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Minami Con 13
UK Anime Convention Report
Official Site :
http://www.minamicon.org.uk/
Text and Photo by: PL
Minami Con is the UK's longest running anime convention, and this is it's thirteenth year.
The first few were one-day events held in various venues, but they were so popular it was soon
increased to two and then a three day event, and a permanent venue was found. This French owned
hotel has fairly limited facilities so limits the convention to about three hundred people,
but we prefer not to let things get too big! However we get the same staff and members coming
year after year.
The hotel very early in the morning. Being a committee member I like to get there early...
The big event that we plan for very carefully is the Fairground and Variety Show on Friday night. This started with Minami Con 10, when we wanted to put on a big show to celebrate our tenth anniversary. It was so popular we decided to continue with it. It's just party games like Twister, Pinyata bashing, skittles etc, with an anime twist, for example a Twister sheet with images from Higurashi no Koro ni (be careful the other person hasn't got a knife...) and a You're Under Arrest radio control car racing circuit - the cars went everywhere but the circuit and wrecked the makeshift tunels, barriers etc I built!
All this was exremely popular. The Variety show consisted of strange events like wasabi rice ball eating contest, Iron Cosplay (you have three minutes to build a costume on someone using junk, an idea from American cons), make your own J-Rocker and Chinese Whisper drawing!
The main reason why we stage events like this is because anime conventions in the UK have changed radically in the past seven years - at one time people went to anime cons to watch fansubbed anime - sometimes all night - buy things in the dealers room they hadn't got a chance of finding anywhere else and show artwork and models. They also drank a lot of beer. Nowadays high speed internet connections mean many people can just download fansubbed anime, most fan art is now online and any anime goods you want can be ordered online! Plus, fansubbed anime has now been replaced by official releases in the video rooms. So we have to make Minami Con a social event for fans.
Model making and collecting has never been more popular, this year we staged Pinky:St and ball-jointed doll events. The Pinky:St event was run by two modelmakers and involved hands on demonstration of sword making, face and hair painting and set building for these cute big-headed figures, plus a shop where they could be bought! The doll event was more like a mini doll show. We also held a Gundam building contest, although among the kits we had a pile of the early Gundam kits that had to be cemented together - this stumped some people who weren't quick enough to grab a snap-together one! There was also a cosplay workshop.
Cosplay has been getting more and more popular, so at Minami there were more floor costumes than Masquerade entries - some people had a different costume for every day. Many of the girls had stunning outfits. The masquerade is Saturday night - it's well attended and cosplayers ofen do elaborately rehearsed set pieces.
Sunday seems like a day for recovering from the excitement of Friday and Saturday! From 11 to 2 we have the Cosplay Cafe.
This is the fourth year we have had this popular facility. I have to confess it was my idea,
inspired by a visit to Mai:lish in Tokyo - when I suggested it to the chairman he said,
"that's a good idea - can you run it?"
Well, the first one at Minami 10 worked okay, the second one was a bit better but the third one
was a mess! This year we were much better organised, with more staff on the door and with the
co-operation of the hotel. Mostly we just serve tea, coffee, cold drink or cake, rather like
a real maid cafe. Money is taken at the door and vouchers given out. Waitresses sign up for
hour long shifts. They all worked very hard and for this they got 10 vouchers towards the cost of the next convention. The two girls in He is my Master maid outfits were ideal for the job, however any outfit is okay provided bits don't fall in the cake...
The con ends with the usual committee panel, a closing ceremony, and after everyone has gone, a staff party with Pizza. Here's to next year!
PL
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