Recent Updates

Ohayocon in Turmoil: Boycott Looms Over Ohio's Anime Convention

Ohayocon finds itself embroiled in controversy. This long-running event, a favorite for anime enthusiasts, is now facing a boycott and allegations of mismanagement.

At the heart of the issue lies the formation of Cultural Exchange Society Inc. (CESI) in late 2022 by Ohayocon owner Melissa Phelps. This move aimed to secure non-profit status for the convention. However, doubts arose shortly after with the emergence of Conventions of Ohio Volunteer Event Network (COVEN), a collective formed by former Ohayocon volunteers. COVEN voiced concerns about volunteer representation, financial transparency, and particularly, Phelps' potential salary.

Things further escalated when the convention's logo (a red cross) was discovered to violate the Geneva Conventions. A blue version may have potentially violated Blue Cross Blue Shield's trademark and a sakura blossom version may have been too similar to the logo for Sakura of America. What may have been an inconsequential logo change at other conventions ended up becoming a flashpoint for deeper anxieties, igniting a dispute over the logo design and fueling questions about CESI's leadership.

On October 2nd, the convention director and the director of marketing were abruptly removed from their positions. This sudden dismissal, perceived by many as a "mass firing" or even "union-busting," sent shockwaves through the community. CESI countered these accusations, claiming that volunteers, due to their status, cannot form unions.

The result was a fractured community. Over 90 individuals, including former leadership and volunteers, have declared a boycott of Ohayocon 2024. The convention's official Discord server has transformed into a platform for criticism and heated...

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AnimeCons TV - Anime NYC 2023 Report

Anime NYC 2023 took place in New York City and we sent Doug Wilder and Tom Aznable to check out the panels, dealers room, Crunchyroll area, and report back on what worked and what didn't. Hear what they think about the date change for the 2024 convention.

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Interview with Otakorp President and Otakon Chairman Brian Cutler

The following interview with Brian Cutler, President of Otakorp and Chairman of Otakon was conducted at Otakon 2023 by Doug Wilder of our AnimeCons TV podcast. This was originally planned to be a podcast episode, but had to be transcribed due to poor audio quality.

Doug Wilder: Alright, we're here at Otakon with Brian Cutler, the President of Otakon for this year. So, I've been going to Otakon for quite some time. One of the things I kind of wanted to start with is, first off, I wanted to say congratulations because I think you guys really fixed a lot of the lines that a lot of people kind of complained about for last year. This year, especially, the convention really hit its stride for using the space in the convention center. How do you feel about that? Is there any special challenges or anything that you guys looked at?

Brian Cutler: Sure. So, thank you for that feedback because a large amount of work that went into planning for this year was trying to figure out how best to better utilize the space to spread our membership throughout the buildings better. Because we had a lot of feedback last year about the lining situations. And our opening the back of L Street in the south building as well as enabling a better line situation in the Marriott really did alleviate the concerns. I think that there's still some room for improvement in a couple areas, but overall we're extremely pleased with the turnout of the new ingress plans. Again, it's a huge help. The funniest thing I heard all weekend was someone was in line for ten minutes waiting for a drink and they said, "This is the worst line I've been in all weekend!"

Doug: That's...

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AnimeCons TV - Otakon 2023 Report

Otakon 2023 returned to Washington, DC and Doug returned to see Macross, go to panels, check out the maker space, and see how lines have improved.

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AnimeCons TV - Beau Billingslea Interview

Actor Beau Billingslea, best known as Jet Black in Cowboy Bebop, shares his thoughts on being recognized for his voice, interacting with fans, and making a difference in lives through the characters he plays.

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FanCons.com Database Passes 20,000 Conventions

Today, the FanCons.com convention database has passed the 20,000 convention milestone. The database began in October 2003 to power AnimeCons.com, but expanded beyond anime conventions with the creation of FanCons.com in early 2012. The 10,000th convention was added in December 2017.

The 20,000th convention to be added was LumaCon 2023 which is scheduled to take place in January 2023 in Petaluma, California. LumaCon is a small, free one-day comic convention organized by librarians in Petaluma. The convention is targeted toward kids and features an artists' alley with professional artists mixed in among local student artists. 2023 will be LumaCon's eighth year of in-person events (in addition to two online-only events during the COVID-19 pandemic).

The FanCons.com site also has a database of guests which passed 7,500 guests just over a month ago and has recently added such notable guests as actor Oscar Isaac and horror movie host Svengoolie.

We plan to continue cataloging information on the next 20,000 conventions around the world and adding historical information on past conventions going as far back as the first known fan convention back in 1889. There are still many, many more conventions out there. Any convention organizers who don't see their conventions listed can submit them. ...

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AnimeCons TV - Otakon 2022 Report

Otakon 2022 was held in Washington, DC and Doug returned to learn how they dealt with the pandemic, check out the maker space, watch some sake tasting, and play some video games.

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AnimeCons TV - Anne Yatco Interview

Voice actor Anne Yatco sat down with Doug at Otakon 2021 to talk about attending her first convention as a fan as well as some work experience.

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AnimeCons TV - Anime Boston Returns After COVID

Anime Boston's chair, Kristen Leiding, returns to AnimeCons TV to talk about bringing back the convention after a three-year hiatus due to COVID-19.

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AnimeCons TV - Katy Hunt of Convention Confessional

Host of the Convention Confessional podcast, Katy Hunt, gets the podcasting table flipped and is a guest on AnimeCons TV after all our hosts have been on her podcast.

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