Matthew's Taiyou Con 2015 Review: Part 0.5 - Preview

Before I continue on with this preview, how many of you have seen this commercial?


I came across this while doing back research on Taiyou Con. If you vaguely remember that tune, you're not alone. The commerical is a paraody of the Montgomery Flea Market commercial (as shown below).


 If you look at the schedule of conventions to start off in 2015 on the West Coast, there is at least one con for each weekend in January for the most part (in order): SacAnime, Anime Los Angeles, Otakon Vegas, and Anime on Display (AOD). Taiyou Con has somehow sneaked into the latter part of the month and is boasting a lineup that'll rival the conventions listed above.

Located in the suburb of Mesa, a twenty minute drive from downtown Phoenix and Sky Harbor International, Taiyou Con will make its convention center debut at the Mesa Convention Center and the connecting Phoenix Marriott Mesa, a short drive from its previous home at the Hilton Phoenix East hotel.

And what's a good way to break out into your first convention at a convention center? By dropping the biggest bombshell to kick off the 2015 convention season and obtaining this group to headline your entire convention.

A promo poster from their website.

Trust me, I had my jaw dropped when I out Lotus Juice, Yumi Kawamura, and Shihoko Hirata were coming to the United States and not to Anime Expo, FanimeCon, or Otakon, but some convention located in Arizona. As someone who has been covering the convention scene, I still wonder how conventions are able to pick up top guests - it seems like pure magic.

That doesn't mean that we can forget the rest of the guests - from voice actors Erin Fitzgerald and Eric Stuart to cosplay personalities like Johnny Junkers and IchigoKitty to the concert opener Random - who will also be there that weekend.

The convention center will be bustling with events all across the weekend; some are your standard fare like the Masquerade, Maid/Cosplay Cafe, a fashion show, cosplay gatherings, & late-night events and parties, but what has me interested besides everything Persona is this Taiyou Con Pokemon League. Even though I haven't been playing the series since Gold/Silver, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire for the 3DS (which is a remake of Ruby and Sapphire for the GBA) was released in November of last year and as always the cosplays and battles ramp up with each new release with this one being no exception. Hopefully I can catch a gym battle or two go down.

Either than that, I'm excited to be at a convention that I've never been to before in a state that I've never been to before. This is going to be one interesting weekend...