It’s time to wrap up what has gone down over the past year. Normally I don’t initiate the whole recap thing & instead respond to others polls or surveys and all that.
But I figured I’d be a proactive dude and actually get the ball rolling this time out. Since I have a lot of stuff to write about I will be spreading everything out over several posts.
I will start the recap series with what I feel was the most epic of what happened in 2009 & that is of course the Hangry & Angry and Morning Musume concerts in North America.
In April of 2009 Hangry & Angry (Yoshizawa Hitomi & Ishikawa Rika) made an appearance at Sakura-con in Seattle marking the first time anyone from UFA has stepped foot on North American soil outside of Hawaii. Being the IshiYoshi fan boy that I am I made sure I was there. For me this was an entirely new experience.
First off it was an Anime Convention. And not just any Anime Convention but one of the larger ones held in North America. I had only been to university style conventions that consisted of a few rooms of people selling merchandise & stuff. This was a whole other level that I was seriously not prepared for.
I had gone alone only intending to meet with my fellow International Wota chatters who happened to live in the area but in the end we ended up hooking up with JPH!P and the result was a lot of shenanigans. From lining up over & over during the autograph sessions to camping out in line for the concert. Every minute of it was a blast.
It was very cool to meet up with people who had the same interests & many relationships were forged over those few days. That weekend would eventually result in me joining the JPH!P family and was the foundation for starting my radio show which would go on air a few months later.
As for the actual concert itself? It is still the single best concert I have ever attended. It’s one thing to see these H!P styled shows on DVD but it’s totally another thing to be at one in person. The energy in the room was insane & the fact that the lot of us were all together huddled in the front row freaking out made it even more fun. Nothing has really come close to this experience… Yet.
* There was also their appearance at Chibi Expo in France which I unfortunately was unable to attend. From what I have heard it was just as kick ass as Seattle.
Sakura-con 2009 Posts
In July of 2009 the flagship group of H!P landed in L.A. for a performance at Anime Expo. Again I was not going to miss out on this and had made plans ahead of time to ensure that I would be there. Having experienced a large con at Sakura-con a few months earlier I was at least somewhat more prepared for this one.
I was fortunate enough to meet more people I had been corresponding with on JPH!P (in addition to the folks I met in Seattle) and I met many more from the International Wota side. The first 2 people I ran into were actually at the press junket (maize & johpan) and eventually I ended up meeting Paul, DJ Kirarin Snow, Catch FiveBats, CK, and several other IW folks as the convention rolled on.
Of course the con didn’t exactly start off on the right foot as the press junket ended up becoming a giant waste of time. I’m not laying blame on anyone as circumstances often cause plans to change at the last minute. It was just disappointing & it still kind of sucks that an opportunity was lost. But the result of that is that I met the people I would end up spending the majority of my time with during the convention.
The Morning Musume concert itself did more than make up for the debacle that was the press junket. While I wasn’t as close to the stage as I was for Hangry & Angry I was in the front row with my boy Paul just short of the press section in the middle row.
While not a full stage show like in Japan it was still great stuff. It was difficult to comprehend that they were actually there performing on stage & I was totally awe struck during the entire show. At the time I didn’t know it would be one of the last 9-nin concerts, so it’s even more special when I put it in that context.
While not on the level of the Hangry & Angry concert it was definitely one of the brighter spots of the convention. The other being the fact that I actually got to see Morning Musume up close, get their autographs, give them gifts, joke with them & even shake their hands. Probably something not a lot of North American fans can say they got to do.
It was another weekend of camaraderie & fellowship all in name of H!P. Something I’ll never forget for sure.
Anime Expo 2009 Posts:
I have no idea if anything like these two events will ever happen again on North American soil. I was just happy to be part of the first round of what I hope to be many more appearances.
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