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NEWS: Yuki Kajiura's Hollywood Sword Art Online Concert Cancelled Due to Visa Issues

You'd be surprised how many conventions believe performers can come in under the visa waiver program. Some cons do follow the law, but others, either because they don't know or don't want to pay the money because they don't think they'll get caught, don't bother getting one. It's always funny when you read these types of articles, and the convention acting all surprised because they didn't think it would occur. Anime and manga fans do work for the government, and a stat is a stat.

This wasn't a convention though. It was, or at least was supposed to be, a proper concert at an auditorium. It's certainly possible but Aniplex would have needed to have been subjected to lobotomies to forget that critical element, given that this is not some wild unknown territory for them.

If Aniplex are at fault though, I can only imagine how livid Aniplex of America would be. They'll be the ones taking public criticism for it while the true fault would be their parent company, who probably kept assuring them that everything was fine and being taken care of.

I'm a bit surprised by the cancellation being attributed to visa issues. The concert was announced back in June or July of last year so they'd have had several months to get that taken care of. It also wouldn't have been her first international performance so the concept of a business class visa shouldn't have been foreign to her. Either someone dropped the ball immensely, leading to this, or someone travelling with her that was important to the show was refused entry into the US.

Alternatively, she needed to back out and this was the excuse that they went with.