Moé Moé Rabu

One of few Australian conventions, Animania has expanded from being run by a group of university students and has grown into something much more. Today was Mini-Animania Sydney 2006, the first Mini convention for Sydney. Running for one day only it gives Sydneysiders a chance to preview what a anime-based convention is all about. For me, today I was a regular being of the crowd and I give you my impressions of Mini-Animania Sydney 2006.

Arriving at the Carlton Crest Hotel at around 9:30am there were already about 50 people ahead of me in the line. I was surprised to not see any signs outside to indicate that Animania was being held here but it was probably a request from the hotel management to not do so. Waiting around the foyer for a few minutes, blocking all walkways staff got organised and formed people into lines from one doorway heading outside. Lucky for me I was right at the doorway away from the blinding sunlight. Also I noticed a plaque rightoutside the doorway indicating the amount of people that the function rooms can hold, the lower floor only 100 people, ground floor 165 people and the first floor 350 people. Upon seeing this I began to wonder how many people are turning up today since these guidelines are more of a safety procedure. Just before staff let people in, I estimated about 150 people there in line already.

Having paid $15 for entry it was reasonably priced. Though I had to register my name and postcode as I assume Animania would be using this for statistical purposes. I first headed up to the first floor to see what stallholders there were and to meet up with fellow JAUWS members.

Layout

Layout through Animania wasn’t the best, but slightly better than Melbourne. Spread into two separate floors, being the first floor, where the stallholders and Main Stage being held, whilst Workshops, Anime Screening, and Karaoke were held on the Lower Ground floor. So if you were to be moving between the two constantly, it gets rather annoying and each time you will have to show your wristband.

First Floor Pictures (stallholders area):

Main Stage Area:

Lower Ground Floor Pictures (ArtWork area):

Anime Screening Area Pictures:

Karaoke Area Pictures:

Stallholders

Wondering around it was a small function hall. Madman having one complete wall near the staircase, Hondrake the same but on the other side, whilst the smaller stallholders were placed in the middle. A good setup as this allowed people to move about easily as compared to Melbourne which made it quite crowded. The following stallholders were present:

JAUWS (University of Western Sydney)
From left to right: neuralPLEX, Shiori, Tsutako

Anime@UTS (University Technology Sydney)

SUAnime (Sydney University)

Animania Merchandise

Madman Entertainment

Slykura from Madman Entertainment

Hondarake (Sydney’s largest second hand bookstore)

Rae Comics & Dev.K Designs

Caleyndar Studio & Generation

There was also Yorokonde: Anime Anytime but I unfortunetly forgot about taking a picture of them and they were constantly being swamped with buyers to get a clear shot. Sydney Backpackers had a table at Animania but were not present. Oh and yes I did buy a few things but not that much overall. Those will come later.

Anime Screening

Well I didn’t turn up to the anime screenings themselves as what they had listed I have already seen, expect for a select few. The selection in general was good, a bit of variety and it reflected what was currently available to purchase on DVD from Madman or in preview as to what is going to be released in Australia. The following series were screened:

• Eureka Seven
• Colorful
• Mai-HiME (My-Hime in the english release)
• Slayers OVA
• Ah My Goddess TV
• Zaion: I Wish You Were Here
• Gundam SEED Destiny
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GiG
• Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
• Gravitation

Karaoke

Now this I actually attended as I was curious to see what talent there was, but to my dismay, there weren’t very good ones. Alot of people sung too quietly, some were singing along to PV (which is not a bad thing since you have lyrics in front of you), some people gave up part-way (thank god!), and some people just plain sucked. But there were a few good singers, one being a friend of mine, Mishima.

Above is Mishima on the left and her friend on the right. Unfortunetly she did not enter the karaoke competition. I missed out on the karaoke final but I am pretty sure that it was only one person, and from what I saw earlier, she was clearly the winner from the start. Other good singers included a few of the Animania staff.

The few bads ones were usually people who just don’t have the voice for singing but they were the few that made that screeching sound you get from microphones. That usually occurs from swinging the mic but there was also at times when feedback was coming from the speakers as many singers stood in front of the speaker whilst singing.
Having a look at the available songs, I was tempted to sing Mirai e no Melody by CooRie which is the ending theme to Da Capo. Well I knew the song but I didn’t exactly want to be singing in front of the people there and my Japanese speaking/singing skills are not that great. Oh and at the time the Karaoke room was literally empty and only a few people were left as Mishima wanted to sing without the people around.

