fancons

[fancons]

Otakon Asks for Donations To Avoid Closing Forever

Otakorp, the parent company of Otakon, has sent out a newsletter which conveys rather dire circumstances for the future of the convention. In it, Otakorp President Brooke Zerrlaut states that they will need to "make a decision to continue planning for Otakon 2021, or potentially close our doors forever." The convention is seeking donations to help strengthen its finances.

The full text of the message is as follows. (Emphasis is theirs.)

A Message from the President As much as we hope you love coming to Otakon, we love making it happen even more. We were devastated to have to cancel Otakon 2020. In a year where so much was going wrong, we held onto every chance to do something positive, but were ultimately unable to do so due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we turn the page on 2020, we're hopeful and looking forward to a better 2021.

Now, more than ever, Otakorp needs your help.

As you may be aware, Otakon is the annual convention of Otakorp, Inc. Otakorp is an all-volunteer run, nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational organization, whose mission is to promote the appreciation of Asian culture and its fandom, primarily through its media (anime, manga, music, movies, video games, etc.). As a volunteer organization, every dollar that we make from our memberships goes towards realizing that mission to promote and celebrate Asian culture, and our largest event is our annual meeting - Otakon. We use the proceeds from each year to plan the next Otakon and make sure we survive until then. So without the income from Otakon 2020, and the early pre-registrations we would normally see at this time of year, we are in a very precarious position. Put simply, in the next few months we will have to make a decision to continue planning for Otakon 2021, or potentially close our doors forever.

We are hopeful. Our decision will come at a pivotal time during the rollout of the vaccine. We continue to work with our partners in DC to explore options to safely gather later this year. In the meantime, family, friendship, and community are more important than ever to stay connected. Because of this, it is even more crucial that we do not fail in our mission.

That is why we are reaching out for the first time ever, and asking you to help us continue our work together. Otakon and Otakorp have always existed because of you, the community that has funded, advocated, volunteered, and celebrated with us since the beginning. We recognize that this comes at a time when we all continue to face great challenges. Your generosity will enable us to survive to continue planning for our next events, just as soon as it is safe to do so.

Making a 100% tax-deductible donation, large or small, is the safest, simplest, and most effective way to support our organization and Otakon as we adapt to ever-changing circumstances due to COVID-19.

We have shared so many experiences over the years and we hope to be able to share many more. It is because of you that we continue to strive to live up to our motto - By fans, for fans.

Thank You!!

Brooke Zerrlaut President, Otakorp, Inc.

Most conventions have cancelled in the last year with many of them needing to wait for the government to prohibit conventions from taking place in order for the convention to take advantage of a "force majeure" clause in contracts. This clause allows the convention to be cancelled without cancellation fees or penalties. In the event the government hasn't prohibited conventions from taking place during the pandemic, this would force a convention to either cancel (paying large cancellation fees) or take place (potentially putting people at risk and having reduced attendance). It's a difficult position that may affect more conventions going forward.

Last May, our AnimeCons TV podcast interviewed the Otakon 2020 Convention Chair and the 2020 Otakorp President. The episode may be watched on the animecons.tv site or on YouTube.

from FanCons.com

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It Took Longer, but May 2020 Is the Second Conventionless Month Since 1974

On April 9th, we announced that April 2020 was the first conventionless month in over 40 years as the final convention scheduled for that month was cancelled. After some research, we found there hadn't been another calendar month without any sort of fan convention since at least January 1974.

Most May 2020 conventions had already been cancelled or postponed by the start of the month, but the second half of the month still had some conventions that were holding out and had not announced cancellations. The final convention on the calendar was a comic convention in Miami, Florida that was still scheduled for May 30th. Yesterday, on the 26th day of May (or what feels like the 87th day of March), they updated their web site and social media with their new date for the increasingly popular weekend of October 10th while never actually mentioning the old date was cancelled.

Although our database of old conventions is incomplete, the last time we have a record of there being two consecutive calendar months without any conventions was back in December 1973 and January 1974. If you know of any conventions held in those months (or any we're missing in our database from any year), please let us know!

This weekend will be the 11th consecutive weekend without any conventions taking place anywhere on the planet. As of publication time, the next scheduled convention is North Texas RPG Con, a gaming convention being held June 4-7 in Irving, Texas. According to their Facebook group, they still plan to move forward with the event, but have moved most games online and estimate that in-person attendance will be under 100 people with games limited to no more than 6 people per table.

The following weekend in June also only has a single convention. Currently, there are only 16 conventions left on the calendar for all of June 2020. Keep checking our convention listing on FanCons.com for the latest updates on cancellations, postponements, and new dates.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

April 2020 Is the First Conventionless Month in Over 40 Years

The Coronavirus pandemic first started affecting conventions scheduled for the weekend of March 7th and 8th when San Jose Super Toy & Comic Book Show and Paris Manga & Sci-Fi Show were cancelled. By the following weekend, a majority of the conventions had cancelled or postponed and 13 remained. Between the time the last convention ended on the evening of March 15, 2020 and the publication of this article, no other fan convention has taken place anywhere in the world...and none are still scheduled for weeks.

