The event "UmaiBo Appreciation Festival!" was held on September 13th. It was held at "Tokyo Culture Center" in Odaiba, Tokyo (run by NIFTY).
"UmaiBo Appreciation Festival!" is a fan event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the sales of UmaiBo. Organized by volunteers ("UmaiBo Festival Committee"), 130 visitors came with 3,000(!) UmaiBos were prepared. The volunteers are said to have nothing to do with the distributor "YAOKIN".
Analysis by the UmaiBo authorities from the database site administrators were done at the event and reflected on the history and the new attractions that are yet to come. Many UmaiBo loving celebrities such as Takafumi Horie, ex-president of LIVEDOOR came out and shared their UmaiBo episodes.
The event kicked off with the appearance of the (in many ways) "iffy" character (a.k.a. Umaimon). A hero-attraction show with heroines and villains was added to the birthday celebration.
Followed by a history of UmaiBo was presented by the administrator of the UmaiBo database "UmaiBo Doumei". Based on the official data by Yaokin, an original chronology from its birth in 1979 to the present was shown. From the birth to the disappearance of flavors to the milestone occasions like "The 1st/2nd UmaiBo baby boomers", "High-classing (DX UmaiBo)", "The flavor Revolution", "Factory burning", "Survival of the fittest flavor" were explained in a unique way.
Other unique approaches were added with presentation of the Moe/Nae -zation of UmaiBo (by illustrator/writer Yoshida Pro), and the movie of 10,000 UmaiBo pile-up and the behind the scenes story (by Seki Goto, KinDai adjunct instructor).
Episodes explaining that Yaokin (sales), Riska (manufacturing), and KADO (manufacturing) are affiliated companies were brought out.
Break. Lunch set made from UmaiBos (chowder, toast etc.), wines picked by a sommelier(red/white) to match the flavors were distributed as well as "UmaiBo Sukui", where participants rushed to get their favorite flavors, where the excitement (and some strange atmosphere) grew.
After the break, the WEB contents including the UmaiBo games were introduced followed by the talk show. Appeared were the UmaiBo-loving celebrities, Takafumi Horie, Minoru Kawasaki, Takuro Morinaga (movie appearance) and HEY! Taku-Chan. Morinaga on film, showed off his collection of the package and the how-to of his collections. Showed the local packaging, baseball team versions as well as his favorite, Setsubun Limited edition.
Takafumi Horie, a.k.a. Horiemon told the story of producing/distributing an original version as a part of promoting "Lindows" in his ON THE EDGE days (later to be LIVEDOOR). He had the designs to be left to the experts but turned out to have a man resembling Bill Gates getting beaten up (or in Japanese terms "Takonaguri"-thus Takoyaki flavor) was taken up widely by the press and had a high ad-effect. Also gave an back stage talk about the time when UmaiBo was sent when he was in prison.
Director known for "The Calamari Wrestler", and "The Monster X Strikes Back/Attack the G8 Summit ", Minoru Kawasaki showed a scene from his movie "Everyone But Japan Sinks" where a foreign couple eats UmaiBos. He explained the reason why he had to use Natto flavor and his vision on materialization of Umaimon.
Comedian HEY! Taku-Chan had his episodes through his "Jaw-sinc" routine. He called Yaokin while looking for a job during the job hunting season only to be told that they were looking for people all year round (not now).
Lastly, movie "The right way to eat UmaiBo" and easy way to split them were shown from the organizers and the results of the questionnaire were revealed. The grand finale of this 30th anniversary came after 3 and a half hours later with the group photo shot. The endurance race ended at the count of 125. Following are the comments from the organisers.
"Thank you for UmaiBo lovers for taking part in this event on this special 30th anniversary from all over the country. We hope to continue this UmaiBo event by UmaiBo fans. We hope us UmaiBo fans can cheer the UmaiBo and the UmaiBo companies Yaokin and Riska."
The resuts of the questionnaire for the favorite flavors were simular between the audience and the commentators with "Mentaiko" being the top by a large margin followed by "Corn Potage", "Cheese", and "Takoyaki". Flavor request to Yaokin were "Raw Caramel", "Dorian" and "Consomme"
The new flavors "Mahboh" and "DX chocolate" are due late September. The next fan event is expected next year, according to the organizers and there is a possibility of building of a fan club.
