Arriving at Anime Central (ACEN) in Chicago for its 13^th year, I was excited to participate in another enjoyable convention shooting for Consplayers Photography.  The convention this year would be my seventh time witnessing a seemingly ever-growing midwest juggernaut that yet again, would sell out the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, Sofitel (now “The Rosemont”) hotel, the Embassy Suites, Doubletree Hotel, and others further away from the convention location next to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.  For the second time in ACEN history, additional panel programming was extended beyond the Hyatt’s meeting rooms into the Embassy Suites’ and Doubletree’s lobby rooms along with even more panels taking place in the conference rooms of the convention center (DSECC) itself.  The Hyatt by this time had also completed the previous year’s extensive renovation project, wrapping up with adding additional furniture, fixtures, and artwork to the decor along with remodeling the main balcony rooms of the hotel.

Guests this year included: Haruka, Masazumi Kato, Yumiko Kobayashi, Kaori Nazuka, Narumi Takahira, Kouki Uchiyama, Shinichi Watanabe, Aural Vampire, REPO! The Genetic Opera – 90 Day Delinquents, DJ CHUNKY, Da/Le, GUHROOY, M-Project, NO+CHIN, DJ SHARPNEL, DJ SHIMAMURA, DJ Silver, The Spoony Bards, Zach Bolton, Josh Elder, Fred Gallagher, Todd Haberkorn, August Hahn, Steve Horton, Russell Lissau, Vic Mignogna, Misako Rocks!, Trevor Mueller, Brina Michelle Palencia, Stephanie Sheh, J. Michael Tatum, Steve Yun, Samurai Dan and the Kojokan Shinbutai, Dr. Kerry Freedman, Steve Downes, and Wendy Powell.  ACen this year also was especially fortunate to arrange a webcast Skype session with legendary Japanese musician Yoshiki from X-Japan.

A unique additional requirement for Press members this year was attending a Q&A / feedback press panel for a minimum of two guests of honor.  For that opportunity I picked sessions featuring Brina Palencia and Shinichi Watanabe.  These were secluded press-only sessions which generally focused on simple questions pertaining to each guest’s role in the anime and voice acting industries.  The topics of interest for Shinichi Watanabe generally consisted of the nuances of Japanese to English dubbing, his thoughts of pirating and decline of DVD sales both in Japan and abroad and how the Internet is changing the methods of distribution for studios.  Further topics included everything from “What is your favorite role?” type questions to series-specific questions that I unfortunately, had no relevant knowledge about.  The topics of interest for Brina Palencia included a significant amount of discussing how she would prepare her voice for spoken roles, the fun and limitations of the studio booth recordings, and what she thought of where her future endeavors would take her.

Please check out Consplayers’ video coverage of both press interviews, as well as much more general hall coverage located on our new Youtube page, located here at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Consplayers

The Masquerade this year featured a very unique middle session due to the aforementioned webcast with Yoshiki of X-Japan.  Before the webcast, a full attendee and press blackout was in effect for the premiere video showcasing Yoshiki’s “YOSHIKI: History through X-JAPAN.”  The atmosphere conveyed through this video was one of simple beginnings, an upward drive of success and popularity, sorrow upon the then lead-member’s death, and then a resurgence of X-Japan’s more modern history.  This made the video appear both as tribute, documentary, and press release all in one.  One press member behind me was apt to state X-Japan as being  “…the Beetles of Japan…”, as the video evidenced their performances filling stadiums of more than 100,000 people at a time.  After the video concluded, an attempt at a webcast was made but failed due to connection issues after two minutes and the video feed showed Yoshiki leaving his office desk to an upset audience here at ACEN.  Promptly after however, Yoshiki himself appeared on stage live, front and center, prompting the audience to go wild with enjoyment.

After what seemed like an eternity of ecstatic and well deserved applause, Yoshiki sat on stage and directly opened a dialogue / press session with the entire ballroom – fielding questions from both Press and Audience alike.  Several press members next to me in fact, were highlighted.  Topics basically ranged from life in Japan, Yoshiki’s thoughts about playing instruments, being a famous band musician, and wrapped up with more typical questions benefiting of an anime convention such as cosplaying and feeling toward the American scene in general.