Conventions have continued to announce cancellations or postponements as the weeks have continued while the world sits at home in various states of quarantine. Some conventions announced plans to hold an "online convention" while most have shut down and started making plans for their next event later in the year or next year. Many cancelled conventions have also published lists of artists and vendors that would have been at the convention as a way to encourage online sales and support those small businesses.

As the weeks of social distancing, sheltering-in-place, and quarantine have continued, concerned attendees have ranged from understanding to outrage in reaction to announcements from their favorite conventions. Many conventions have had to wait for the government to force their venue to close in order to trigger the force majeure (or "act of God") clause in their contracts. This clause releases conventions from penalties that they may have to pay to the venue if they had cancelled the convention on their own. Some attendees, especially in the early weeks of the pandemic, were quite impatient that conventions weren't publicly cancelling their events. Breaking the contract to cancel the convention would, in many cases, bankrupt the convention and cause it to never return.

We're now coming up upon the fourth straight weekend without a single fan convention being held anywhere on the planet. The number of conventions in April dropped off quite quickly and we received confirmation today from the final two events that they have been cancelled. April 2020 is now a conventionless month. Although our convention database is incomplete, especially in regard to convention data in the 20th century, this is the first calendar month without any convention since at least October 1979. (If you know of any conventions held in October 1979 (or any we're missing in our database from any year), please let us know!)

Currently, there are still three conventions scheduled for the first weekend in May, but we wouldn't be surprised to see them cancel or postpone. Keep checking our convention listing on FanCons.com for the latest updates on cancellations, postponements, and new dates.

UPDATE: A previous version of this article cited December 1988 as the last time there was a month without a convention. We have since filled in some blanks and gone as far back as October 1979.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

April 2020 Is the First Conventionless Month in Over 30 Years

The Coronavirus pandemic first started affecting conventions scheduled for the weekend of March 7th and 8th when San Jose Super Toy & Comic Book Show and Paris Manga & Sci-Fi Show were cancelled. By the following weekend, a majority of the conventions had cancelled or postponed and 13 remained. By the time the last convention ended on the evening of March 15, 2020, no other fan convention has taken place anywhere in the world.

Conventions have continued to announce cancellations or postponements as the weeks have continued while the world sits at home in various states of quarantine. Some conventions announced plans to hold an "online convention" while most shut down and start making plans for their next event later in the year or next year. Many cancelled conventions have also published lists of artists and vendors that would have been at the convention as a way to encourage online sales and support those small businesses.

As the weeks of social distancing, sheltering-in-place, and quarantine have continued, concerned attendees have ranged from understanding to outrage in reaction to announcements from their favorite conventions. Many conventions have had to wait for the government to force their venue to close in order to trigger the force majeure (or "act of God") clause in their contracts. This clause releases conventions from penalties that they may have to pay to the venue if they had cancelled the convention on their own. Some attendees, especially in the early weeks of the pandemic, were quite impatient that conventions weren't publicly cancelling their events. Breaking the contract to cancel the convention would, in many cases, bankrupt the convention and cause it to never return.

We're now coming up upon the fourth straight weekend without a single fan convention being held anywhere on the planet. The number of conventions in April dropped off quite quickly and we received confirmation today from the final two events that they have been cancelled. April 2020 is now a conventionless month. Although our convention database is incomplete, especially in regard to convention data in the 20th century, this is the first calendar month without any convention since at least December 1988. (If you know of any conventions held in December 1988, please let us know!)

Currently, there are still three conventions scheduled for the first weekend in May, but we wouldn't be surprised to see them cancel or postpone. Keep checking our convention listing on FanCons.com for the latest updates on cancellations, postponements, and new dates.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Most Anime Convention Guest Appearances of 2019

Back in July, we ran some queries against our guest database to put together a list of the guests who had made the most guest appearances at anime conventions each year from 2014 through 2018. We also published a list for the first half of 2019. With 2019 behind us, we can now publish a complete list of the 25 guests who made the most anime convention guest appearances in 2019.

The list is as follows:

Morgan Berry (20 guest appearances)

J. Michael Tatum (20)

Greg Ayres (18)

Justin Briner (18)

Samurai Dan Coglan (16)

Steve Blum (15)

Luci Christian (15)

Josh Grelle (15)

Derek Stephen Prince (15)

Ray Chase (14)

Robbie Daymond (14)

Kohei Hattori (14)

Brittney Karbowski (14)

The Manly Battleships (14)

Max Mittelman (14)

Phil Mizuno (14)

Paul St. Peter (14)

Todd Haberkorn (13)

Lauren Landa (13)

Chris Sabat (13)

Christopher Wehkamp (13)

Charles Dunbar (12)

Caitlin Glass (12)

Kazha (12)

Monica Rial (12)

Out of fairness, we've excluded cosplay groups such as the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion, and Mandalorian Mercs which contain many members around the world and are able to attend multiple events in the same weekend on a regular basis.

