Anime Matsuri

I know, I know. The reviews for Anime Matsuri is quite the mixed bag and there's so many controversies and other rumors about it, however a good handful of people still attend this convention. It was my first time vending at this con but I personally just found it to be your average show. Average attendees, average entertainment, average everything! I'll only dock Anime Matsuri for having one rude staff that was unbearable to deal with (the rest were lovely).

I do feel like Anime Matsuri pushes the Vendor hall better than the Artist Alley (unfortunately many of us are used to being tossed to the side compared to vendors), so it's not surprising that side felt more trafficked than the Artist Alley. There was enough down time that I was able to be on my computer, getting work done LOL

Despite this, I made surprisingly good sales though, even though it didn't feel "busy". Houston isn't the best Texan city and it's cited as the 4th most dangerous city in Texas, so expenses were rather cheap. I think that's also what helped me make a little bit of profit with costs being on the lower end. Despite the controversies Anime Matsuri has been through, there are a lot of big vendors, big artists, and lots of attending here. Why? Because money does the talking.

I’m not sure what I expected tbh. I have heard a ton of terrible things about Anime Matsuri including their owner. He’s an alleged predator and his wife got kicked out of multiple cosplay communities for being a weirdo too. Aside from that, this con feels very money hungry towards the vendors. The price of the table varies for everyone depending on when you bought it. You’re looking at $100-200 difference with no “better” for paying more for standard tables. As for premium and other tiers, I cannot speak for those.

The venue is big and spacious, however the entire thing is lacking what most conventions that have large venues have. Events and even large companies such as funimation or Bandai seem to be missing? It’s suppose to be the biggest con in Houston… from what I hear they burned those bridges too, another red flag. Everything about the layout felt bad for traffic. We were on the farther side of the Artist alley. Despite being close to the front and on a corner, the traffic was slower than a small sized 2k attendee con. That’s rough.

Personally I did ok, for how bad the traffic was. I still wouldn’t call that a win though. Multiple vendors asked me how I was doing and if I had any traffic. The staff was nice tho…

If they cut the Artist alley in half then maybe it would’ve been a lot more successful.

First of all, I was unaware that we needed to have the app to know where our table number was. This was not mentioned to us anywhere. Months prior to the con, they never responded to a single email or DM I sent about questions regarding the Sales Tax Certificate requirement. They also did not check this at the door.
For a con that charges almost $500 for a table, the number of attendees absolutely does not warrant this cost.
Our table was completely missing by the time we entered the con and took them 1.5 hours to get one for us.
They also did not use the provided profile picture and description I provided for my artist profile and instead stole my personal description with my real name and other info off my website without my permission to use on their app and website.
The staff were really helpful though and tried their best, the people in charge were the real problem.
The convention center is HUGE so I expected a real turn out, all I can describe this con as is dead and overall disorganized.
It’s just not worth it for me so I will not be coming back.

What a disaster 2023 Anime Matsuri was. Artist Alley was put in the main hall all the way far down with ZERO signs pointing people towards it. There were no floor stickers to show people what row you were in, or even any signage to show the split between Artist Alley and Dealer's. Somehow Anime Matsuri with its mild improvements in 2022 managed to make it worse in 2023. I didn't even make a third of what I did in 2022.

Attendance seemed really low, and anime matsuri continued its tradition of letting certain controversial guests attend, which I imagine didn't help the attendance that much.

Did I mention I got an elite booth which somehow put me next to a giant pillar... which blocked the view to my booth, meaning I had little foot traffic. This layout felt like a blind person throwing paint on a canvas, except they're 10 feet away and turned around. Seriously, why.

The staff seemed to try their best, and one came by asking for feedback on what could be improved for next year which was nice. They did tell me there were supposed to have signage, but that they got lost. Who knows what that means.

I don't know man, between the numerous controversies surrounding this event, the hilariously incompetent leadership, and the just shitshow that was the layout, I can't honestly recommend this con to anyone. This con ended up being a financial loss for me, I don't think I'm ever coming back.

