The Old School Otaku Lounge

Also, similar to California, Texas also has several choices for conventions these days.

I do know that the state of Texas was the primary state where a lot of the earlier tests of bringing Japanese music guests to A-Kon and AnimeFest began in the early 2000's and the data that I got from Texas was enough for us to use to show that working with the major Japanese music labels was well worth it and it extended to Otakon, Anime USA and to Pacific Media Expo and other conventions followed right after.

But I was quite pleased with how things were in Texas around 2003-2006. Texas cons were really kicking butt compared to other anime cons around the country at that time!

kndy wrote:But I was quite pleased with how things were in Texas around 2003-2006. Texas cons were really kicking butt compared to other anime cons around the country at that time!

Heh, I'm sure there's multiple reasons for your timeframe, but I take amusement that it's almost EXACTLY the timeframe that Ushicon ran in it's original incarnation. (Started in 2002, "ended" in 2006, relaunched as "18+ only" in 2011)

Meri's still the CEO or whatever of the organization that runs A-Kon. She's always been a fan of more than anime and that's been reflected in A-Kon since the beginning, I think. I know that every time the con would do something obviously not-anime it would drive me CRAZY(we went to the first 10 A-Kons)!! It used to really bug me, but after a while, you gotta say, hey, it's not my con.

The anime con in Hawaii is run by a lot of the same people that run AWA. It's a completely separate organization, but AWA's where they got their con-running experience. One of AWA's admin is from Hawaii, he was back home for a visit, looked around, saw there wasn't an anime con, the rest is history.

Stumbled upon this convention by accident:

http://www.londonanimecon.com/index.php

Far be it from me to be a party pooper but this seems to be pushing the Cosplay over anime/manga battle even further. So, where is the anime? Guess I'd not be going back to the UK for something like this but to reacquaint myself with old friends. The world has indeed turned and I have been left behind...

Scope creep is a subject that is near and dear to my heart - seeing it at all sorts of anime conventions I was going to was one of the driving forces behind our mission of starting SeishunCon in Atlanta. I say that phrase - scope creep - a lot, you'd think I just picked it up for some SAT study session. We had a vision that a convention that an anime convention focused on Japanese cartoons could be successful. We've just wrapped our fourth year a few weeks ago and so far, we've been right but I think there is an eventual ceiling we will hit.

davemerrill wrote:Most shows aren't doing MLP or Homestuck panels because they looked at a blank schedule and said "hey, you know what would go great here, a MLP panel" - they are having MLP panels because the MLP fans contacted them and asked for panel time

I will say that I have turned down booking every pony and homestuck panel that's been submitted to us but we've had stuff that was submitted that was originally scope-creepy and after talking to the panelists, I can usually get it tied back to Japanese cartoons. There HAS been scope-creepy stuff on our schedule (we have not yet hit our 100% anime programming goal) but that percentage of non-anime programming goes down every year. I also make it a point to stress that folks are able to cosplay/dress however they want, so long as it doesn't violate local laws or our dress code guidelines, because you're interested in other things doesn't mean you're NOT interested in Japanese animation. So, why do I think there is a cap?

Because scope-creep is two-fold. I have seen a large number of attendees that are fans of all sorts of stuff - but above all else, they are fans of going to conventions. They love packing their stuff, loading up a hotel room, wandering the convention hall and dropping cash in dealers' rooms. They'll ask me why I don't have Doctor Who programming ("It's not anime.") and then say that TimeGate (a local Doc. Who and Stargate convention) does Whovian programming ("It's all nerd culture, man!"). So, not only are we seeing Ponies and Homestucks and whatnot getting programming time at the anime cons (because people aren't submitting anime panels) but we're seeing an attendance base that wants to celebrate all of their interests every con weekend, rather than going to the anime con one weekend, then loving Star Trek a couple months later, then Who in a few more months.

With regards to academic topic/panels not doing well/putting butts in seats I would argue that it's subjective and it depends on the audience of the show, scheduling and space. A good booker knows how to put all of that in line; I do my best to keep different sized meeting rooms set aside for panels because some audiences are just naturally larger than others for different panels/events. But from the other side of the coin - I'll talk about my experience as a panelist. Myself and a friend (the other runner of SeishunCon) developed a panel discussing computer hacking portrayals in anime. We took it to MTAC in Nashville and presented it twice, did gangbusters. We took it to AWA after our first time at MTAC with it, did alright but had a small audience, when we tried to do it another time, we were declined. We retired it for a moment but when we wound up at Animazement this year, we presented it there and again, it was a hit. AWA is no slouch when it comes to academic panels - just not that one we presented.

davemerrill wrote:Speaking of the ACML, I don't know whether to be amused or appalled by the person trying to start an anime con at Kennesaw State University. It's kind of an example of going about things bass-awkardly. It's scary how many want-to-be con runners have zero experience in any sort of hosting of any sort of gathering - they've never run a fan club or held a big 4th Of July party or a meetup or anything like that, but by golly they wanna run a convention.

I really should pay better attention and make sure I am on ACML - I heard of some con coming out of KSU (AndoCon) but they are not an anime con or are they affiliated with the university. I think one of my proudest convention moments was NOT running a convention at KSU while I was a student there.

Drew_Sutton wrote: Because scope-creep is two-fold. I have seen a large number of attendees that are fans of all sorts of stuff - but above all else, they are fans of going to conventions. They love packing their stuff, loading up a hotel room, wandering the convention hall and dropping cash in dealers' rooms. They'll ask me why I don't have Doctor Who programming ("It's not anime.") and then say that TimeGate (a local Doc. Who and Stargate convention) does Whovian programming ("It's all nerd culture, man!"). So, not only are we seeing Ponies and Homestucks and whatnot getting programming time at the anime cons (because people aren't submitting anime panels) but we're seeing an attendance base that wants to celebrate all of their interests every con weekend, rather than going to the anime con one weekend, then loving Star Trek a couple months later, then Who in a few more months.

Quoted for truth. It's been a constant. The first years of AWA meant we got a lot of emails and plaintive begging from the Klingons, from the Trekkies, from the Rocky Horror people, from the you-name-it fandoms, who wanted to do their thing that they do at all the shows at OUR show because it's a show and that's what they do, they do their thing at shows.

And that's not a bad thing, convention culture exists, it makes people happy, little enough of that in the world, more power to 'em.

But that doesn't mean that we have to have it at OUR shows. It's not a given.

It is amusing to me that my attitude, which has been pretty constant at "I'm here for the Japanese cartoons and could give a flip about this other stuff," at different times has served to annoy both the previous fan power structures AND the up and coming fans of whatever the latest new fad is.