Belated Fan Event Report: Wonder Festival 2018 [Summer]

In July 2017 I noticed on my Twitter feed a number of festivals occurring in Japan. I had always toyed with the idea of going to Comiket (Comic Market) during the winter, but was really put off by the down time during the Christmas and New Year’s break due to business and attractions shutting down during that period. That time of the year was also hellishly busy in terms of travel. I discovered that the biannual Wonder Festival (colloquially known as WonFes) was on two weeks prior to Comiket. I had also wanted to go to that event as well, but in winter it was held at an inconvenient time.

I realised that I could see both in summer 2018, plus get to see a lot of traditional festivals in the Kanto region that are on between those events which take place up to the beginning of the Bon Holidays (which starts the Monday after Comiket coincidently). I was rather hesitant on going at first as it would be horribly humid, but eventually decided I couldn't miss these events. Unfortunately Japan’s summer was insanely hot and broke temperature records, in some areas the highest ever recorded since records began. Before I had arrived in the country, 65 people had died and over 20,000 were hospitalised due to heat stroke. But somehow I adjusted and managed to see a fair few festivals, though I had cut a lot out due to the humidly and heat, so I wouldn’t wipe myself out due to heat exhaustion.

WonFes is fairly well known to western anime fans. This is because figure manufacturers use the event as a showcase and to announce new products. But the event’s shift towards fully completed, highly detailed, expensive figures is only a recent one which has taken place over the last 15 years. Prior to that plastic models and garage kits (made of plastic resin) were the hobbies of choice for those who wanted scale models of anime figures and robots. Of course this was also an expensive but ultimately a time intensive hobby which most modern day fans are not interested in at all. Modern fandom thinking seems to equate to; "why do all that work when you can just buy a completed figure for about the same price?".

The event originally began in December 1984 and was created by Daicon Film's (Gainax) merchandise arm General Products (WonFes’ creation was referenced in “Otaku no Video”). The first event was originally held in a General Products store in Osaka as a small “pre-event” which led to a fully-fledged annual event in Tokyo during January 1985. That event held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial and Trade (aka Taito-kan, which is near Asakusa station) managed to bring in 2,000 attendees and 60 dealers. In 1988 WonFes became a biannual event. In 1992 the event hit a peak of over 12,000 attendees and close to 400 dealers. This was the era of the garage kit boom with a number of commercial companies such as Volks, Wave, Kaiyodo, Kotobukiya and B-Club (Bandai’s defunct garage kit and special merchandise division) joining the hundreds of amateur kit makers in the market. Still, it was pretty niche hobby within anime fandom.

But by that year General Products was losing money hand over fist due to poor management and eventually was shut down by Gainax. Kaiyodo took over managing the event. In 1996 the event was moved to Tokyo Big Sight and remained a biannual event until 2001 when the winter event was cancelled. It was restarted in summer that year, but an accident on an escalator which injured 10 people during the summer 2008 event caused it to be cancelled the following winter. The event was yet again rebooted for summer 2009 with an attendance of over 42,000 and over 1,700 dealers with a move to the Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall in Chiba prefecture. An adults only area was added the same year.

To this day WonFes remains as a biannual event at the Makuhari Messe. This year the summer event was held on Sunday 29 July 2018 from 10am to 5pm, taking up halls 1 through 8 of the Makuhari Messe. I arrived in Tokyo the Thursday prior and pretty much went straight to Akihabara to obtain the official guidebook which costs ¥2,500. It can be bought easily in chain anime shops like Gamers, Animate and as well as hobby shops. This guidebook is literally your ticket into the event. Roughly B5 size and about half the thickness of the Comiket catalogue (300 pages), it pretty much functions the same way as that catalogue; it lists all the dealers, where they are situated in the halls and includes a map, rules and guidelines for attendees. Like the Comiket catalogue, the dealers are allocated a 3cm x 4cm spot in the catalogue to promote their booth. But unlike the Comiket catalogue which has several pages in English, WonFes’ guidebook is only in Japanese. However it’s fairly easy to figure out where booths are and the rules and guidelines are common sense. Illustrations accompany the rules and guidelines, so you can get the gist of them without being able to read the kanji.

Despite the fact that anime figures are such a big part of fandom, over 50,000 people were expected to attend and over 2,000 dealers and corporate booths would be offering and showing off their products. When compared to other events such as AnimeJapan or Comiket, it seems rather small. Unfortunately Typhoon number 12 had rolled in over the Kanto region on Saturday, specifically in the direction of Tokyo and Chiba. It was a bit touch and go and the event was on the verge of being cancelled. But the typhoon didn’t cause any major problems and Kaiyodo confirmed on the website on Saturday evening that WonFes was still going ahead. However due to the typhoon, a number of smaller dealers could not make it to event in time.

The easiest way to get there is via the JR (Japan Rail) Keiyo line from Tokyo station and get off at Kaihin-Makuhari station, find the exit towards Makuhari Messe and pretty much follow the crowd. You can’t get lost. The weather was stifling that day; 32°C with over 65% humidity which meant the heat index (or apparent temperature) was anywhere from about 38°C to 40°C. There was also a small shower during my walk to the exhibition hall. If you hadn’t got your guidebook/ticket by this stage, they are also sold on site. On my way back from the convention in the late afternoon, I noticed several guys selling copies of the guidebook for cheap. Unsure what the deal was there. Did these guys acquire copies that had been thrown away and were reselling them? It did seem a bit dodgy. Probably a case of buyer beware if you get a guidebook from those guys.