The above list only takes anime conventions into consideration and does not count guests or guest appearances at other conventions such as comic, horror, or science fiction conventions because, at this time, our guest data on these conventions is not complete enough to form such an analysis on guests of non-anime conventions. Cancelled appearances, cancelled conventions, and video-only guest appearances do not count towards the total.

As always, our list of the all-time record holders can be found on our main Guests page. For more information on any of these guests and what conventions they might have coming up next, visit AnimeCons.com.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Anime Convention Guest Appearances by Year

We've done some searching in our guest database to put together a list of the guests who have made the most appearances at anime conventions for the last few years.

2014:

Chuck Huber (26)

Vic Mignogna (26)

Kyle Hebert (24)

Samurai Dan Coglan (23)

Todd Haberkorn (22)

J. Michael Tatum (21)

Jillian Coglan* (19)

Greg Ayres (17)

Martin Billany (17)

Greg Wicker (17)

Chris Cason (16)

Caitlin Glass (16)

2015:

Todd Haberkorn (24)

Chuck Huber (23)

Kyle Hebert (22)

Vic Mignogna (22)

Greg Wicker (22)

Greg Ayres (21)

Samurai Dan Coglan (20)

Jillian Coglan* (17)

Charles Dunbar (17)

Josh Grelle (17)

Cristina Vee (16)

David Vincent (16)

2016:

Vic Mignogna (25)

Charles Dunbar (23)

Todd Haberkorn (23)

Greg Wicker (23)

Greg Ayres (22)

Samurai Dan Coglan (20)

Kyle Hebert (20)

Chuck Huber (17)

Lauren Landa (17)

Erica Mendez (17)

Eric Stuart (17)

2017:

Samurai Dan Coglan (25)

Vic Mignogna (23)

Greg Ayres (20)

Greg Wicker (19)

Jillian Coglan* (18)

Kyle Hebert (18)

Charles Dunbar (17)

Johnny Yong Bosch (15)

Josh Grelle (15)

Todd Haberkorn (15)

2018:

Vic Mignogna (26)

Samurai Dan Coglan (20)

Greg Ayres (19)

J. Michael Tatum (19)

Josh Grelle (18)

Todd Haberkorn (18)

Charles Dunbar (17)

Cherami Leigh (16)

Monica Rial (16)

Vitamin H Productions (16)

Ray Chase (15)

Brice Papenbrook (15)

2019 (through July 11, 2019):

Josh Grelle (12)

J. Michael Tatum (11)

Todd Haberkorn (10)

Samurai Dan Coglan (9)

Charles Dunbar (9)

The Manly Battleships (9)

Greg Ayres (8)

Steve Blum (8)

Brittney Karbowski (8)

Phil Mizuno (8)

Derek Stephen Prince (8)

Alexis Tipton (8)

Christopher Wehkamp (8)

* Some conventions list "Samurai Dan and Jillian" as guests and others only list "Samurai Dan". Jillian's count comes from only those conventions that include her in guest listings. ** We've excluded cosplay groups such as the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion, and Mandalorian Mercs which are able to attend multiple events in the same weekend on a regular basis.

As always, our list of the all-time record holders can be found on our main Guests page. For more information on any of these guests and what conventions they might have coming up next, visit AnimeCons.com.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Convention Planner Ryan Kopf Banned from Anime Milwaukee Following Sexual Assault Allegations

Anime Milwaukee issued a statement yesterday informing attendees that Ryan Kopf, CEO of AnimeCon.org, has been banned from their convention after an alleged incident of sexual assault at their 2018 convention which ended up involving the Milwaukee Police Department. A police report was filed. When Anime News Network attempted to obtain a copy of the report, it was denied in order to protect "the right of privacy of the victim or victim's family members".

An article published today on Anime News Network details this incident as well as a police report alleging he committed forcible rape in 2013 at his Anime-zing convention. The article mentions other allegations of sexual misconduct have been posted on social media. When contacted by Anime News Network, Mr. Kopf denied the allegations saying, "I fully intend to pursue holding accountable those who have continued to repeat defamatory statements about me."

Ryan Kopf has also been suing Trae Dorn, Pher Sturz, and Nerd & Tie for defamation since 2015.

Following the most recent sexual assault allegations, The Pillowcases have stated on Twitter that they will no longer perform at Kopf's conventions until he is removed from staff. Lewis Lovhaug has stated on his site that although he is unable to drop out of this year's Anime Midwest convention due to contractual obligations, he will not attend any future convention chaired by Ryan Kopf.

