Cons

Cheerful colors and cute prints, what girl wouldn't adore Angelic Pretty's sweet lolita clothing?! Attending the Angelic Pretty fashion show at Anime Central was a dream come true for this lolita enthusiast!

Columbus, OH (April 27, 2012) - Voice Actress Cathy Weseluck, known by My Little Pony fans as the voice of Spike the Dragon, is scheduled to appear at Matsuricon 2012 in Columbus Ohio. This is her first US Anime Convention appearance in over 10 years.

San Jose, CA (May 3, 2012) – FanimeCon is pleased to announce that Igaguri Chiba will be performing at FanimeCon 2012’s MusicFest, held on May 26, Saturday evening of Memorial Day weekend.

Attending the Sixh.OPERA at Anime Central was like attending a fashion show, J Rock concert, and Opera all at once. In fact, it wasn't "like" that at all - it was exactly that.

Anime Blast in Chattanooga, TN, has announced that it will feature Kyle Hebert in 2012, in addition to announcing a $89 per night room rate for convention attendees.

Lisle, IL - April 30, 2012 - Anime Midwest 2012, one of the largest up-and-coming anime conventions to happen in the Chicagoland region, is tremendously exuberant to announce the appearance of three cast members from the new FUNimation Panty and Stocking dub will be appearing at the Anime Midwest 2012 convention. Voice actors Jamie Marchi (Panty), Ian Sinclair (Chuck), and Joel McDonald (Brief), will join Anime Midwest 2012 in Lisle, Illinois this July for three days of autograph sessions, discussion panels, screenings, and more.

Baltimore, MD - April 27, 2012 – Otakon 2012 is proud to announce that illustrator Hidetaka Tenjin will be coming to Otakon 2012!

Anime Central featured Japanese director Shinichi Watanabe ("Nabeshin") in this year's convention guest lineup. We attended the press interview with Nabeshine, and have included a transcript of the interview. Shinichi Watanabe is most well-known the director of Excel Saga, Nerima Daikon Brothers, and Puni Puni Poemy. Nabeshin was also at Anime Detour earlier this year.

ROCKVILLE, MD -- March 28, 2011 – The initial round of twenty-eight guests for the third annual event Intervention, Maryland's only “Internet Convention”, have been announced – and, in keeping with the convention's focus, all of the guests are creators who have made a name for themselves by sharing their creations on the Internet.

Anime Central featured Angelic Pretty at the convention in 2012. I attended the special limited Press Interview Session with Angelic Pretty, and we are happy to provide their answers from the Angelic Pretty questions. I apologize for any misquotes, which are possible, as the interview was through a translator and my typing may have been too slow. Several press groups asked questions at the Anime Central Angelic Pretty Interview session.

04/25/12 - Denver CO - Denver Comic Con goes six feet under to unearth TV’s hottest stars. The locally- powered organization just announced the addition of three celebrities from AMC’s The Walking Dead to their already smoking hot guest list.

Are you stoked? I am. Because I'm going to ACEN. There’s a whole ton of guests that so many people are ecstatic for, like Christina Vee, Johnny Yong Bosch, Travis Willingham, Chris Sabat, and SO MANY MORE. It’s thrilling to see so many big names all in one place. I’ve never been to a con this large before, the biggest one I've attended was Anime Iowa, which has just now raised the attendance cap to 3500 people this year. Jumping from an average of 3k, to around 22,000 people, it’s mind blowing to make the jump.

A new, large multi-genre convention in Minneapolis has just announced that it will be featuring two, possibly more, stars from the Power Rangers series at it's convention. Power rangers is quite an appropriate genre for this multi-genre convention, as it's Japanese origins may appeal to anime fans, it's transformations and zoids may appeal to sci-fi fans, and it's good vs. evil plots can appeal to comics fans, making this a win for all fans interested in going to the convention.

Otakorp, the parent group that organizes Otakon, has announced that it will be working with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to present "A Night in Fantasia: The Ultimate Games and Anime Experience".

As we approach the end of March, we come to the true beginning of this year's convention season. With almost a hundred conventions of different types happening this summer, it is going to be one of the best convention seasons ever.

Kawa Kon 2012 was held at the Sheraton Westport Plaza in St. Louis, a move from several years of being held at Kawa Kon 2011's Crowne Plaza in Clayton. The new location had quite a bit more space for convention events, but most appealing was the lovely plaza adjoining the convention center.

Shriekfest, the Los Angeles Horror/SciFi Film Festival is continuing it's Los Angeles' tradition of being a premier horror film festival for 2012, with it's call for submissions recently opening. However they announced a short hiatus for submissions, it still may be worthwhile to prepare your submissions early.

The seventh Chicago Worldcon has just announced that only one bid has been received for Worldcon 2014, from organizers in London. There is still a ballot process, but London's bid would only be rejected if the voters at this year's Worldcon choose to do so. Upcoming bids for 2015 include bids from Spokane and Orlando, while bids for 2016 include Kansas City and Finland, with Japan and New York vying for 2107. Press release is below.

Anime-SPARK! happened for the second year at the Clarion hotel in Cedar Rapids, bringing several hundred local fans together on the weekend after Valentine's day. Naturally this meant Anime-SPARK! was both an anime convention, and a place to meet new friends at convention events.

Bethesda, Maryland - February 21, 2012 – The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons, welcomes acclaimed independent cartoonists Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez as guests for SPX 2012. 2012 marks the 30th anniversary of the first issue of Love and Rockets, and SPX is proud to be the only East Coast comic festival to have Jaime and Gilbert as guests for this years celebration.

I had a chance to attend Ohayocon 2012 for the third year, and I'm happy to report positively, as the convention continues improving and so far exceeding expectations. Ohayocon is probably about the tenth largest anime convention in the country, and we had the pleasure to return to review the convention for the third year. We also reviewed Ohayocon 2011 last year.

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN — January 31th, 2012. The Anime Milwaukee Convention (abbr. AMKE) has just released its announcement for the 2012 convention. The convention will take place from February 17th through 19th, 2012 and will be held in the same location as last year, open Friday at 11:00 am through Sunday at 5:00 pm, in the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the adjoining Frontier Airlines Center (abbr. FAC), in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Hyatt is only blocks away from the Intermodal Station, which houses the Amtrak and Greyhound stations, and is near several Milwaukee Public Transit lines.

I’ve only been on the circuit now for 2 years now, and what started as just a gig speaking at a local science fiction convention in Wichita, KS turned into speak at event’s like Dallas based A-Kon. This year I’ve been working with Colorado Cut Throat, Glitch Con and Carolina Games Summit.

This week Dragon*Con announced a partnership with Delta for discounts on flights to the con, while PulpFest announced that sci-fi writer Mike Resnick will be a guest at their convention.

Lansing, MI - Jan. 19 - On March 16-18, 2012, Lansing will enter the cyber era as voice actor Richard Epcar, is confirmed as the final guest for Shuto Con, returning for its second year to the Lansing Center and Raddison.

This past week had a few great conventions, all around the country. There were lots of different conventions, including the Virginia MarsCon, Sac-Anime Con, and Anime-ZAP!. While January is a slower month than most, we're seeing more and more conventions year-round.

QC Anime-zing! is the first and only three day anime convention in the Quad Cities, which is technically five cities situated along the border of Iowa and Illinois. The 'QC' stands for, of course, Quad Cities.