Not another Sho report at NYCC!

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

Yes it is! I'm sorry guys..

So… my report isn’t long. I haven’t read any other fan reports yet so I won’t take on another opinion.

Sho came, and that was good!
NYCC seemed to have thought Sho was an unknown because that’s how they treated his appearances for the most part and that’s bad.

So I got to the con with alchemy_of_yaoi and her sister at ten am. We joined iceblueaya and then a few other girls in a massive line. I got to talk to a girl from Peru, and two girls from San Diego about their travels here. There was signing, hype and all that good stuff.

At about 1pm we were let into the con and there was much fast waking to the booth. The staff’s expression was pretty much.. O_O; to explain it in the best emoticon way possible. Everyone said it; the staff knew they were fucked. There must have been at least 50 people who now created a mass around the booth, huddled together and waiting for Sho. The best way to explain it… I was crushed between a lot of people at either side. People were leaning on me, I could feel their body from behind, some guy’s laptop was in my gut.

“Please, we’re giving tickets out at 3pm. If you want one form a line.”

No one moved, nothing was done. Security was called in. Finally about two hours later they formed a plan. “It is too dangerous for Sho to come to the booth. So he will be in that glass waiting area instead.”

I was not going to fight for a ticket, let someone else who traveled far get it. alchemy_of_yaoi and I pushed (no one was STILL moving) our way through the crowd to get there. Slowly but surely people began to follow. What happened next may shock and surprise you.

We (the fans who were there) created an invisible line of just our bodies. Stood our places as people filed in. We spaced ourselves well as we all waited to see Sho. How was it, us as fans, were able to organize a peaceful mass when security was unable to? Well anyway security was sent to block us just in case. A lot of interviewers came to find out “Who were you waiting for” and news cameras. The security guards kept teasing us with the door of who was coming in until FINALLY he came!

We waved our uchiwa, sang and danced. He looked really shocked to see there were that many people waiting for him. After about 30 seconds he left… and people headed to the theater.

I couldn’t wait for so many hours in the cold. I wished my friends luck and headed to the Funimation booth were my other friends were working and demanded my story (they couldn’t see Sho because of work). Though, a friend waited outside during the movie premier and apparently when it was done they let fans inside for the Q&A

Now, with that out of the way… I was able to talk to some people who handled, or apart of, Sho’s appearance.

I found out one of the guys who ran the Funimation booth got a ticket to see Yatterman from some random guy who didn’t want to go (this is where a few angry faces glared at him for getting it). He went for Yatterman and not Sho, though he kept teasing us; “Sho, Sho who?”. I found out the next day not only was he able to see Sho he also got to interview him and take personal pictures WITH him. “I wanted to ask him so bad, ‘I keep hearing of this Arashi business. What the heck is Arashi!?’ but I think I would have been mauled.”
At the Yatterman booth I stopped by to get some posters with Sho on it and talked to the guy about how badly this was all run. “Well at first Sho was suppose to be at the Panel but they thought he’d fair better by just making an appearance by the booth. They never expected this huge a crowd… we knew it though..” I also found out whenever you didn’t see him, he was doing personal interviews nonstop (poor guy!).

Before hand, a friend of mine was able to talk to the person who handled all of this. He was told JE was making it difficult to schedule Sho, wanting him to do only closed press interviews and private ones, nothing public. Yet it would have saved so much hassle if he at least showed up to the panel.

Another bothersome thing was the cancelation of the Yatterman second screening. I know many of you think “Oh, Yatterman shouldn’t be shown at a convention center.” Look, if Disney showed nearly half of their new Pixar film UP, Yatterman should have gotten that same screening.

So who is to blame? I don’t know but I would find someone apart of NYCC staff to write to, to address this problem of how badly things were handled. I do not believe fans should have had to wait in the cold for hours. The booth should have been more organized and how it was not known he was this popular is beyond me. Does staff really want to tell me “We didn’t think a JE idol was that popular”, because that is just crap. They HAD TMR last year, how was that so wonderfully handled? I’m not even talking about appearances but crowd control.