We would like to emphasize that AnimeCons.com is in no way and has never been associated with Ryan Kopf, AnimeCon.org, or any of its staff or employees. AnimeCons.com launched in 2003 and obtained the AnimeCons.org domain in 2006 and has redirected that domain to AnimeCons.com since then. AnimeCon.org was first registered in 2010 and is an organization run by Ryan Kopf which organizes conventions including Anime-Zap, Kanpai!Con, AniMinneapolis, Anime Midwest, Anime-zing, MetaCon, and Con+Alt+Delete. Mr. Kopf is also involved in some form or another with other conventions such as Liberty City Anime Con, AniMore, and Star City Anime. He also runs the web sites UpcomingCons.com and MaiOtaku.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Most of Vic Mignogna's Convention Appearances Cancelled

In light of multiple recent allegations of "unwanted physical advances", "rude behavior", and "unsolicited physical affection", almost all convention appearances for Vic Mignogna were cancelled.

Mignogna, best known as the voice of Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist, has made more convention guest appearances than anyone else currently in the FanCons.com guest database. In 2018, he was a guest at 34 conventions. He had made two guest appearances in 2019 before the allegations were brought into the spotlight by an article on Anime News Network.

Days after his appearance at a number of future conventions had been cancelled, Mignogna made an appearance at Bak-Anime where he offered an apology in a panel which was recorded by fans. Following that convention appearance, several additional allegations came forward. It was announced by both Rooster Teeth and Funimation that Mignogna would not be cast in any future roles. His number of guest cancellations currently totals thirteen conventions. Only four conventions still have Mignogna on their guest list.

Tupelo Con, one of the remaining four, has stated, "We are currently reviewing the allegations and talking to fans through our page so that we can make the best decision for our fans and event. We will be making a final decision soon based on the information we have seen so far, and the fan base. We should have an announcement within the next couple of days regarding our findings and decision."

Anime Matsuri is the only remaining anime convention to list Vic Mignogna as a guest. The convention has been the subject of sexual harassment allegations itself (for which the convention organizer, John Leigh, has apologized). On Twitter, the convention posted several odd replies that imply they have no plans to cancel Mignogna's appearance.

The other two remaining conventions on Mignogna's schedule, Central PA Comic Con and Savannah Mega Comic Con, did not reply to our inquiries. Both conventions also appear to be deleting all inquiries related to Vic Mignogna which have been posted on their Facebook pages.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

A-Kon Announces Convention Has New Owners and Will Be Changing Dates and Venue

A-Kon, the longest-running anime convention in North America, announced today that the convention, previously organized by Phoenix Entertainment, will be run by a new, unnamed owner starting in 2019. The convention, previously scheduled for June 6-9 in Forth Worth, Texas, will now be held June 27-30 at an unnamed venue in Dallas, Texas.

In addition to the ownership, date, and venue change, A-Kon announced that it will start mailing badges, but only for "A-Kon+" VIP badges. Anyone pre-registered before January 15, 2019 will received a complimentary upgrade to A-Kon+.

The announcement states that anyone who had previously made hotel reservations through Hotels for Hope will have their reservations transferred to "one of our host hotels for 2019." Hotels for Hope will contact those with reservations to confirm the location, rates, and details. There will be a cost difference, but A-Kon says, "this should help save a little money." Anyone who has reserved a room on their own and not using Hotels for Hope will be on their own to cancel their existing reservation and obtain a new one.

A-Kon says that they will be "rebooting" their web site soon and will disable room booking until it's updated to match the new location.

The announcement also references a price increase, but says that they have "decided to postpone any price changes while we complete our reboot and catch up on announcements."

We have no additional information about the new owners or new venue at this time. On A-Kon's Facebook page, attendees are not reacting well to the news. Many are questioning the move just five months before the event, the web site not being updated with the announcement, and the name of the venue or new owners not being mentioned at all. Some are pointing out that the date change also impacts those that have already booked airline travel that cannot change their dates without expensive change fees. Any questions being answered are mostly being answered by A-Kon with referrals to Hotels for Hope or quoted text from the announcement and no new information being offered.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Amazing Comic Con Aloha Cancelled Due to Hurricane

Amazing Comic Con Aloha announced at 9:44am HST today, what would have been the first day of the convention, that it would be rescheduled due to Hurricane Lane.

The announcement by Jimmy Jay, founder of Amazing Comic Con states, "We watched the weather closely and as hurricane lane weakened we made a decision to utilize the vendors, talent and media that had made it to Hawaii to still move forward with our show but due to circumstances beyond Amazing Comic Conventions Control the convention center became unavailable for use. The safety of our attendees and guests is paramount to us."

In response to those who have asked about refunds after flying in for the convention, they have been told, "Thank you for reaching out, I completely understand your concerns and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. We are currently working with the convention center to see what our options are with regards to the future of the event. As soon as we have a full assessment of what the situation is, we will be in contact with our attendees ASAP when more information becomes available. If you have additional concerns or questions please feel free to send us a message or email."

