Mini-Animania ‘08

30Mar08

Mini-Animania is the smallest Sydney anime convention on the current calendar. Being held over one day at the Citigate Hotel, it holds upto its name of “Mini” quite well, too well infact (you could say it was the theme of the day). Having been to Mini last year, I knew pretty much what to expect from the convention: Not much. But it seems that many people didn’t seem to share that same wisdom, but more on that later.

(Before I go on, I’ve loaded up a Thesaurus for variations of the word “Mini” :p)

Mini-Animania for me started back in February, with having to apply for a stall at the convention for my club (the window for which was…diminutive). Similarly, the Pre-Registration window for the event was considerably minute, lasting for a matter of days I believe with most people not realising it was up until it was all but too late. This meant that the majority of people coming to Mini had to pay the full registration asking price of $25, something I had said would be a deterrent to the majority of anime fans.

It seems I understated the wallets of anime fans.

When I strolled up on that bright, Saturday morning at 8:30 (an hour before the event was scheduled to start) there was already a line outside the hotel (albeit a reduced line of about 8 people). Once inside, I greeted my comrades and convention regulars from other clubs (JAUWS, SUAnime and the ex-AUNSW Pinin peeps) and proceeded to “setup” the stall.

UTS Stall. Jay and Steven look like their watching some kind of yaoi action.

/b/tards ‘R us JAUWS!

SUAnime

Setting up in less than 15 mins (a limited time, cause that’s how UTS rolls), we had ample time to walk around and view the other stalls and their items. As is always the case with Mini-Animania, the number of vendors was decidedly…small. I had basically picked out what I wanted to buy (and proceeded to buy them) just as the general public came trickling in.

As far as events were concerned, there was the standard convention affair: Cosplay, Karaoke (which I believe Janet won…again), Games, Anime Screenings, etc., but that was it. You could say their events list was…humble.I’m generally not interested in the majority of these things, but even if I were I don’t think I would’ve gone to see them at this convention. You could say there was a… modest amount of space in the venue, which was indirect contrast to the one thing that wasn’t “Mini” about Mini-Animania: The crowd.

There was a stupidly large amount of people who attended Mini-Animania this year. The major traffic routes were blocked, particularly around the main stage room (which wasn’t helped with Pinin being right next to the door) and it became overly difficult to get anywhere in the hotel. I remember quite distinctly during last year’s Mini-Animania, I could stroll into the main stage room and find seats unfilled and plenty of room to move around, even at the height of the cosplay comp. I hadn’t dared to venture into the dark depths of the crowd during cosplay, but some of my photographer friends remarked that there was very little space to maneuver around the stage (with spots being taken by non-photographers). And oddly enough, the line outside seemed to never end. At 10am, the line to get in still stretched around the corner. By 12, it was just beginning to show signs of its strength wavering.

Of course, this was counteracted by the scaled-down nature of the rest of the convention. Many a time did I overhear conversations asking “Is this all there is?”. Yes, that is all there is. One con-goer remarked that groups of people were already on their way out while he was still in line at about 10:30. That image pretty much sums up Mini-Animania.

The Sydney anime community is growing, there’s no doubt of that. But that doesn’t explain the sheer volume increase of people this year. Maybe it has to do with the expectations of anime fans in recent times. With SMASH having been introduced to the convention calendar last year and being quite a success, has the community expectations changed? Like Mini-Animania, SMASH is a one-day convention, but there was nothing “Mini” about SMASH. SMASH had a bigger venue, more vendors (even if their focus was more on artists) and more stuff happening. And on top of that, it was significantly cheaper at $9 - $12. With the introduction of competition, Animania will have to up their game to match SMASH (but for the price of entry, they have to exceed SMASH) or else face some kind of community backlash.

But for those of us experienced in conventions, we don’t go to these things for the events or the vendors. We go for the people. And this was a nice chance to catch up with people I don’t regularly see, particularly those from other clubs (JAUWS and SUAnime). Of course, AUNSW and AnimeMQ weren’t around this year, so I’ll have to wait til the next convention to catch up with some of those people. But still, its nice to see and catch up with people you don’t regularly see.

Sid drawing

Greetings strange creature, we come from the West.

Matt has a different angle on life.

Steven wasn’t satisfied with just watch yaoi.

Conventions always offer a reprieve from the outside world. You can get lost in the quirky and zany nature of the community and forget about the rest of society. At conventions, you aren’t an outcast, you aren’t abnormal. Afterward though, the real world comes flooding back in and can leave you in a bit of a lull as you get along with your normal life. But at least you know that every now and then, you can retreat back to your inner geek and revel in the otakuism.

For more pictures:

• Moe Moe Rabu - Adun’s blog

- Dom
Take me wandering through these streets, where bright lights and angels meet.

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