FanimeCon

FanimeCon
above	FanimeCon
aboveclass	navbox-title
captionstyle	font-size: smaller;
label1	Status
data1	Active
label2	Genre
label3	Venue
data3	San Jose Convention Center Wikibase not found. Fatal error: The format of the coordinate could not be determined. Parsing failed. Fatal error: The format of the coordinate could not be determined. Parsing failed.
label4	Location
data4	San Jose, California
label5	Country
data5	United States
label6	First held
data6	1994
label7	Last held
label8	Organizer
label9	Filing status
label10	Attendance
data10	14,928 in 2008
label11	Official website
data11	http://www.fanime.com/
FanimeCon
italic title	¬

FanimeCon (also known as simply Fanime) is an annual anime convention run by the Anime Resource Group (ARG). It is the largest anime convention in Northern California and one of the ten largest anime conventions in North America. Originally conceived by Aaron Pilgrim as a gathering of local anime clubs in Northern California, the first one was held at California State University, Hayward. The anime clubs at that first Fanime were Beefbowl Anime, Chabot Anime, Foothill Anime and No-Name Anime.

Later, it was held at the Foothill College campus in Los Altos Hills, and it then moved to the Santa Clara Convention Center. In 2004, FanimeCon was held in the San Jose Convention Center over Memorial Day weekend where it generated more than $5M in local economic impact. The convention continues to be held annually at that location.

Programming

FanimeCon features events including artist's alley, a masquerade ("Der Cosplay"), AMV contest, swap meet, game show, karaoke, video gaming, tabletop gaming, dances, and musical performances. Big attractions include celebrity guests, such as Hiroyuki Yamaga, the Japanese writer-director-producer famous for the film The Wings of Honneamise. There are also panels scheduled on a wide range of topics including anime blogs, pocky, and how to make shoes and boots for costumes. FanimeCon also includes round-the-clock video programming.

History

File:Capcom & SNK good vs. evil characters at FanimeCon 2010-05-30 1.JPG

Cosplayers at FanimeCon 2010 portraying characters from Street Fighter and The King of Fighters during a photo shoot.

FanimeCon was first held on June 19, 1994 at California State University, Hayward in Hayward, California as a free anime convention. FanimeCon stayed at California State University until 1996 when the convention moved to Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. Anime Resource Group (ARG) was formed the same year as the parent organization. 1996 was also the first year the convention became a paid event.

Hiroyuki Yamaga became FanimeCon's first Japanese guest of honor in 1997. The programming expanded to include an art show, a cosplay show, an anime game show, and live music. In 1998 FanimeCon expanded to two days and became a three day convention the following year. FanimeCon moved to the Santa Clara Convention Center in 2000 where it stayed for four years before moving to the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in 2004.

Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
June 19, 1994	California State University, Hayward Hayward, California	200
February 25, 1995	California State University, Hayward Hayward, California	350	Carl Gustav Horn and Fred Schodt.
February 14, 1996	Foothill College Los Altos Hills, California	775	Greg Espinoza, Allen Hastings, Carl Gustav Horn, Fred Schodt, Toren Smith, and Toshifumi Yoshida.
March 8, 1997	Foothill College Los Altos Hills, California	1,200	Allen Hastings, Carl Gustav Horn, Fred Schodt, Toren Smith, and Hiroyuki Yamaga.
February 14–15, 1998	Foothill College Los Altos Hills, California	1,700	Allen Hastings, Kuni Kimura, Scott McNeil, and Hiroyuki Yamaga.
March 19–21, 1999	Windham Hotel San Jose, California	2,000	Steve Bennett, Allen Hastings, Mari Iijima, Gilles Poitras, and Hiroyuki Yamaga.
February 24–27, 2000	Santa Clara Convention Center Santa Clara, California	2,300	Steve Bennett, Allen Hastings, Mari Iijima, Fred Patten, Gilles Poitras, Stan Sakai, and Hiroyuki Yamaga.
March 30 – April 1, 2001	Santa Clara Convention Center Santa Clara, California	3,500	Steve Bennett, Tiffany Grant, Allen Hastings, Mari Iijima, Taliesin Jaffe, Fred Patten, Stan Sakai, Fred Schodt, Jonathan C. Osborne, and Hiroyuki Yamaga.
April 26–28, 2002	Santa Clara Convention Center Santa Clara, California	4,600	Takami Akai, Steve Bennett, Tiffany Grant, Carl Gustav Horn, Mari Iijima, Jonathan C. Osborne, Gilles Poitras, and Hiroyuki Yamaga.
June 20–22, 2003	Santa Clara Convention Center Santa Clara, California	5,400	13-37, B! Machine, Laura Bailey, Steve Bennett, Blood, Akitaroh Daichi, DJ MPU, Rebecca Forstadt, Allen Hastings, Sato Hiroki, Tsurumaki Kazuya, Kawamura Maria, Matt K. Miller, Jonathan C. Osborne, Gilles Poitras, Kristine Sa, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Secret Secret, Stephanie Sheh, Kari Wahlgren, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Reiko Yasuhara, and Yasuhiro Takeda.
May 28–31, 2004	San Jose McEnery Convention Center San Jose, California	6,122	Beautiful Losers, Blood, Camino, Duel Jewel, Fred Gallagher, Allen Hastings, Akemi Hayashi, You Higuri, Hiroaki Inoue, Jonathan C. Osborne, Gilles Poitras, Fred Schodt, Nami Tamaki, J. Shanon Weaver, and Hiroyuki Yamaga.
May 27–30, 2005	San Jose McEnery Convention Center San Jose, California	10,438	Steve Bennett, Kumiko Kato, Ric Meyers, Jonathan C. Osborne, Gilles Poitras, Ramen and Rice, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Maria Yamamoto, and ZZ.
May 26–29, 2006	San Jose McEnery Convention Center San Jose, California	10,000	Akai SKY, Goofy Style, Kamijo, Ryoichi Koga, Miami, Takahiro Mizushima, Mothercoat, Ric Meyers, Gilles Poitras, Jonathan C. Osborne, Poplar, Rooster Teeth Productions, Asami Sanada, Swinging Popsicle, Kazuhiro Takamura, Up Hold, USA Musume, and Hiroyuki Yamaga.
May 25–28, 2007	San Jose McEnery Convention Center San Jose, California	12,000	Crack 6, Greg Dean, Ryan Gavigan, Carl Gustav Horn, Mari Iijima, Sekihiko Inui, Karma Shenjing, Reuben Langdon, Derek Liu, MECHANiCAL PANDA, Ric Meyers, Jonathan C. Osborne, Gilles Poitras, Asami Sanada, Hiroyuki Yamaga, and ZZ.
May 23–26, 2008	San Jose McEnery Convention Center San Jose, California	14,926	An Cafe, Ryan Gavigan, Carl Gustav Horn, Hidenobu Kiuchi, Reuben Langdon, Ric Meyers, Maika Netsu, Jonathan C. Osborne, Gilles Poitras, Dan Southworth, and Richard Waugh.
May 22–25, 2009	San Jose McEnery Convention Center San Jose, California	15,000	Haruko Momoi, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Ken Lally, Reuben Langdon, Patricia Ja Lee, Carl Gustav Horn, Gilles Poitras, Jonathan C. Osborne, Keith Burgess, Ric Meyers, and Ryan Gavigan.
May 28–31, 2010	San Jose McEnery Convention Center San Jose, California		LM.C, Haruko Momoi, Daisuke Ishiwatari, Toshimichi Mori, Mamoru Yokota, FLOW, Reuben Langdon, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Carl Gustav Horn, Gilles Poitras, Jonathan C. Osborne, Keith Burgess, Ric Meyers, Ryan Gavigan, Karen Dyer

External links

• Official website
• Foothill Anime
• No-Name Anime

Convention reports

• FanimeCon 2004: You Comics Maniac! -- But you have to go home sometime," LatinoLA.com, June 2004

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