Now I close this up with a word of thanks to two websites..
Thank you Ningin.com for setting up a contest. And be sure to read the staff's experience with the premier!

Also thanks to Anime News Network for their contest as well. Be sure to look out for their coverage of NYCC and Yatterman review.








A glimpse of the crowd when the Ninja turtles came.









A view of the booth where they expected Sho to come. Ohhh yes, so practical.


The unmoving crowd.


On our way home at 12am we're supa villains.


alchemy_of_yaoi shows off her mask.


I have videos but they are very much like how Cloverfield was filmed so I don't think anyone wants that.


Cross posted to a_ra_shi

Comments

[mystika387.livejournal.com]

oh i LOVE the picture of the ninja turtle holding a sho uchiwa!!!

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the person was so willing to pose!

[all4cyanide.livejournal.com]

I have videos but they are very much like how Cloverfield was filmed so I don't think anyone wants that.
LMMFAO! HAAHAHAHA! Oh man, that's terrible. Great one!

Yeah, reading these reports makes me more and more disappointed in people's lack of foresight when it comes to fangirls and their idols. Very, very fail indeed. Whoever thought to get Michelangelo to pose with that Sho uhciwa was a genius! So props to whoever did that! ^.^

Thanks for sharing!

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

I have learned to not film and wave and uchiwa around.

Yes, not just Yatterman fans were able to experience this lack of planning. Haha I think that was my friend's uchiwa but they got different turtles to do it depending on who was close.

:3 welcome, glad you enjoyed it.

[sharksoul24.livejournal.com]

I love the picture of ninja turtle holding Sho's Uchiwa too.
THanks for sharing your experience at the ComicCon.

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

Haha I wonder if they looked up who these crazy fangirls were waiting for.

Thank for reading~

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

Eh I really don't blame Comic Con. Underestimating happens, especially when it's a Japanese idol that about 99.9% of normal comic con attendees don't know. To them Takashi is a much bigger name, and rightly so honestly. They did what they thought was good, but it didn't work out.

And I'm pretty sure everyone knows JE is behind the mass chaos. It was supposed to be handled completely different from the moment the news was told originally to comic con. Originally he would sign and do a panel. Both areas have control with tickets given to signings and panels organized by lines. JE stepped in, said no, and all hell broke lose.

I just don't think it's fair to blame the guys who were probably being jerked around more then anyone. IDK.

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

It wasn't just the whole Yatterman issue they were handling. They screwed over a lot of people at different parts of the con. Pretty much what happened at the Yatterman booth happened to guests like Seth Green and Milo Ventimiglia (The line to get in to see these two was not a line and just mass chaos). And the people who run Comic Con also handle New York Anime Festival, they just really didn't have their stuff together.

NYCC also did a huuuge mistake by posting misinformation up until the very day of the con. I agree JE really did put everyone in a head lock but this could have been curbed if they didn't jump on it.

Yes they faced a lot of road blocks but still they completly were not prepared and they should have been. Not with just Yatterman (but that's all I experienced) but other parts of the con that were handled in the same way.

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

To see Milo and Seth you need tickets. That's just how it is. There are 200 tickets given out the beginning of each con day and the earliest people get their pick of who they do and don't see. If you don't have a ticket then just walk away. There's no point in standing. Especially since the ridiculousness rested partly on the crowd of people themselves. Should they have a line, absolutely. But for grown girls/woman to knock over at 8 year old in their rush to grab tickets for themselves. I hung towards the back and a few of us just kept going 'Jesus they need to calm down'.

And they posted what they knew. What they were told. Honestly I was more upset by the reactions of Arashi fans going ballistic on the people who were trying to figure out what was going on themselves. They were given a go and they let everyone know then Johnny's came in and said 'no'. They posted what they were told You can't really fault them for that. I guarantee you they jumped on it to post the news about Takashi. Sho was an after thought. And Takashi information/ scheduling held up true to what they were told.

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to get their autographs, to see them in a panel you didn't need tickets.

When they announced Sho was going to be in the Skybox I immediately turned and left, I don't know how the tickets were given out and I haven't read a clear report on it other than "It was crazy."

