exhibition Hall on the 2nd floor. In there were the Artists’ Area and the Dealers’ Area. The Artists’ Area regrouped many artists who were selling some amazing arts and crafts they made, from anime to video games. There were a few (if not rare) VOCALOID items, but unfortunately I was able to find only one artist who allowed me to take pictures of their VOCALOID products, as the others restricted photographs. For the Dealers’ Area, photographs of the merchandise were actually prohibited by the convention, so I was unable to take pictures there except at the 1st Place Booth who granted me permission (read more in the paragraph below). Good Smile Company also had a booth to present and sell its beautiful figures.

1st Place’s Booth

Also in the Dealers’ Area was 1st Place’s booth. They were selling IA merchandise such as shirts, keychains, pins/buttons, CDs/DVDs, merch of her concert, and Kagerou Project items. A TV was showing different clips and music videos of IA and ONE. There were also three PS Vitas with the game IA/VT Colorful available for the public to play as a demo before deciding whether or not they’ll buy it. The copies of the game were sold pretty fast; within a few hours on the first day, they were already sold out! I was a bit disappointed but glad to have at least tried a few songs in the demo. The game is pretty similar in concept and design to the Project Diva series, since both are rhythm games.

Screenings of “IA’s 1st Live Concert -PARTY A GO GO-“

I attended the screenings of “IA’s 1st Live Concert -PARTY A GO GO-” on Saturday and Sunday. Many VOCALOID fans were present at both screenings and were cheering after every song. Some went to the point of waving their glow sticks like the fans in the video. Of course, the screenings weren’t of the full concert, but they did show IA singing some quite popular songs in the VOCALOID community, such as “Setsuna Drive” and “Outer Science” (from Kagerou Project). I enjoyed both screenings. It made me want to be able to go to an actual VOCALOID concert. Hopefully soon!

IA Workshop

On Saturday evening, I went to the IA workshop. The room was full of people who were interested to see how IA works with VOCALOID 3. Although, there were only six computers available for about a hundred people, so not everybody was able to play with the software due to the staff not expecting such high numbers. If you’ve already played with a software similar to VOCALOID, such as UTAU, then you shouldn’t have any problem understanding the mechanics. The person hosting the panel was not really used to conducting presentations and it was a bit obvious by his mannerism. He seemed nervous and couldn’t really answer the audience’s questions properly. That unfortunately didn’t help the many people in the room who never had any experience with the software. Some people even left the panel earlier than intended. It also didn’t help that the workshop was presented at 10 PM. Overall, it was an okay experience. I did have to restrain myself from buying the software and the voice bank as I already didn’t have a lot of money on me for the con.

Cosplay

To my biggest surprise, VOCALOID cosplayers were a bit “rare” at Otakuthon this year. I was seriously expecting more, but I was still able to spot out some cute and awesome cosplays, with Hatsune Miku being the one who was the most cosplayed.

Other Events

Besides the IA events and the workshop, there were a few panels that caught my attention, especially the ones with the anime YouTubers who were the special guests of the weekend. Misty Chronexia, The Anime Man, akidearest, and Lost Pause hosted a panel per day all three days, as well as signing sessions for the fans. All three panels were focused mainly on YouTube and anime. They talked about their career path, gave us tips on how to “work” on YouTube, their favorite anime, etc. There were so many people who wanted to meet them after every panel (easily over 200 people) that they had to call security many times to escort them! All four YouTubers have mentioned during their panels that they’re considering to make Otakuthon a yearly event, so if you missed the chance to meet them, be sure to follow Otakuthon next year to get more information.

Conclusion

Of course, Otakuthon isn’t only about VOCALOID. Everything I have mentioned in this article is just a fraction of the whole convention. A Cosplay Café, video gaming room (in which they had a little Project Diva tournament on the 5th), trading card games hall, the traditional Otakudance… there were so many events I wished I could have gone to, including the annual Masquerade, the BACK-ON concert, etc. Overall, Otakuthon doesn’t focus simply on one aspect of the Japanese culture. It gives access to everyone who enjoys any side of Japanese culture. If you want to live the experience of a con, Otakuthon is one of these events that you don’t want to miss.

Hope to see everyone next year at Otakuthon 2017!