Although it would probably be the wiser choice to continue with my now-belated first episode impression, I thought I’d take a short breather and write about about my first convention experience back in person (as a panelist, at least), Anime Fusion. If I wait any longer I feel like I’ll start to forget the details, and as someone who feels like it’ll be important to know how things were during this Covid time I’d like to ensure I make my own contributions to that historical record.
Anime Fusion 2021 took place Friday through Sunday, October 22nd – 24th at the Crowne Plaza Minneapolis West (which is actually located in Plymouth, a suburb of Minneapolis). Like most anime conventions, it puts on a mix of programming, including fan-run panels, guest-run panels and events, games, shows, and a dance. There are also a couple of video rooms playing both classic and contemporary anime (the con’s stated mission is to fuse together the old and the new parts of anime fandom into a mix that appeals to all sorts of folks), as well as a dealers room and an artist alley. My primary drive for participating in any anime convention is to run programming – primarily discussion panels focused on specific shows or aspects of anime fandom, as well as presentation-style panels where I pretend like I’m some kind of instructor sharing knowledge and opinions. This year my spouse and I put on 5 panels, the materials for which are available in posts that went up over the course of last weekend.
There’s no getting around it – Anime Fusion is a small convention, possibly made smaller by the current realities of the world. This was the first year (I believe) that the convention instituted an attendance cap – 1,500 people – which seemed to be both due to Covid restrictions in place as well as due to a lack of volunteer staff. Being small isn’t necessarily bad, though; it’s just a consideration for those who are more used to the variety of programming that tends to coincide with larger events. I like Anime Fusion’s intimate size and setting; having been to a few bigger conventions, such as ACen and Project A-Kon, which are fun in their own way for sure, it’s sometimes nice to not have to worry so much about crowds and other related logistics.
The good thing is that in spite of its small size, there’s still a decent variety of things to see and do. One thing we’ve been hoping to run at Anime Detour for several years but hasn’t quite worked out schedule and logistics-wise is a burlesque show. We have a lot of local geek-related burlesque groups in the Twin Cities and it’s a type of programming that’s become popular at conventions in general, so it seems like a real no-brainer. Anime Fusion has had a burlesque show the last couple of in-person cons and this year was no exception. The Midnight Minxes put on a fun show full of geeky references and costumes – there was even a performance with someone portraying Noi from Dorohedoro, one of my favorites :). It’s just a fun, sexy, body-positive time and something we’ve come to enjoy.
Aside from that, I went to a few panels and sessions that I wasn’t directly involved in. In one, we got to try out using watercolor pencils, which was a nice, relaxing time. We also have a friend who’s active in the Kamen Rider/Super Sentai fandom, so he put on a couple of panels related to those franchises as they’ve appeared over the years (some of the various Super Sentai seasonal “themes” are a real trip, especially the phantom thief/detective one) that were entertaining. The masquerade was a good time as usual – a friend from work won one of the big awards, which was really great! Anime Fusion really has most of the things you’d expect from a large convention in smaller scale, so I’d definitely recommend it for folks who might be looking for a smaller gathering.
I do have a few critiques, although they’re fairly minor. Anime Fusion has always done a staggered schedule. meaning that programming in certain rooms starts on the hour and in others starts on the half-hour. I can see how this might be helpful in cutting down on traffic in the hallways, because not everyone is moving from place-to-place during the same half-hour period. But for one thing, Anime Fusion isn’t large enough for this to matter, and speaking as a panelist, this means that there tend to be more people getting up/coming in in the middle of your hour, which can be distracting.
There’s also an issue that crops up at many conventions I’ve been to, but seemed to be more of an issue at this convention this particular year – people running over their allotted programming time. The set-up at this convention (and most that I’ve been to) is that presenters have an hour, and the half-hour in-between panel slots is for tear-down of the previous panel and set-up for the next one. More than half the time this year we had to ask panelists prior to us (including one of the convention guests, who was 15 minutes over their time and still going strong) to wrap it up. It puts us in the position of being the asshole when all we want is to have enough time to make sure our tech setup is working properly. When we went to ACen, a staff member gave us a 10 minute warning when we were getting close to the end of our presentation time, which was really helpful. I can understand not having the staffing or volunteer resources in this case, but perhaps outlining the expectations more explicitly with panelists (I went back and checked my acceptance emails and it doesn’t mention any timing specifics there, but there is a brief mention of standard panel lengths on the programming FAQ page) would be helpful.
Overall, I can say I was glad to be back in the swing of things (though Anime Fusion is typically the end of our convention season anyway, so I’ll have a few months to get rusty again lol). I was pretty exhausted after just the comparatively small amount of programming we put on (typically we go a bit overboard at Anime Detour, our “home” convention; I’m going to try to dial that back a little bit going forward), so I can tell it might take me a while to feel fully comfortable as a panelist again.
I’d definitely recommend Anime Fusion to convention-goers who are looking for a more intimate, chill con experience. A couple of folks I know from anime club had never been to an anime convention before and attended this one as a “first con” and I think it’s definitely a good way to ease into convention attendance. I’m really glad that it was able to weather the Covid storm.