MINAMI CON 12 - 17 - 19 MARCH 2006 (UK) UK's longest running convention (12 years) : MIMANI CON report by Akiba Jack! Official Site : http://www.minamicon.org.uk/ Date : March 17-19 2006. Location : Novotel Hotel in Southampton --------------------------- 5.00 am Friday 17th. --------------------------- I get up and get ready to drive the 90 or so miles to Southampton. It's cold and has been snowing. Most of my stuff is in the car already. I'm taking a lot of gear for modelmaking workshops including my airbrush compressor and extractor fan!   Arrive at the hotel about 7.30. Southampton is a historic port town, best known as a port from which the Pilgrim Fathers sailed to the New World in the 17th century, and more recently the home port of the ill-fated RMS Titanic and the home of the Supermarine Spitfire. No-one here!  After a while some committee members appear - they've been here since Thursday - and we have breakfast. It's then a matter of getting the venue ready, starting with the main room where we will be holding the Festival and variety show. It seems to take ages to set up and looks very rough and ready but that doesn't matter - it's not an art gallery!     
The Festival starts at 19.00 (roughly - we are usually a bit late). We got the idea from traditional Japanese fairs, and the staff all wear happi coats, but the events are anime themed, or just plain weird, for example; Pokemon Pinyatas (gotta smash 'em all!) (and they did, including the non-Pokemon one I made - Gema from Di Gi Charat. The contestants are blindfolded and the pinyata are full of sweets - they were hard to smash and most of them just flew off the string!) 
"Pin the Tail on the Cat Girl" - (I did the artwork for this...) 
"Pen pen Skittles" 
"Hagu-chan's Play-Doh" - make an anime character out of clay. (I have no idea who Hagu-chan is, and I couldn't get any Play-doh so coloured kid's clay had to do - as you might have guessed I was running that one!)  "Sana-chan's Limbo" (Sana from Child's Toy...)  "Love Hina Twister" (...)  "Guess the Plushie" (or "Feel up my Plushie!")  And there was food, laid on by the hotel!!  Then it was the Variety Show, featuring; Chinese Whisper drawing - the first person does a drawing, this is described to the next person, they draw what they think the drawing is, and so on... the last person guesses what it was! (Ignore the bird... it's just.. there.)  Iron Cosplay - 4 minutes to build the "best" Minami Fairy mascot costume - using a pile of various materials and on committee members!  Noodle Slurping - loudest slurp, fastest eater - winner by audience appreciation!  Genre Shift - players (most of our players were pre-selected) act out various genres of anime, but have to change genre when MC says!   The shattered remains...  It was great fun and very popular - every winner got a prize from the Lucky Dip. We had to stop when we ran out of prizes. We were pleased as we've never done this before. People almost forgot about watching anime! Nice to get back to the hotel room though...  ----------------------------- Saturday 18th ----------------------------- This is the most important day. We have Pinky Street accessory making workshop (!), Costume making workshops, sushi making, sake tasting, figure painting workshop, and airbrush painting workshop. We also have a model making workshop where con goers have a chance to build a plastic kit (mostly mecha) and take it home afterwards. I ran this one. We bought our kits cheap in Tokyo...  There is also a Speed Gundam Building contest - winner wins a higher grade Gundam kit!  Not forgetting the dealer's room...    This dealer needed more tables...  Most important though, in the evening there is the Masquerade. Although floor costumes are common this is an immensely popular event, usually involving some kind of act. Costumes all of high standard, some are hilarious. Audience appreciation counts a lot, but in the end only the judges can decide the winners. The prizes are nothing special but it's a chance to show off your costume. (I shot most of these on digital plus several on film - the scans aren't that good but the prints are excellent.) So, can you guess the characters:)?                               
Plus some little things I bought...  ----------------------- Sunday 19th ----------------------- Today is quiet. However we have a cosplay cafe serving tea, coffee and cake, but really a chance to show off more costumes;   Benoist Tea Tasting - Benoist features in Densha Otoko of course - although Benoist is English someone had to go to Japan to buy some! It's nice tea.  The con winds down, there is a closing ceremony where other cons and events are promoted and things like stand-ups auctioned for charity...  ... and in the evening a staff party with pizza...  ...and of course sake!  The weekend just flies past, I can't believe it was three days! We are already planning for next year and considering ways to improve the convention. Things have changed a lot since the first Minami Con twelve years ago, there are now far more fans and they are getting younger. We are no longer allowed to show fansubs in the video programme so we have to get permission from copyright holders to show anime - this means the video programme is getting smaller and we have to stage more events and workshops to make the convention worthwhile. However we must be doing something right as people were signing up for Minami Con 13 in 2007 on Sunday! See you there?
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