Sakura con takes down Girugamesh ad parody on youtube?

[jasper-isis]

I haven't been really following this issue, but I'm not sure it's right to say that the Sakura-con board is hating on AMVs. Didn't they give the AMV staff their 4th largest hall (seating more than 850) for the dedicated AMV room? Apparently that's one of the biggest sizes for a dedicated AMV room, ever.

[katsuya_kaiba_chan]

In fact, this is just what the executive board wants. They want an excuse to kill the contest outright.

What are you basing that on? Even though the Vice-chair is this guy?

I really can't see Mill-Strife doing such a thing, especially when he kicks butt every year at said AMV contest...it would be like shooting himself in the foot.

[hasteroth]

I will be boy-cotting Sakura-con in protest. All those who wish to join me: spread the word.

(Just to avoid misunderstanding, I will be staying home and not attending, I won't be actively protesting. Just not going.)

[Kionon]

My information is based on inadmissible in court hearsay, and I won't say otherwise. However, that hearsay is from people directly involved in the con, and has been publicly posted in other areas, most notably the #amv IRC chat room. I don't keep logs, so I couldn't quote even if I wanted to, and I don't. However, I am sure if someone does have logs and they did a search for sakura-con in the logs, they could find the conversations to which I refer. As I said earlier, it is my opinion these staffers will not come forward right now, but might do so after the con. I won't "reveal my sources" a la Woodward and Bernstein, if those individuals don't want to come forward themselves. I am sure Dinger can clarify all of this as the AMV Coordinator, but I also don't wish to back him into a corner by forcing him to do so.

And as for the AMV room, it was indeed moved from a far larger room in order to accommodate dances and concerts, which the executive board is focusing on this year. This is also true of cosplay. And both events, as far as I recall, ended up receiving goofy time slots.

[Corran]

I will be boy-cotting Sakura-con in protest. All those who wish to join me: spread the word.

(Just to avoid misunderstanding, I will be staying home and not attending, I won't be actively protesting. Just not going.)

I'm not keen on this turning into a boycott Sakura Con thread. Either go or don't go. If you feel compelled to tell others please do so via journals, pms or IM...

While I don't agree with what Sakura Con has done, it has more to do with how they chose to remove the video than the fact that they had it removed. As far as I know, there is nothing to indicate that the user directly affected by this has even tried to contest the issue. I still think Sakura con is a con with a good amv contest based on what I have heard from friends that have submitted videos in the past. To me this is a blemish but not something worth trying to make a public statement about (especially if you weren't going to begin with ). If you really want Sakura con to get your message without appearing like some random person throwing a fit, try contacting them directly in a well thought-out, level-headed email or something. Other cons have done worse imo.

[katsuya_kaiba_chan]

And as for the AMV room, it was indeed moved from a far larger room in order to accommodate dances and concerts, which the executive board is focusing on this year. This is also true of cosplay. And both events, as far as I recall, ended up receiving goofy time slots.

My understanding is that the Sakura Con execs love their dances and concerts up and down above all other programming. So despite the fact the AMVs and the Cosplay are the two biggest draws for the con, they gave the two the shaft in favor for their favorites.

[DJ_Izumi]

One would think that the executive staff of an anime convention would be Internet Literate enough to know that trying to make something embarrasing on youtube 'go away' will only make it be reposted many, many, many more times to youtube and other places and draw even more attention to the embarrasing thing in question.

"Ha ha, I parodied their video."
"They deleted it."
"What? INFORM 4CHAN! THIS ISN'T MADNESS, THIS IS GIRUGAMESH!!!"

Then agian, one would ALSO expect that the executive staff of an anime convention to know that nationally broadcasting a commercial where you openly make your attendance base look like ramune guzzling fantards (No matter how accurate it is) is going to back fire and get your ass on Encyclopedia Dramatica.

My conclusion is; Sakura-Con is run by furries. Who else would not only make themselves look stupid but upon realizing how stupid they look, do what they can to draw more attention to their stupidity in the process of fighting that attention?

[katsuya_kaiba_chan]

"Ha ha, I parodied their video."
"They deleted it."
"What? INFORM 4CHAN! THIS ISN'T MADNESS, THIS IS GIRUGAMESH!!!"

Okay....I LOL'd at this.

From what somebody said on LittleKuriboh's LJ is that Vic 'Edward Elric' Mignogna is the author, director, and producer of the commercial and he pressed Sakura Con to use it and eventually they caved. I kinda believe this seeing how Vic won't be at Sakura Con and those people in that video kinda look the like people from the last Sakura Con commercial which was also done by Vic. So I guess to live up to Vic's views of his fans, I should start snorting whippets and screaming about 'OMG RAMUNE!'. *SNOOORRT* But it's still Sakura Con's fault for caving in when they could have gone the less offensive way and did the Chinese Firedrill commercial idea.

[JaddziaDax]

snorting whippets and screaming about 'OMG RAMUNE!'. *SNOOORRT*

and some "squees" in there, a ton of ass kissing, present buying and a few boxes of pocky and that sounds EXACTLY like his fans >.>

[Vlad G Pohnert]

I didn't want to comment on all of this prior to the con as I run the AMV Room there...

Let me start off by saying that I’m disappointed at a few people here that they would immediately think about boycotting the con and even more so the AMV contest. Sakura-Con in general has gone quite far in supporting AMVs in both a dedicated AMV room and the contest. In fact, this year the dedicated AMV room was one of the biggest (if not THE BIGGEST with seating at 840)... Talking about boycotting or not supporting the contest only hurts all those who put so much time in the doing the contest and the AMV room and hurts OUR community more then trying to punish the con. I really wonder if this is how people would react if Anime Central or better yet, AWA did something like this. Would this mean we should boycott and cut support for them as well if it were to happen there?

I understand people's opinions and that we may not all agree if this was justified or not, however for those concerned who talk about boycotting the event or contest, how about actually writing a polite letter to the Con Chair/Publicity Department about the issue and even asking to hear their side of the story before jumping to conclusions. I know a lot of the staff and execs there and most of them are very nice people and do take the time to hear about people comments and concerns.

Vlad