The Road to San AnTokyo 5 Kicks Off: JES & Sephi Hakubi Set to Main Event
A tradition that started with Dropbeat Mafia and Hard Dance Texas in 2018, San Antonio, Texas has been home to the biggest anime rave of the Alamo City, taking place in 5 different years (absent in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Starting at its humble beginning selling out Web House and eventually packing venues at Fitzgeralds, Limelight, and finally making its home at 800 Live, San AnTokyo developed an incredible history bringing many DJs and live performing artists in various genres, bringing the likes of TimeBomb, Galaxy Girl Paida, Prblmz, Basilio Romo, Sebris, Eric Monster, Zoe VanWest, Deaconrap, Brandon Legacy, Raulie Smilez, Tynam0, Jimni Cricket, and of course, Sephi Hakubi, the RAVEmaker that paved the way for real AnimEDM and Hard Dance raves in the Alamo City. Currently, HakubiVerse manages and maintains San AnTokyo, but with the planned return of Dropbeat Mafia and HakubiVerse’s rebranding to content creation, this San AnTokyo may be the climax of a saga built across 5 (6) years of blood, sweat, and tears that has made San Antonio’s rave scene great and we only hope that it continues to be great; thus, why the 5th installment of San AnTokyo will be a 2-night weekender called Ultima Nights. Ultima Nights signifies the climax of San Antonio’s pure rave genesis and the rest of forever begins with a new era of AnimEDM and San Antonio Rave.
San AnTokyo will take place over two nights, July 21st & July 22nd, returning to 800 Live Nightclub & Venue near downtown San Antonio, Texas. Night 1 (July 21st) will consist of Hard Dance rave music such as Happy Hardcore, Hardstyle, HandsUp, and Drum n Bass featuring HakubiVerse’s own RAVEmaker and King of AnimEDM, Sephi Hakubi, celebrating his 37th birthday at what he considers “San Antonio’s Anime Rave Wrestlemania”; furthermore, his sets will symbolize his transition from RAVEmaker to Rave Superstar as he shifts his focus to live performance, music production, and touring after building the house of pure dance in the Alamo City. Furthermore, his transition to full-time performance kicks off the new era for San AnTokyo with the return of Dropbeat Mafia and the collaboration of Music Around the World. “Sets” is mentioned in plural because Sephi returns for Night 2, this time with an AnimEDM, Trance, and Progressive House performance as he will have the honor to open direct support for the iconic dance music legend, Night 2’s headliner and singing guest of honor, JES. After 5 years (and what seemed a much longer time before that), the Motorcycle singer returns to San Antonio, Texas to unleash the beat that will make your heart beat tonight. The rave world will be made of love and peace as cosplayers, otakus, trancers, and kandi kids join together in unity as JES’ music brings glitter and gold to the heart of San Antonio when we all pay respect to the sights and sounds as the rush comes. Many might talk like a stranger if they haven’t been to San AnTokyo but just believe many will leave like family when they hold on to that feeling of PLUR. HakubiVerse, along with our partners and collaborators from 800 Live, Music Around The World, Sleeping Giant, and Dropbeat Mafia welcome JES with the biggest amount of PLUR we could give her and we will do our best to make sure that San AnTokyo not only exceeds in making history again but leaves an incredible memory to our rave fans. Along with JES, Night 2 will also feature an array of DJs and performers focusing on EDM and Club sounds like Trance, House, Progressive, Big Room, Techno, and many more for your nightclub dance music vibe. Additional artists will be announced as the days count down to this massive anime weekender; be sure to stay tuned to our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for those announcements because our lineup will have some massive surprises as well.
Tickets for San AnTokyo 5 are on sale now for $20 for both nights. One ticket will grant access to both nights; however, we expect this show to sell out. Otherwise, entry is $20 at the door Friday and $25 at the door Saturday. A party like this only comes every once-in-a-long-while so definitely do not miss out. Buy your tickets now at: https://loop1tickets.com/hakubive/sanantokyo5.
JES
Determined, relentless, and uncompromising in the pursuit of excellence. These are ideals that might characterize an artist formed under the high-pressure environment of New York, the greatest city in the world, and they aptly define JES. Her career path so far has been nothing less than astonishing.
This chart-topping, award-winning New Yorker has packed four solo albums, two Billboard #1 singles, international touring, and countless landmark songs into a constantly evolving career. Since her legendary release with Motorcycle, “As The Rush Comes” that expanded the boundaries of electronic music, JES has propelled an unending stream of solo hit songs and collaborations. JES has collected awards and nominations from the prestigious International Dance Music Awards (Miami), the International Songwriting Competition (Nashville), and received 3 Grammy nominations, most recently for her song “Hold On” in 2015. Her tours have touched the shores of 6 continents with landmark shows at international events such as the Beijing Summer Olympics, all while her songs have topped the Billboard Most Played Songs of the Decade chart.
2022 has proved to be another landmark year for dance music’s most irrepressible talent. JES hit the top spot on the Beatport Trance Chart again with her Will Atkinson collab, “Long Way Home”, resulting in one of the longest-running #1 singles of the year. Her recent single with Aly & Fila, “Sunrise”, was remixed by Dutch dance legends RANK1 and included for the second year running on the annual who’s who of dance compilation, Armin Van Buuren’s “A State of Trance 2022”.
MEMENTO, a new double album, dropped in November, reaching top spots on dance and trance charts in the USA, UAE, Taiwan, Mexico, France, Poland, Norway, and many more.
Sephi Hakubi
Sephi Hakubi, is a Progressive EDM and Hard Dance DJ and multi-media producer based in San Antonio, Texas who leads HakubiVerse, an otaku entertainment label that focuses on rave culture with Japanese-fandom influences, pioneering the style he calls AnimEDM. Beyond HakubiVerse, Sephi has been associated with many dance music collectives all over the world such as Neon Genesis Hardcore, JDS: Just Don’t Stop Productions, Music Around The World, and Team Brisk. Sephi utilizes his experiences in many of his interactions to become what he’s described as a “multi-media culture masher”, establishing the correlation between anime and electronic music. Sephi strives to make the electronic dance community relevant for fans by formulating his AnimEDM philosophy, a style of unique sounds and sights influenced from Progressive House, Trance, Eurodance, Hard Dance, and Hardcore music with Japanese inspirations. This AnimEDM philosophy encourages a place of friendship, musical freedom, and celebration for anime and rave fandom in hopes for providing a community for fans, known as Nightkids, seeking a realm of hope and happiness.
Sephi Hakubi’s style and philosophy amassed significant attention in the anime and rave scene as he performed for the masses at FAN:dom Con, San Japan, SukoshiCon, Realms Con, IKKiCon, Okashicon, Anime Sekai, MechaCon, Animatic Con, Anime Oklahoma, Waifufest, and Kawacon; as well as, festivals such as, Unite As One, Tonyc Summer Jam, and Texas Silent Disco. Sephi was also honored to open for internationally recognized DJs like FYER (Bobby Duque & Gabriel Guardian), Kenneth Thomas, Darude, JJ Flores, Donald Glaude, Made Monster, Ferry Corsten, Fracus & Darwin, BT, Zoe VanWest, Shawn Jackson, Hartshorn, AliceOfSin, Jimni Cricket, and Steve Smooth. These experiences brought Sephi much valued wisdom during his adventures playing with world-renowned industry performers and these interactions and experiences would inspire his music with releases like Oceandrive and Once Upon a Space, released on HakubiVerse and available on many digital music shops and streaming services. Sephi continues to work in his music production while developing his own music label to define his AnimEDM concept for his fans to enjoy.