But see that's not how things are suppose to be, you never post information up unless it's 100% confirmed and that's how it's been no matter who they talk about. It's just unprofessional. As it was said, "They wrote everything they planned to do without getting a confirmation from Sho's people". I'm glad at least the Takashi info held up for his fans.

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

Eh, Panels have always been that way. But for them at least the majority of people get in to them who waited. There's always a rush for a door no matter what coniditons. But once it's full that's it. Shut the doors, bye.

And the information. C'mon they were probably told the information in tandem. You get the director and a star. It was probably the studio that gave them the information since it was considered the world premiere. They greenlit the information and confirmed what they knew. It's not their fault either that Johnny's is freakishly controlling of every facet. It's not like they were pulling stuff out of thin air, that's what they were told. They were being yanked around just like everyone else.

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

Normally panels have a line, with people maintaining the line and that's what I've always seen.

I'm not blaming them for what they couldn't do, but how they announced it was very unprofessional. I'm sorry, I feel that way but no matter how good the information is if there isn't confirmation all around then don't bother posting it at all and it's how it's been done at media events I've seen. It's not what they were told, it's what they wanted to do but didn't wait for confirmation and that's why they had to apologize for it.

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

I'm almost 100% that they cleared everything before hand.

This is one of the statements issued:
Guys, just to be clear here - we were given a schedule and OK'd to announce it. Due to time demands that schedule is changing, but not finalized. We are so sorry, but please be patient while this gets sorted out from Japan and we can update you. We would never want to "dupe" or "mislead" you, EVER. That is not in our best interest at all. We want you guys to be happy! Please stay tuned and I promise you that if you are not happy, you can reach me personally for a refund of your ticket over this issue.

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

OK'd by their own bosses or Sho's people is what I'd like to know to change my opinion because as I understand it, it was the first one. If I'm wrong then I'm wrong and JE changed their mind and flip flopped.

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

No this is Comic Con's, as in the event's organization itself including the higher ups, response to why they had to shift the entire schedule for Sho. They cleared everything with his people first. They were being fend information from Japan as the response stated, not their own people. "Bosses" at Comic Con can't confirm a talent's schedule, just propose one. The talent's people himself have to give an okay to everything. They were given that okay for both Sakurai and Takashi and then something shifted on Johnny's end in Japan.

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm sure Comic Con wasn't entirely to blame - but they're not entirely innocent either. Comic Con has been running for years - they should know by now to do better research into their guests and the huge response from fans on their blog when they first started changing Sho's schedule should have been a clue to them that a lot of people would be there. To secure the booth for him to come down to greet fans would have been really simple. They could have had a few staff members there for security, or a put up a barrier - or even smarter, held it somewhere other than a tiny booth that was squashed amongst other booths. Those things aren't Johnny's fault, that's all Comic Con. They were also extremely rude to fans there, any time we tried to ask a question politely just to understand what was going on we were either ignored or if we actually got an answer, it was snappy and in a tone as if they were speaking to children. There's no reason at all to treat paying customers to your convention that way if they're being polite.

On top of that, Comic Con's staff informed several people that they'd have 200 tickets to give away to the premiere at the Nikkatsu booth. When we got there, they gave out 12 - not only Sho fans who traveled from out of state like myself were screwed over, so were Miike fans. No explanation was given to anyone as to where the rest of those tickets went. If that was JE pulling something behind the scenes again, they could have at least said "Sorry, we had to give more tickets away to press/staff than anticipated."

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

There is no physical way to squash someone in a booth that small. That I understand. But it seemed as if it was the only option given. It's no surprise at all it was called off honestly. There was no way he could have walked through that convention floor, body guard or not, without being mobbed. If it was actually a panel or controlled ticket signing like originally intended it would have been easier, but that got shot down by JE.

The reason it was a small booth deals with how much Nikkatsu put out. Not Comic Con. Locations and square footage at designated how much a booth shells out. Why do you think the Wolverine was so much nicer and well controlled? Because the studio put out. Nikkatsu did not.

