Let’s just jump into my second post from Anime Expo 2019! My first one focused on otome game company Cybird. Today, I will cover another otome game company especially near and dear to my heart, Voltage Inc! While they were involved with last year’s Butler Cafe, they haven’t had an actual booth at AX since 2016. Their presence at the con was the main reason I still attended my first ever Anime Expo that year despite already having plans out of state that weekend. I could only be there for a couple hours before heading straight to the airport but it was still SO WORTH IT. As you can imagine, I was HYPED when I saw they would have a full fledge booth this year!
While I did stop by the booth each day I was at the con, I pretty much did the same things each day: buy merch, talk to staff, and take photos at the photobooth and with the cosplayers. I’ll go into more detail about all of these things. But first…
Booth Layout
Voltage returned with a bang! Not only did they come with a TON of merch, they also had two virtural photobooths and three cosplayers available for photos all weekend! Each of these things had their own side of the booth and unlike Cybird, there was no area to sit down and hang out as they really used up all their available space.
They also had standees throughout the booth of some of their most popular characters like the Kirigakure brothers, Saizo and Hotaru, from Samurai Love Ballad Party.
Voltage’s Merch List
Merch
Voltage did not come to mess around when it came to merch! They had the usual buttons and keychains but they also came with shirts, blankets, pillows, tote bags and more! My heart was happy while my wallet was crying. They also brought back some merch that they had sold the previous year.
Merch Promotions
Voltage had a few merch promotions going on. The first was a free bag with a purchase of $40 or more. There were three different designs that would be given out on a specific day of the con. On the last day, you could choose which one you wanted. I missed the first day’s Ayakashi bag but got the other two.
Front and back sides of one of the free bags with purchase
They were also giving away art prints! To win one though, you had to be lucky enough to find a gold heart on a purchased lanyard tag. Whatever image that gold heart is what print you would get. Since the tags were only $2, I did buy a good handful to try my chances but no luck.
The third promotion was for every $10 spent, you got a free omikuji fortune. You could also purchase one itself for $1. Each of these had a fortune and QR code for a special message from an Ayakashi from the game. Some of them gave you a chance to get a special photo pose with the matching character booth cosplayer.
The last was the one I was most excited about – the “Virtual Date” with one of your favorite Voltage guys! To take a photo, you could either pay $5 or you could take one for every $5 you spent on merch. Let’s just say I spent enough that staff had to be informed that I could take as many photos as I’d like XD
The merch counter/booth
My Love365 blanket covers my entire Full bed (left) | Hoping to find a gold star in one of these random picks (right)
I pretty much got one of anything I didn’t already have – this earned me A LOT of Omikuji Fortunes and photobooth tickets. My favorite purchase is probably the Love365 blanket. It’s a good quality blanket that is a pretty large size, super soft, and image looks nice too! Plus, I love that kind of unique merch!
One thing I LOVED was that they didn’t just have merch of their most popular or latest titles. They had merch of older and lesser known ones as well. I never thought I’d see the day that I’d be able to buy something official featuring my first Voltage bias, Kippei from In Your Arms Tonight. The only thing missing was ANYTHING from my favorite game, Liar. The game has been sadly quiet for the past year with no updates but I’m still hoping it’ll come back one day.
Some of the buttons and lanyard tags available for random picks.
Wearing my newest Voltage shirt – the chibis are so cute!
One of the two “Virtual Date” photobooth areas
Virtual Date Photobooth
I thought I’d expand a little more on the “Virtual Dates” I mentioned earlier. There were two photobooths set up on opposite sides of each other. These let you take a photo with one of your favorite Voltage guys. One photobooth you could select between Masamune, Saizo, and Hotaru from their popular game Samurai Love Ballad Party. The other you could choose from Eisuke from Kissed By the Baddest Bidder, Kei from Masquerade Kiss, and Dr. Maki from Irresistible Mistakes. Seeing as Eisuke is one of my favorite guys and Masquerade Kiss and Irresistible Mistakes are two of my favorite titles, I was happy with these choices.
Vince said “what’s with the friend zone pose?” (left) so I tried again lol (right)
Ayakashi Cosplayers
Voltage had three cosplayers portraying characters from their new game Ayakashi: Romance Reborn. Admittedly, while I have downloaded the game, I sadly haven’t yet had a chance to play it. I’ve heard good things though and do think I will really enjoy it! The three characters were Koga, Kuya and Toichiro. The cosplayers all looked fantastic! The amount of detail in their hair, makeup, and costumes were just incredible and spot on!
Because of my large merch purchases, I got an embarrassingly large number of fortunes which meant I got a handful of the ones with the “special poses” with the cosplayers. A large majority of these were for the Koga cosplayer who I didn’t see until the last day of the con but the other two were really great and were down to indulge me in whatever photos or poses I wanted. My friend Cion who I had mentioned in my Cybird post was also actually friends with the Toichiro cosplayer too!
Koga (left) | My Koga fortunes that included the special “Back Hug” pose (right)
The “back hug” pose with Kuya – I wasn’t sure if I should look serious or smile!
VA Takuma Terashima posing with the character he voiced in the game!!
That surreal moment when the voice actor for the character you are cosplaying casually strolls up and wants to take a photo with you. The Kuya cosplayer was SHOOK (as we all were) when THE Takuma Terashima walked up to the booth. I was sitting on the ground when Cion told me what was going on and just managed to get this quick shot – it’s not the best but I’m so glad I got to capture this moment.
On the last day, I finally got a photo with Koga!
Kabedon time – he did such a great job staying in character, but I immediately burst into laughter after this XD
Toichiro and Kuya
Chatting with the Voltage Crew
Okay, so this is probably one of the coolest things about Anime Expo and just conventions like this in general – actually getting to talk to the people behind the scenes who create the stuff you love. I had met Vince who works in Marketing the year before and it was great seeing him again. He’s such a cool and friendly guy with a ton of great ideas.
With Vince from Voltage’s Marketing team
One of my highlights of the entire con was speaking with one of the localization translators, Jessica. (I’m kicking myself for not getting a photo with her). She’s translated for Samurai Love Ballad Party, various Love365 titles, and MY FAVORITE – LIAR: UNCOVE THE TRUTH! It was so amazing to speak with, fangirl over various characters and stories, and thank someone who has had a hand in creating something that I so immensely enjoy.
Please Bring Back Liar
If ya’ll haven’t played Liar yet (it’s free to download and play so what are you waiting for??), you are seriously missing out. No other game has made me laugh, cry, cringe, yell, throw my phone across the room, and smile as much as this game. The game unfortunately didn’t get as popular here in the States (WHYYYY???) as it did in Japan and A LOT of work goes into it – especially in terms of localizing it for Western audiences – so expressing my gratitude for all of her hard work and my appreciation for the game was very important to me.
All hope is not lost though, Liar fans. Jessica did say anything is possible. The game could come back if fans express enough of a demand for it on social media. They’ve brought back other retired titles due to fan demand before like Scandal in the Spotlight so they very well do the same with Liar. So let’s get on it!
The whole Voltage crew!
