Con Review gives readers the quick need to know run down of major geek conventions and expos, with ratings and basic reviews that highlight the best of each con while giving you a reference to look back on as you decide where to make your geeky vacations of the future.

 

Fanime ConCon Name: FanimeCon

Location: San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, Ca

Dates: May 25th-28th, 2012

Ticket Costs:

Full Weekend: $65
Friday May 25th: $35
Saturday May 26th: $40
Sunday May 27th: $40
Monday May 28th: $30
Half Weekend (Sunday & Monday): $55
Children (10 & under): Free with paid membership!

Website: http://www.fanime.com/

History:

FanimeCon, or Fanime, is an annual anime convention put together by the Anime Resource Group (ARG). With humble beginnings of just a few hundred attendees, Fanime started out at California State University Hayward, in Hayward, Ca, back in 1994. Since then, the convention has moved several times to larger venues, finally calling the San Jose McEnery Convention Center its home since 2004. With just under 20,000 attendees last year, the convention continues to grow by leaps and bounds each year. Over the past decade they have had major guests such as FLOW, Fred Gallagher, Ric Meyers, Carl Horn, Seiji Mizushima, and countless other anime voice actors, directors, film stars, and musicians. Fanime is the largest anime convention in Northern California, and perhaps one of the most enjoyable anime conventions on the west coast in previous years.

Major Guests:

Major Exhibitors:

Review:

Welcome To San Jose

Fanime is placed very beautifully in a perfect area of downtown San Jose, surrounded by everything you need. Held in the San Jose Convention Center and surrounding hotels, there really isn’t anything you could require that you won’t find within walking distance. There are about a dozen hotels to choose from near the convention, most of which are within walking distance, and all of which are rather affordable. Being downtown there is also a bountiful amount of food options in restaurants that range from fast food to classy sit down places, and some amazing walk-in local eateries. There are even grocery stores, supply stores, and gas stations within walking distance of this con, giving it perhaps the best placement of any West Coast anime convention. Parking around the area is generally something you will have to pay for, with only a few free options, but it is quite affordable. Finally, thanks to several nearby parks and a college campus, there is a fair amount of locations to choose from for cosplay photoshoots. The only real problem with the location of Fanime this year was a bit of construction that absorbed and changed the scenery just outside of San Jose’s convention center, where many cosplayers would traditionally gather and take photos. However, this in no way ruined the convention, existing only as a minor nuisance for veteran attendees used to the space.

 

Badges & Where They Get You

Getting your badges at this year’s Fanime might have been a bit of a nuisance if you had pre-registered and wanted to badge up on day zero. Unfortunately the convention ran into a few technical difficulties before an all out power outage. Thankfully staff was incredibly kind and dealt with the problems as best they could. So with the very reasonable prices of badges for the size of this show, one truly couldn’t complain. Once you got your badge there was a bevy of options and entertainment you could partake in. This Fanime offered the traditional dealer’s hall that was, give or take a booth or two, the same size as many years before, not yet on the scale of anime expo but certainly packed with enough choices and variation that you could find almost any manga, anime, or trinket you might be looking for. What always surprises me is that Fanime seems to have an artist alley just as big as their dealer’s hall, which almost no other big convention seems to offer. Both of these and a very sizeable gaming room, which features import arcade machines, consoles, and board gaming, all are fully accessible with a basic Fanime badge. But that was hardly all you got, as the Fanime badge also gave attendees access to a whole other convention! That’s right, just down the way in the San Jose Double Tree Hotel was Clockwork Alchemy, a steampunk themed convention. After last year’s success of including steampunk in the theme of Fanime the convention decided to act like an amoeba and split, in a very complimentary way. While Clockwork Alchemy was a bit of a distance Steam Punk in Artist Alleyaway and a much smaller con, it was well worth the free entrance and shuttle ride over there that Fanime provided for a look at something slightly different than the anime scene at the San Jose Convention Center. Clockwork Alchemy was much like many smaller steampunk conventions, with a number of vendors and artists selling their gear themed designs and a few unique, folk-like bands in even more unique attire.

 

Panels, Programming, & Producers

On the entertainment end, Fanime keeps the convention packed with great content. There were some great fan panels that ranged from all ages to 18+ (which, of course, required ID to enter), and even a few politically themed discussions that got a little heated. Some of the panels were very goofy, while others had some real educational moments from the history of certain animes or even piracy, to tutorials that taught you everything from how to write better fanfiction or even sew cosplay. Yet one of the most unique to Fanime themes of panels existed in the conventions “dojo”. Hidden away in the Almaden Ballroom of the San Jose Hilton, the dojo hosted many panels that displayed incredible martial arts, parkour, and stunt training while also educating the audience on how to do some rather spectacular things. The dojo is always a treat and while worth the trip while at Fanime, and this year proved no different.

