It’s an overall review for the MM14NYC event! Did it soar or fall? Click to find out!
The last part of my MM14NYC report! Review time!
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this is the last part of a series of entries made about MM14NYC.
This part focuses strictly on reviewing the event as an experience
Want to read a narrative and know what it was like to be at the event overall?
Check the links below
Part 1: http://nantonaku.mittsi.net/?p=51831
Part 2: http://nantonaku.mittsi.net/?p=51850
Part 3: http://nantonaku.mittsi.net/?p=51864
Part 4: http://nantonaku.mittsi.net/?p=51868
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The Outside
Best Buy Theater is right along the main line of Time Square. It’s heavily footpaths became our home for several hours. The streets were relatively clean (thanks in part to a sweeper in the area), and we were prepared for the trouble with garbage bags to sit on. While the weather bothered some people, I did not find a problem with it, though it varied drastically between the wind tunnel sides and the windless sides.
The community of the line was wonderful, we shared and had good spirit together. While people had been in the line for hours, they still kept positive and worked hard to be good examples of how to hold yourself at an event. I hadn’t seen anyone being particularly troublesome.
The staff on the outside kept changing the formation of the line providing problems when it came to keeping order. People did their best to try to keep in line, but there was some shuffling among groups. In the end I was unaffected by this because of the Early Entry ticket so I cannot judge how badly this effected line morale.
Even with the changing nature of the lines, the areas were mostly clearly marked and maintained over the several hours of line.
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Pros: Clean open venue, good crowd atmosphere.
Cons: Variable weather, inconsistent maintenance and changes
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The Inside
Best Buy Theater’s inside venue left something to be desired. A disorganized set up lead to confusion and chaos among the fans for merchandise, with packed and crammed standing room for the concert itself. The chaos resulted in people scurrying, pushing, and general disarray which could have been avoided by being more prepared when it came to merchandise
One of the biggest flaws one could see for this event was the need for the concert to be in area venue, which did not provide seats and required bag checks for large bags. The fear by many to not have to go through the pressure of bag check led to people packing light. While some fans may be use to standing all concert long, concerts in Japan have seating in venues which allow chants and jumping be done in them as well. Having seats not only affords being able to rest, saving energy and raising overall comfort for the event, it allows for better organization and spacing at events. It is a double edged sword as the lack of seats lead to my position closer to the stage, but created a very close and uncomfortable spacing for part of the concert. Whether it is possible to allow seats or not, since American safety regulations differ from Japan, is unknown, but it did cause its own problems.
Once we got started the venue was just the venue, it was a place we could jump and yell freely, and really what more could you ask for?
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Pros: No restrictions on doing normal wota jump/chanting, community spirit maintained.
Cons: No resting for the weary, no personal space to accommodate size of the crowd (somewhat fixed during the concert)
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The Merchandise Table/Staff
It was utter chaos. I again might not be able to complain about this as it allowed for me to get my goods way ahead of a lot of the VIPs getting merchandise, but the disorganization proved detrimental to the experience as a whole. The hesitation over running CDs separate from the other goods caused minor delays at the time, though that might have improved after us. The last minute price hike for the CDs was a cause for concern and we never found out why they had to raise the price.
They restricted sale to one of each type of good (with the picture set being one unit) which I heard helped ensure the most people who get items got them. At the same time some people reported not being able to get goods, being told to go to the show and not being able to buy goods after. This disorganization cause many problems that could have been adjusted with selling goods in a different way.
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Pros: Fair chance to get goods
Cons: Lots of chaos, no easy division of lines, surprise price hike, limitation of purchases
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Concert
The concert went okay. You can read the details in the journey portions, but in general it was a Momusu concert and an American concert at the same time, for better or worse. One might argue that people can do what they want, but I had hopes that people in the standing room would accept the Momusu concert style and follow along as a concert in Japan would (full chants, no cameras, etc.). Then again there was no chance for people to apply for seats of a certain type which wouldn’t help the situation.
