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Field Report: AVCON 2011

Leonardo from the Ninja Turtles rubbing shoulders with Master Chief, Wakka from Final Fantasy X in epic battle with a Jedi, the cast of Star Fox busting moves to an N*Sync number, and a World of Warcraft character playing the Tetris theme on the Ocarina of Time. These are some of the bizarre sights I could never have imagined witnessing in my lifetime, but I saw them all over the space of two days at AVCON 2011. AVCON, Adelaide’s annual Anime and Video Games Convention, has come a long way in its near ten-year history. Since starting life in 2002 at the University of Adelaide and attracting as little as 400 people at that first event, it’s grown steadily over the years and now caters not only for over 6000 nerds and cosplayers in Adelaide, but also attracts a fair number from all over Australia. Being ‘fresh off the boat’ from the UK and having never really been exposed to cosplaying to this degree before, off I set to the Adelaide Convention Centre with nothing but an open mind for my inaugural AVCON experience. ‘Retro’ was this year’s theme and this was more than reflected in the gaming side of the event. In the Free Play area there were a wealth of classic titles spanning decades of gaming, with the likes of Star Fox 64 , Mario Kart (new and old), Tekken , Ridge Racer , plus many others on the consoles scattered around the room for people to pass the time with. Not only that, there was a small selection of classic arcade cabinets to play for free, with Street Fighter Alpha being the best addition (in my hugely biased opinion). Part of the convention hall was also reserved solely for music games, including a dedicated Rock Band stage to allow punters to live out their rock fantasies. I had been informed from previous attendees that the gaming aspect of the event usually felt a tad bolted on, but if that was the case then there must have been some serious improvement this year. There were plenty of well-organised tournaments and competitions for people to enter, covering every genre and platform with both old and brand new titles helping to provide something for everyone. The finals for each, as appropriate, were hosted on stage, complete with a big screen broadcasting the action to spectators. A great way to make each one a showpiece and give everyone the taste of what it’s like to partake in e-sports.

Toyota USA Kicks off Hatsune Miku Ad Campaign | Anime Herald

For those that don’t know, Hatsune Miku is a character based on the Vocaloid speech synthesizer engine. Specifically, Miku was released as the first of Crypton’s “Character Vocal Series.” The character’s voice was created by sampling Saki Fujita’s voice, then integrating the samples to the engine. In a brilliant marketing strategy, Crypton pitched Miku’s character as “an android diva in the near-future world where songs are lost.” The market latched on, a cult of fans was born, and countless songs were over-dubbed by a chirpy, semi-monotone voice that streaks through the uncanny valley. In Japan, the character’s gained its own life, becoming a modern-day Sharon Apple. Fan clubs were started, toys were sold, and full stadiums sold out as people clamored to get more of this virtual idol. She’s starred in video games, been parodied in anime, and became the a darling of message boards and chat rooms. In a sense, the character transcended the bounds of “cute mascot character” and became a phenomenon. Admittedly, the character’s rise has become as fascinating as it is creepy. In America, the Vocaloid phenomenon has been pretty small niche. Well, a niche of a niche within an niche. Miku fans are typically anime fans, who enjoy anime songs – specifically those who like bad remixes of said tunes. We’re talking about a small segment of an industry that grosses under $200 million per year, as of the most recent estimates. To reiterate: this is a fandom, in which even high performing shows tend to sell in the 2,000-copy range. And Vocaloid fans make up an incredibly small niche within this niche. The only thing that really crossed my mind on the news was “and Toyota expects to sell CARS to these people?” Now, I won’t go into the whole fact that this is a character that’s become something like 60% wank material, 40% “OMG KAWAII DESOO” stereotype. However, I will again mention that this campaign strikes me as puzzling, given the market. On the anime enthusiast level, it’s always encouraging to see nods to the community. The opportunity to chip away at the stigma that’s grown over the past decades, and hopefully give some (small) broadening of acceptance is a good thing. However, as a cynical bastard, I tend to look at things a bit less hopefully. This campaign will probably have little traction outside of the niche.

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