Workshops

I didn’t get a look at the Workshop Area as it branched off from the Lower Ground floor, and was only accessible to those who registered and are participating. But to be able to participate you had to register beforehand online, but you could register on the day at a cost of $35. The cost is used to cover materials used. I would’ve liked to view a bit more on the workshops as they were quite interesting, but alas lack of time, money and me being pure lazy (to an extent) prevented me from looking any further. The following 4 workshops were available:

• 3D Ilustration
• CG Workshop
• Costume Making
• Inking & Watercolouring

Cosplay

Now this is usually the one and major thing I am always critical on. With this I had no high expectations of the cosplayers that would attend, being a small convention and all. And I was absolutely correct! The turn out wasn’t all that great in terms of cosplayers and there were not that many great cosplayers at all either. I managed to sit through the cosplay competition with my sanity in check but I did take photos of cosplayers just for reviewing sake. But with my crappy camera I was thinking of not uploading them but that would be unfair.

BE WARNED, THESE PICTURES ARE NOT OF GOOD QUALITY. Now onto pictures!

Gaia Online cosplayers cosplaying as their avatars. Seriously WTF?? Such a waste to cosplay as your avatar. Ok well I only have a brief idea on what Gaia Online is but here is the wiki entry if you wish to know more.

Okay the first one I tried without the flash, but totally failed. I’ll explain why I tried to not use the flash later. This one is Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura. I don’t see it how that is so and for another thing she didn’t have her hair tied up like Sakura does.

Pirate Girl. Plain and simple saying “Yes I am a One Piece fan”, not that it’s a bad anime (well the dubbed version is) and I watch it and read the manga. But still, why enter a competition as a person wearing a One Piece shirt and say you’re a pirate?

To the right ANOTHER Gaia online and to the left is Mew Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew. This is Mew Ichigo number 1 as there is another one. It was an ok cosplay but she bought the costume on eBay. The only thing she made was the tail….ok next.

Random Number 1. Now although this is a non-character her costume was actually decent, so I give her credit for that. Original but would’ve been better if she had different shoes.

ANBU member and ANBU Kakashi from Naruto. But also joining them was Light Yagami from Death Note. Why ANBU version Kakashi? I personally think regular Kakashi is better. But that’s not for me to argue. Now these two were in one group and did a skit. First off, cross over skits are the worst. They simply don’t work out and are even worse when they try to be funny. My views on skits will come later.

Mew Ichigo Number 2 and Ranpha Franboise from Galaxy Angel. Hmmm, well the Mew Ichigo was decent, at least she had the Strawberry Bell unlike Mew Ichigo Number 1. Ranpha was an okish costume, nothing to special.

Random Number 2! Now this was simply a person in a kimono which was quite awesome. I’d enter in a proper yukata or kimono if I attended in such attire. She wins my vote!

Animania Superstars! Either a small intermission from the cosplay or the Animania staff wanted to try something silly. Pretty much it was 2 Animania staff members cosplaying as Animania staff. I’m not too sure on this, but the fact that I know them makes it all the more funnier. It was a good effort as the Animania t-shirts are quite nice.

Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist. Now what I want to know is why do girls like to cosplay as Edward? I saw it at Supanova Brisbane 2004, I saw it at Animania Sydney 2005, and again at Supanova Sydney 2005. I don’t think I’ll ever understand, but do I really want to though?

Death Note group. Probably the only group to have a large prop. Nothing special, they did a skit and was trying to insert a yaoi joke.

Roronoa Zoro from One Piece. Well this guy had the height to be Zoro so that was a plus. But a One Piece cosplay kind of feels odd without the other characters. And hey, he bought the 3 swords from Toys R Us.

Now the MC said it was a Random from Luipn the 3rd, but it the guy was actually Jigen from Lupin the 3rd. now this guy was tall, so that was awesome and he had a prop cigarette so he wins. Plain and simple, but Jigen is a cool character.

