General info: September 2007 Archives

Anime Banzai planning for 2008

By nihon on September 30, 2007 11:15 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Anime Banzai Newsletter

September 30, 2007


In this issue:

  • Meeting Date

  • Staff and Volunteers Needed

  • Mascot Contest

  • Lost and Found


Meeting Date - 

Come discuss the pros and cons of Anime Banzai 07 and help us start planning for Anime Banzai 08!

Date: Saturday, October 6

Time: 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Location: Salt Lake City Main Library

210 East 400 South

Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Room: Conference Room A


Staff and Volunteers -

The only way to keep Anime Banzai going is with the help of volunteers. We will be looking for committee heads, security and volunteers to help plan and run Anime Banzai 08. We need all the help we can get! Come to the meetings, visit the message board or e-mail us at animebanzai@gmail.com.


Mascot Contest -

Anime Banzai 2008 Mascot Contest!!

Want to see your artwork on next year's badges, program book, flyers, website, t-shirts or banner ads?

Redesign our mascots Ban (boy) and Sae (girl) in your own style. Lineart, grayscale and color accepted. 300 dpi resolution required. Limit of 3 entries per person. (if plagiarism is suspected entrant will be automatically disqualified)

Winners will get free entry to the 2008 Anime Banzai Convention.

Submit your entries to animebanzai@gmail.com with "AB08 Mascot" as the subject line

Deadline is January 31, 2008


Lost and Found -

Did you lose something at Anime Banzai 07? Check with our AB07 Head Security Ninja, 'mnpchan', on the Anime Banzai message board .

Writers' Symposium Ezine

By nihon on September 30, 2007 10:49 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted on behalf of Paul Genesse

Announcing the release of the Writers' Symposium Ezine!

Each issue is dedicated to "Helping Writers Write," and will be
released quarterly via email, or it can be viewed on the web at
www.paulgenesse.com/WritersSymposium. Each issue will feature
articles, tips, and resources that will help you improve your writing,
or let you know about good books.

Sign up by sending email to:
WritersSymposium@paulgenesse.com

The Writers' Symposium is made up of twenty professional writers, game
designers, and editors listed at the end of the issue. Combined we
have sold several dozen books and short stories to major publishers,
primarily in the fantasy and science fiction genre.

The Writers' Symposium has its origins back in the 1990's when it was
founded by editor and author Jean Rabe--famous for her Dragonlance
novels. She started giving seminars on writing at the Gen Con Game
Fair in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Gen Con has moved to Indianapolis,
Indiana, but Jean and her crew are still there.

Many writers have helped her present the panels over the years and the
seminars are almost always packed with people who want to learn more
about writing. I was one of those writers who wanted to break in. By
following Jean's advice I've sold eight short stories and my first
novel is coming out in hardcover in April of 2008. This first issue is
dedicated to Jean, a fantastic person and a great writer.

The first is made up of articles titled:

From the Editor
Feature Article: Creating Characters and a link to an online article
Bio on Jean Rabe--The Founder of the Writers' Symposium
Feature Article: Writers' Groups by Don Bingle
List of Current Writers' Symposium Members & Contact Info
Final Thought and link to the Writers' Symposium Blog

Paul Genesse,
Coordinating Editor of the Writers' Symposium Ezine

Website: http://www.paulgenesse.com/
Blog: http://paulgenesse.blogspot.com/

Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
(Five Star Books, April 2008)

Anime Banzai report

By nihon on September 2, 2007 4:36 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Well, Anime Banzai 2007 is over now, and I think it was very successful third year convention. All of the people I talked to there enjoyed themselves, and we are all looking forward to next year. Despite a doubling of the at the door rate from last year (to $30/person), the numbers at the con were still almost what they were last year. The amount of activities and the amount of time were also doubled (since they could start about 12 hours earlier than they could while at Salt Lake Community College), and they took advantage of all the extra time. 

The dealers room was about the same, though at least one of the dealers had less merchandise available than last year due to flying to the con instead of driving. Many of the dealers were familiar from past years, too. There was no art show this year, from lack of interest I'm guessing. The art show last year was smaller than the one the first year. It may be that they just need someone very dedicated to running one. We'll see if they bring it back again.

This was the first year Anime Banzai was held in a hotel (specifically, the Sheraton City Centre Hotel on 500 South), and while there were some rough edges due to inexperience on the part of the con staff and dealing with hotel issues, I think they did an admirable job overall. I even talked to some of the other hotel guests who asked me what was going on, and some of them seemed genuinely interested instead of amused or scared by all the weirdos running around in strange costumes. The hotel staff seemed more friendly than when CONduit was there. 

The guests this year included Artbeat and Michael Dobson. Artbeat was very well received, and had an encore performance on Saturday night in addition to their scheduled Friday night concert, pushing back the cosplay contest an hour. After their concerts, they sold copies of their CDs, signed them, and posed for pictures with their fans. From my perspective, they were very gracious throughout. 

Artbeat is an unusual group, being a Jrock group from the United States rather than Japan. The members of the group speak both Japanese and English, and have released three independent albums. They have been making the rounds to various conventions, and have even begun being noticed in Japan. 

Michael Dobson is a well-known English-language voice actor working for the Ocean Group. He's voiced Starscream (Transformers), as well as many other anime and non-anime roles. He gave a presentation about what it was like to be a voice actor, covering some of his experiences over the last many years. 

I participated on two panels, one about classic anime (1980s and earlier) and one about the difference between reality and the portrayal of life in Japan in anime. Both were very well attended (probably not due to me, but I can hope), and those attending asked a lot of good questions which we answered. You can get the handout for the classic anime panel here:

If you like anime, or even just curious about it, I highly recommend attending next year. It's great fun!I'll be posting some pictures later.
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