Hot Take: Didn’t enjoy the Expo

I’m still in Japan and wanted to share my thoughts with everyone and for folks aiming to go next year. Disclaimer, nothing against the staff or talents that worked hard on making it amazing. The set pieces and mascots put in a lot of work.

TLDR: Lines.

My god, it’s more like HoloLine than HoloExpo. I ‘m a die hard fan like the next guy and went with my brother who’s a casual fan that managed to get tickets per my egging him on for the experience.

I applaud how the staff optimized the wristband check ins and merch distribution but that’s the problem, I waited probably waited 2-3 hours in line for everything. My brother who was excited in wining tickets wanted to buy merch and being an avid card collector go to the Bushiroad booth. Little did I know, you can’t buy any merchandise on the premise. I waited 1.5hrs to pick up my merchandise because I pre-ordered it while he had the choice of #1 Waiting for me or #2 Wander around hoping to get in line for something which he saw wasn’t worth it by how crowded everything was.

We enjoyed the cosplayers and the talent standees, but activity wise there was the choice of waiting an hour for 1 activity or wander aimlessly. I applied to the activity lotto events but of course didnt win a single one out of the 8 time slots I applied too.

Also guess what, the food is a lotto queue system as well and I waited 4AM in the morning to be put in a 9000 person queue a month before. I told my brother to just bring conbini food the day before which came in clutch.

Would this be different if I had 2 Expo Day tickets? Probably not? I feel the crowds are just immeasurable in size from the 5AM lines I saw getting into the Expo. I would suggest a 4 Day Expo like what AnimeNYC is doing for their convention, but I doubt it will happen with how exhausting it would be for the talents.

Anyways, those are my 2 cents for fans. Hololive will 1000% be bigger next year and I can’t fathom how big the crowds will be with Justice taking the stage. There’s a reason they took down the foreigner travel package for 1-2 day stays from last year. Just be prepared and apply to lottos and get your friends and family on it for higher chances. I for one will probably just apply for the concert lottos next time as I enjoyed the shows.