AnimeCon

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AnimeCon
Status	Defunct (absorbed in large part by Anime Expo)
Venue	Red Lion Inn
Location	San Jose, California
Country	United States
Years in existence	1991
Organizer	AnimeCon Corporation (defunct)
Attendance	2,000 (estimated)

Promotional flier for AnimeCon '91. Note that not all guests listed actually attended.

AnimeCon (aka. AnimeCon '91, Anime Con, or Anime Con '91) was an anime convention held on only one occasion between August 30 and September 2, 1991 at the Red Lion Inn in San Jose, California, and is now defunct. It was organized by AnimeCon Corporation, founded January 7, 1991 by John Mclaughlin.^[1]).

1 Notability
2 Guests
3 Attendance
4 Sponsors
5 History
6 References

[edit] Notability

AnimeCon was the fourth anime convention created in the United States, the first convention to have major backing from the anime industry, the first anime-specific convention within the state of California (which spawned many similar conventions thereafter), and the first anime-specific convention in the US to break 1,000 attendees.^[2] It is also formed the genesis of Anime Expo (currently the largest anime-specific convention in the United States and outside Japan).

[edit] Guests

Guests included Jerry Beck, Colleen Doran, Geoff Everets, Trish Ledoux, Carl Macek, Ken Macklin, Johji Manabe, Leiji Matsumoto, Luke Menichelli, Haruhiko Mikimoto, Robert Napton, John O'Donnell, Toshio Okada, Katsuhiro Otomo, David Riddick, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Toren Smith, Kenichi Sonoda, Rick Sternbach, Jeff Thompson, Adam Warren, Robert Woodhead, and Toshifumi Yoshida.^[3]

[edit] Attendance

Attendance was officially estimated at 2,000.^[4]

[edit] Sponsors

The convention was co-sponsored by Gainax, Cal-Animage, the founders of BayCon, BAAS, and Studio Proteus.^[5] Official statements from AnimeCon Corp indicate that Gainax controlled 50% of the corporate stock.^[6]

[edit] History

During its inaugural year, AnimeCon went deeply into debt due to severe budget overruns. This included a $6,000 (US) overrun on the T-shirt budget.^[6] Soon after, a management dispute erupted which imperiled the chance of a follow-on. Many of the staff went on to form Anime Expo, while others went on to form a rival convention, Anime America (which was canceled in 1997 and went defunct shortly thereafter). The period between late 1992 and early 1997 is sometimes referred to as the "Con Wars" by attendees and staffers of both conventions. It was typified by a number of personal attacks and allegations of sabotage on and off the Internet (and in particular on rec.arts.anime).

Although Anime Expo is, for all practical purposes, considered separate from AnimeCon, the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (AX's parent organization) took control of AnimeCorp in 1992 and assumed many of its legal and financial obligations (including all debts incurred), the rights to the AnimeCon name, and existing stocks of unsold merchandise (including large numbers of the aforementioned T-shirts). Pre-registrations for the planned AnimeCon '92 were converted into Anime Expo '92 pre-registrations.^[7] Sometime after which, AnimeCon Corporation was formally dissolved.^[1]

Today, AnimeCon merchandise is considered a collectible item by some. Program booklets and T-shirts can still be found. AnimeCon T-shits were sold on behalf of the SPJA during the subsequent years of AX.