The Truth Behind Fanime

By Alexander Ogloza on June 19, 2013

This article is an add-on to a previous article of mine, Fanime for Dummies. While that article provided more of a general overview of what you can expect while attending the convention, this article will focus on what I did personally over the weekend and my experiences at the different events I attended.

Welcome back everyone! I wrote this article in case anyone’s interested in what I did personally over the weekend. I’ll be breaking up the convention by day, following my schedule of events by chronological order. Without further ado, let’s get started!

Thursday

I arrived at the San Jose McEnery late Thursday afternoon. Pre-registration began at 5:00pm, and of course my attempts to arrive when it opened were thwarted

Crazy Fanime Line!
Credits/Diana Chan

by my own last-minute-packing tendencies. Having heard of how long the lines were, I was a little worried about how long I’d have to wait in line.

It turns out the line was pretty crazy, even though I only arrived an hour later than Pre-Registration started. I talked to a rover at the back of the line and asked what the ETA would be like. He estimated it would take about two hours to get to the front, but I think that might have been a pretty conservative estimate.

Fanime graciously provided Press members with a separate entrance, so my wait time ended up being approximately 20 seconds while they printed up my badge. The staff was super polite and definitely made my photographer and I feel welcome.

After grabbing our badges, we got a little hungry so we headed downtown. We found a burrito place called La Victoria Taqueria (known as La Vics by all the cool people) at 131 W Santa Clara St. Now listen here everybody, their chicken burrito is by far one of the greatest chicken burritos I have ever had in my life, and make sure not to skip out on their orange sauce! It’s a bit spicy but so worth it. For dessert, I hopped right across the street to a YogurtLand for some froyo.

Pro Tip: This whole area is full of places to eat, and it’s really only a 5-6 minute walk away from the convention center. In my opinion this is the best place to find food while attending Fanime, and there are a ton of restaurants to chose from. Definitely keep this in mind if you plan to visit.

That was pretty much the end of the day for us, as it was getting pretty late (and cold) and we had driven a couple of hours earlier in the afternoon so we were pretty shot.

Friday

Friday is first big day of the Con, so we got up early to try and cash in on the relative emptiness of the building, especially seeing as hordes of Con-goers get held up in the registration line.

The first thing we decided to do was to take a class on how to dance the Rumba. In preparation for the Black & White Ball Fanime holds every year, there are a number of instructors who teach all sorts of dance classes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to Fanime patrons who are interested.

The class is set up for beginners, so there’s nothing to worry about if you’re a total noob (like I was). They teach you step-by-step different parts of a number of traditional dances, and you get to alternate partners and practice the moves to music. It’s a total blast and there’s nothing wrong with showing up by yourself since everyone is mixed around and partnered with each other. I definitely recommend taking a class or two, especially if you plan on attending the Black & White ball.

Taiko Drummers
Credits/Diana Chan

Right after our class, we went to see the opening ceremony, which happened to entail a taiko drumming demonstration, which was pretty cool. Also, they brought out the Guests of Honor and they talked on the stage for a bit about who they were and what they would be doing during the convention.

I had an hour to spare, so I grabbed a bacon-wrapped hotdog (one of at least 9 I consumed over the weekend) from one of the number of vendors cooking them on the street. For $4 the price is a little steep for a hotdog, but the smell will overpower your wallet and the taste is divine. They’ll even throw on ketchup, mustard, jalapenos, peppers, and mayo if you ask them.

Next I caught the Fullmetal Alchemist movie, The Sacred Star of Milos, in the Film Room. Truthfully I thought it was fantastic, especially since I had somehow not seen it before… (embarrassing, I know).

Pro Tip: I can’t emphasize how much better it is to watch your favorite anime movies or shows on a giant movie screen rather than a dinky laptop one, so make good use of this ability while you can!

For the next few hours we attended some panels, including Amtgard: A Fantasy Combat LARP and Japanese Food: A History. The former was about a live action role-play game where fans can dress up in armor and wield swords and enact giant battles against one another with rules for combat and everything. I thought the scoring system was prone to a little too much bias (since it’s up to the person who got hit to acknowledge when and where they got hit), but it looked pretty cool nonetheless. Sadly I fell asleep during Japanese Food: A History so I can’t report too much on that panel :(

For dinner we hit up a place called Pita Pit at 151 S 2nd Street, which is like a Subway but with Pita bread sandwiches instead. They are freaking delicious. Humorously enough there’s a Subway right next door in case you’d prefer that instead.