There has been no new date for the convention announced, but that doesn't help those who had already flown in for the convention who are upset that they likely won't be able to fly back for the re-scheduled convention due to travel costs. Had the convention, Hawai'i Convention Center, or Hawai'i Tourism Authority decided to cancel sooner, perhaps on Wednesday when a hurricane warning was issued, travelers who had not arrived would very likely have been able to reschedule or cancel flights with their airlines for no fee.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Izumicon Looks Like It's Cancelled...But They Haven't Said So

For more than 24 hours, rumors have been circulating about Izumicon which is scheduled for August 31st through September 2nd in Midwest City, Oklahoma. It has all the appearances of a cancelled convention without anyone from staff specifically saying if it has been cancelled or not.

Sometime in the last week, the convention's web site had been modified to make every page look like the home page. The convention's Eventbrite page was also modified to no longer sell tickets even though it had previously stated an August 31st deadline. Nothing has been posted on Izumicon's Twitter since August 6th and there have been no staff posts on their Facebook page since an August 7th post encouraging people to book their hotel rooms by August 10th.

On an unofficial Izumicon Facebook group, there are multiple screenshots claiming that all the convention's directors have resigned. In the day since these first appeared, there have been no posts by staff members to dispute these claims or to communicate anything at all.

Guests are cancelling. Jād Saxton posted on Twitter that she would not be attending "because of some recent issues". Daman Mills had also tweeted he would have to cancel "due to some recent issues that are unfortunately out of my control". (Morgan Berry and J. Michael Tatum had previously cancelled, but were still listed on some pages of the Izumicon site.)

With no official word from staff yet, there is also no word on refunds if the convention is in fact cancelled. According to the Sheraton Midwest City Hotel's web site, cancellations of prepaid room reservations cannot be refunded but rooms that were not prepaid can be fully refunded if cancelled more than two days in advance.

Izumicon was founded in 2007. The convention name was sold to a new organizer for 2018. The previous organizers have no affiliation with the current convention.

We reached out to Izumicon staff for comment, but did not hear back. We will post an update if we do.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Steampunk World's Faire Cancelled

Steampunk World's Faire, which was acquired from JME Events by Silver Phoenix Society in February, has posted a notice on their web site stating the following:

Update 3/14/18 - Don't panic! Read on:

It's just not possible to repair SPWF to the grandeur that the community justly expects in 6 weeks. That said, we have found someone who has stepped forward to run a smaller-scale event on those days so that the Steampunk community has an entertaining, fun, and casual event to attend. We, SPS, are in the midst of planning a new large-scale event for a future date that will be able to be held up to the lofty standards of SPWF. Communication has been spotty and we apologize for that. Here is the TL;DR:

There will be a smaller-scale event held on May 4 - 6, 2018. It will be smaller scale and details are being fleshed out - expect a plan to be announced within 72 hours.

SPS is planning a new event for the future, tentatively the fall, that will be better organized and better planned than what we could have done in 6 weeks or less.

We would love your help, advice, and input on both of these events to make sure that you, the community, are happy with them. We admit that SPWF was too much for us to take on this quickly - and we are asking for your help to bring it back as much as we can for the future.

According to our source, the convention has not cancelled its contracts with the venues or it would face a large cancellation fee. The hotels themselves are not going to break the contract, which means that nothing else can be booked into that space. Because of this, Steampunk World's Faire still is still financially responsible for the space and is planning to have a small event in order to encourage people not to cancel hotel rooms. The more rooms are cancelled, the larger bill they will receive due to not filling the hotel block in the contracts.

The source also states that the sales departments of the convention hotels have confirmed that attendees only have 72 hours to cancel their reservations or the single-night deposit for their rooms will be charged.

Anyone with a room booked may wish to cancel now in order to avoid losing their deposit. If, for some reason, you want to re-book at a later date, there's an excellent chance that there will be plenty of rooms available.

No information has been shared on refunds for attendees or vendors.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Largest North American Anime Conventions of 2017

Every year, in the first week of January, AnimeCons.com takes a look back at the previous year to see which anime conventions were the largest in North America, how the numbers have changed, what may have caused the changes, and if there's any trends that may affect other anime conventions or fan conventions as a whole. As we always remind people, this absolutely is not meant to be a list of the "best" anime cons, but merely the largest.

Before we present the list, an explanation is needed for the different ways that conventions count their attendance:

The most common method for conventions, but one that is very misleading, is used by most non-anime conventions and trade shows. A "turnstile" attendance count method counts people multiple times for every day of the convention that they attend. For example, if there are 10,000 people at a three day convention each day, they would report their attendance as 30,000...as if each of those 10,000 people passed through a turnstile once per day. A four day convention with 10,000 people each day would report a turnstile attendance count as 40,000 people. Although anime conventions are starting to report turnstile numbers, they are often offered in addition to one of the following two counting methods. Although this site considers turnstile counts to be misleading and disingenuous, we've recently started listing them in order to be able to help people distinguish the difference and be able to compare attendance numbers more fairly.

