Matthew's Quick Hit Reports: Kintoki-Con 2013

My theory about these small conventions is that they can be a test bed/pilot/dry run of cosplay and a sign for things to come with other conventions given that a lot of these conventions are run by primarily the same staff. I put that theory to test with Saturday's visit to Kintoki-Con 2013.

With my SacAnime Summer 2013 plans set in terms of press, I had a sense of what my plans were now which were going to heavily involve photo shoots. Today, I wore Jonah from Jormungand fresh from Anime Expo. I learned my lesson to take off the HCLI patch from my dashboard and stick it on my tactical vest. I really love this cosplay, so it would be nice to start gaining exposure from it.

Initially, I was just going to hang around the grounds, get my shoot in, hang out some more, then go home early. But when I found out that a lot of old Sacramento State and J-Club friends were staffing and volunteering, I really wanted to see them again. So, I bought a day badge.

I thought the convention was going to be smaller, but there was ample space for what the convention was. Despite the space itself being small for the majority of the rooms (i.e. Dealers Hall, Gaming Room, Panels, etc.) they were balanced out by the low number of people there. Part of that was the convention running against the J-Pop Summit at San Francisco's Japan Town. It was a decent crowd and I saw many people that were a) checking out the convention for the day and b) were definitely heading to the J-Pop Summit tomorrow. I heard some singer named Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is headlining the end of the summit. Never heard of her. (OK, sarcasm aside I heard she put up a really good performance.)

When I was looking for things to do, I signed up for Masquerade as a walk-on. I haven't done a Masquerade since FanimeCon 2008, so it was interesting to see how much I need to improve on this cosplay between now and SacAnime Summer. I did a simple pose which included me aiming his sidearm. It was nice to be back on stage, and it gave me great confidence to consider signing-up for SacAnime Summer's Masquerade. Now the only question is do I do another walk-on or go with a solo skit?

During this time I ran into two familiar faces: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Richard Epcar. The last time I ran into them, we had this:


This time around though, it was a simple "hey, how you been?" with an autograph. Still, it was very nice to see the two especially with all the recent work since the last time I saw them i.e. Mr. Epcar working on Injustice: Gods Among Us.

I had set a photo shoot for Jonah with a photographer named Kathy Gee. We went to the top floor of the parking lot to do a couple of shoots before we descended downstairs to do more shoots. We eventually got stopped by security who reminded us that Sacramento plays hardball with photographer and that we needed to have special permits. Luckily we had the majority of our ideal shoots in and we called it a day. I'm going to be looking for a ton more shoots with not only Jonah but Yosuke and my new-look Junpei.

The rest of the convention was about the same thing I would do at any other convention: hang out with the people I know, play video games, eat good food, and so fourth. It's also one of those conventions were I wanted to relax; this convention is a walk in the park compared to what I ran through at Anime Expo. I also learned some good news that got me excited about SacAnime Summer; I really want to tell you all, but I'll let you find out when you hear it or see it.

In all, given what happened to Kintoki-Con in the first two years of its convention life, it was a good way to start things back up. Hopefully they can build themselves up to be like an Ani-Jam or many of the small Bay Area conventions: a place to hang out while not having to worry about being at a big-time convention like AX, Fanime, or even SacAnime.

Oh, and a note to myself: buy sealer.