Drake

Love the Cosplayer, Respect the Cosplayer: The Happy Medium

I have been a member of the anime fandom for about a decade, if not longer. In this time, I have attended my fair share of conventions and even hosted a few meet-ups of my own. At these events, I’ve come across more cosplayers, or people dressed up as their favorite characters, than mathematics can actually calculate a number to describe.

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Conventions

Sakura-Con 2012

Sakura-Con 2012 was by far one of the best cons I’ve been to in a long time, largely due to all the awesome friends I got to see and a total lack of drama. Furthermore, it was one of the con’s biggest years for guests. This year there were three major musical performances and a whole bunch of industry people. Voice actors, directors, and producers came in droves, and for good reason: this was Sakura-Con’s fifteenth year, and the staff gave it their all to make it their best.

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Hitmage

An Insider’s Look at Japan: Asakusa

When visiting Japan for the second time in March 2010, I was reminded of the interesting duality of culture there. Many of us see Japan and think of technology, high fashion, and modern pop culture. J-pop idols, maid cafés, anime, and manga are all prevalent, of course, but it’s really interesting to see just how seamlessly Japan’s old culture is integrated into the vast urban sprawl of Tokyo.

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Hitmage

An Insider’s Look at Japan: Akihabara

Akihabara, the Electric Town. This is the crown jewel for anime, manga, game, and tech fans in Tokyo. Located only a scant 5-10 minutes from Asakusa, the famous temple district in Tokyo, this place has absolutely anything you could ever want, and there’s so much to see it took two trips to see everything I wanted to (or at least had time to). Akihabara has an interesting little history.

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Con News

AM2 2011: Convention Organizer Interview

For the past few months word has been spreading about a new anime convention coming to Los Angeles, California, on July 1st – July 4th at the Anaheim Center. I recently had the opportunity to interview Mr. Chase Wang, one of the organizers of the event, to discuss their plans, challenges and other general information of running a first year anime convention on Yahoo Messenger.

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Drake

MechaCon V: Convention Organizers Interview

This year at MechaCon V, Team Anime Secrets was able to catch up with the masterminds, Jon Russo and Peter Bares, behind Louisiana’s longest-running anime convention for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to put on a yearly anime convention and the future plans for the convention’s move to New Orleans from the Hub City. Below is the video of this interview:

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Kouichi Kimura

A-Kon 23

Another 1,500 miles from home, and another A-Kon was upon us. As I mentioned to you all in last year’s report, I was excited to come back to one of the greatest conventions being held in the United States today, and in 2012, I was definitely not disappointed. With the official numbers being 21,982 attendees, it’s not hard to imagine the number of cosplayers enjoying themselves.

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