On Sunday, August 7th, 2016, Kin-Yoobi Con held their annual anime convention at the Newark Pavilion in Newark, CA. It marked the first time in a few years that any member of the Sturdy Pine team has attended this event. Since the last time any of us have attended, they have gone from a hotel venue to their new current one. It also went from a two day event to a one day con. I was curious to see how this event held up against the previous iterations. I honestly did not know what to expect because a lot had changed since we last went.

From what I’ve remembered, the tournaments were one of the highlights at this event in previous years. This time, they brought it down to just three gaming tournaments which included Street Fighter V, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Mario Kart 8. The other game was just having get togethers for Pokemon Go.

The panels in my opinion were sub par. There wasn’t one that really caught my attention and that included a panel that discussed my favorite anime series, “Sailor Moon”. A lot of them failed to capture my attention and interest.

As someone who often seeks to buy things at anime conventions, I didn’t encounter anything I needed nor wanted. I didn’t find anything that I may have even potentially consider purchasing. It was good for my wallet, but bad for my needs.

One of the most awesome events was free food! That’s right! There were free burgers and hot dogs there. They also had veggie burgers for all the health fanatics out there.

I didn’t know what to expect, so I prepared two attires. One for cosplay in case I felt like it and one with regular clothing in case I just wanted to chill. I ended up cosplaying because I thought that I could potentially win a cosplay contest which didn’t happen.

The main event ended up being the charity auction. People may bid on other people if they somehow like the person, but that doesn’t mean a date is guaranteed. Some of the bidding wars became ridiculous. I saw it as just good fun for everyone, and it went to the Red Cross which was a win win situation.

Honestly, I had a lot of fun. I saw this event as a chill con with a lot of loitering around. All I really wanted to do was hang out and not have to worry about specific events and other variables. It was a blast, and I definitely plan on attending next time.

Written by: Timtastic