The remainder of the masquerade was reserved for both walk-ons and judging, of which was typical high caliber for ACEN in terms of costume qualities and humor.

In conclusion, if ACEN continues to keep the pressure on by continually picking world-renowned guests and creates special events to keep attracting guests, there is no reason as to why they will not continue to grow.  The biggest challenge has and will continue to be physical space; with a current convention attendance population of a town (about 17,000 people this year), it should come as no surprise to see next year be as partitioned as this year’s events were.   Rating for this year: A

Written By The-Real-Link

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The main stage’s programs were a colorful mix of the whole convention: fashion-show, the newest Star Trek movie’s screening, parapara, AMV collections, etc. Of course the cosplay competition also took place here. The usual craftsmanship and performance categories remained, while the third, new EuroCosplay competition was introduced for the second time this year.
Because of the nature of this event, not only anime cosplays were allowed to participate in the competition. There were few participants, so for the craftsmanship category, registering was also possible at the convention. Because of this, the average standard was a bit lower then the usual, nevertheless, there were many nice creations. Another novelty was the original category, for those who wanted to create their own character or an outfit for an existing character.
Interestingly, the Star Wars universe was not present in the competition (but outside of it, now that’s another matter), and only one participant was competing from Star Trek. Hopefully next time we will see more participants from these two legendary fandoms.
The EuroCosplay had 5 participants who demonstrated a great show with costumes of high standard. Aside from comics, games and animes, Avatar’s Neytiri was also present in this contest, who became also one of the con’s favourite character over the day.

To sum it up, this was a great, friendly and colorful convention. The location was convenient, the crowd split up evenly in the big hall. The staff and helpers did their best to make this event as successful and memorable as possible. The Hungarians finally have a mixed, multi-fandom and genre convention where everyone can enjoy themselves. We are looking forward to the next HoldfényCon, which, hopefully, will offer us more interesting new things.

Written by Ms.Tifa, translated by Mantis.

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View the report here.

Overview

FanimeCon 2010 started on a beautiful Friday morning on May 28th, lasting until May 31st for Memorial Day weekend.  Thousands of adults and teenagers alike swarmed the Downtown San Jose Convention Center to enjoy their Japan-filled-weekend.

The special guests for this year’s FanimeCon included the Visual Kei band LM.C, Halko Momoi, Daisuke Ishiwatari, Toshimichi Mori, Mamoru Yokota, FLOW, Karen Dyer, Reuben Langdon,  Hiroyuki Yamaga, Carl Gustav Horn, Gilles Poitras, Jonathan Osborne, Ric Meyers, Keith Burgess and Ryan Gavigan.

FanimeCon first started out as a group of  anime clubs fifteen years ago in 1994 at California State University, Hayward. Today it has exploded as a leading convention on the West Coast with more than 15,000 attendees (according to their 2009 release).  FanimeCon catches the attention of approximately 2,000 new attendees each year with their new guests, events, and their famous Masquerade event.

Day One – Friday

FanimeCon started bright and early at 9:00AM. Cosplayers swarmed the main hall with groups and gatherings such as Heaven System, Capcom VS SNK, Fight Games, Avatar, and Tales Of (…). Friday also held anime shows like Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, the re-made Jungle Emperor Leo 2009, Slayers, Akira, Baccano, and Durarara!!.

While there are always many things to do at FanimeCon, there are events that Fanime likes to highlight for con-goers, and they are generally where you can see the amazing guests that are invited. On Friday some of the guests got their time.

Jonathan Osborne had his “A Decade of Death” panel and Q&A in the Mariott starting at 5:00PM. Jonathan is also known as the “Man of 1,000 Deaths” for his many roles in anime voice acting with dying characters. If you aren’t one who knows much about anime, or a parent who was dragged along by your young ones, you could join the “Anime Expert” Gilles Poitras with his panel “Anime For Parents”. Gilles Poitras had written numerous book titles such as “The Anime Companion”, “Everything A Fan Needs To Know” and a routine writer for magazine Otaku USA and Newtype USA.