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Pros: A full Momusu concert experience (almost full time, encore call, mini-MC time, etc.)
Cons: Filming long periods (personal pet peeve), disorganization amongst fans for chants, some pushing or resistance to going with the wota flow/ no designated areas to help keep people who wanted to do full chants together.
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Handshake event
The handshakes started at a good pace but quickened as time went on, it was unbalanced and a shame for what it was. The attention varied because of the nature of the handshake, for better or worse depending on who you were, when you were in line, and the mood of the staff.
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Pros: A handshake!
Cons: Uneven timing, Staff inconsistency in pushing
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Best Buy Theater Event Staff
The Event Staff was one of the most inconsistent parts of the experience, they were unorganized and possibly unprepared for the situation they were walking into. Whether it is because UFA and BBT didn’t have enough communication, or because BBT has their own rules to follow doesn’t matter so much, but it still resulted in a variable experience overall.
Some staff ordered people around and did their job with authority but were not clear didn’t help much. Some staff were very helpful and even not knowing things they were able to help clarify things. The fact that staff didn’t know about the Early Entry tickets was a big concern, but it is expected for there to be weird things like that. It still wasn’t a wanted experience over all. After show staff was pushy to get us out of the venue which brought down the mood overall.
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Pros: Somewhat helpful, keep things in order
Cons: Disorganized, Ill prepared, after-show staff were fairly pushy
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Organization
The biggest hit was from this, and it is naturally a problem between the Japanese and American culture/expectations versus the actual execution. Not being able to conduct the concert like a Japanese venue resulted in a lot of the problems with merchandise, handshakes, and the like, and that served to make a lot of the other problems worse.
Ill organization of the line, the concert, and the handshake lead to a lot of extra stress on the attending fans as many were fighting against natural fatigue, hunger/thirst, and the need for a restroom. No “stress free” time to do things like that resulted in everyone being rather high strung: One couldn’t go to the bathroom without fear of something happening to the line, getting merchandise meant sacrificing your spot in the concert, doing anything basically hurt your chances at everything else in severe fashion. This could just be the way things are done in America for all I know, but it was unsettling to me and I felt a need to survive on whatever snacks and water I had on me and minimal use of the bathroom until it was all over.
Yet one cannot argue with the results in a way, no one caused a scene, from what I could tell no one was overly disappointed. It’s one of those cases where you fight to keep things level but in that you lose a lot of possible greatness.
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Pros: No one died or anything bad
Cons: People seemed stressed, all lines had extra elements of chaos and fatigue involved.
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Overall
At the end of the day it was what it was. And I’ve seen people over the moon over their experiences, and I’ve seen people feel dejected by it. We had our share of ups and downs but it was what it was. We had fun, we had hardships and I think everyone came out of it intact. It was certainly a once in a lifetime experience, and for a Sayu wota like I am, it was one I was glad to have found time to go to. I sit here writing this as a way to vent out the way it happened: the good, the bad, the joy, and the regret. It may look like cons outweighed the pros up there, but remember Morning Musume。 Is more than just one thing, they are a force. They carry a lot of power over any of those cons, and I still left that day happy. But to work towards the better you have to find your flaws, and we cannot forget that this wasn’t perfect. I can’t say I hated it, how could I hate a Momusu experience? At the same time, could it have been better? Of course it could have! And I hope that it’ll get better as they try to do this more.
As I write this I feel rushed because the memories and their feelings are fading from the now to the past, and with it the need to keep moving forward, but for everyone I hope they found what they wanted or needed from the experience. If not, I hope you now have to drive to go forward and do more, be a wota supreme, go to Japan, get full wota gear and show them what you can do!
Maybe next time, Momusu, you could try somewhere closer… you know…. Arashi just did a concert here, that probably went good, wanna come here next Momusu? Lol
Thank you for your time
Questions, comments, anything are welcome!