what was your first anime con?

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davemerrill
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what was your first anime con?

Post by davemerrill »

When and where? Why? And for how long? With whom?

I was at the first Project A-Kon in 1990. We drove 12 hours from Atlanta to Dallas, I-20 all the way. I recommend stopping at the Pecanland Mall in Monroe LA if you make that trip, it's a nice place to stop and stretch your legs. The con itself was a lot of fun, only 400 people attended but if you were in the anime scene at the time you probably knew at least a third of everybody there, and THEY knew the people you didn't. I was supposed to be in the costume contest (I had a Cyborg 009 outfit) but I said the hell with it at the last minute.

A-Kon was not, however, the first Japanese animation convention in the US: that distinction goes to Yamato-Con, held seven years earlier in Dallas.

http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=317

A-Kon got bigger and bigger and by the time of my last one in '99 they had 3,000 attendees, the focus had shifted away from anime, and the congoers were sweaty, nervous and annoying. Anyway, we had our own convention to run.
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greg
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Re: what was your first anime con?

Post by greg »

Thanks for the link to the Yamato Con! I remember seeing some footage of an 80's Robotech Con put on by Harmony Gold and Carl Macek on one of the Robotech DVDs I had (which I gave to a friend of mine for his birthday).
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Heero
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Re: what was your first anime con?

Post by Heero »

I guess my first was Project A-Kon 1994 (#5). I remember the 1999 con that dave referenced. I remember the con got a lot of flak (minimal by today's standards tho) for going with this weird tshirt design rather than the one that drew inspiration from X1999 (and considering it was A-Kon X, it left many wondering: WTF?).
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Re: what was your first anime con?

Post by isaacada1 »

Baka-Con 1998 was my first anime convention. Went for an all Saturday Day pass. Had a lot of fun. Highlight for me at the time was watching at the time a new fansub of one of the Giant Robo OVA's. This was in the day of having TV/VCR's on carts wheeled into the rooms. Aww the memories.

My first anime convention out of my local area that I actually traveled too was Anime Expo 2000 at the Disneyland hotel. Man I'd love to live that whole weekend again because I had a BLAST there meeting so many people I had grown up reading or chatting too across the world.
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kndy
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Re: what was your first anime con?

Post by kndy »

My first convention was Anime America 1993. I would post video on youtube but last time I tried, everything looks green on tape now...lol...too many years of neglect and being left in storage.
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Daniel
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Re: what was your first anime con?

Post by Daniel »

kndy wrote:My first convention was Anime America 1993. I would post video on youtube but last time I tried, everything looks green on tape now...lol...too many years of neglect and being left in storage.
Ah, precious footage...! You sure it's a problem with the tape itself rather than the playback equipment? Maybe it's salvageable in any case...
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Jen526
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Re: what was your first anime con?

Post by Jen526 »

My first was Otakon '94. It was so *teeny*, but it was the absolute FIRST time I'm been around anyone else who even knew what anime was (my fandom developed a bit in a bubble... no clubs or friends into it or anything), so the experience was amazing. I remember they had these life-size cardboard stand-ees of Lum and Ranma at the registration desk, and to this day, I covet them mightily, they were so pretty. :)

Cons for me were always about A) the thrill of discovering new shows and watching them with a crowd of people who all "got it", and B) Finding cool stuff in the dealer's room you couldn't get anywhere else. With the onset of the internet and the way that most dealers seem to get their product from the same distributor, there's not really much joy in conventions for me anymore. The nail in the coffin was a couple years ago when I attended a small-ish local thing and attended a Full Metal Alchemist panel with the English voice cast. Vic Mignogna came in and specifically said that he could not do any Ed lines because they were hard on his voice and he was headed to a film shoot right after the con and couldn't trash his voice. The next THREE people called on for questions - RIGHT AFTER HE SAID THIS - asked him to "do" one of Ed's rants. I was absolutely floored, and it was kinda the tipping point for me realizing that I didn't really enjoy that scene anymore.

I was really disappointed that the Providence Anime Conference back in 2008 didn't get enough turnout to keep it up. I had conflicting plans that year, but it sounded right up my alley otherwise - an anime con for grown-ups.
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Re: what was your first anime con?

Post by Heibi »

Mine was Anime Con in 1991. Still have the T-Shirt, though it has seen better days. At least the pictures on it are still good.
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Re: what was your first anime con?

Post by Heero »

Jen526 wrote:I was really disappointed that the Providence Anime Conference back in 2008 didn't get enough turnout to keep it up. I had conflicting plans that year, but it sounded right up my alley otherwise - an anime con for grown-ups.
I'm assuming from your comments that you're up in the NE. Have you heard about "The Sangawa Project"? http://www.sangawaproject.com/
I haven't been, but it sounds like the way to go up there. And of course you're more than welcome to come down to Texas for Ushicon: http://www.ushicon.com

(I also thought that PAC sounded great and wonder when they'll try again)
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Jen526
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Re: what was your first anime con?

Post by Jen526 »

Heero wrote:I'm assuming from your comments that you're up in the NE. Have you heard about "The Sangawa Project"?
Oh, wow, no I hadn't heard of that. I'm actually in the Cleveland, OH area, so Pittsburgh is even an easy drive for me.

Thanks for the heads up! I'm definitely going to plan on going over there for a Saturday day-trip at least. *squee*

And I'm glad to see that you're doing the same thing with Ushicon down that way. We grown-ups need to take back our anime cons! :D
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