FanimeCon 2018 is finally behind us and I have taken a few days to reflect on the festivities. The fact of the matter is this year's FanimeCon was pretty weak overall. That's not to say I didn't enjoy myself. FanimeCon has something for everyone, whether it be cosplaying with your friends, going to panels to meet your favorite guest of honor, or even rocking out at Music Fest. So it wasn't that I was surprised there was nothing exciting going on, I was more surprised that they didn't surprise me again. Because they have been full of surprises for the last two years or so. If anything FanimeCon 2018 points to an even more exciting FanimeCon 2019.
Fanime is known for a few things and one of those is cosplay. Here's a glimpse at some of the great ones we saw!
While in San Jose for Fanime-Con 2017, we sat down behind closed doors, with the voice actress Kanae Ito, who is best known for her work as Amu Hinamori in Shugo Chara!, Yui in Sword Art Online, Nobuna Oda in The Ambition of Nobuna Oda, Elsie de Lute Ima in The World God Only Knows, and Nana Astar Deviluke in To Love-Ru.
Da-iCE is a 5 member dance group from Japan with a "facial deviation value of 75!" They are the recipient of The Japan Gold Disc Award for Best 5 New Artist and their latest single Paradive hit 3rd in the Oricon charts. Learn more about Da-iCE in our interview video at FanimeCon in San Jose!
Fanimecon is the premier convention in the San Francisco Bay Area, our expectations have been raised even higher since last years con after what seemed like a perfect year for Fanime in 2015. To our surprise the positives outweighed the negatives. Fanime is still my favorite con to hang out during memorial weekend.
As the premiere anime convention in the San Francisco Bay Area, our expectations for FanimeCon 2015 were raised after their numerous improvements from last year over 2013. We were hoping that the hardworking staff would take the lessons they learned throughout the past two years and create a smoother, more efficient convention than ever before; much to our delight they did.
FanimeCon 2014 is now in the books and while there will be much rejoicing over the most welcome absence of an infamously long registration line, it must also be noted that the convention staff was also able to succeed in other areas as well. It has been a long time since I started my quest to get into the Fanime speed dating event, but this was finally the year that I made it in. For those of you who don't know, Fanime speed dating events are usually held on days 2 and 3. You will not find the event in the general schedule, because the information (at least this year) was only found if you went through the color brochure and in the Fanime forums. Even though there was a general lack of advertisement for this event, there was a healthy turn out.
As a convention that prides itself on being for the fans of mixed media forms of entertainment, but particularly anime and manga, FanimeCon is the premier destination for many people during Memorial weekend in San Jose, California. Having been forced to make do with the renovations that were happening at the San Jose McErney Convention Center in 2013, FanimeCon 2014 was now able to take full advantage of the new space by addressing some issues that plagued them previously. Unfortunately, this created a few new problems, but in all, FanimeCon 2014 seemed to be just as fun for all attendees as it always has.
While at FanimeCon 2013, our T-ONO senior editor, Jason, had a chance to sit down with up-and-coming Japanese pop band, 7!! Oops who has worked on a number of classic anime hits, including the opening "Lovers" from Naruto: Shippuuden and "Bye Bye" from Kimi to Boku. Featuring the lively Nanae on vocals, Michiru on guitar, Keita on bass and Maiko on drums, find out all about the group's origins and thoughts on performing in America for their first time.
We sit down with four-piece J-Rock band ROOKiEZ is PUNK'D during last month's FanimeCon 2013. Famous for their smash hits, "Complication" from Durarara!! and "In My World" from the Blue Exorcist read on to find more about how the members' lives, why they started their band and which super moé anime they'd like to perform a hit song for.