CRX 2019 (Rokutsu’s Review)
Much Like Kenny did in his post last week, this con was more of a decompression convention opposed to one I went to expecting to film and record a bunch of content. Normally I’m the guy who goes into this sort of thing business minded, but I looked at it as a vacation, the first one I’ve genuinely had in about 6 months and the first travel I’ve done that wasn’t for work in over a year. I’d never been to San Jose/Crunchyroll Expo before so I didn’t have any expectations or plans but it ended up being one of the best experiences I’ve had in a while.
So in addition to myself and Kenny, we rolled out with Lauren and her man and it was just probably one of the best con groups I’ve been out with in years. The four of us had done a lot of cons in the past so we all knew how to do what we wanted to do but also gelled together perfectly. We managed to hit up a great mix of panels, autograph sessions, and roam the vendor hall in great detail for the duration of the convention. We even managed to get some limited edition merch from the Aniplex store and most importantly (at least to me) we managed to do other stuff around the San Jose area (mostly eat mind you, but still) and it kept us from getting con fatigued.
I know that Kenny talked about the more industry focused panels, but personally I still enjoyed them even though the ones for Mob Psycho 100 and Zombieland Saga were pretty much advertisements for their respective shows. It was quite entertaining that even with the disjoint of having to wait for translators to convey questions and answers with the Zombieland Saga VAs for Sakura and Saki being super high energy and loveable.
Another panel I personally enjoyed that I had seen before was the Crunchyroll translator panel. Here, they answered questions and bantered much like we at BAYOG do, rewarding good questions with DVDs. They provided insight into the industry about difficulties such as translating fake spoof/fantasy words like “PFP” or basically any spell from a magical anime. On the other hand they also hit some funny points like justifiably translating “Hewwo” or using “Fuck” in a translation. Most importantly of all to me was they actually kept it real by addressing bad things like times their bosses/legal department says “No, you have to do this.”
My personal win was us lining up early to queue up for a rare convention only Mai Sakurajima figure only released in Japan until now, of which there a couple hundred in circulation and only 18 or so were sold at CRX. We managed to get 3 of them, with me literally almost scoring us a 4th but the guy in front of me got the last one. While I also got a kick ass LLENN figure of her action rolling out of the suitcase circa episode 1, and a Tanjiro figure, this one is my favorite as it is not just rare, but the reason why it’s rare is hilarious. Unlike the standard Bunny Girl Mai, this one has her in a white bunny girl outfit, making this figure sell for over $1,600!
Overall I came out of this refreshed and mostly feeling better. My hand is still a bit messed up due to the fact that I took on the Shield Hero challenge to pop 10 balloons in 15 seconds and won by MMA ground punching them on a concrete floor. Stupid, but hey, I won and that’s what matters. Beyond that we also had great times with Kenny getting me to watch Fire Force and How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? Which I’ll be writing up on in the upcoming weeks as they roll off. Spoiler alert they are awesome. With that I look forward to maybe going back to CRX next year or in a future year but I’m definitely looking forward to writing up stuff and going to cons overall!