I have only been to one other Anime convention (well, two I guess if you count PMX), and I can say that Fanime was as fun if not better than Anime Expo. Anime Expo is a big convention but Fanime was pretty intimate. This was my first time at this convention and my experience was quite exhilarating.

Read more about my experience at FanimeCon 2012.

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I want to first extend a hardy pat on the back to ayaaai for his great job on the write-ups. This was my first time meeting up and working with another Population GO contributor and I hope to do so with our other great contributors. Without all of your hard work, having to be able to press events like this wouldn’t be a possibility.

I don’t normally go into the panels when I attend these kinds of events but since I was able to attend as press it was part of my duty to have some news to supplement our dear readers. Though ayaaai was the journalist at this event and I was but the humble camera crew, it was interesting to learn what industries were up to as we attended their panels.

As I mentioned earlier, Fanime felt like an intimate convention but I mean that in a good way. Compared to AX at the L.A. Convention Center, the size venue for Fanime at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center was almost maybe half or two-thirds that of LACC. All the event rooms were easy to get to since they were not all that far apart. There was always something to do at all times of the day so the convention center never really closed.

There was one thing that really helped us get around and I hope other cons pick it up if the haven’t already: Fanime provided attendees with these handy little pocket guides that you can see in the Hi 5 segment we did with Mark from VIZ media. I know there are things like digital guides you can put in your mobile device, but I’d much rather use my battery power to tweet about some news or great cosplay I come across.

One of the many things I appreciated about Fanime was their Artist Alley. They had their own room separate from the exhibit hall and was just about as big if not bigger than the exhibit hall itself. There were so many great artists and it was easy to enjoy checking out their work since the space was comfortable to move around in.

I bought some buttons here and there from various artists but there was one I kept coming back to and finally bought some prints from (shown above). Check out some of her work on deviantART at cartoongirl7. I love the vibrancy of her watercolor look as well as the energetic but soft art style; oh, and you’ve got to love those lines. She has a mix of original characters as well as fanart.

Also check out these other great artists I’ve picked up work from:

KAIAMI
ZambiCandy
Finni
Terra’s Art of Doodling

One of the most amazing things I saw at Fanime was this giant Rathalos from Monster Hunter in the art show. This thing was massive and the detail was just awesome. The names on the artist info are as follows: R. Oyama, R. Cantu, and B. Hsieh.

Don’t mind the emptiness in the above picture. This was near the end of day 3 and everyone was mostly at the masquerade. Since the hiccup from day zero, the lines for pre-registration and at-con registration were ridiculously long. I hope some people at the at-con line were buying passes for the next day because the line kept its length till almost closing of the exhibit hall and artist alley. But if that’s not what they came for then it should be fine.

I would definitely attend another Fanime Convention whether press or general attendee. They were working on expanding the convention center when we were there so maybe it’ll be even bigger next year. I hope you enjoyed our coverage of FanimeCon 2012. Please feel free to let us know how we did in the comment box below or even a reblog reply if you can. Tell your friends about us and maybe a follow or two, it would definitely help us to be able to attend more events as press and bring more content to our faithful readers such as yourselves. ^_^