Another method is to count each person who was issued a badge. This is often referred to as "total attendance", "badge count", or a "warm body count". This will include attendees, staff, press, vendors, guests, and anyone else who was wearing a convention badge. If the people attended multiple days, they just get counted once. It does not include people without a badge such as convention center-provided security, hotel employees, or custodial staff.

The final method commonly used to report attendance is a paid attendance count. This simply counts the number of people who paid for a badge. Unlike the warm body count, it doesn't include staff, guests, press, or others with a badge...unless they paid for it. This method also only counts people once even if they're attending multiple days.

All the attendance figures we present in this report and on AnimeCons.com have been provided by convention staff members themselves. They have been announced on the convention's own web sites, on the convention's social media, reported directly to this site, or one of our site's staff have reported back a number officially announced by an authorized representative at the convention (such as announced at closing ceremonies). None of these numbers are guesses by AnimeCons.com staff and none have been pulled from anonymous sources such as unsourced Wikipedia entries. Where attendance is marked as "approximately" signifies that the number reported by the convention is likely rounded and not an exact count.

Our annual list also only consists of conventions with a primary focus on anime. This means that multi-genre conventions are not included. We also do not include conventions such as comic cons or sci-fi cons that have anime programming. To include those in this list would be impossible due to the number of those conventions in existence, the unavailability of attendance numbers for many of them, and the vast differences in counting methods. Anime conventions that share admission with non-anime conventions (such as comic, steampunk, or video game conventions) are also not included on this list because it is impossible to tell how many are attending the anime part of the convention.

Twelve Largest North American Anime Conventions of 2017:

Anime Expo - 107,658 warm bodies (up 7.21%)

Anime Matsuri - 36270 warm bodies (up 20.04%)

A-Kon - 33,102 warm bodies, 25,289 paid attendees (up 11.08%)

Anime North - 32,167 warm bodies

Anime Weekend Atlanta - approximately 31,500 warm bodies, 29,872 paid attendees (up 3.79%)

Anime Central - 30,221 warm bodies (down 3.97%)

Anime Boston - 25,848 warm bodies (down 4.18%)

Sakura-Con - approximately 25,000 warm bodies (up 8.70%)

Otakon - 24,894 warm bodies, approximately 22,000 paid attendees (down 14.49%)

Youmacon - 22,142 paid attendees (up 5.26%)

Otakuthon - 22,065 warm bodies (up 3.52%)

Anime NYC - approximately 20,000 warm bodies (first year)

Anime Expo safely holds onto the top spot for the 14th year in a row. The vast difference between Anime Expo's attendance and the other conventions on the list means that it will likely hold this spot for years to come. In 2017, they grew by 7,238 attendees. Their turnstile attendance count was also up 52,379 to 357,178. While overcrowding and lines remain a common complaints among Anime Expo attendees, it continues to be a convention that many people (particularly those outside California) tend to put on their bucket lists.

For the second year in a row, there's a different convention climbing into the #2 spot. Anime Matsuri in Houston, Texas has reported an increase of 6,055 attendees and yet another year of reporting more than 20% growth. However, as we've said in previous years, the growth rate simply cannot continue in such a competitive market as Texas where popular conventions in nearby Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio markets are also gaining attendees and even more conventions continue to appear every year.

Speaking of Texas, the #3 spot is once again held by the longest continually running anime convention in North America, A-Kon. The convention has reported a 1.42% growth rate over their 2016 convention. They had reported greater than 10% growth rate for the previous three years, so the slower growth this year may be attributed to the convention's 30 mile move from Dallas to Fort Worth. However, A-Kon continues to be a popular destination for anime fans every June.

Anime North in Toronto, Ontario holds onto the #4 spot for the second straight year. This year, they reported a warm body attendance count of 32,167. Last year's attendance was reported as 29,973 paid attendees, so we're not able to compare the two years to calculate a growth percentage, but it would appear to be up.

Moving up another spot this year, Anime Weekend Atlanta, another of the longest running anime cons in North America, comes in at #5. Although we didn't have a warm body count for them last year, their paid attendance count is up 3.79% from 28,789. This is slower growth than the past few years where AWA had reported more than 10% growth.

Although it was in the #3 spot last year, Anime Central near Chicago drops to #6 in 2017. The convention's attendance has dropped 3.97% from 2016's 31,469 warm bodies. The convention had rather significant growth in 2013, but was seeing less than 5% growth since then. This is the first reported attendance decrease at Anime Central.

Anime Boston moves up a spot to #7 this year even with an attendance drop of 4.18%. The turnstile attendance count dropped 5.19% to 74,578, which would seem to indicate that more people that more people were buying 1-day badges. This is the second straight year that Anime Boston's attendance has dropped and it's likely still attributable to increased convention center security following guns that were seized during an August 2015 Pokemon Championship at the venue which resulted in excessively long security lines at Anime Boston 2016. Although the security checkpoints were improved in 2017, a number of attendees had cited the lines as a reason for sitting out a year to see if the situation would improve. For the most part, it has, and hopefully those attendees return again in 2018.

