Recent Updates

What's Going On With Anime Detour?

If I had a nickel for every Midwestern anime con whose non-profit leadership and now-former-convention leadership have been in conflict and recently got lawyers involved, then I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that there's two of them. The first is Ohayocon and the 501(c)(3) that governs it, Cultural Exchange Society Inc. (CESI). The full story is a bit on the longer side, but suffice to say, it began in earnest with a logo dispute. And like a long row of increasingly large dominos falling one after the other, this eventually led to mass resignations and a movement to boycott the con. A number of the con's now-former senior leaders have since risen from the ashes to form Sekai Guild, and are launching a new anime con called Sekaicon, whose inaugural event is currently scheduled to take place April 11-13, 2025 in Newark, OH. Following the incidents that took place in 2023 and 2024, CESI recently filed a lawsuit against Sekai Guild, who soon filed a response. Nerd & Tie's Trae Dorn summarizes here and here. But interesting as that all is, it's not what we're here to learn about today. Rather, that would be the other anime con in question: Minnesota's own Anime...

Read more...

FanCons.com Announces Update to Policy for Listed Events

As 2024 draws to a close, we are taking a look back on the year and setting some goals for the next year of the FanCons.com site. In 2024, we listed 2,008 events. This is a significant increase from ten years ago when we only listed 864 events. In fact, we've consistently listed around 2,000 events each year for the past five years. With so many conventions and a small volunteer staff, it's become increasingly difficult to keep up.

After reviewing our options and the types of information being submitted, we've decided to make some changes to our policies to better align with the original purpose of the site.

I launched AnimeCons.com in late 2003 as a site intended to list every known anime convention—past, present, and future. In that year, there were 147 anime conventions. (It's possible a few were missed initially and added later.) Over the years, the number of anime conventions grew, and the distinction between anime conventions and other "pop-culture" conventions began to blur. I started receiving more and more submissions for conventions that were anime-adjacent, making it increasingly difficult to determine which events should be listed and which should be excluded.

At the beginning of 2012, I launched FanCons.com to address this issue. While both sites shared a common database, AnimeCons.com would only display conventions with anime programming, while FanCons.com expanded to include any type of fan convention. This allowed submissions for comic, furry, horror, sci-fi, and other conventions. A few years later, I created specific sites for some of these sub-genres, making it easier for fans to find conventions focused on fantasy, furry, Read more...

AnimeCons TV - Otakon 2024 Report