LAYOUT: In contrast to 2021, Anime Matsuri 2022 had an improvement for Artist Alley. Although the Artist Alley was still isolated to the far end of the third floor, there was actual signage this time directing people over there. The signs were nice and large, therefore there was definitely more foot traffic than in 2021. HOWEVER, Anime Matsuri has always had an egregious problem with empty tables in Artist Alley. This problem was magnified tenfold compared to previous years. On one hand, having a large curtained booth is fantastic. There is plenty of room to set up and organize behind your table without bothering your fellow artists. The flaw to this is if you are in an empty row. During previous years, even if you were in an empty row, attendees could still see you and come over. However due to the big curtain setups, if you’re in an empty row, you might as well be in another room entirely. If you were one of the unlucky souls like I was who happened to be assigned to a row where a majority of the tables are empty, well, good luck getting any of that increased foot traffic. This was a problem with MANY artists across the hall and therefore many of them applied to be closer to the center of the room where less of the tables were empty and more people were circulating. Unfortunately, this leads into the next problem.

STAFF: The staff really did their best, but communication was just atrocious. They wanted to help artists, but had to seek approval and would take hours or even an entire day to get back to artists, if they ever did at all. I had to visit the staff table multiple times because they just kept forgetting about my request despite the fact that I saw them add me to their queue of move requests. I had made the request on Friday after seeing that not only was my table facing a wall, there was an empty block of at least five tables next to me and I was at the far end of that empty row. It wasn't until midway through Saturday that they got back to me about the move request, again after multiple reminders, and guess what? They wanted to move me down a few tables IN THE SAME EMPTY ROW. Excuse me??? So I flatly but politely declined and a friend and I walked around, easily finding a table near the center that had a no-show. The staff member eventually approved my move there at the end of Saturday while feeling terribly guilty about how long the process took, and it was an instant improvement in sales. There was a lot more foot traffic and I even saw better sales on Sunday than the other two previous days simply because I was finally able to move to a better location. I imagine the convention was great for anyone who didn't get cursed by a plague of empty tables around them, but having to set up twice in one convention and losing out on sales for two days was a huge exercise in frustration.

COST: The table cost is steep, $400 unless you signed up for the early bird prices. It does grant you a 10 x 10’ booth which is nothing to scoff at, but with no other option for artists who don’t need/want to pay for that much space, you’re out of luck unless you find someone to share with. The steep table cost plus the historically falsely inflated attendance numbers are what keep me from recommending this convention to out-of-towners. I do wonder if Anime Matsuri will ever be able to solve this problem of so many empty tables, because it’s been going on for years. If they don’t, and you’re an artist who sees you’re stuck among empty tables, request to move immediately and do NOT GIVE UP UNTIL THEY GRANT YOUR REQUEST. The staff may unintentionally leave you out to dry and it’s up to you and some polite but dogged persistence to ensure you make your sales.

This was my first year attending at Anime Matsuri and I will be coming back!

One thing I know they did differently this 2022 year is that they opened up artist alley on thursday making it the only thing open. This was really awesome because then most people came running up to check stuff out which was great for me.

It slowed down a lot, which was to be expected, once the rest of the convention opened up. I do believe that it would be really helpful to have more signs pointing to where artist alley was as there was only one entrance in a semi back corner so traffic didn't naturally flow that way. It also helped that I had a good table placement and I have a sign that draws attention to my booth.

A lot of AA people were wanting to move tables to a better location in AA due to a lot of no shows. I also know that a few tables just didn't do well. Sometimes that can be due to bad traffic/table placement and sometimes that can be due to not having something that makes you stand out and I do think there was a mix of that for some of the artists I spoke to. I myself am a niche artist and that worked well for me here on top of lucking out with good placement, there are definitely conventions where this has hurt me. Also having the AA be the only thing open REALLY helped on thursday. I'd preferably like to be in the dealers room in future cons but hopefully I'll get there one day.

This was definitely a more expensive convention for me with travel and hotel but it all worked out for me. I drove 18 hours to this convention and was definitely nervous about if I'd do well enough.

Overall I will absolutely be coming back to this convention. I had a great time. Staff was awesome and helpful. I still haven't figured out where the AA load in/parking was but maybe I'll figure it out next year.