Entry into the halls is pretty simple; hold up your guidebook like everyone else and walk in. I arrived at 11am to avoid standing outside in the sun and the crowds. Entry is into hall 8, which contains the adult section and other amateur dealers. The commercial booths are in halls 1 to 3. Rather than work your way through the crowds at a snail’s pace, it’s much easier to navigate to the hall you want via the upstairs walkway which spans all 8 halls. You will have to re-show your guidebook for re-entry into the halls though. Toilets are plentiful and are there are no line ups. The air inside the halls was humid and uncomfortable as heck, but I was determined to see as much as I could. It’s best to keep hydrated as much as possible. I had two bottles of water on me as well as bottle of a sports drink, Pocari Sweat (to replace salt and electrolytes as you'll soon be drenched with sweat if you're not already. Pocari Sweat has far less sugar than western sports drinks, so it's not as bad for you) and a few snacks to keep me going. There are various food sellers in the halls and along the walkway, but can be rather expensive. For example a Dominos pop up shop was selling single slices of peperoni pizza for ¥600. One of the first things I noticed as I entered the halls was how the demographics skewed heavily towards males. Most of the amateur dealers were middle aged men. I suppose this should come as no surprise considering most of hobbies this convention deals with are male dominated.

I sort of came with no game plan, so I just went randomly from one area to next which was probably pretty silly. As the commercial aspect of this event is covered extensively on pretty much all anime news sites every time it’s on, I’ll be mostly focusing on the amateur dealer’s products and other interesting stuff that is generally is ignored by those sites. But I did head towards the corporate booths in halls 1 and 2 first though. There was a lot great stuff on show here such as the Evangelion booth which of course highlighted a teaser poster for the concluding chapter in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy as well as numerous new figures. The Kaiyodo booth had numerous upcoming products which caught my eye including new figures from the Ultraman franchise, “Grendizer” and “Tetsujin 28” figures. Volks had some nice “Five Star Stories” figures and a new 1/8 scale scope dog from “Votoms”. Also of interest was the Good Smile Racing Team booth which had the Mercedes Benz GT Supercar on display as well as a Hatsune Miku cosplayer, two girls in yukatas and someone in a Wooser character outfit. There was also a collaboration between “super flat” artist Takashi Murakami and the well-known modeller BOME with two life sized girl figures. I also spotted a Nekopara booth which was 18+ only, unsurprisingly.

In the far corner of the first hall, I noticed a lot tanks and other military hardware. Worse was a group of men standing next to it in World War II era Japanese military uniforms. This was a display by a group called Reenactor’s Gear & Shoei. I sort of found it a bit full on, especially when I saw one of the members getting lunch upstairs, dressed in an SS uniform. I sort of understand why people might like the designs of these uniforms, but am utterly baffled they don’t seem to see that those uniforms have incredibly negative connotations.

The amateur dealers in the other halls, almost always ignored by western anime new outlets, were far more interesting to me. There was a real mix of dealers in the halls; some were just selling commercial figures, plastic model kits and hobby supplies, some sold cosplay accessories. However a large percentage of dealers were selling garage kits. One of the interesting aspects of WonFes is how the companies who own the copyright deal with groups making garage kits of their properties. This is handled via a one day limited licence agreement which allows the garage kit manufacturers to sell their kits on the day. The kit manufacturers have to essentially negotiate with the licensor which usually involves a simple process of paying a small fee and sending a sample or photos of the kit they are intending to sell.

There were a wide range of kits on display, some completed and ready to be sold, others only in prototype stages. Most of the kit makers were middle age men in or older and the subjects of their kits showed their age. Most were of older anime properties such as “Dirty Pair”, “Mospeada”, “Cyber Formula GPX” and other older robot series, as well as Toho science fiction and Godzilla monsters. However there were also numerous figures from recent anime such as “Fate/Grand Order” and the “Love Love!” franchise. There were a number of booths which caught my eye including a “Patlabor” themed one which had a half scaled Revolver Cannon (the gun the Police Ingram Labors use).  Other booths had interesting aftermarket products such as a range of brass instruments designed for use with Figma figures.

Naturally there were plenty of adult figures. An adult section had been corralled off on the edge of hall 8. I wasn’t planning on going in, but thought what the heck, showed my ID to the guard (they ask for ID regardless of how old you look, I was having my 45th birthday next week for god’s sake!) and went in. Usually I’m not shocked by what fandom does, but this time… The first dealer you see as you go in was a guy selling nude lolicon pictures, which I had seen similar before and didn’t like, but wasn’t shocked by. Next to him was seller with CD-ROMs of 1980’s anime characters in sexual situations. OK so far… Then I came across a woman selling full scale realistic female figures in lingerie. And it just got odder from there; some really hard core ero guro stuff, really explicit nude figures and most bafflingly of all, a Godzilla figure made up entirely of penises and scrotums. That one really took the cake for me. I didn’t get it at all.

Summing up my really long report on this event; I found it really interesting and a whole lot of fun. I really don’t understand why fandom in the west practically ignores this event (apart from the reports of new figure announcements on anime news sites). AnimeJapan and Comiket seem to be the only events western fans are interested in going to see. And this is despite western fandom’s current obsession with anime figures, I saw less than half a dozen westerners roaming the halls. Due the heat, I only spent about two hours there. I think I could have stayed longer if I was attending the event in winter. However it is held in late winter, not an ideal time to visit especially with no other events or festivals on at that time. I didn’t bother with the cosplay as there was a massive line up to take photographs. It was just too hot for that shit.

I would definitely recommend going if you have even a slight interest in anything hobby related. The ticket price is a little expensive, but I think it was worth it. Next time I'll be talking about my experiences going to Comic Market 94.