Pro Tip: This is the second good area of places to find food. They’ve got restaurants tucked away in a number of the buildings around 2nd street, and it’s close to the convention center as well (only 3-4 minutes). Plan on spending time around here eating during the weekend.

Lastly, at 10pm, we hit up two more panels in the new room they opened up in the Fairmont hotel. They were titled The Dark Side of Magical Girls and Best Recent Anime. This just goes to show the incredible breadth of topics panels can have, and most of them have truly A+ content.

Saturday

On Saturday morning, we started by heading over to Clockwork Alchemy, which is like a mini themed convention for those who love steampunk, which includes panels, workshops, a vendor’s hall, and other themed events. It’s located at the Double Tree hotel, which is unfortunately quite a ways away (way too far for walking), but the convention provides a shuttle that will take badge holders back and forth from one to the other.

We showed up at 10am for training in Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes. Basically Bartitsu is a form of martial arts revolving around the wielding of a cane, and we got to try out some moves and guards in real time. This was, in my opinion, one of my favorite things I got to do all weekend, which speaks a great deal to the quality of Clockwork Alchemy. What originally seemed like an after-thought of the main convention is actually pretty well-done, and something I would recommend checking out.

After getting back to the main hall, I grabbed another bacon-wrapped hotdog and went to see the Ace Attorney movie (yes, the one based on the video game). We were the last two let into the theatre and somehow managed to find two seats together towards the back. Unlike many videogame movie adaptations, this movie was awesome. Go see it!!

Next at 6pm, we checked out a panel called Game Trailers Presents Pop Fiction. You may have seen some of Game Trailers’ stuff on YouTube, such as the amazingly beautiful video they posted on the Zelda Timeline after its release in the Hyrule Historia. Anyway these guys are for real, so I knew I had to check them out.

This panel was my favorite of all weekend, since he covered a game I used to play as a child: Super Mario Brothers! The guy from GT had brought some devices to test the theory on the secret worlds located in the game, and tested it out right in front of us. I don’t want to spoil anything since one of their newest videos is on this exact topic, but it’s something that had the whole crowd laughing the entire hour long.

MusicFest!
Credits/Diana Chan

Right after this, my photographer and I attended FanimeCon’s yearly MusicFest! Two of the Guests of Honor they had brought in this year were famous bands from Japan, and they gave a live concert for all the Con-goers! They sounded so good (if you’re able to tune out the numerous fan-girls losing their minds) and is definitely one of the coolest events Fanime brings to its fans. Who doesn’t love a free concert?

After this was a quick dinner and then off to bed so that we could awaken early the next morning for another day full of events.

Sunday

Sunday is the day of the Black & White ball, so it kind of felt like everything leading up to 6pm was just biding our time.

In the “morning” we went out to grab some dimsum with a couple of friends, and didn’t return to the Con until 2pm for the Navigating Tokyo panel, which was held by one of the Guests of Honor! I found this a particularly relevant panel since I will be traveling to Japan this summer, so I made sure to catch this one and pick up on some of the tips he mentioned (such as exchanging your money at the airport for the best rate possible, how to not get lost on the subway system, and which signs to look out for in case you do get lost).

Black & White ball
Credits/Diana Chan

We then took another dancing class, the Waltz this time, and then returned to our room in order to adorn our fancy clothes for the ball.

The Black & White ball is just one of those events that you cannot miss if you attend Fanime. It’s all the spectacularness of a formal ball, but with music geared to Fanime-esque tastes, such as The Legend of Zelda. It lasts from 6 till midnight, and we had a blast dancing with the moves we learned at the classes we took, and just taking in the whole scene.

After midnight I grabbed yet another bacon-wrapped hotdog and hopped on over to the hentai room, which runs into the wee hours of the night. After nearly passing out from the sex scenes and the mass groans from the audience, we headed back to the room to catch some much needed rest.

Monday

I meant to wake up and hit some of the early morning panels, but sadly I slept through my alarm clock and didn’t wake up until late in the afternoon. It looks like the Con finally caught up to me. We packed our things, grabbed to breakfa… er, lunch, and drove back home.

It’s safe to say that we had an awesome time, and are definitely considering returning next year. There’s just so much to do, even if you’re up 24/7 you’ll feel like you’re missing out. It can be pretty taxing on your body (sorry stomach for all those hotdogs), but it’s totally worth it.

If you’re interested in finding out more information on Fanime, head to their website at www.Fanime.com

Hope you see you all there next year!

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format