Other panels included “Anime is Pin-up!” with Keith Burgess; an anime voice actor, script writer, and graphic designer. His voice work included Street Fighter Alpha and Neon Genesis Evangelion movies, Dead Leaves and Karas.  “Reuben and CAPCOM – Mo-Cap and Action!” with Reuben Langdon.  Reuben is known for a lot of work, most notably Dante from the Devil May Cry series, in which he both was the motion capture actor and English voice actor. There was also a Kung-Fu extravaganza with Ric Meyers, a martial artist who worked with some documentaries and alongside Jackie Chan.

Toward the end of the day the music fest just began with the Japanese rock band FLOW in the Civic Auditorium. Their rocking out performance gathered a large crowd, filling out the Auditorium.  FLOW is comprised of 5 members KOHSHI (Vocal), KEIGO (Vocal, TAKE (Guitar), GOTS (Bass), and IWASAKI (Drums). They are known for their anime theme songs from shows like Naruto, Code Geass, Psalms of Planets, Eureka Seven, and Persona.

If music wasn’t your thing and you wanted to get some extra cash, or maybe wanted to find your Holy Grail item, at 8:00PM Fanime held its yearly Swap Meet. The swap meet is a treasure trove of used and new items that fans collected over time and now need to make a little room by selling their collections and goods.

Day 2 – Saturday

This is the big day for most conventions. Come Saturday morning the temperatures started to rise extremely high. Con-goers battled the heat by heading indoors for the opening of the Dealer’s Room starting at 10:00AM. The Dealer’s Room was packed full of people browsing around for the newest and coolest goods. Rows of vendor booths filled the large exhibit hall. Pokemon, Naruto, Bleach, K-ON, and more can be found stacked up, dangling, and taped down along the booths. You could buy the largest Pikachu plush or the cutest phone charm of your favorite anime character. The Dealer’s Room truly had it all.

Today was also the day of meeting up with the special guest Halko Momoi for Autographs. Halko Momoi is known as a spectacular musician and entertainer, for her roles in anime and video games such as Anise Tatlin from Tales of the Abyss, Komugi from Nurse Witch Komugi, and is also the star of her own Internet Video Channel called “Akihaba-Love”. She also founded a J-Pop label called AKIHABA LOVE RECORDS.

Later that night starting at 6:30PM came the biggest event of them all. As Fanime states “the cornerstone event of anime cons”. Thats right, the Fanime Masquerade! This year they had a whopping 46 entries. The crowd was packed, the stage was set, and the skits performed beautifully.

There were many spectacular performances. Some were extremely funny, some very dramatic. To top it off the cosplay was a sight to see as well with beautiful costumes being displayed across the stage. The winners of this excellent show are as follows:

• Best Choreography, Group 24, Angel Hearts
• Best Comedic Skit, Group 8, Super Yaoi Brothers
• Best Dramatic Skit, Group 41, Paper Umbrella
• Best of Division: Performance, Individual, Group 42, Animator
• Best of Division: Performance, Group 11, The Coolest Geeks You Know
• Junior/Youth Achievement, Group 0, Who’s Cosplay Production
• Best of Division: Craftsmanship, Individual, Goup 16, ASKEW
• Best of Division: Craftsmanship, Group, W5, Minna no Nur-Puppy
• Best of Division: Advanced Craftsmanship, Individual, Group 7, Fujimoto from Face Full of Fire & We’re Not Twins
• Best of Division: Advanced Craftsmanship, Group 10, LoLorado
• Junior/Youth Achievement, Group 6, Spilled Milk Cosplay
• **BEST OF SHOW** Group 32, 2D Costuming

Day 3 – Sunday

Sunday morning was the Grand World Cosplay Summit. There were many excellent Judges for the Cosplay Summit who were well qualified to Judge the event. The Judges were from the US Darryl Hwang, Die, Vince of Darkain Multimedia, Etaru, ThePrincessZelda and Tokyo Kitty and from Japan Yokota-san (TV Aichi), and Edo.

The winners were a pair of girls Kathryn Griffin and Krystal Stoner. They had a beautiful skit from Fushigi Yugi that did a choreographed dance with scroll ribbons to tell the story of their two characters.

After WCS, Consplayers stopped by the Artist Alley to check out the local artists and all of their fantastic work. Here one can buy prints, badges, buttons, bookmarks, and homemade goods and fanart. Many talented artists from around the US and locally come to sell their goods to the public.

