Anime Fandom In Minnesota: A Partial History

[wombat_socho]

One of the things that's mystified me (when I've had time to think about it) is why TCAAMS* never got a convention going here in the Twin Towns of Terror. They were organized enough to get 501(c)(3) status, which we're still working on. They had at least as many members as we did when we incorporated last year, raised the money to acquire a number of video projectors...and never got around to putting a convention together, which I think is what may have killed them as an organization.

Whatever the reason, we seem to have picked up most of their active members as members of the convention, if not the parent non-profit, and it occurred to me that I might save myself some skull sweat and paperwork time if ATC does a merger/takeover of TCAAMS. They have some assets, and we can certainly make them an offer of some sort. According to TJ, they didn't hold an annual meeting this year and technically have no officers, but we'll talk with last year's club leaders and see if we can work something out. There's a few grand in sales tax we could put to better use, there is.

*Twin Cities Anime And Manga Society.

Comments

[tokenfanboy.livejournal.com]

I don't know if they had organized a convention back then if it would have been nearly as successful as Anime Detour was. A lot has changed in the anime and fandom communities in the past 5-6 year. Anime fandom has finally reached a critical mass where anime-only conventions can not only be successful, but VERY successful. The largest Anime cons are some of the biggest conventions in the nation nowadays. It's mainly being fueled by a new generation of young anime-only fans that haven't been burnt out on fandom by the continuing stagnation of the Star Trek franchise.

Anime used to be a subset of SF. Now it seems to be taking over. I think a big part of the appeal is that it doesn't get stale because there is always new and different shows are coming out all the time. You aren't stuck with the same writers/producers rehashing the same old plots/characters like Rick Berman's last 10 years of Star Trek have been.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it wouldn't have been as successful interms of the number of people it attracted, but a TCAAMS convention might have been successful in the way that the early Minicons or Anime Iowa conventions were - profitable (or at least not losing too much money) and a rallying point for local fans.

While there's a lot of SF and fantasy content in anime and manga, it's also worth remembering that not all of it does have that kind fo content. Series like Maison Ikkoku and Princess Nine have done well, as has Marmalade Boy. Granted, we don't see people cosplaying as those characters much, but it is a subset of anime & manga fandom that deserves attention. Having spent time in media fandom, and starting out as an old-line SF fan, I feel obligated to point out to younger fans SF and fantasy series they might like to read while waiting for the next new thing from Japan. :)

[tokenfanboy.livejournal.com]

It might have been nice for Anime Detour to have started off a little smaller than it did. A couple of smaller practice years might have been nice but at least some of the staff has worked on things like AI, MarsCon, and CONvergence before. Plus now we all have 1 year of AD under our belts. Hopefully we can recruit a lot more actual staff members for next year to ease the burden. I do see a lot of growth potential for the con.

The variety of genres in anime is one of it's appeals to be sure. Things like Noir, Gunsmith Cats, and His and Her Circumstances aren't SF/Fantasy either. I almost bought Princess 9 at Anime Detour. It's a great show. Amiee has the complete series.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Yes, you could definitely make the argument that Anime Detour started off with more of a bang than we thought it would. I cringe when I think how it would have gone if none of us had had any experience at other conventions - but in that case I don't think we would have been stupid/brave enough to try it. People seem to be very interested in joining the staff and we certainly got a good turnout of volunteers - the challenge for next year will be handling the volunteers better and integrating the new staff with the core staff so that things go more smoothly next year. I think we're up to it.

*nods* Manga and anime cover as wide a range of genres as regular literature does here in the States, even if the bulk of the attention from TV and distributors goes to the SF/fantasy titles.

Still waiting for ADV (or somebody) to do "Yawara!",
Kevin