Animethon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Animethon
Status	Active
Venue	Grant MacEwan College
Location	Edmonton, Alberta
Country	Canada
First held	1994
Organizer	Alberta Society for Asian Popular Arts (ASAPA)
Attendance	3,450 in 2006
Official website

Animethon is a three-day anime convention held annually at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton, Alberta. It is Western Canada's longest-running anime convention, the first being held in 1994. It was, up until 2006, Western Canada's largest anime convention, but in that year Anime Evolution's attendance was claimed to exceed Animethon's by about 150.^[1]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Event history 2 ASAPA control 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

This section does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Animethon was conceived by the Banzai Anime Klub of Alberta, the University of Alberta's anime club as a public festival to promote Japanese animation and pop culture to the public and help dispel the widely-held perception of anime fans as an unpopular and disturbing fringe element. Animethon was preceded briefly by an event often referred to as the 'Mechaball', which was not publicized and did not attract a large attendance. First held in August 1994 as a single-day event at Grant MacEwan College's then brand-new City Centre campus, Animethon attracted several hundred attendees despite its short notice. Two-day events in 1995 and 1996 were significantly larger and more organized, attracting an estimated 1500 and 1800 attendees each year respectively.^{[dubious – discuss]} Animethons II and III also featured the first commemorative t-shirt designs, in a collage artwork style initiated by Harvey Lee. 1997 saw a change in leadership both at the originating club and Animethon, and a new series of t-shirt designs produced in successive years by Daniel Ross, Ian Horner and Megan Shaw. In 1997, Animethon also began its practice of soliciting food donations for the Edmonton Food Bank and/or the University of Alberta or Grant MacEwan campus food banks. During the years 1997 to 2003, Animethon continued to follow the originating mandate to provide a free event for the general public, while expanding its attendance to an average between 3500 and 3800 people and its offerings to include discussion panels on culture and technology related to animation and manga as well as anime-related events such as a cosplay contest.

With an estimated 4000 people in 2003, Animethon was the tenth largest anime convention in North America that year.^[2]

Animethon XII in 2005 introduced a second venue to the event, the Holiday Inn Express downtown. With the addition of the second venue programming was expanded to accommodate the new venue space. Registration and programming officially opened late Friday at the Hotel for those who purchased advanced passes.^{[dubious – discuss]}

[edit] Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
July 1994	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada[3]
July 1995	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	80[4]
July 13–14, 1996	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	300[5]
July 12–13, 1997	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	1,200[6]
July 11–12, 1998	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	2,500[7]
July 10–11, 1999	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	2,700[8]
July 15–16, 2000	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	1,800[9]
July 14–15, 2001	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	3,000[10]
July 13–14, 2002	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada[11]
July 12–13, 2003	Grant MacEwan Community College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	4,000[12]
July 17–18, 2004	Grant MacEwan College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	4,700[13]
August 5–7, 2005	Grant MacEwan College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	3,755	Rob Bakewell, Brian Dobson, and Debbie Munro.[14]
July 7–9, 2006	Grant MacEwan College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	3,450	Randy Brososky, Consplayers.com, Trevor Devall, Brian Dobson, Michael Dobson, Tom Edwards, Cole Howard, Kirby Morrow, and PikminLink.[15]
August 10–12, 2007	Grant MacEwan College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada		The 404s, Trevor Devall, Tiffany Grant, Matt Greenfield, Kyle Hebert, and Vic Mignogna.[16]
August 8–10, 2008	Grant MacEwan College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada[17]

[edit] ASAPA control

This section does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

In 2004 the event was spun off to a new society, the Alberta Society for Asian Popular Arts (ASAPA), a not-for-profit society that focuses on the promotion and enjoyment of Asian popular art and culture. Starting in 2005, ASAPA made a decision to change the mandate of Animethon to that of a paid convention for anime fans while still retaining some basic free content. This has been criticized as poorly acknowledged and advertised to potential attendees, and casual fans or interested members of the general public may be put off by the event's convention-attendance pricing.^[who?]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Animethon website

v • d • e Anime Conventions in Canada Anime Evolution (Vancouver) • Animethon (Edmonton) • Otafest (Calgary) • Ai-Kon (Winnipeg) • Anime North (Toronto) • AC-cubed (Ottawa)• Otakuthon (Montreal) • Animaritime (Sackville)