Yama-Con 2018: The Year of "Re"

Yama-Con 2018: The Year of “Re”

This year was unlike anything before from start to finish. Let me explain.

I did not plan on going to Yama-Con this year, I am in the middle of getting my bachelors degree and not only is it expensive but also time consuming (I am actually ignoring a final I have to do by Sunday night… whoops). I only went on Sunday this year because my mother had her own weekend vacation planned with her friends and was very sad when it fell through because of the weather. To cheer her up I decided to take her to Pigeon Forge for the day and she also made sure I had fun by letting me go to Yama-con for a while. That being said, I had done no research about Yama-con 2018 and it’s themes or changes so everything was a surprise.

Let us talk about this years “Re’s”.

Reconnect:

Within 10 minutes of entering the con (after purchasing my day pass!) I saw some familiar faces. By familiar faces I mean I ran into one of my best friends from the con, shout out to the only fan of Black Clover I have ever met! This person is someone I have known since Yama-con 2016, if you are interested in how you make friends at cons check out that years review post.
I saw familiar vendors – who were just as friendly, or unfriendly depending on the vendor.

However, that being said, I saw someone incredibly important and new that sparked my interest. New owners. That’s right, supposedly Yama-Con changed to new owners who were more prepared to handle the size to which the con has grown. I saw a lot of improvements this year that I believe could be accredited to the new owners.

Reorganize:

As I mentioned, the new owners changes some things around. The first change I noticed before I was even inside the con was the new security policy. Over the speakers you could hear an announcement reminding con-goers how bags were all subject to search, no weapons were allowed on the property, and other security measures. This is drastically different from previous years where the con had security but it was very passive. Being in the Criminal Justice field and working in private security I always question buildings for their safety measures and safety design. Yama-con’s building design is great for conventions, but only decent for safety. That isn’t to say it isn’t safe; however, the structure of rooms such as the main event hall becomes a fishbowl in the event of an attack. It is still stunningly better than places such as where Hickory-Con is hosted, and none of that should be held against the conventions themselves, it is merely an observation.

Another change that was noticed would be the vendors room. Last year I really cracked down about the mix of mature content in with the general population content. By that I am referring to hentai on skyscraper boards, children’s crop tops hanging up highly saying “Yes Daddy”,  body pillows of moaning characters and… well I will let you imagine the rest. I understand that anime conventions are a special place for all types of fans, and I respect that they should have access to merchandise that appeals to them; however, it should not be displayed so vividly at a family friendly convention. I suggested more closed in booths, or a private area for such merchandise. This year the booth that contained those items as well as the squishy/kawaii boobs and male genitals (this blog is fairly family friendly as well) and stuffed ones had dividers to keep the merchandise out of public eye but still available to the merchants. I saw no hentai on display boards or standing out amongst other art. I was very pleased with these changes.

Reinforce:

Along with the new vendor room design and announcements came a few new rules. On the backside of the con badges they revised the standard rules, and added new ones. The con staff were also clearly identified and placed at more stationed locations throughout the convention hall. I also saw them walking throughout the vendors room, hopefully monitoring prices to make sure they weren’t changing throughout the days. I am not referring to the lowering of prices on the last day, I am referring to price gouging which I covered extensively last year.

Reinvigorate:

This short visit to the redesigned Yama-con reinvigorated me to start doing the things I love again. Start dancing, start binging, start reading, but most importantly start going to conventions again. I have already secured my plans for attending Yama-con 2019, as well as my Significant Other, their twin, and one for our longtime friends. So in total I have a group of potentially 8 people to attend with me. This is my new goal for 2019 and I can’t wait to see you all there next year.

I’ve missed you all,

-Aki Ame Okami