They also had the Arcade hall full of different type of games for those avid gamers (much like us here at Consplayers!). Their room had standard Arcade style games, racing games, Para Para, Guitar Hero, Shooting Arcades and Dance Dance Revolution. There was the LAN/TV grouping where you could trade your ID for a controller to play some classics or fight in a Super Smash Bros. tournament.  There was also a table top section for card game classics like Apples to Apples, Magic the Gathering, and Pokemon. You could also play the traditional Table Top Role Play Games like Dungeons & Dragons as well. Overall there was something for everyone in this fun filled room.

Sunday night also held FanimeCon 2010’s Black and White Ball. It started at 6:00PM at the Fairmont Hotel Imperial Ballroom. It is typically a formal dance that starts out Ball-esque but quickly degenerates into another rave. Many cosplayers go dressed in formal attire such as tuxedos, suits, dresses, and gowns. Some even cosplay as fancified versions of characters and bring their dates to dance with.

Day 4 – Monday

Monday is the last day of Fanime and come noon everyone is busy checking out of their hotels. This Fanime was no exception with busy afternoons and hotel lobbys being full of luggage, costumes, and sewing machines. This is typically the best time to head over to the Dealer’s Hall and get some last minute bargaining before they also pack up and leave. Giving some final farewells, Consplayers took their leave as well. That concluded the 2010 FanimeCon convention for us!

Conclusion

Overall Fanime was an excellent convention. They had wonderful guests and great panels to attend. You can always find something worth your wallet in the Dealers Room. The cosplays are spectacular, the shows are grand. A very welcomed addition was the Express Walkway Lanes and also the Massage Booths. A popular complaint was the extremity of the Weapons Policy (which had written rules that were vague and threatened to damage costumes with their “bonding” of props to costumes). Not really within their control are the Convention Center food prices, which were charging $9.00 for a microwaved hotdog, bag of chips, and soda. They also only accepted cash which was disappointing. Luckily the San Jose Convention Center is surrounded by a multitude of restaurants for the con-goer to dine at. We are looking forward to Fanime 2011 and always recommend this convention to everyone as one of the, if not the best West Coast conventions.

Click Above To See More Fanime 2010 Con Photos!

]]> http://consplayers.com/reports/fanimecon-2010-convention-coverage-report/feed 0 http://consplayers.com/sitenews/baka-con-2010-update http://consplayers.com/sitenews/baka-con-2010-update#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 04:49:38 +0000 consplayers http://consplayers.com/?p=384 We’ve added photos from Baka Con 2010 to the gallery and also added the convention report.

Report by Consplayers

We arrived, me and Pikminlink, on the morning of Apr 15th to Helsinki and right after we were taken to a couple of different places to be interviewed by different magazines. After that we were taken to the convention location which was held in a collage and finally after 30 hours no sleep we got to go to bed. The dorm house and the convention area was clean and quite. This was their second year for the con. On the next day we looked around the area and got a tour of the convention buildings, every one had work at the con to make every thing fine.
Saturday the con started at 10am, people came from everywhere. There was a long line for tickets and over 1500 people showed up, doubled than last year. Everything looked good, cosplayers were happy, the weather was good except it was a little cold. The opening ceremony was very nice and the room was full, it was held in the gym room. The dealer room was small but very nice, a lot of good merchandise for sale. Panels were also very interesting, it was really crowded including our panels. The Cosplay was very different and it was not like I excepted, they only had judging for all of the entrants and later gave awards. There was no stage performance. We found one food source area and that was good and the prices too, compared to food prices at USA conventions. The party was smooth and not too loud.
Sunday was slow because Saturday was the bigger day, but it was still a lot of fun. The closing ceremony was in the afternoon and a couple of hours later the whole campus was empty, everyone headed home with busses or with other transportations.
The whole con ran very smoothly and I didn’t hear about any problems or incidents. They took care of every thing, security was very nice and helpful, prop inspections was nice.
Overall for this con being its second year, it was very enjoyable

I will be taking pictures and have opened 2 private photoshoot slots.

You can check out their website for more info about the con:

http://www.bakacon.fi/