Big Apple Anime Fest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Big Apple Anime Fest | |
|---|---|
| Status | Inactive |
| Venue | New York Marriott Marquis Times Square |
| Location | New York City, New York |
| Country |  United States |
| Years in existence | 2001 to 2003 |
| Organizer | Central Park Media |
| Attendance | 12,832 (counting people multiple times)[1] |
| Official Website | |
The Big Apple Anime Fest is an anime convention which was held annually between 2001 and 2003. The event was organized by Central Park Media,[2] a company that licenses anime and manga and translates it for resale in the United States. It was the first industry-organized anime convention to be held and was reportedly supported by a consortium of anime companies.[3] Big Apple Anime Fest is usually referred to by the acronym BAAF,[3] pronounced "baff" rhyming with "laugh".
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Big Apple Anime Fest 2001
The event was held at the Directors Guild Theater in New York City, with a dealers' room at the Park Central hotel. A symposium was held on Saturday at the Japan Society. Guests at the first Big Apple Anime Fest included Kunihiko Ikuhara, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Tetsuya Ikeda, and Toshio Maeda.[citation needed]
[edit] Big Apple Anime Fest 2002
In 2002, the Big Apple Anime Fest relocated to Times Square at the Marriot Marquis, and the Virgin Megastore and its Loews State Theater located within. Anime events of this size and scope were unprecedented in the area. Originally, a partnership was announced with the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). BAAF would run the film festival side of the event while the SPJA would run the convention portion. The SPJA is best known for running Anime Expo, one of the largest anime conventions in the United States. This partnership became problematic, and the event eventually became two distinct events which ran concurrently within the same venues: Big Apple Anime Fest and Anime Expo New York.[citation needed]
One of the notable events in 2002 was the world premiere of the Cowboy Bebop movie. Guests included Akitaroh Daichi, Taro Maki, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Tommy Ohtsuka, Yoshihiro Komada, Shinichiro Watanabe, Toshihiro Kawamoto, and Yoko Kanno.[citation needed]
After the event in 2002, it was announced that the Marriott Marquis venue dates had been confirmed for the next three years according to this post on the web site:
"The Big Apple Anime Fest will return to Times Square over Labor Day Weekend, next year, and thereafter, and will once again supervise both the film festival and the fan convention activities under one umbrella! 2003: August 29th - August 31st 2004: September 3rd - September 5th 2005: September 2nd - September 4th."[citation needed]
[edit] Big Apple Anime Fest 2003
2003 marked the second time that events were held in Times Square, with the BAAF organization helming both the film festival and convention activities. One of the main events this year was the literal World Premiere of Satoshi Kon's latest movie, Tokyo Godfathers. Kon even admitted at the premiere that the movie had been completed two weeks prior to the convention. Other World Premieres included Cat Soup, Animation Runner Kuromi, Initial D the Movie, as well as East Coast Premieres of A Tree of Palme, and Parasite Dolls. Other events included Cosplay on Broadway, the Big Apple Anime Fest Anime Idol voice acting contest (won by Michele Knotz, who now provides the voice of Jessie in the TAJ productions dub of Pokémon), and Raijin Comics sponsored Mangafest.[citation needed]
Guests of Honor included Tsukasa Hojo, Yasuhiro Irie, Takeshi Koike, Satoshi Kon, Hyun se Lee, Masao Maruyama, Taka Nagasawa, Takashi Nakamura, Tomoko Taniguchi, Ren Usami, Tasumi Yoda, and Keith Giffen. Voice actor guests included Liam O'Brien, Lisa Ortiz, Eric Stuart, Michael Alston Baley, Marc Diraison, and Veronica Taylor.[4]
[edit] Big Apple Anime Fest 2004 canceled
Despite confirmed dates for 2004, BAAF announced on its web site that it would skip its event in 2004 due to the Republican National Convention, which would be held in New York City over Labor Day weekend.[5] According to their web site:
"Following a series of meetings in New York and Tokyo over the past weeks, BAAF has decided to skip a 2004 event due to the overlap with the Republican National Convention at the same time, in the same venues. As announced previously, the Convention has reserved almost all of the available hotel rooms in New York City over the Labor Day time frame, making it impossible for BAAF to mount the same sort of event as in previous years."
"Rather than change the timing of the event, which would result in conflicts with other trade and consumer events, or limit the scope of the activities, BAAF decided the best approach would be to skip 2004 completely, and focus on 2005."[6]
[edit] Big Apple Anime Fest 2005 canceled
Again in 2005, despite confirmed dates, the web site displayed the following words:
"Thank you for visiting. There are currently no plans to hold BAAF 2005."[3]
John O'Donnell of Central Park Media confirmed in January 2005 that he was "unaware of any plans for BAAF 2005 at this time."[2]
[edit] Confusion with Big Apple Convention
Since its inception, there has been some confusion among fans between the Big Apple Anime Fest and the Big Apple Convention.[citation needed] The Big Apple Convention is a broad-based comic book/sci-fi/fantasy/horror/pop culture convention that was begun by Michael Carbonaro in 1996 in a church basement, holds several events a year, and now continues at the Penn Plaza Pavilion, and has no afiliation with the Big Apple Anime Fest.
[edit] Big Apple Anime Fest in the future
With cancellations in 2004[6], 2005[2], and 2006 passing without any announcements, plus Central Park Media's staff cuts,[7] it seemed unlikely that there will be any future events. The closest anime convention to New York City has always been AnimeNEXT. Large anime conventions in New York City are difficult to organize due to the limited space and the high costs involved, but will change when the organizers of New York Comic Con stage the New York Anime Festival December 7 through 9, 2007 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.
[edit] References
- ^ Ten largest North American anime conventions of 2003. AnimeCons.com (2004-01-01). Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
- ^ a b c No plans for Big Apple Anime Fest 2005. AnimeCons.com (2005-01-19). Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
- ^ a b c Big Apple Anime Fest (2002-11-20). Big Apple Anime Fest To Rock New York over Labor Day Weekend, 2003. Press release. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
- ^ Big Apple Anime Fest 2003. AnimeCons.com. Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
- ^ Big Apple Anime Fest 2004 update. AnimeCons.com (2004-02-02). Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
- ^ a b Big Apple Anime Fest cancelled for 2004. AnimeCons.com (2004-03-31). Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
- ^ CPM Cuts Staff. ICv2 (2006-05-30). Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