I've tabled in Anime Matsuri's artist alley for three conventions now: 2018, 2019, and 2021.

1) ATTENDANCE: Heed the warnings about attendance numbers. They are not even close to what Anime Matsuri claims. Other experienced vendors and artists report that attendance is closer to conventions with 15,000 attendees and I would agree.

2) LOADING and PARKING: Load-in and parking information is a disaster for artists. Vendors load in on the first floor, so their loading dock is in the back of the convention center, easy to spot behind black barred gates and there is a security box at the entrance. Vendors can also park for free right there by the loading dock, very convenient. For artists in 2021, it was a completely different story. There IS free parking for artists as well, unbeknownst to some artists who attended. However it took us talking to three different people before we found someone who gave us the correct location and pass to load in from. The entrance of the loading dock for the third floor was a small tucked away ramp that was two blocks down from vendor loading area. It can be difficult to find even with directions. Driving along the street parallel to the back of the convention center: If you see a blue sign with white letters on the left side of the street, and it's located just before a traffic intersection, that's the entrance to the third floor loading docks. There's a security box and metal gate if you drive up the ramp.

3) LAYOUT: In case you haven't heard, artist alley in 2021 could have been located out in the Pacific Ocean for all anyone knew. In 2018 and 2019, vendors and artists were located in the same large hall. That had its own cons, being that the open layout meant that finding your way to a specific table was a headache, but at least all the attendees could meander from table to table. 2021 had noble intentions of increasing the amount of space for each artist and vendor for COVID safety. However their solution was to keep vendors on floor 1, and put the artist alley not in another hall on floor 1, not on floor 2, but on the OPPOSITE END OF THE CONVENTION CENTER on floor 3, PAST AN AUDITORIUM. Meaning if you somehow heard that the artist alley was on the third floor and you were at the vendor's hall, you had to walk all the way down to the opposite side of this mall-sized convention center, go up two sets of escalators on the way, go through an empty auditorium, and THEN you would find the artist alley. So many attendees who actually made it to the alley complained how difficult it was to find us and how much of a walk it was away from everything else happening in the convention. To top it all off? The artist alley could have been located on the first floor in a different hall, but guess what was placed there instead? You won't, because it's not even anime related. It was a DR. SEUSS EXHIBIT. Ah yes, I do attend anime conventions to go get my fill of Dr. Seuss content, how did you read my mind, Anime Matsuri? Tons of signage huge and clear signage for the Dr. Seuss event, none for artist alley. On Saturday the staff tried to rectify this by printing 8.5x11" flyers for the artist alley with arrows and pasting them all over the first floor, but the damage was done. Furthermore, the arrows were all printed the same way, meaning some of them didn't even point toward the artist alley depending on which wall they were posted up on. I appreciate the effort, and I appreciate the fact that the missing AA signage was due to a mistake out of the staff's control, but the result was disgraceful. If you're thinking it will be handled better in 2022, I certainly hope so. However we were told at the end of the 2021 convention that artist alley would be held in the same hall on the third floor, and that table prices would be bumped up for 2022 🙂

4) VENUE: The convention center is huge, therefore tons of room for people to roam or hang out. There are also plenty of food trucks that park out in the front of the convention center and provide a diverse selection of great food. No complaints there.

5) STAFF: The staff really tried their best to make this convention great. They felt awful for how badly the artist alley was treated, and they often went out of their way to try and help people who needed it. My only complaint was the lack of cohesive information between staff, such as the parking and load-in information I described earlier. I completely understand that this kind of stuff just happens, not everyone gets briefed on the same information in the midst of such a huge event, so I don't blame the staff but rather the management for this issue. However we do turn to the staff for information and it's a problem when we have to keep looking through different staff members across the center until we happen upon someone who knows about something as critical as parking and loading.

SUMMARY: There's so much bad blood brewed between the bad reputation of the owners, the inflated attendance numbers, the boycott over the lack of a refund policy in 2020, and the mistreatment of artist alley. If you're local and you have to make that bread, props to you. There's money to be made at this convention and if that's what speaks to you, and you don't expect to have to pay a ton to ship your goods, then this is a great convention for someone with minimal travel expenses. However many vendors and artists I spoke with who traveled in from out of town said that this convention was not worth the trek.