Seattle's Sakura-Con reported approximately 25,000 attendees in 2017. Last year's attendance was reported as 23,000 which is an 8.70% growth rate and puts them up a spot to #8.

By now, you may have wondered what happened to Otakon on this list. In 2015, it dropped to #5 with the largest attendance drop we've ever seen by any convention. It held onto the #5 spot last year and grew to 29,113 warm bodies in 2016. The convention moved from Baltimore to Washington, DC in 2017 and it seems that the attendees did not follow. Otakon lost over 4,000 attendees and dropped to #9 on our list and is no longer the largest anime convention on the East Coast. With Otakon Vegas not reporting large growth over its first few years, hopefully Otakorp has planned for rainy days such as this in order to be able to handle the situation financially.

Detroit's Youmacon returns to our list for the second year in a row at #10 with a paid attendance of 22,142, up 1,106 people from 2016. Last year, Youmacon and Otakuthon were essentially tied for the 10th spot, but Youmacon has now pulled ahead slightly.

For #11, we head back up into Canada for Otakuthon in Montreal. The bilingual convention reported 750 more people than 2016 for growth of 3.52%. Magnifique!

The twelfth anime con on our list just held their first convention in November, Anime NYC. On their site after the convention (although now only available via archives), Peter Tatara, the Event Director, was quite clear about their attendance reporting saying, "Anime NYC welcomed over 20,000 fans. That's not turnstile, but 20,000 unique, individual fans who came together to celebrate what we all love." (This was likely noted due to some other NYC cons which have been known to report turnstile numbers.)

It's worth noting that there is less than a 10% difference (or only 2,881 people) between the third through sixth conventions. There is also a difference of less than 1,000 people between the seventh and ninth conventions on the list, which just about puts them in a three-way tie.

View graph with linear scale - View graph with logarithmic scale

As always, we remind you that these are merely the largest conventions and are not necessarily the best. If past history is any indication, this list is almost guaranteed to be copied and used as some other site's "Best Anime Cons" list. That's a shame because there are some absolutely wonderful small and mid-sized conventions out there that are not mentioned on this list. You can have a lot of fun at smaller events and we strongly urge you to find the conventions near you and try them out.

If you want to compare the growth of conventions over the last ten years, here are some links to our annual reports (either written or as reported by our AnimeCons TV): 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003

To start planning your 2018 conventions, our AnimeCons.com and FanCons.com sites are an excellent resource to find lists of conventions in your area or around the world. We also offer FurryCons.com, SteampunkCons.com, ToyCons.com, and VideoGameCons.com for some more niche interests. For Amazon Echo or Alexa device owners, we also have free Flash Briefing skills for FanCons.com and AnimeCons.com which can audibly tell you what conventions are coming up in the next week. We also have iMessage stickers for iOS users and an AnimeCons TV app for Apple TV.

Patrick Delahanty is the creator of AnimeCons.com and executive producer of AnimeCons TV. He is the host of Anime Unscripted and is one of the founders of both Anime Boston and Providence Anime Conference. Patrick has attended 173 conventions, cosplaying at most of them.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

FanCons.com Database Passes 10,000 Conventions

Today, just over six months after passing 9,000 conventions and a year after the 8,000th convention was added, the 10,000th convention was added to the FanCons.com convention database. The database began in October 2003 as part of AnimeCons.com, but expanded beyond anime conventions with the creation of FanCons.com in early 2012.

The 10,000th convention to be added was Con Nichiwa 2018 which is scheduled to take place in April 2018 in Tucson, Arizona. The first Con Nichiwa took place in 2010.

The database of 10,000 conventions (which counts individual years of over 3600 different conventions) includes fan conventions around the world going as far back as 1936, there are still many, many more conventions out there. Any convention organizers who don't see their conventions listed can submit them. After the submission is reviewed for accuracy, the information will be added.

The FanCons.com site also has a database of guests which recently passed 6,400 guests with the addition of actress Lindsay Jones who is known for her voice roles including Ruby in RWBY, Kimball in Red vs. Blue, and more.

All of the data available through FanCons.com and its affiliated sites (AnimeCons.com, FurryCons.com, SteampunkCons.com, ToyCons.com, and VideoGameCons.com) has been painstakingly entered by hand by a team of unpaid volunteers with an appreciation and love for conventions.

Behind the scenes, FanCons.com and AnimeCons.com are currently in the process of being re-written from the ground up. The new sites will not only present an updated UI with a mobile-responsive interface and improve the functionality of some existing features such as the user-submitted convention rating system. The new sites will also offer a number of new features which will be announced at a later date. The screenshot of Con Nichiwa accompanying this article was taken from the new site.