Hinamori Momo from Bleach. Well you can’t really comment much of Bleach cosplayers, espcially if they are Shinigamis. Though I’m starting to hate Bleach cosplayers as much as seeing Final Fantasy cosplayers.

Random Number 3! But she was given the title of Goth Loli. I don’t know, not Goth enough to me.

Neo from The Matrix. Well another plain and simple costume so not much more to comment.

Ok the Neo cosplay was the last of the entries, but the MC decided to look through the crowd to see any other cosplayers who did not enter. Not many wanted to go up but this guy did and he wins in my books. Kunisaki Yuikto from AIR TV. He wins since he has the same Gao Gao Stegosaurus shirt that I have.

Well that’s it for cosplay and like I said, it was totally disappointing. It makes me rather glad that I did not ask individual people if I could take their photos for cosplay because they were nothing special. The only good ones were the plain and simple costumes but still even Melbourne had a better turn out for cosplayers. As for other notes, like every Australian convention I have been there, there are always Final Fantasy cosplayers. I counted 6 groups that entered the competition but after Animania Sydney 2003 I swore to never take another Final Fantasy cosplay. IT HAS BEEN DONE MANY MANY TIMES AND YOU WILL NOT WIN IF YOU COSPLAY AS FINAL FANTASY CHARACTERS! It gets worse when they do a skit as well. For one the first group of Final Fantasy cosplayers were so damn long, in which they took about 4 minutes. Now to me a skit is only supposed to go for 1 minute at most and it is to show the judges you can act the character. I find it really really irritating when cosplayers do something totally outside the character and the worst of them is like I mentioned before, cross-over skits.

On another note, having the projected screen on the background of the main stage was a rather bad idea. Occasionally there would be a green screen and it does have a slight effect on taking photos. But given the size of the room, there wasn’t any other place to put it.
Also with my camera, it plain sucks. It is not the best camera to use to shoot photos at a convention unless there is ample lighting. What I did was let the auto-white balancer adjust for me in some cases. But this requires the image to be process longer, similar to a shutter being kept open longer. But of course with shaky hands I get shaky photos.

Miscellanous

Just a few miscellanous pictures left.

Mishima dressed as a goth loli.

Animania staff guarding the entrance to the Lower Ground level.

Overall Thoughts

Being the first Mini-Animania for Sydney I don’t think it turned out quite as good as Melbourne. From n merchandise buyer point of view it was rather boring. But being as a regular attendee it wasn’t that much better unless you actually sit and watch the anime screenings on offer or attend the various events on offer like Karaoke. I attended Karaoke because at lest it could feed me some form of entertainment as I don’t want to be sitting watching anime where I can do that at home. Well it did but only when the good singers were singing.

In terms of attendance, I think that only at most 300-350 people turned up to this event. Quite disappointing as to Melbourne which from what I can tell hit 500-600 people with ease. The lack of stallholders, events and probably time was an affecting factor. With Animania Sydney 2006 only 50 days away it is rather close. I think it would be better if Mini-Animania was held earlier in the year, like around April or May.

As for stallholders the lack of vendors to buy from can be a major factor. But in addition to time factor, Manifest 2006 and Animania Sydney 2006 being so close is probably what turned many vendors off. Food vendors were non-existant. I was hoping to see food vendors, but I found out late in the afternoon that the hotel did not allow food inside. That doesn’t help many people who prefered to stay close within the premises and doesn’t help the staff as well since majority can’t leave the premises either.

The amount of events were probably enough to get by for a few hours, but compared to larger Animania, Mini-Animania lacks a games section. Well this part is understandable due to the lack of space available at the Carlton Crest hotel. And with the Carton Crest layout as it was, I believe that Mini-Animania Sydney will be changing locations next year. But will I return to another Mini-Animania event? At this point not sure. If the event is relatively close to the larger version then definetly not. But as a merchandise buyer it also depends on the vendors turning up.

To sum it up Mini-Animania Sydney 2006 wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. There is alot to improve upon to make it more successful than what it is currently. But now I will be waiting eagerly for Animania Sydney in September/October, hopefully borrowing a better camera as well, as there is much more to do, much more to buy and most likely much more to report.