On October 18-19, the exhibition HINODE JAPAN 2025 was held in Moscow. We visited it both on Saturday and Sunday, and now we share our impressions.
The first thing I want to note is diversity. Activities for almost every taste, I wanted to try everything at once. The main events, of course, took place on stage, but there were things to do to everyone’s liking outside of it, too. There were video games, board games, master classes, and a separate shopping area and market. In principle, I would like to see more artists and content makers at the market, but, in the end, no one planned the art market as an event. But we were pleased with the shops: from jewelry to board games, through clothes, video games and everything your heart desires. I would especially like to mention “Uncle Bombur's Shop”, next to which you could linger for a long time, without even buying anything, but simply looking at bracelets, rings and dream catchers.
The program presented on stage was also pleasing: the presenters had a clear and well-delivered speech, they were pleasant and interesting to listen to, even when they talked about topics that many do not understand (for example, interviews with sumo wrestlers). Project Hikari's Voicecaptivated from the very beginning, the drummer show gives you goosebumps, and there is practically nothing to say about the incredible voice of Ai Hirano, which you have almost certainly heard in many projects, from “Death Note” to “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”, it had to be heard. This alone was worth coming to the exhibition. Cosplayers are also at their best, both in group and solo performances. Beautiful images that clearly took a lot of work, original ideas for performances, the performances themselves – a complete and utter delight(below video from the official Hinode video channel; operator cosnatic).
But, unfortunately, there were some shortcomings. The main problem was the organization of the exhibition as such, and in several aspects at once. Firstly, space. The gaps between tables in the shopping area and market were tiny, sometimes requiring you to wade through the crowd just to look at the merchandise, let alone buy. Considering that many cosplayers had complex details like wings, this turned into a huge problem: you didn’t want to accidentally ruin someone’s costume.
There were practically no seats: those near the stage were occupied from the very beginning (even better seats!), and there were frankly few of them near the food court and shopping area. If your legs are tired and you want to take a break, either hope for luck, or leave the exhibition hall and look for a place nearby. Another thing that at first greatly worsened the impression of the exhibition was the lack of Internet. On the first day, it was impossible to even make a payment when purchasing any items from the shopping area; the bank applications simply did not open, so I had to go outside. It is unlikely that this was a mistake of the organizers themselves; after all, there were a huge number of people in the room, and even on the second day the situation was better; but a small aftertaste remained.
Well, we cannot ignore the problems with communication between the organizers and visitors: this was most expressed in the sad incident with the autograph session, when many of those who wanted to get the autograph of the most magnificent Aya Hirano were left without this autograph.
To sum up, we can say that the event turned out to be large-scale and certainly beautiful, worth it to come to it. Of course, there are shortcomings, but for the most part they concern the organizers, not the participants, and there is hope that next time the shortcomings will be corrected. Now we look forward to the 2026 exhibition.
