“The Disney World for Shounen fans!”
Introduction
The shounen genre has such a stronghold on the anime sub-culture that it’s hard to determine when it’ll ever stop growing. Walk into any anime related store and you’ll see walls that are plastered with your favorite shounen characters like Goku, Luffy, and more recently Midoriya Izuku from the incredibly popular Boku no Hero Academia series. This brings us to the Jump Victory Carnival which is hands down the Disney World for shounen fans because it’s jam packed with just about everything you’d expect, and more from the globally renowned genre. This genre alone has more iconic characters than any other genre on the market at the moment, and the list just continues to grow day to day.
Jump Victory Carnival 2018 commemorates all of these wonderful franchises and allows fans of all ages to come through to enjoy the festivities, such as participating in tournaments for Dragon Ball FighterZ, meeting pro gamers like Kazunoko, as well as Super Smash Bros. Ulti--wait… that’s not shounen?! Yes, that’s right even Nintendo decided to stop through the carnival to give folks a chance to take part in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament, as well as the popular Mario Tennis Aces! Jump Victory Carnival 2018 is an annual event that takes place twice a year, one in Tokyo and the other in Osaka with the cost of entry being free. Its bigger brother Jump Festa, will be taking place in December so look forward to that as well! In the meantime, let’s jump right into things and tell you more about how exciting this event was!
Basic Info
| When it Established | 2014 - Jump Victory Carnival 2018 Website https://www.shonenjump.com/jvc/ |
|---|---|
| Length of event | July 16 (Tokyo) / July 22 (Osaka) |
| Place / location | Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan |
| Admission | Free! |
What to Expect
Jump Victory Carnival 2018 is every shounen fan’s dream come true as it brings together all the popular brands together under one roof, with many other big surprises thrown in for good measure. With the event being free to enter, expect there to be massive crowds of people who are all excited to look at all the different booths, and participate in any events that are happening. At this year’s event, there were a plethora of awesome events to take part in, one of which was trying out the new Boku no Hero Academia One’s Justice game, which to be honest, looks incredible and we can’t wait to play it! Other notable events included, of course, the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament, Mario Tennis tournament, along with others! Since this is such a major event that only takes place once in Tokyo, it’s important to note that lineups will be long no matter what time of the day it is, so be mindful of that if you ever do decide to attend. There are a ton of booths available for families to sit down and play with their children, but who needs to sit down when you have so much to see and do?!
Jump Victory Carnival 2018 is such a wonderful event because it brings everyone together despite your age, gender and background. Its goal is to ensure that fans of the genre can really come together and share their passions, laugh about their favorite pastimes, and, of course, take silly selfies with the gigantic inflated shounen characters that are scattered all around the venue. It’s a place where adults can finally take off that mask and be kids again, allowing themselves to be one with their children and even participate in tournaments themselves, which we actually witnessed today!
What to Bring in Order to Enjoy the Event
This year’s Jump Victory Carnival 2018 took place in the scorching hot hell that is Tokyo, with temperatures reaching up to 40 degrees celsius during the mid-day! While the hot and humid weather is commonplace for the Japanese, we recommend that you still come equipped with some water to ensure you don’t melt before going inside. Refreshments and food are supplied within the venue because it’s best to stay hydrated even before getting there, since you’ll need to walk quite a bit from the station anyway. Speaking of walking, we always recommend guests to wear the proper shoes as per tradition, since that’s what you’ll be doing for most of the day. Making sure that you’re in tip top shape throughout the event is imperative to not only your health but more so to enjoy the experience and not complain all the time. Now we mentioned that the event is free to enter, but of course, if you intend to buy any goods from the venue, we suggest bringing along some extra cash since there are always limited edition items available.
The theme for Jump Victory Carnival 2018 is “Meet, Receive, Have Fun, and Buy!” and so, make sure that you have all areas covered before leaving your place. If you’re looking to capture your favorite moments and save them to your computer then definitely make sure to carry a portable camera, or of course, just use your smartphone. If you do intend to use the latter just make sure to carry a portable battery charger since outlets are quite limited in the venue, and nothing’s worse than having a low battery at such an exciting event. Last but most certainly not least is, make sure that you carry some sort of bag with you in case you happen to get the urge to splurge and buy more than you intended. Don’t say that you wouldn’t because we’ve all succumbed to the buyer’s curse where we buy one thing, but then before you know it, our bags are full of items. Jump Victory Carnival 2018 is all about fun so be sure to have fun!
What to do While There / What is Available
We’ll admit that our main mission coming into Jump Victory Carnival 2018 was to get some playtime with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch. It’s been itching us for quite some time, but we finally managed to play it and boy, did we enjoy the experience. Other notable pro players were at the event such as Abadango, the strongest Mewtwo player in Japan and arguably the world, along with Umeki who’s known for his strong Peach play, among many others. The Smash tournament was a free-for-all based style where the winner stays on, and if they can win 3 consecutive times, they take home a brand new Nintendo Switch charging stand. The incentive to win was pretty high since those things don’t come cheap and more notably, it just released onto the market 3 days ago. So winning this charging stand was a huge deal for many who participated. Once we had our fair share of bouts in the Smash arena, we moved on over to watch some of the Mario Tennis tournament which surprisingly had a lot of parents participating in it! Now of course in Japan it’s quite common to see families take part in events together but not on a competitive level, which not only surprised us but impressed us as well. These parents really knew how to play the game and despite losing to the more advanced players they still demonstrated a great level of skill, and proved the testament that age is nothing but a number.
After being satisfied with the Nintendo booth, we wandered around and took some snapshots of those large inflated characters we mentioned earlier, and also got a glimpse at the new Boku no Hero Academia title, One’s Justice, which is slated to release in Japan next month! There was also a booth that showed off the upcoming open world One Piece title called One Piece: World Seeker, which looked amazing on a 4K screen and we simply can’t wait to dive in and play ourselves. For the pro gamers out there who are familiar with Dragon Ball FighterZ Mr. Kazunoko himself was in attendance to take on visitors who felt they have a shot at winning, with winners receiving a cool prize for doing so. All in all this event was a total blast to be at because every booth had something unique to experience whether it was posing with One Piece characters, to having artists skillfully draw your favorite characters, Jump Victory Carnival 2018 is an event that you truly don’t want to miss!
Final Thoughts
Jump Victory Carnival 2018 proved to be a hot event and we were impressed by the entire venue presentation. It truly felt like walking into a carnival where you had plenty of amusement to choose from, great food to chomp on, and just an overall exciting experience getting to meet new and familiar faces. The otaku world is truly a small one and so when we all get together to celebrate our favorite franchises under one roof, not only is that such a remarkably satisfying feeling but it really reminds you that we’re never alone in this world. All you need to do is just step out into the world that you love most and you’ll find others who love exactly what you love! Shounen for life!
For all things otaku, be sure to keep it locked here on Honey’s Anime!
Author: Rob "NualphaJPN" B.