This is a vendor review. However I am well aware of how bad the AA got treated for 2021, which will be mentioned later. Background: I am an out of state vendor and the only reason why I attended Anime Matsuri was the supposed 40,000 attendance. I was anticipating that there would be some pent up demand with ravenous fans wanting to attend. Communications with staff said they were expecting 45,000. This show is nowhere near that sort of number. What I can only guesstimate is they are publishing their turnstile numbers which divided over 3 days makes way more sense. I've attended a lot of conventions and this felt like a 15K convention. There's lots of 15K attendance conventions available and the expense of freight and travel so far for only 15K is simply not justifiable.

Friday was the best day for sales. Things dropped off significantly for Saturday. This is the opposite of how it should be. Saturday should always better than Friday. Sunday was a ghost town. I've never seen a show fizzle out so badly. Usually a Sunday is less than a Friday but not dead-dead. The vendor next door packed up and left early on Sunday because it was so bad. Vendor spaces are expensive, so to walk away from that much investment says a lot. Despite doing well on Friday, our total ROI was approximately -50%. We lost thousands of dollars in flights, hotels, and freighting. Attendees were receptive to our space and some were very engaged, bringing their friends over to shop as well. Ultimately I blame the AM staff for not telling the truth when it came to attendance.

Another issue was how staff were very communicative at first, then they really dropped the ball. They kept missing deadlines with load-in information and freight had to be shipped out with a generalized "Houston, TX" vs. an actual delivery address. Later when load-in information was finally provided we had to update the shipment in transit which was stressful and 100% avoidable had staff not fallen down on the job. Apparently AM relies too heavily on volunteers and it needs to invest in using some paid professionals for key areas like exhibitors.

About AA. I really feel for you. While the Exhibit Hall was on the first floor and had appropriate traffic relative to attendance, the Artist Alley was hidden away on the 3rd floor. People did not know how to get to the third floor. I knew someone who was in the AA and kept sending people up there to check them out and they reported back that of only a handful of referrals actually made it. Staff finally responded to their failure with a notification in the app reminding people that the AA was on the 3rd floor, along with some small signage directing attendees up to the third floor, but it felt too little too late.

All in all not worth the time, money, or effort. Do better AM. Tell the truth about attendance. Don't set your AA up for failure.

So just as some background information, I am a Houston native that has been selling at conventions since I got out a high school almost 2-decades ago. This was my first time at Anime Matsuri, and out of desperation due to slumped pandemic-related sales, I woefully ignored its horrible reputation in hopes that I could somehow override this system. I was a fool.

So many awful things to be said about my experience (from the rude staff to some of the rude congoers) but what really got under my skin was the layout. Why the AA was placed up two flights of elevators behind a blank blue wall will never make sense to me. It felt like there was no AC on Saturday/Sunday so the musty smell permeating the area was equally unpleasant when combined with the grotesque humidity. Foot traffic was next to awful, but it seems like this has been a recurring issue for years now. The numbers have to be fudged because the attendance was so weak that I contemplated leaving early on Saturday, something many of the other vendors DID. I have never seen such a "large convention" have so poor of a turnout that people left on the busiest day of the event. I'm 100% sure Covid played a role in this, but the lack of foot traffic compared to other areas/floors was certainly a factor as well. Communication was extremely poor and my team had no idea where to set up initially. We had to lug items up the escalator which was ABSURD because the front staff lied to us and said there was no other entrance to bring in merch. A damn mess.

I will never be going back to Anime Matsuri. A complete waste of my time.

Oh and PS: The prices were absurd. Don't even bother going as a congoer. It's a waste of your time as well.

We were located by the bathrooms and felt that the foot traffic was not as great compared to other areas of the con.
Staff was clueless about where things were and they don’t check in with you at all.
I really liked the venue and the open-concept. All of the artists, dealers, and celebrities were in the same room, but there was plenty of space.
There was also a ton of parking! I parked 2 blocks away for $5!
The table itself was a bit expensive, but we were able to break even with table costs on the first day.