Quick Review of Shine Con Las Vegas 2018

By Mark Rodriguez

I've been busy with a quick trip to visit my bro in Vegas and while attending a local anime convention we also hung out with our friends, and did a lot of drinking. The blog will return with more daily or almost daily articles next weekend, but for the meantime here are my thoughts on Shine Con.

This was the first ever Shine Con and it was at the Tuscany Suites in Las Vegas Nevada. It took place August 17, 18 and 19. According to Sean, the guy who runs the con, it was a complete surprise that the con sold out and was as big of a success as it turned out. My bro and I made it all three days. I was cosplaying as Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury, but this time with the long blonde ponytail to complete it more. Johnny cosplayed as Kyo Kusanagi on Day 1 and 3 and Android 17 with the new outfit he has in Dragonball Super on Day 2.

It was great to see PikaChika again and she was King to complete the trio. It's also perfect cause we got Terry from Fatal Fury, King from Art of Fighting and Kyo as the original KOF character.

So overall, the con was fun. It was a blast and it took me back to the good old days of Anime Vegas. Since I was tourist again, it was cool to see some of my old friends as well, like Ashley, Pikachika, Jimmy and Moore. As for the con itself, I felt it nice and organized. It was a smaller con so it had a main events room, an autograph room, the gaming room, the dealers room, 2 panel rooms and a lounge room. It was nice and organized and all on one floor, so it was easy to get around. I especially liked the lounge room since it's nice to have a place to just chill out, eat or recharge your batteries (both for your devices and for yourself) in between panels or when nothing major was going on.

There were gaming tournaments related to Dragonball Fighter Z, Street Fighter 5, Tekken 7,  BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, Guilty Gear and Super Smash Bros. Melee. I entered the DBFZ tournament and was violently destroyed in the first round, as expected. All of these games were available for free play.

The panels were fun. Besides the tournament we had a panel that was the History of Fighting Games, so we played and discussed all sorts of fighting games, going from the first Street Fighter, to Pit Fighter, to Virtua Fighter. It was fun, and the guys running the panel were trying to go all night until they were told they had to close up to end the con for Day 1.

There was another panel with Reuben Langdon that worked on motion capture on games like Devil May Cry and Resident Evil. His panel gave great detail and behind the scenes footage on how some of the scenes were choreographed, like when Wesker first unleashed a possessed Jill Valentine on Chris and Sheva. He also voices Ken in Street Fighter 4 and 5 and is damn good at playing his own character as he took out some players in the game room.

We also had an FMA panel as they discussed some of the themes of the series, and also compared some scenes between the anime and the live action movie. I know there was a panel related to My Hero Academia, but I think I was at the tournament at the time so I missed it.

Another panel was a 'Guess that Anime Song' where you win small prizes for guessing what anime a song they play is from. I managed to guess the intros to Hellsing, Magic Knight Reyearth, Ranma 1/2 and Yu Yu Hakusho. Johnny managed to guess the theme to Hellgirl. Two other guys and I managed to get the theme of Fist of the North Star at the same time, so all three of us got prizes. Sadly Johnny could get his hand up fast enough to call out the Saint Seiya theme song before someone else got it. In the end, it was quite a haul.

These are not counting the extra buttons that Johnny won

There was another panel where we were basically chess pieces and someone else would tell us where to go. So my bro and I were literal pawns in someone's game as we were both Black Pawns for the Black side in a Black VS White side. Ironically I was the first one to die, and my bro was the last to die, and I guess he was protecting the queen or something (not familiar with the rules of chess) but Johnny getting taken out ended the game with the victory going to the White team.

Since it was a small con, my bro and I mostly stuck together, as there weren't enough panels going on at the same time that we would split up for. There were other panels based on tip for creating your cosplay and props and how to fix them, a rave dance, a 'why your anime sucks' rant panel and other things.

There were also cosplay guests. I got to buy a print of the Cosplayer and Twitch Streamer xxFruitcakexx as she was dressed as Asuka Kazama from Tekken and looked just like her, and she was a character I actually recognized. She was a real sweetheart and made sure I could get the print home safely since I had to travel and it would have to be packed. This is the first I heard of her so I don't know much about her Cosplay and Twitch career, but she was pretty cool.

The local Vegas band, BlackRos3 was also there performing where they sang covers or musical versions of several anime, including Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Death Note, Inu Yasha, My Hero Academia and Pokemon. They were pretty cool, and the female singer gave us sort of an encore performance since she sang an extra song at a karaoke panel held in the Lounge Room on the second day.

Now for some minor nitpicks. The dealers room was kinda small and everything was rather expensive. Now, this is normal for anime cons, but they usually drop the price on Sunday since it is the final day and a shorter day and everything is basically clearance. I love Parasyte and Sakamoto, but I wouldn't pay 50-60 bucks for them. The other thing is, other than prints, there is only one stand for everything. So there's only one stand selling anime DVDs and Bluerays, only one stand selling anime figures, only one stand selling cosplay props and whatnot. You couldn't really shop around here and there to try to get a better deal for a certain item.

Sakamoto might be Cool! Cooler! Coolest! but I'm not paying almost 60 bucks for 13 episodes

If you're wondering, I bought a Shine Con shirt, a BlackRos3 shirt, a Deadpool wallet, a Ranma 1/2 OAV and movie collection, which was at a decent price and a Bleach 2 movie pack. I also got Paige a Sakura Card Captors book full of promotional material and an episode guide to the new Clear Card series. Johnny bought himself a Shine Con shirt, a BlackRos3 shirt and a Deadpool shirt.

The other downside, that got on Johnny's nerves was how early the food served at the con would wrap up. The food was good, I loved their burgers and hot dogs and it was decently priced. The problem is they would wrap up in the middle of the day when there was still plenty of con left, so you would be hungry later on if you intend to stay for the whole thing. There was a good restaurant downstairs named PUB 365 with amazing food, but it was kinda pricey to go there again and again due to the con food closing shop so early. And the part that really annoyed Johnny was... THEY DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO SHOW UP ON SUNDAY. C'mon guys.

There's also a special event at the Main Event room where if you pay extra for VIP access you do get some fancy food and ice cream.... but if you didn't pay for the VIP... you're stuck without having anything to eat once the con food closes down. In a certain way once the con ended Sunday, it made us both sad that it was over (post con depression) but also relieved because NOW WE CAN GO GET SOMETHING TO EAT.

Another minor inconvenience, though I can kinda/sorta excuse it, is annoying nonetheless is the fact that to you had to turn in your ID to borrow controllers for free play in the gaming room. I'm not sure if this was standard practice nowadays, but I never had to do that at other cons with free play and there's always that risk of someone forgetting and losing their ID. I understand this is to prevent someone from running off with the controller, but it's still a bit of nuisance. Like I said, I never encountered this at any other con, but maybe people have been running off with controllers lately which put this policy into place.

Shine Con was amazing and a lot of fun, and it was great hanging out with my old friends again as well. It was great seeing Sean see his con turn into such a success. However, the sad part is he can't promise another Shine Con, and if there is another one, it won't be next year. I do however hope he surprises us all with a Shine Con 2019 cause despite my nitpicks, it was still a lot of fun. I will definitely be looking out to see if there one next year.

Our buddy Moore actually surprised us by showing up at the end of Days 1 and 2.