Photography and more for the Cosplayer
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Fanime-Con: "For Fans ~ By Fans" by: BSaphire FanimeCon is a “For Fans ~ By Fans” anime convention, but what does that mean? I think to find that answer we need to start at the beginning and we will find out more about Fanime along the way. In 1994 four “Bay Area” anime clubs got together and threw a one day event at California State University Hayward in Hayward, California. The four clubs were: Beefbowl Anime, Cal Animage Alpha, Foothill Anime, and No Name Anime. This event was spearheaded, by the then chairman, Aaron Pilgrim and featured three video viewing rooms for its approximately 200 free attendees. With the success of the first event, more planning went into the 1995 event. Timing is everything, so moving when to hold Fanime from June to February, a much better time for college students to attend such an event, Fanime increased the approximate number of free attendees from 200 to 350. It offered more than just video room viewing by including two Bay Area Guests of Honor (GOH) Carl Gustav Horn: anime writer and editor for Viz Communications and Frederik L. Schodt then author of: Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (1983,) Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics, and the Coming Robotopia (1988,) America and the Four Japans: Friend, Foe, Model, Mirror (1994.) FanimeCon 1995 also offered two dealers rooms, introduction of the convention badge and T-shirts. March of 1996, saw FanimeCon take its first steps towards the convention we see today. The first major step was the forming of the Anime Resource Group (ARG) which is the parent organization for FanimeCon. The second step was moving Fanime to a new venue and taking the con to the next level, the convention institution level. At the new venue, Foothill Community College in Los Altos Hills, California, Michael Wright became the chairman and Fanime charged a whopping $7 bucks to attend the one day event. From what I have been told this was seven bucks well spent because Fanime had more to offer. It featured four Guests of Honor: returning guests Carl Gustav Horn and Frederik L. Schodt along with Allen Hastings (Co-founder and Scientist of Luxology, LLC a technology company in the field of 3D animation and special FX located in San Mateo, California) and Toren Smith (founder, advisor and translator with Studio Proteus, a San Francisco based Japanese manga import company that is now part of Dark Horse Comics.) Also available for the 775 attendees were five video rooms, one large dealer room, and workshops. 1997 saw the return to the Foothill Community College, the return of the four previous GOH and a beautiful beginning with Fanime’s first GOH from Japan, Hiroyuki Yamaga, CEO of Gainax, who is known as a writer, director, and animation producer for such anime as Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL. The year before attendance doubled, so 1997 saw the beginning of new additions such as; the cosplay event, art show, live music and an anime game show. These new additions to live programming were enjoyed by the 1200 attendees and some have become a staple of FanimeCon as we know it today. Right know you may be thinking to yourself, “This is boring statistical information!” Though it is statistical in nature, it provides a unique look at Fanime’s humble beginnings. In four years it saw attendance numbers almost doubling each year, most of them were probably high school and college age kids who loved anime. The growth pattern caused a change of venue, but with the change of venue came new options for the con attendee. Those options were centered on providing what the con attendee’s enjoyed, wanted, and talked about. That isn’t so different from Fanime today. Their Guests of Honor, workshops and panels were geared around Bay Area industry leaders that could provide the attendee with valuable information in the animation industry. This shows that even early on, Fanime was looking for what you wanted and kept it close to home so that it would be more practical for where you live and to your advantage and fulfillment of your hopes and dreams. So with that said let us start moving forward with Fanime’s history and keep and eye on how the convention focuses on you, the fan, and keeps it's focus run by us, the fans ~ “For Fans ~ By Fans.” TO BE CONTINUED............. |
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Fanime-con is a teenager this year! *LOL
By this, I mean that Fanime is 13 years old. There is much to know about
this convention and when I was searching for background information for my
convention reports I decided that I wanted to do this page. Though
informational, I hope that you find it a worth while and interesting. With this
said.....