I didn't speak to anyone at the booth (I did speak to staff there and they were fine with me), and by no means should anyone be rude, but some fans were out of hand and people started to get short with everyone. I mean they knocked over an eight year old child (the tickets STOPPED being handed out after that apparently) with their pushing and shoving instead of calming down and backing up. Growing up and acting like an adult will get you a long way with people.

I'm not saying they handled it perfectly. But there were a lot of factors.

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

I understand how conventions work and how booths are bought and sold, I've worked for them for years. I get that the size of the Nikkatsu booth was set, but the convention staff should have done some more research and realized how many people were coming - if there was no other venue to hold the meet and greet, and they couldn't come up with proper security arrangements so that both Sho and the fans would be safe, they should have never announced they'd have it at the booth in the first place - they should have just said he'd be coming out to wave from the glass booth in the first place.

Growing up and acting like an adult will get you a long way with people.

I like how you say this as if you met me and know how I was acting. I was not one of the people that pushed and shoved and knocked over the kid - I was far in the back and couldn't even feel the shoving that went on up front. I didn't even know the incident had occured until I got home. The people I was with never pushed or shoved anyone, nor treated any of the staff with disrespect. We were always polite, and only asked questions to understand what was going on and what we should do when they were unclear. Instead of someone simply explaining the situation to us, we got clipped and unclear answers, were ignored, or were talked down to. Yes, people that act like idiots and trample other people, push and shove, or act rudely should be dealt with accordingly - but the actions of a few idiots shouldn't determine how the staff treats the others that are behaving appropriately.

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

...when did I say the comment was directed towards you directly? I'm pretty sure it followed the statements of fans being out of control and knocking over an eight year old. That's what happens though. A minority can ruin a lot of things for the majority. And that's exactly what happened with the ticket incident. I don't understand how this got turned around to me making personal attacks on you?

And how can anyone do research on how many people are coming for just one person? They were overwhelmed and the admitted it openly. And honestly even I was surprised by how many people showed up just for him, and from far distances at that. Hindsight is 20/20 what more can you ask for?

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

Just jumping in to say they knew there were going to be a lot of people, they were warned Sho is really well known. Another indication would have been how Sho was booked by interviews pretty much the whole time he was here.

The messed up, didn't think things through and it happened. People were idiots, didn't think things through and really should've taken a chill pill. I'm glad they apologized at least and that's really all we can ask for.

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly with your last statement. : )

We, the fans, do have a skewed view of how other people view members of Johnny's bands. Yes, we know they are huge, but about 90% of America have no idea. Should they have gotten an indication, absolutely. Did they get overwhelmed, yup. But it doesn't surprise me at all that they thought too little of him. They probably heard alot of people and figured 50 not 150. The main point was supposed to be Takashi Miike, not Sho. Takashi was the one being honored..but little did they know how things would turn out.

Hindsight is 20/20. Hopefully someone somewhere is paying attention to it, so if the situation arises again, be it at a Con or anywhere else, people will learn from it. That's about all we can ask for as of now.

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I feel like they totally shrugged him off because you can ask someone his name and most likely no one could say who it was. But if we're going to take the TMR route and ask his name of course you'd get a lot more yeses.

I do feel bad for Takashi Miike's fans who had no idea what they were getting with this.

It sadly takes an extreme to bring attention to a bad situation, but yes I agree they will be better prepared for the next time.

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

The comment was made as part of a response to my comment about how we were treated by the staff, so it appeared to be directed at me. Sorry if I misinterpreted, that's just how it came off.

It's really not that hard to research these things - it's the job of guest relations to be prepared for all things related to guests, and part of that is finding out what kind of draw you guest has and what sort of preparations should be made. Some of it is as simple as doing a few google searches to guage fan reactions. The fan response at their own blog should have been a hint that Sho was going to draw a bigger crowd than anticipated. It wasn't just Sho, it was Miike as well, and his fans were dissapointed too - with the second screening of the movie being canceled, they didn't have a chance in hell at seeing the movie with all of the Sho fans lined up as early as 8am to get to the booth. I'm not really "asking for" anything at this point since the convention is over, but what's the problem with being angry or frustrated at the situation and venting about it with other fans that had the same experience, like many fans are doing in their con reports? It's not like people are burning comic con at the stake, just expressing how frustrated they were at a badly handled situation (on all behind-the-scenes sides) that was dissapointing for them.

