Making Magic

San Japan pops into San Antonio for animated three-day festival

San Japan is South Texas' largest anime convention.

In the 11 years of its existence, San Japan has grown from a debut crowd of 3,500 to attracting more than 17,000 people last year. The homegrown celebration of all things manga, anime, and Japanese pop culture is now one of the most popular multi-day events in San Antonio.

San Japan has become a Labor Day weekend staple, with this year’s convention — themed “Magical Universe” — taking place August 31-September 2 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, and Grand Hyatt and Marriott River Walk hotels, where event organizers have provided packaged deals for festival-goers who want to stay where all the action is.

And what action there is indeed. The schedule features more than 200 events, some of which go well into late Friday and Saturday night.

Dozens of panel discussions, workshops and presentations this year cover a range of topics, from cosplay makeup for beginners and exploration of the kawaii concept to interactive gatherings for Steven Universe fans.

There will be a variety of games, such as anime bingo, cosplay battle chess (where cosplayers are the pieces), J-pop and K-pop quizzes, and dance tournaments.

Need to get your hands (and feet) on some electronic gaming, especially old school challenges? There will be more than 75 arcade cabinets, a wide array of Japanese music rhythm games, gaming tournaments on large projection screens, and about 100 consoles.

The arcades will be located in Exhibit Hall 4B of the convention center, while the console/PC section will be on the convention center’s third floor in the Hemisfair Ballroom. All arcade games are set to free play. Additionally, there will be a tabletop gaming section for individual and tournament play.

Some programming goes beyond anime and manga. San Japan designs a few panels and readings around Creepypasta, the Internet-driven collection of horror-related legends and images. Even MrCreepyPasta, the famed YouTuber and podcaster, will make an appearance. Other highlights include presentations on Japanese horror legends, and a history of Asian horror cinema.

San Japan includes a masquerade dance on Friday night and EDM sessions throughout Friday and Saturday night. Not well-versed in either masquerade or EDM? You’re in luck because your San Japan badge gets you into introduction presentations to get you ready.

There’s also the ever-popular Saturday night cosplay show, which like the masquerade dance is ticket-controlled, so get your seating ticket early.

The Hi-Dive video room in the convention center will offer more than 50 anime screenings throughout all three days of the convention as well as autograph sessions featuring renowned anime voice performers, musical performances, dealers, sessions and artist alley appearances with dozens of illustrators and authors, fan meetups (even one for pro wrestling!), and more.

Just a few scheduled guests are voice performers Kanae Ito, Jad Saxton and Kyle Jones; musicians Deadlift Lolita and GRIMECRAFT; professional cosplayer Frea Mai, and director/storyboard artist Kazuhiro Soeta.

While much of San Japan is designed to be for all ages, a few events are for ages 18 and up. The registration/exhibitors section will include help for disabled attendees and those needing to enter with a service dog, as well as a blood drive.

Programming like this has led to the explosive growth of San Japan, the largest anime convention in South Texas.

“It’s been 10 years since San Japan first started here in town and it’s grown along with the anime presence in San Antonio,” Seifer Alpha says on Twitter. “Makes me happy to see it grow the way it has.”

Years ago, organizers locked down Labor Day weekend at the convention through at least the rest of this decade.

“As the crowds grew, we grew in size, and kept making it bigger and better,” according to San Japan’s official Twitter. “We're fortunate to have moved to a venue that will allow us to keep growing to as big as we want to be.”

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Movie Review

Saoirse Ronan brings award-worthy dimension to The Outrun

Photo by Yunus Roy Imer/courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun.

In Hollywood, there are two levels of being an A-lister, with occasional overlap between the two. There are the movie stars who can be counted on time and again to deliver at the box office, and there are the actors who put on Oscar-level performances in nearly every film they’re in. Saoirse Ronan resides firmly in the latter category, which she proves yet again in The Outrun.

The first time we see Rona (Ronan), she is drunk in a pub in London, so far gone that she has to be thrown out by security. In quick succession, she is shown with a severe black eye while giving a police report, and then working on her family farm on Scotland’s Orkney Islands, accompanied by text stating simply “117 days.” With a modicum of storytelling, it’s readily apparent that Rona is an alcoholic, and that the film will spend time with her at various stages of her tumultuous life.

The “present” of the film is her time on the Orkney Islands, with Rona helping her dad, Andrew (Stephen Dillane), run the farm, putting up with her overtly religious mom, Annie (Saskia Reeves), and doing her level best to stay sober. The fact that the 29-year-old has no clue what to do with her life and that she’s still pining over her old boyfriend, Daynin (Paapa Essiedu), doesn’t exactly help her predicament.

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt and adapted by Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot from Liptrot’s memoir of the same name, the film treads familiar ground seen in other movies about alcoholism, with the biggest difference being the setting. The harsh beauty of the landscape where she spends most of her time seems to be a metaphor for her life, a place that can be unforgiving but also capable of the occasional positive surprise.

Fingscheidt eschews a straightforward narrative in favor of one that offers glimpses of Rona’s life throughout her drunkenness and sobriety. While she is able to keep Rona’s story legible for most of the film, there are times when the back-and-forth takes extra effort to understand. A clever marker the film uses to help viewers track time is Rona’s changing hair color, which is bright blue when she’s in her drinking phase in London, with only blue tips remaining during her time of recovery.

The film contains other elements to try to enhance the central story, some of which are more successful than others. Rona recounts various Scottish legends through voiceover, most notably one about selkies, shapeshifters that can change between seal and human form. The idea is interesting, but the connection between the legend and Rona is not strong. A subplot involving her dad’s lifelong mental health issues hits a bit harder, although it rightly is not explored all that much.

Ronan is, as always, an acting force. When an actor plays an alcoholic, it can be easy for them to fall into clichés, but Ronan manages to avoid most of them. Her skills have always been in the smaller, quieter moments anyway, and it’s when her character has to delve into self-reflection that she shines the most. Dillane and Reeves are veteran actors who complement Ronan well, and Essiedu does nicely in a role that is chopped up.

The Outrun — named for a certain part of the landscape on Rona’s family farm — doesn’t necessarily have a lot of new things to say about the states of addiction or soberness, but the personal story is compelling enough to hold interest. And with Ronan in the lead, moviegoers are in good hands, as her performance proves to be award-worthy once again.

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The Outrun opens in theaters on October 4.

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San Japan pops into San Antonio for animated three-day festival

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