OffKai Expo Gen5 Draws VTuber Fans to San Jose for Three Days of Japanese Pop Culture
The event's mix of VTubers with cosplay, wotagei, maid cafes, and other Japanese pop culture elements shows it functions as a fan-run, offline meetup rather than a single-company production.
Reporting from 1 source: PANORA.
OffKai Expo Gen5, billed as the largest VTuber event in North America, ran July 24-26 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose. The convention featured corporate booths, a flea market, live music, and panel talks, with an opening ceremony that included wotagei and maid cafe performances. Attendance last year was 6,900, a 130% increase, and this year's estimate nears 9,000.
The opening ceremony set the tone: penlight wotagei during program explanations, maids performing dance covers, and no VTubers on stage except the official mascot. The mascot, Sam-Joe, introduced HIMEHINA's world tour. The main stage held an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 people.
OffKai Live!, a main attraction, featured seven VTubers including KAF. The event also included sold-out maid cafes, which surprised the reporter. The genre diversity drew comparisons to Anime Expo in Los Angeles.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.