Patrick Delahanty is the creator of FanCons.com and executive producer of AnimeCons TV. He has attended 170 fan conventions since attending his first in 1991.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Voice Actor and Director Christopher Ayres Needs Your Help

Christopher Ayres is well known in the anime convention community for his "Mock Combat for Cosplay" workshops. He has also been invited to conventions to talk about his role as Frieza in Dragon Ball Z and his directing work on anime titles such as Nerima Daikon Brothers, Beyond the Boundary, Another, and Bodacious Space Pirates. As of 2017, he has been a guest at 137 conventions.

Unfortunately, Chris has been diagnosed with "End Stage C.O.P.D." and is facing a double lung transplant, multiple surgeries, and significant medical treatment. He's in need of financial help from the community. Anime Detour has established a YouCaring fund which will go to Chris to help pay for what will surely be overwhelming medical expenses.

The YouCaring page created by Anime Detour states:

Earlier this year actor/director Christopher Ayres was rushed to a Houston hospital with complicated respiratory difficulties. A team of pulmonary doctors diagnosed Chris with "End Stage C.O.P.D.", an irreversible illness that would require a double lung transplant in order for him to survive. He would spend the next three months in and out of hospitals and intensive care units for testing, therapy, and rehabilitation. In preparation for transplant, he learned that he would also need two additional surgeries (double bypass, and oral maxillofacial) before he can move forward with transplant.

Chris is dependent on continuous flow oxygen during the day and a BIPAP breathing machine to reduce carbon levels in his lungs at night. Due to hospitalization, and rehabilitation Chris has not been able to work since March. In spite of being insured, the deductibles, and non covered expenses have been continuous, and are exhausting his and his family's resources. While it's hard to determine exactly how much assistance will be needed at this stage of the process, these costs have become a concern.

Chris has been a long time friend to both the anime and convention community. known for roles such as Frieza in Dragon Ball Z in recent years, and has directed several well loved anime titles including; The Nerima Daikon Brothers, Beyond the Boundary, Another and Bodacious Space Pirates. Since he has always been a strong supporter of Anime Detour, and one of the first to grab the mic at it's charity auctions, we would like to begin what will be the first of probably many fundraisers across various platforms to help him with these expenses. We would appreciate any help you can give us as we try to help someone who has given so much to our community.

Our AnimeCons TV podcast conducted an interview with Chris Ayres in 2010.

As of this post, $2,097 has been raised by 61 donors. The fund has a $25,000 goal. We encourage anyone who has enjoyed Chris's work in anime or his convention programming to give what they can in his time of need. Let's show Chris that we want more of his love and laughter. Always.

from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Wizard World cancels shows and announces 2018 locations

Wizard World has issued a press release to announce the cancelation of five of their remaining seven 2017 conventions. They have also announced their 2018 locations which include the five cancelled cities.

Conventions in Biloxi, Montgomery, Peoria, Springfield, and Winston-Salem have all been cancelled. These five conventions were only recently announced and in smaller venues than Wizard World is normally held. These "postponed" events are planned to be held sometime in October or November 2018. Although Wizard World will refund tickets for the convention, this leaves some fans who were planning to fly in with non-refundable airline tickets.

In total, nine Wizard World conventions were announced and cancelled in 2017. This is more than any previous year. Twelve conventions have taken place this year with two remaining conventions for the rest of 2017.

Wizard World's 2018 schedule includes dates for conventions in New Orleans, St. Louis, Cleveland, Portland, Philadelphia, Des Moines, Columbus, Boise, Chicago, Madison, and Oklahoma City. Of these locations, Boise is the only new city to be added. Additional conventions are planned for Austin, Biloxi, Montgomery, Peoria, Springfield, and Winston-Salem, but dates have yet to be announced. The 2017 cities which Wizard World will not be returning to are Minneapolis, Sacramento, and Nashville. from FanCons.com

[fancons]

Otakon Issues Warning of Fake Hotel Web Site

Otakorp, the organization behind Otakon, has issued a warning about a "pirate housing website" that was created to trick people into signing up for invalid hotel reservations. The "otakon2017.org" web site, which has since been shut down, was not associated with Otakon, Otakorp Inc, or Otakon's exclusive hotel provider, Experient.

Otakorp is unable to determine if any reservations were taken through this site, if those reservations will be honored, or any information that may have been collected by the site.

If you have not received a reservation confirmation e-mail which looks like the official confirmation pictured below, Otakon urges you to contact Experient immediately at (800) 967-8852 or otakonhousing@experient-inc.com. International residents may call +1-847-996-5832.

John Nadzam, Hotel and Venue Manager for Otakorp, said in a written statement, "We are very sorry this has happened, but we are glad we caught it. Our members are important to us, because we are also fans, cosplayers, artists and dreamers. Our mantra from day one has been 'by fans for fans' and we mean it. I know, I was there, and we could have never got here any other way." from FanCons.com