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—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

Otakon 2024 took place in Washington, DC this past August. Doug returned for his 24th Otakon and Elizabeth returned for the first time since 2012. They share their perspectives and insights into Otakon's 30th year celebration.

Read more...

FanCons.com Reaches Milestone with 25,000 Conventions

On December 17th, FanCons.com reached a significant achievement as its convention database surpassed 25,000 entries. Launched in October 2003 as AnimeCons.com, the database initially focused on anime conventions before expanding in 2012 to include events from a broader range of genres, leading to the creation of FanCons.com.

The database has grown steadily over the years, reaching 5,000 conventions in June 2014, 10,000 by December 2017and 15,000 by March 2020. By October 2022, it had surpassed 20,000 conventions, and with the recent addition of the 25,000th entry, the site continues to serve as an invaluable resource for convention enthusiasts worldwide.

The 25,000th entry was Con Nichiwa 2024, an anime convention hosted by Monkey Paw Entertainment in Tucson, Arizona, in November 2024. This convention is one of several retroactively added during a week-long review process to ensure that no past or upcoming events were missed.

While Con Nichiwa 2024 marks the milestone convention, it highlights the ongoing effort to ensure that conventions of all sizes and genres are accurately represented in the database. The inclusion of retroactive entries like this demonstrates the site's commitment to being as comprehensive as possible in its coverage of fan conventions.

In addition to conventions, FanCons.com also tracks convention guests, with 8,693 entries, including notable...

Read more...

Essential Pages for Every Convention Web Site

Having looked at literally every convention web site in order to add them to FanCons.com, I've seen a lot of great web sites and plenty of terrible ones. Sometimes a site might be designed well, but missing essential information. Other times, the convention might have a bare-bones design, but they at least have all the information out there.

Mandatory Pages

There are some pages which should always be included:

1. A Home Page
   Obviously. Can you even have a web site without a home page? In any case, this will likely be the first page people see, so it should always include essential information:
   • Name of the convention
     Pick a spelling, spacing, and capitalization and stick with it. Avoid referring to yourself as "YattaCon", "Yatacon", "Yattakon", and "Yatta Con" in different places.
   • Dates of the convention
     Include the year too so that people know it's up-to-date and not leftover from last year.
   • Location of the convention
     Be specific and give the full hotel name and the town. Make sure to include the full name of the hotel since if you're just saying "Holiday Inn" and there are two Holiday Inns in town, people might go to the wrong one!
   • Convention description
     Tell people what your convention is and don't assume they'll figure it out. It's amazing how many convention web sites don't do this simple thing. All you really need is a paragraph which says something along the lines of, "Founded in 2005, YattaCon is an anime and tabletop gaming convention with a regionally recognized cosplay contest, 25,000 sq ft dealers' room, and an artists' alley featuring over 250 independent artists."
   Although some smaller cons will squeeze all their information onto the home page, at some point it

   Read more...

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...

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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...

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...