Ani-me POP Summit is the first cultural convention dedicated  to J-pop and K-pop in the Central Valley and is always striving to give the Central Valley new, refreshing and exciting entertainment.
The event was held at the Big Fresno Fairgrounds on Saturday, June 18, 2016 and this convention is dedicated to bringing Asian pop music, fashion, film, dance, art, games, interactive workshops, stimulating panels, Anime, movies and import car shows.
Ani-me POP summit had a huge lineup of guests including five singing performances, five live band performances, two comedy acts, five dancing performances, cosplay contest, fashion show, not to mention, gaming tournaments, panels and a Rave plus DJs.
Kinu Cafe was there and they had a vendor’s hall, with stuff ranging from Anime, Sci-Fi and comics and Bushiroad showed their upcoming releases.
I thought this event was pretty well set up. You could walk around the vendor’s hall, get something to eat, the sit back and listen to some music.
Then you could play some games, head back to the vendor’s hall make some purchases and then go back and listen to some music or watch some of the dance routines.
There was plenty of room you didn’t have to worry about feeling like you are  being shoved into one spot.
Akai Sky, Coast in the Clouds, Light of Mine, Outside the Wire were some of the bands performing later in the day. Some of the Highlights I experienced feaetured Paprika Mari. She is the lead vocalist for Candy Bomber, a multi-genre pop band based in Los Angeles, California.
Her roots in both the U.S. and Japan helped to shape her musical sensibility and OkitaSemi cosplayer and Vocalist from California, USA. Paprika Mari’s goal is to recreate scenes from anime/manga as much as possible.
Paprika Mari & OkitaSemi did a set of music covers from different Anime. I was really impressed with the quality of their performances and their song choices.
“Candy Bomber” is a J-rock inspired band/project formed by five musicians of various musical backgrounds with a burning passion of music and providing endless entertainment to the people.
Like the idea of AKB48 joining forces with Visual-Kei then leaping through an adventurous journey with Polysics and The Clash at Demonhead, Candy Bomber takes the standard “Rock Band” and fuses it together with styles and instruments from different genres of music – the Uke, Sax, and at times the Kazoo.
The audience is sure to hear their familiar favorites tunes from Anime and J-Rock, combined with a mixture of Jazz, Pop and METAL. I really enjoyed Candy bomber’s performance, it was nice seeing a full band with a saxophone player.
I had a lot of fun listening of them perform and I will be looking forward to seeing them perform in the future.
Tiffany Fujii is a Bay Area idol dancer/singer/performer whose credits include dozens of anime conventions and events.
She’s been producing and uploading odottemita videos since 2008 and was the winner of the first ever Vocaloid Dance Contest at San Francisco’s JPop Summit in 2011!
Besides performing solo she is also a member of several Bay Area idol groups such as Ti@Mi, T…radmark, Hello! Musume, as well as many others.
As a lover of Japanese pop music, especially idols. This girl had so much energy!
She was singing and she was dancing, spinning around. She sang a full set of songs. She also sat in on the panel with Roli Angels.
RÖLI ANGELS includes 4 women artists which consists of SHAKE (green), LEMON (yellow), APRI (red), and GRAPE (purple) with a “costume play party Rock” as a concept.
Roli Angels came directly from Japan and originally, they were an Indie idol J-pop group, and now ARE rock!
Performing all their songs in English, having copies of their latest CD in English for their American fans, new and old.
If you knew Roli Angels before, Â you might have been surprised to see the new direction they are going with their music.
This isn’t their first trip to the states, but it is as a rock group and with this lineup, Apri and Grape are new members of Roli Angels.
They put on a really great show, they were really personal with fans at their booth and as well as the panel before the show.
There was a full venue of stuff to do here, there a lot of things that happened that I have haven’t even mention.
If you came at the beginning of the day or the end of the day, there was a lot to see and do. this was a full one day event.
If you like Japanese music, fashion, art, games, anime, food, Cosplay, as well as niche subcultures. then this is something you should check out.
See more photos from Ani-Me Con at: