History of Fanime?

Started by Tenba, June 10, 2004, 10:55:47 PM

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How many Fanime cons have you attended?

2004 was my first Fanime!
13 (21.3%)
Less than 5
18 (29.5%)
5 to 10
27 (44.3%)
More than 10
3 (4.9%)

Total Members Voted: 57

Voting closed: May 26, 2005, 10:55:47 PM

Tenba

Quote from: "Mach5Motorsport"And the first Fanime was at CSU Hayward in June for all you history buffs out there. :D
Neat!  Just for fun, here are some other ones:

1999 Mar 19-21 Santa Clara Convention Center / Wyndam Hotel, 2000 attendees
2000 Feb 24-27 Westin, Santa Clara, CA, 2300
2001 Mar 30-32 Westin, Santa Clara, CA, 3750
2002 Apr 26-28 Westin, Santa Clara, CA, ?
2003 Jun 20-22 Westin, Santa Clara, CA, ?
2004 May 28-31 San Jose Convention Center / Mariott, San Jose, CA, 5700 <-- Footnote 1.
2005 May 27-30 San Jose Convention Center / Mariott and Hilton, San Jose, CA

I was going to ask about the rest, but I had pulled out my program booklets to look up the dates and found a great article about Fanime History article in the 2002 program book:

1994 ? CSU Hayward, "almost 100"
1995 ? CSU Hayward, 350
1996 Feb, Foothill College, Los Altos, CA, 775
1997 ? Foothill College, Los Altos, CA, 1200
1998 ? Foothill College, Los Altos / Sheraton, Sunnyvale, CA, 1700

If people want to tell me how to fill in the question marks, that'd be fun.

Also, if anyone wants to tell stories of the early days or about their first cons or anything, I'd love to hear them.  Fanime is growing very quickly, and things have been changing to accomodate the growth.  Things that happened "back in the day" might not be able to happen in the future.  It'd be nice to keep alive the memories of past Fanime and Fanime lore.  Things like...  Armitage's slip... Chocolate Misu... Dieter and his funny impromptu monologues... things that happened on the dance floor or the cosplay... directors singing during live panels... and what is it with "horse" and "chair" anyways?

My story is from this year since I have a very bad memory.  One of the guests of honor was Hiroaki Inoue.  He gave a great talk about Japanese Sci-Fi books being the basis for a lot of anime.  At the end of the panel, he announced that he had a gift for us, and he pulled out this reel of film.  He went on to explain that the film contained Ah, Megamisama! when a pair of scissors appears in his hand.  As the audience started to line up, Inoue-san really started unrolling the film, cutting off strips of it, and handing the strips to the people in line.  I couldn't tell if I felt more honored to get a strip of that film or more shocked that the film reel was being destroyed like that.

EDIT Footnote 1:  From http://fanime.altimus-labs.com/viewtopic.php?t=2184&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=:
Quote from: "Tony"At the lowest end of the spectrum, about 5700 total paid fans attended. This number excludes children, special badges, and people who didn't claim their badge.

At the highest end of the spectrum, about 7400 attendees visited FanimeCon. This number includes guests, staff, and so on.

Leishu

Two of my favorite Fanime memories are back from the Foothill years.

1: Seeing Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa. (It's coming out on DVD in just a couple months! GREAT Disney Dub Cast! Yay!)

2: The very dedicated fan who dressed up as Ryoga from Ranma and literally wandered around randomly asking for directions to places (and walking off in the wrong direction) for the entire con. That was beautiful.
Kabe ni kono Nyuuji wo tsukete mite kudasai.

Tony

My fondest memories were from the Foothill days... I was there for both of them, and they were just after my first experiences with anime.

I remember - Mike Wright, was it? - in Captain Harlock cosplay... Justin Hernandez hosted the masquerade once too, I believe, and it was funny to end up running into him so often, albeit quietly... I remember my friend, exhausted and falling asleep in the masq, getting hit smack in the head by a beach ball and freaking out.

Seeing the Tenchi movie in Dolby... Big-screen Evangelion and Hyper Dolls... The $90 Ryo-ohki plushies, dealers selling hentai to minors... Dieter as a masquerade performer... =P (Urotsukidoji, anyone?) I loved the Foothill days.
Retired.
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Webmaster, 2003-2007
Head of MusicFest, which has the best damn staff out there, 2005-2008
Convention Chair, 2009-2011
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Something with Guest Relations, 2013
Father, 2014

Leishu

Ahhh....


I remember Falling asleep during the first screening of Death and Rebirth in the Foothill days.

D'oh!
Kabe ni kono Nyuuji wo tsukete mite kudasai.

Zain

Quote from: "Tony"dealers selling hentai to minors...
Ah, yes. Those were the days.
2007 Staff (Facilities, IT, Website, Publications)

Mach5Motorsport

Quote from: "Zain"
Quote from: "Tony"dealers selling hentai to minors...
Ah, yes. Those were the days.

I didn't know I started a new topic.  (sigh)  Life was so much simpler back then.  Just bring your VCRs and find enough rooms with 27" TVs.
Brian Doan "Dieter"

Fanime Cosplay Host 2006
Fanime DerCosplay Coord. 2001-2005
Yaoi Con Cosplay Coord. 2002-2005
JTAF 1 & 2
2003 Anime Expo Cosplay, Art & Charity Host
2002 Project Akon Cosplay Host

frumpy

Quote from: "tenba"1998 ? Sheraton, Sunnyvale, CA, 1700
Correction: Foothill College
Camilla Wong
Dealers Dept '07-'12, 2014-current
Charity Auction '04, '09-'12
Video Programming '00-'04
Gopher Volunteer '98-'99

jinnai_animexcalibur

Quote from: "Inu_Ranma"The very dedicated fan who dressed up as Ryoga from Ranma and literally wandered around randomly asking for directions to places (and walking off in the wrong direction) for the entire con. That was beautiful.

I remember that d00d!! XD
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astroboy

Test your knowledge of Fanime Con!

Q1. How many divisions does Fanime have? (trick question)

Q2. The anime music video event is a part of what division?

Q3. How many divisions has the info desk been "transfered" to within the last 4 years?

Q4. What is the total number of staff and volunteers who help out Fanime Con for this year or any year? (another trick question)

Q5. In general the founders of Fanime were memebers of what college anime club?

Q6. What is Fanime con's motto?

Q7. What is Fanime Con's "parent" company.

Q8. What year was it that Fanime first experimented with a 4 day venue?

Tenba

Quote from: "frumpy"
Quote from: "tenba"1998 ? Sheraton, Sunnyvale, CA, 1700
Correction: Foothill College

Oh!  Thank you!!  (That makes a whole lot more sense.)  I wonder why the Fanime 2002 booklet said the Sheraton then...?  (Or did I read that wrong?)

AMKestrel

Quote from: "tenba"
Quote from: "frumpy"
Quote from: "tenba"1998 ? Sheraton, Sunnyvale, CA, 1700
Correction: Foothill College

Oh!  Thank you!!  (That makes a whole lot more sense.)  I wonder why the Fanime 2002 booklet said the Sheraton then...?  (Or did I read that wrong?)

I'm glad someone corrected you on that already.  :)  I remember
1998 -- other than the hills,   ^_^;; the Foothill site was a lot of fun
for a con.  The rooms were all generally theatre style seating,
which was really cool--you never had to worry about being able
to see the subtitles.   :D  I'm trying to remember if that was the
year I ended up with badge number '666'...
Ah...*goes all natsukashii for a bit*

Stormfalcon

Quote from: "tenba"
Quote from: "frumpy"
Quote from: "tenba"1998 ? Sheraton, Sunnyvale, CA, 1700
Correction: Foothill College

Oh!  Thank you!!  (That makes a whole lot more sense.)  I wonder why the Fanime 2002 booklet said the Sheraton then...?  (Or did I read that wrong?)

The con was at Foothill.  The hotel was the Sheraton.  As a result, there was a lot of travelling between hotel and con that year.
My Cosplay Photography gallery, including FanimeCon 2001-2014:
http://stormfalcon.smugmug.com/CosplayPhotography

My DeviantArt Page:
http://stormfalcon.deviantart.com

Tenba

Quote from: "Stormfalcon"The con was at Foothill.  The hotel was the Sheraton.

Ah...  Thanks for the clarification!

Tony

Quote from: "astroboy"Test your knowledge of Fanime Con!
Astroboy, I'll take you on!!