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

I still think a lot of hindsight deals with knowing who Sho is too begin with. They didn't, and even then a big Jpop/Kpop star in NYC doesn't usually fetch as many people. They had about 50 replies on their blog on Sho specifically and some were people asking how to cancel. For a relatively unknown at Comic Con, and Sho is with about 90% of America not knowing who he is, 50 people is a lot. Not 150. Even if they Googled blogs it doesn't fill in the amount of people who flew from abroad.

As Jubeichan just said above "They messed up, didn't think things through and it happened. People were idiots, didn't think things through and really should've taken a chill pill. I'm glad they apologized at least and that's really all we can ask for."

There's no use throwing blame on one area is what I'm saying. And there's a whole lot of people that it can be spread around to here.

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

I agree with Jubeichan's post as well, so I'm not really sure where he argument is here since you were disagreeing with her post in the first place. I never said that all blame should be thrown on comic con, I agree there's plenty to place around - but your earlier posts made it seem like you don't feel Comic Con has any responsability for what went wrong, and there I disagree. I haven't seen the apology people are talking about, but if they made one that's good.

Just a side note, I'm not really sure how many of those peopole actually came in from abroad. Many of the Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese girls there were actually living in the States, and many of them were contest winners.

[lovecallinearth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you jumped in on a post that was already considered the resolve. She was asking if it more Comic Con's fault or Johnny's to me. That's what I gathered. And the original source of the problem was and still is Johnny's. The release of the information and confirmation from the original line up all stem from Japan not the Comic Con. The size of the booth/ location is on Nikkatsu. Plus, I still think a lot of the disaster with the tickets goes back to the poor behavior of fans who screwed it up with everyone.

I do agree with the there should have been a line to form in the beginning, or even hand out the tickets as people arrived is on Comic con. But in the long run there's a shit ton more problems stemming from Johnny's flip flop.

IDK from what I gathered there was a good portion of people who traveled from long distances. There were some people who traveled from Japan that we bummed into. I don't know how many people came from abroad total though.
On the side note.

[imagenes-retro.livejournal.com]

>.< i look sleepy xD
what happened? you were right behind us when we were in line for the tickets.. then later when i turned around you weren't there anymore.. i saw destini there but you were gone.
thanks for the report ^.^

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

Lol when they said Sho wasn't going to be there... I pushed away to get out of that mess. I didn't like being surprised buttsexed for so long. I rather someone else attempt to get a ticket who traveled farther.

Thank you for reading~

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

Were any of the two girls in that first picture in the line at the theater hoping to get tickets? I thought I might have seen some of you, but I'm not sure ^^;;

There is a member of the staff who offered at the blog that if we weren't happy when things were over, he'd personally issue a refund of our con pass. I'll be writing him a letter on behalf of myself and some of my friends that went asking for a refund and explaining why we're asking. If you'd like, I can include you as well?

[imagenes-retro.livejournal.com]

actually we got tickets and saw the premiere.. it was only a couple of us that were lucky to get them... but we were the last to go in the theater, i thought that they were going to say that it was full and we couldn't get it.

[hontowa.livejournal.com]

Aaah okay, maybe I saw you in the other line next to us then. Congratulations on getting in though!

[jubeichan.livejournal.com]

I don't know because I didn't go :x I was just there at the con.

I would but I actually did go to enjoy other parts of the con as well, so the Sho chaos was just annoying but didn't ruin my weekend.

[beep2x.livejournal.com]

Whewww.. sounds messy >_____<
but at least you guys saw him live for half a minute ^^
thanks for sharing the story..

[tecchinvie.livejournal.com]

thanks for your report. that must be hard, waiting in the cold...but i hope next time NYCC will be much ready to anticipate fans crowd :D
and YES ninja turtle holding Sho uchiwa is awesome!! XD