Sakura Con 2010
by Crystalyn Hodgkins,
When: April 2-4, 2010
Where: Washington State Convention and Trade Center, Seattle, Washington
2009 Attendance: 16,500
INDUSTRY PANELS
Day Two- Funimation Entertainment
Day Three - Dark Horse Comics
REPORTS
AN OVERVIEW
Sakura-Con had a truly impressive guest list for this year's convention - especially the Japanese guests. From The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya character designer Noizi Ito, to Trigun director Satoshi Nishimura and character designer Takahiro Yoshimatsu. Also included in the lineup was voice actress Mayumi Tanaka, voice actors Ryō Horikawa and Katsuhiro Nanba, J-pop bands Dazzle Vision and High and Mighty Color, and character designer and animation director Yutaka Minowa. All that, and the world premiere of the new Trigun movie, Trigun: Badlands Rumble. It was quite a lineup.The weather called for a cold and rainy weekend, but that certainly did not stop the Pacific Northwest otaku from showing up in huge numbers at the convention. Sakura-Con had no problem surpassing the 16,500 attendance record of last year - the official count for the convention was 18,002.
Sakura-Con started in 1998 as a small three-day event in Tukwila, Washington, and the attendance has grown more than threefold in just the past five years. Held in the same space as the video game convention PAX (Penny Arcade Expo), the event hall more than accommodates attendees. The place is enormous, but easy to navigate. Heck, they even had one whole room just dedicated to Anime Music Videos. All day long. Just in case you had a sudden, burning craving for some Linkin Park.
discuss this in the forum (7 posts) |