1. FanimeCon has 3 divisions: land, sea, and air. "Space" is our next division, but won't be ready until 2010.

2. AMVs are under the jurisdiction of the game show. We do that as some legal tomfoolery, because as it turns out, anything related to a game show is legal, due to an act of congress in 1973.

3. Trick question! There's never been an infodesk, only an "informational-type kiosk and/or desk".

4. Approximately 10,000 staff and volunteers worked on FanimeCon this year. It didn't seem like that many, but that's because about 9,650 of them were for the Hentai and Yaoi nights.

5. Another trick question! The founders of Fanime never went to college. They were raised on anime, and were educated solely by the omake in Top wo Narae (Gunbuster).

6. FanimeCon's motto is "A Place of Things".

7. FanimeCon's parent company is ARG, which stands for "Armament Research Group". All revenue generated by FanimeCon is used for high-tech arms development and research. Like in Metal Gear Solid... exactly like in Metal Gear Solid.

8. FanimeCon's first 4-day experiment was in 1989, but it wasn't called FanimeCon then. Unfortunately, the 4 days of the convention were during Foothill college's finals week, and angry students barricaded otaku in the gymnasium. With only a small supply of ramen available to the imprisoned otaku, there was eventually a famine in the gym. The convention we now know was created in rememberance of that incident, but unfortunately no one spell-checked the logo - thus FanimeCon was born.
Retired.
Tyrannical Board Admin, 2003-2015
Webmaster, 2003-2007
Head of MusicFest, which has the best damn staff out there, 2005-2008
Convention Chair, 2009-2011
Director of Guest Relations, 2012
Something with Guest Relations, 2013
Father, 2014

astroboy

Quote from: "Tony"
Quote from: "astroboy"Test your knowledge of Fanime Con!
Astroboy, I'll take you on!!
ROTFLMAO!

KinFreon

Quote from: "Tony"
Quote from: "astroboy"Test your knowledge of Fanime Con!
Astroboy, I'll take you on!!

That whole posting (which I snipped for brevity) deserves a chikan sammich. ^_^

Pimpstress Rei

Quote from: "KinFreon"
Quote from: "Tony"
Quote from: "astroboy"Test your knowledge of Fanime Con!
Astroboy, I'll take you on!!

That whole posting (which I snipped for brevity) deserves a chikan sammich. ^_^

Or some especially good lovin! Rowr!
Marie F.
Vice-Chair 2009-2011
Assistant Director of Marketing 2008
Publications Manager 2006, 2007
Con Mom forever o.O

neko ewen

I'm one of those who has the dubious distinction of having attended EVERY FanimeCon, though the first one was one of those things where a friend of mine called me up out of the blue saying that his mom was going to drive the two of us to Hayward for this anime thing. That was where I first saw Macross Plus and the Street Fighter II movie.

The first Foothill one was where we volunteered and got to watch the dealers room for a couple hours... and then another hour or so while they were finding relief for us. I think that was also the first time we encountered the proto-Deiter at con-ops.

It's just continually grown since then, though I've always found the crowd at Fanime much more pleasant to deal with than pretty much any other convention of any kind.
Yaruki Zero Games | Ask me about Maid RPG
"I dream heavy metal but I live whiny punk rock."

Mach5Motorsport

Quote from: "neko ewen"The first Foothill one was where we volunteered and got to watch the dealers room for a couple hours... and then another hour or so while they were finding relief for us. I think that was also the first time we encountered the proto-Deiter at con-ops.

Oh gee!  Where you in the music room used by Con-Ops when I tossed that idea out?  It was a few years back.  1995?
Brian Doan "Dieter"

Fanime Cosplay Host 2006
Fanime DerCosplay Coord. 2001-2005
Yaoi Con Cosplay Coord. 2002-2005
JTAF 1 & 2
2003 Anime Expo Cosplay, Art & Charity Host
2002 Project Akon Cosplay Host

Souji-san

Been to fanime for 6 years now. Thank god my first year I got on staff thanks to my step-bro and some Lincoln Anime Club connections of his. =) I had no money at all, so not having to wait to get into dealer's room was a mixed blessing. =( Got my ass handed to me playing xmen vs SF cause I was doing supers old school style. Watching my bro put like 10 posters with one thumbtalk to get rid of his stack. lol. Seeing cosplayers for the first time. And people playing Ani-mayhem(Holy shit!!!). Crazy good memories of a con noob. 2k3 is still my fave year so far though!