This seems like my kinda place!

[SteveH]

Hey guys, thanks for the welcome!

@Sgirl: I've lived in SF for 8 years now but I've never actually been to any cons except Comic Con once, and that was in 2006. Before that, the only anime con I ever went to was called JAFAX and this was in 2001 with my friend who I was visiting in Michigan. The experience we had there was kind of a let down compared to what we were expecting, so I never bothered trying to go to another one since... I might be missing out to judge them by one con, though!

@ryoran: Interesting! I'm not sure if that was me you talked to on tumblr though, because I'm relatively new to tumblr and only posted a few things there. My tumblr is http://phubans.tumblr.com/ but there's a good chance you may have seen or talked to me elsewhere!

@greg: My favorite systems would be NES, SNES, N64, and pretty much every Nintendo handheld since GameBoy. I grew up on Nintendo and was loyal to their systems until I transitioned over to Playstation because of Final Fantasy going to Sony. I never owned a GameCube but I ended up buying a Wii to try and relive some of the good ol' days of Nintendo; a lot of Wii games are pretty faithful to that end! I mostly game on PC and DS these days, though.

As for anime, I'm looking forward to getting some recommendations! Here's my personal top 10 favorite anime (in no particular order) to give you guys an idea of what I'm into:

1) AKIRA - Goes without saying!
2) Vampire Hunter D (original) - The first anime I saw; I love the atmosphere of it.
3) Neo-Tokyo - Great anthology, but my favorite is definitely the first short; some of the best 12 minutes of anime I've ever seen.
4) Golgo 13: The Professional - Surprisingly psychedelic, otherwise bad-ass "manime" as I like to call it!
5) Fist of the North Star - Another incredible film and series.
6) Demon City Shinjuku - Another one with great atmosphere/ambiance.
7) Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma - Incredibly ambient ninja horror anime. Definitely one of my favorites.
8) Ninja Scroll - Another classic, no explanation needed.
9) Spirited Away - Though this film is somewhat "newer" it's still very good.
10) Princess Mononoke - Another obvious pick!

Obviously there are tons more that I like, but those are the 10 I'd pick as "absolute must see/favorites" - I'll get around to listing my entire collection sometime!

For what it's worth, as a Michigander I can tell you with 100% accuracy, JAFAX is NOT a normal anime con. Not at all. There's plenty of cons out in Cali and up the west coast but if you have the funds and the time I would seriously suggest you make a trip to Anime Weekend Atlanta. AWA might not be considered a 'normal' con either but the difference is, AWA is very alive. It doesn't tell you what to do, it lets you find your own level.

More money, move more east, there's other great cons but for me, AWA is both a yardstick and the bar others have to measure up to. I have never had a bad time at AWA. Even in the depths of a panic attack and depression and everything that can go wrong inside one's own head, I've had a good time.

Just putting that out there.

[davemerrill]

I might point out that this is a completely unsolicited endorsement on Steve's part, and he was not compensated in any way for these remarks. Though I do thank him, it's always nice to hear compliments about AWA.

Other conventions I've been to and recommend: Anime Los Angeles is a focused show, small enough to be intimate but large enough to feel crowded, and Otakon is the gold standard for giant mega-conventions, as far as I'm concerned; it's huge but well-managed. There are a bunch of other shows I hear good things about but have not yet attended, so I can't really say one way or another.

[phubans]

Awesome! I will try to make it out to one sometime, but I'm a bit worried that I might not fit in with the new generation of anime fans!

I'm curious to know why JAFAX isn't considered normal as far as cons go since I don't really have any point of comparison.

[SteveH]

Awesome! I will try to make it out to one sometime, but I'm a bit worried that I might not fit in with the new generation of anime fans!

I'm curious to know why JAFAX isn't considered normal as far as cons go since I don't really have any point of comparison.

Ah, well, structure, basically.

JAFAX is produced by a college anime club as a cultural event, and as such they are allowed to use college facilities and are actually given money by the college for 'hiring' guests, who are housed in campus housing. It's a completely different business model that seems to have quite a lot going for it but, at least to my eyes and opinion, actually creates a rather static, stagnate event. Dealers used to be placed in the hallways of a lecture building but recently have been moved to a classroom building and small groups (two or three) of dealers now fill each classroom. It makes for a very tiring, crowded disjointed experience. I have no idea of the numbers and really neither do they because they don't charge admission, not even a token fee to allow for tracking.

There IS a looseness about the event that part of me finds appealing, but the very system that allows the event to occur is also a huge weight around its neck. It can't 'look for a better, bigger hotel' because it can't take place off-campus. It can't be 3 days. It can't have any late night or overnight events. And the huge crowd of people, mostly teen but not all, would evaporate if they had to pay $40 or thereabouts to get in.

My god the crowds. Think your worst school nightmare of trying to get to a class and the halls FILLED with people. Think of the nightmare of classrooms with no windows and the building physical plant completely unable to cut into the waste heat generated by thousands of bodies. It's an eco-minded system you see and the 'norm' is the buildings are not used much during the summer months so to conserve energy and money you cannot, it is physically impossible to just 'crank the A/C up' for the weekend...

A 'normal' con has some of these issues but the important one is they are driven, at the core, by the need to take in enough paying customers to cover the bills. This, generally, leads to the desire to provide an experience that people are willing to pay for. Hotels usually have more floorspace so crowding isn't that big a problem, mostly.

The layout of AWA, for example, is just about the most ideal I could think of, were I designing a con. Main Hotel butts against a convention center (which used to be a mall. It's interesting.), it's an easy walk from here to there for anything, the only sticking point being the main hotel really needs like 10,000 more rooms. I recall a couple years ago there was talk of them adding another tower to the hotel, I dunno if that went forward. Then the issue would likely be parking space.

That probably doesn't help answer the question at all, huh?