But say you wanted something a little more pre-recorded, with a higher production value. In this case you wanted to attend Fanime’s many screening rooms that had a wide variety of films and TV shows on screen. Of course Fanime played a large number of anime episodes from new and old series like Mardock Scramble, Zetman, and Tiger & Bunny, but they also screened a large number of Asian films. Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kong (whose films are slightly different from mainland China’s), and Korean, even the Philippines were represented by Tween Academy at the conventions Asian films screening room. Fanime even hosted the US premiere of RE:Play-Girls, with a Q&A afterwards with the film’s director, Yuki Saito. These films and shows accompanied parody programming like the abridged series, an AMV contest, and Ric Meyer’s always amazing Superhero Kung Fu Extravaganza (which you may have also seen take place every Friday of San Diego’s Comic Con International for the past several years).

Really, the only entertainment Fanime was lacking on quantity of was guests…but they were hardly lacking on quality in that department. Some of the usual big names of Fanime came out, like the fan favorite Ric Meyers, who hosted this year’s masquerade. But the majority of guests at Fanime, unlike most anime cons that are filled with American voice actors, were Japanese producers and singers. Hiroyuki Yamaga, who is a regular guest of Fanime and the Executive Producer of GAINAX was on hand to sign and answer questions during his panel, as were Mamoru Yokota and Shigeto Koyama. But perhaps the most interesting guest present was Manga-ka (Japanese comic creator) Kia Asamiya, who has worked in both the Japanese and American comic’s field.

 

Late Night Programming

Fanime has so much great programming that it extends while through the evening and late into the night. The traditional collection of dances and late night panels are brought to a new level at San Jose’s great anime convention. First of all, the classic “rave” style dance of anime conventions was much more themed at this year’s Fanime, actually specifying what style of music would be mixed and played at any given hour and also holding two rooms to cater to varying tastes in dance music attendees might have. Whether you prefer to get down to hardcore or pump up the bass with dubstep, there was a DJ and dance floor for you. Of course, Fanime is also rather well known for its Black & White Ball, a nice formal event where you can get close with your significant other or show off your more classically trained dance moves in an anime themed environment.

The convention also aired their more mature anime and movies later in the evening. Yet another feature you won’t find at too many anime conventions outside of Fanime is the amazing Hentai Nights. Apparently some people don’t feel the need to lock themselves alone in their room when they watch hentai, and prefer a hugely crowded audience to share the experience with. So as long as you have an ID stating you are 18 or older and can raise your hands in the air every few minutes for a hand check, there is nothing stopping you from enjoying tentacles and school girls mingling whilst sitting side by side another hundred or more anime fans each night. But the 18+ programming doesn’t stop there, with late night fan panels and even Yaoi Bingo, where sexy boys strip as attendees win prizes. Though if you’re not one to bust-a-move and aren’t looking to see anime characters (or fans) bust-a-nut (>_<), there are plenty of other late night options. The game room is open all night and there is also anime style speed dating and a huge swap meet where one can sell or buy second hand anime goods.

 

That’s A Really Cool Costume

Now with all said and done about what the convention is offering, what about the attendees? Well, with over 20,000 fans in attendance of this year’s fanime, the place was filled with otaku of all ages. Cosplay ranged from the pieces hastily put together the night before to beautifully elegant costumes that had to have taken months and money to piece together. Whether you were looking for sexy girls in skimpy anime costumes or hot guys with weapons that could possibly work, you could find them here alongside the cutest and funniest cosplays around. The convention also had its fair share of unofficial hotel room parties, with alcohol floating around in a fair excess and people generally having a great time. People at Fanime seemed to be pretty much upbeat throughout the 2012 convention, with highly sociable attendees and no general gripes about the convention outside of a little bit of annoyance involving the construction near the convention center’s entrance. Even with the classic religious protestors going on several days in a row, the anime fans seem to take it with stride and even protest back a bit. So with the convention full, but not overly packed, and attendees enjoying themselves without causing problems for the convention or San Jose, Fanime 2012 proved to be another successful con.

 

 

Rating:

All in all, Fanime 2012 offered attendees all the great parts of a bigger anime convention, without any of the problems. There were thousands of fans and cosplayers to interact with, but no huge crowds to truly compete with outside of registration. Staff and security were quite friendly, and panels were fairly easy to walk into and participate in. In the same, there was a large amount of entertainment to partake in, and wide variety of options in the dealer’s hall, artist alley, swap meet, and gaming room. Fanime finds the perfect balance between your average local anime convention and one of the big shows like Anime Expo or Otakon. As Fanime offers such a great time for an affordable value, with almost nothing to complain about, I have to say this is the extremely rare 10 out of 10 convention as far as anime cons go. I highly recommend that everyone picks up a badge and heads out for Fanime 2013.