Animania

Animania Festival
Jono and Guu, the Animania mascots, with the Animania logo (2006 event)
Status	Defunct
Venue	Australian Technology Park (main convention)
Location(s)	Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide
Country	Australia
Inaugurated	2002
Most recent	2014
Website
http://www.animania.net.au

Animania was an annual anime convention that was held in Sydney, Australia. It was Sydney's first dedicated anime and manga event. Originally run by local University anime societies, Animania is now organised by Aurora Entertainment, and includes several events in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide.

The term Animania in the 1990s referred to online-organized meetings of Animaniacs fans from around the world.^[1]The shared name is coincidental.

Programming

Animania features many of the typical events found at anime conventions including cosplay and AMV (anime music video) competitions, anime screenings, workshops, karaoke, video games such as Dance Dance Revolution. ^[2] In addition to such staples, Animania has experimented with several of its own attractions, such as live fandubbing, an "Iron Artist" drawing competition based on the Iron Chef TV show, the anime cover-band Halcyon, and "Animania Fusion", a skit-based video comedy featuring members of Animania staff.

Halcyon

Halcyon made their debut at Animania 2003 and at that time consisted of three members: Amanda Setiadi as the vocalist, Michael Lee (aka "Muki") as the acoustic guitar player, and Rosi Yu as the violinist. The band performed a small set and were sufficiently popular to warrant their return for Animania in 2005, as well as making appearances at other anime-related events in Sydney. The band has also grown from the original three-member setup to six, including a drummer, Michael Ip, and two more guitarists, Lindsay Nighjoy on bass and Jason Solomon on lead.

At the main Sydney Animania in 2007, Halcyon played two sets, including an acoustic set (without drums) at the Friday preview night, and with the full band on the Saturday night.

Halcyon's "style" is playing songs that have appeared in anime and Japanese video games, creating original translations (and occasionally reinterpretations) of the Japanese lyrics. Songs they have covered include Fly Me to the Moon from Neon Genesis Evangelion and HT from Trigun.

World Cosplay Summit

At the September 2007 Sydney event Animania announced^[3] they had been accepted by the World Cosplay Summit to host the Australian competitions to compete in Japan at WCS 2009. This will be the first time Australia has been represented at WCS.

Preliminary competition events will be held at the 2008 events with the finals taking place at August 2008 Sydney event. The winning team will be flown to Japan in 2009 to compete in the World Cosplay Summit. The team representing Australia for the first time is the Love and Peace Movement, consisting of Tsubaki Chan and Cattypatra.

History

In 2008 the first World Cosplay Summit Australian Preliminaries took place at Animania, with the finalists competing in the 2009 World Cosplay Summit Championship (Japan).

The 2008 Sydney August event featured two live concerts:^[4]Argent La Rosa, a J-Rock styled band, and Yunyu.

In 2009 Animania partnered with the Adelaide OzAsia Festival, expanding the event to 4 cities.^[5]

Event history

Dates	Location	Guests
12 October 2002	Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre and Auditorium Complex Sydney, Australia[6]
11–12 October 2003	The Scientia, University of New South Wales Kensington, Australia	Lewis Morley.[7]
23–24 October 2004	Sydney City Town Hall Sydney, Australia[8]
3 September 2005	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia[9]
8–9 October 2005	Sydney City Town Hall Sydney, Australia[10]
20 May 2006	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia[11]
1 July 2006	The Victoria Hotel Melbourne, Australia[12]
12 August 2006	Carlton Crest Hotel Sydney, Australia[13]
9 September 2006	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia[14]
30 September – 1 October 2006	Sydney Town Hall Sydney, Australia[15]
31 March 2007	Carlton Crest Hotel Sydney, Australia[16]
28 April 2007	Rydges Hotel, Melbourne Melbourne, Australia[16]
26–27 May 2007	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia[16]
28–30 September 2007	Sydney Town Hall Sydney, Australia[17]
29 March 2008	Citigate Central Hotel (formerly known as Carlton Crest) Sydney, Australia[18]
19 April 2008	Rydges Hotel, Melbourne Melbourne, Australia[19]
10 May 2008	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia[20]
23–24 August 2008	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia[3]
20 September 2008	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia[3]
28 March 2009	Citigate Central Hotel Sydney, Australia[21]
18 April 2009	Rydges Hotel, Melbourne Melbourne, Australia[21]
9 May 2009	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia[21]
5–6 September 2009	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia[21]
19 September 2009	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia[21]
10 October 2009	Adelaide Festival Centre Adelaide, Australia[5]
20 March 2010	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia[22]
10 April 2010	Rydges Hotel, Melbourne[23] Melbourne, Australia
1 May 2010	Mercure Hotel, Brisbane[24] Brisbane, Australia
11–12 September 2010	Australian Technology Park[25] Sydney, Australia	Rica Matsumoto[26]
2 October 2010	Adelaide Festival Centre[27] Adelaide, Australia
30 October 2010	Mercure Hotel, Brisbane[28] Brisbane, Australia
19 March 2011	Australian Technology Park[29] Sydney, Australia
17–18 September 2011	Australian Technology Park[30] Sydney, Australia
24 March 2012	Australian Technology Park[31] Sydney, Australia
22–23 September 2012	Australian Technology Park[32] Sydney, Australia
22 March 2014	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia

See also

• List of anime conventions

References

1. "Animania IV History". Animania IV History. Archived from the original on 2015-10-16. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
2. Maddox, Garry (2003-10-11). "Animania - it's not just Pokemon". The Sydney Morning Herald (Austrialia: The Sydney Morning Herald). Archived from the original on 2015-10-16. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
3. "Animania 2008 Website". Animania.net.au. Archived from the original on 17 April 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
4. "Band Performance". Archived from the original on 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
5. "OzAsia 2009 Website". OzAsia2009. Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
6. "Animania 2002 Information". AnimeCons.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
7. "Animania 2003 Information". AnimeCons.com. Archived from the original on 6 May 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
8. "Animania 2004 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
9. "Animania 2005 Website". Archive.org. Archived from the original on 14 June 2005. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
10. "Animania 2005 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
11. "Animania Brisbane 2006 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
12. "Animania Melbourne 2006 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
13. "Animania Sydney 2006 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
14. "Animania Brisbane 2006 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
15. "Animania Sydney 2006 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
16. "Animania 2007 Website". Archive.org. Archived from the original on 3 March 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
17. "Animania Sydney 2007 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 9 April 2008.
18. "Animania 2008 March Festival Info". Animania.net.au. Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
19. "Animania 2008 April Festival Info". Animania.net.au. Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
20. "Animania 2008 May Festival Info". Animania.net.au. Archived from the original on 14 April 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
21. "Animania 2009 Website". Animania.net.au. Archived from the original on 25 April 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
22. "Animania Festival Sydney". Animecons. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
23. "Animania Festival Melbourne". Animecons. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
24. "Animania Festival Brisbane". Animecons. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
25. "Animania 2010".
26. "Animania 2010". Animania. Archived from the original on 16 November 2010. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
27. "Animania Festival Adelaide". Animecons. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
28. "Animania Festival Brisbane". Animecons. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
29. "Animania mini 2011".
30. "Animania 2011".
31. "Animania mini 2012".
32. "Animania 2012".

External links

• Animania Festival - Animania Festival's Official website.
• World Cosplay Summit - World Cosplay Summit 2008 Website.