BayAnime.com

Pre-Panel Protocol

I woke up on the morning of Saturday, May 23^rd, 2009 with my head stuck in a cloud. It took me a short while to realize that I’d spent the night with BAAU members at the Crown Plaza Hotel across the street from the Fanime convention center. Although I had barely gotten any sleep the night before thanks to the 24-hour party people across the hall, I was focused… I knew that if there was one thing I absolutely had to do that day, it was to check in on time for BayAnime’s “Local Bay Area Anime Fans” panel!

We were all cutting it a bit close, as fellow BayAnime staff members Ann and Colin were racing down to San Jose from San Francisco just that morning. Luckily I managed to get to the Panelist’s Lounge on time to confirm our attendance with Fanime staff member, Rena, who looked just as bright and sunny as she did two years ago when I checked in with her for another Fanime panel. It was nice to see her again even if she didn’t remember me. At the Panelist’s Lounge I also met Ed Schwartz from No-Name Anime who was actually waiting to check out our panel! We then headed to the panel room and met up with other No-Name staff members Rob Shaw, Robert Loo, and Warner Young. Ann and Colin soon showed up to join our crowd, as well as Stythys from the BayAnime forums. Fourth BayAnime staff member Mike arrived minutes before show time, and armed with our trusty Beardog pins, the panel was ready to begin!

The Voices and Minds of Local Bay Area Anime Fans!

With all the different panels at Fanime ranging from “Anime Impact on US Cartoons” to “How to Talk to Girls,” the amount and variety of information one could take in from that weekend was astonishing! BayAnime’s goal this year was to hold an open discussion with local anime fans and explore the current state of anime culture and communities throughout the Bay Area. Our host, Ann, invited members from the audience to come up, introduce themselves, talk about their anime interests, and speak their minds about what they wanted to see in their local communities regarding anime activities. Anyone who shared their thoughts walked away with the gift of a Beardog pin! But as cool as the pins were, the importance of this exercise was to give everyone the opportunity to express themselves as a member of the Bay Area fan community. Several important issues came about during the panel:

Anime fans want to meet more anime fans. Especially fans who live close by.

I remember a funny introduction from Jonas, a gentleman from Reno, Nevada, who made a joke about how he actively represented 1/7 of anime community in his area. This brought on quite a bit of laughter and applause from the audience! As the introductions continued, it became clear that many people felt that anime communities in their local areas were still relatively small and underdeveloped. While the total population of anime enthusiasts was definitely growing, there was a sense that fans remained scattered and somewhat disconnected with one another. FanimeCon was of course one of the ultimate destinations for anime fans to come together and communicate directly, however I got the impression that most people didn’t want to rely solely on a few large conventions to get involved with the community and interact with fellow anime and comic fans. As Ronna from San Jose put it, “For some reason, whenever you go to cons the people you meet inevitably live 3 hours away… if you’re lucky. It would be nice to meet people I could actually see outside of the con.” There was definitely a strong interest from everyone for more local anime events and activities to promote ways connect to with new and nearby friends.

Let’s talk more at screening events (but not during the screening).

When it came to discussing public anime screenings, several audience members expressed that there was a lack of a socializing aspect when it came to such events. Anime and film screenings often attract multitudes of fans and enthusiasts, and many agreed that it would be nice to have some discussions or casual chats with other screening attendees instead of just leaving after a showing. Clubs like No-Name Anime, known for encouraging such activities at their screenings, pointed out that adequate break times between anime showings can provide good opportunities for people to start conversations with other folks. In my personal experience, a number of anime screenings I have been to in the past featured a brief introduction from a host who would come up in front of the audience before playing the show. I always thought that it would be great if hosts would come up again after the screenings and hold a little two-way Q&A with the audience just to kick-start the discussion!

You just have to go do it!

Two letters came to mind as I listened to No-Name staff member Robert Loo speak to the audience — “OG”. Robert Loo and his colleagues have been involved in anime clubs and communities in the Bay area since the mid 90’s (if not earlier), and they also helped fund FanimeCon back when it was just getting started. After sharing some juicy information with us about a Hayao Miyazaki event at UC Berkeley, Robert went on to point out that there are indeed a lot of great events and opportunities out there for anime/animation fans… we just have to be willing to seek them out: “You just gotta start going to the meetings, and start going to different things (events).”

As a veteran of the community, Robert gave us some background on how the bulk of all anime clubs in the 80’s started in colleges and high schools, and how well-known conventions like AnimeCon, FanimeCon, and Anime Expo all originated from around the San Jose area. Although I always thought that the Bay Area would one day become a massive hub for the development and outreach of anime culture, I realized then that this was already the case!

Beardog has his work cut out for him.

A lot of great discussions and information came about from the panel that day. Thanks to Ronna from San Jose, I learned about many new local stores that sell anime merchandise and comic goods (the BayAnime has been updated with this information). More importantly, the insight from all of the panel audience members gave me a good sense of how the Bay Area’s anime community had grown and evolved over the years.

Yet despite all this progress, the widely-expressed feeling by many audience members of being a lone “closet” anime fan in their local community was indicative of problems that had yet to be fully addressed. With so much information to be shared, events to be organized, clubs to be established/maintained, meet ups to be had, and people to bring together, Beardog sure has his work cut out for him! But based on the enthusiasm that I felt from everyone who came to the panel that day, I’m optimistic about what the future has in store for our anime community, and I hope that BayAnime can do its part to contribute to a solution by being a key resource and even a facilitator for Bay Area groups and initiatives.

Of course, the most critical and profound point of the day came from an answer to a question that Ed Schwartz threw to the audience. “What sort of activities would convince people from the South Bay to come up to San Francisco, and visa versa?” Someone from the audience blurted out, “Easy parking!” Amen to that!

Fanime Impressions: Table of Contents

Part 1: Prologue – Do It Because You Can
Part 2: Singing in the Karaoke Contest: An Epic Fail Minus the Fail
Part 3: Notes from BayAnime’s “Local Bay Area Anime Fans” Panel
Part 4: Hanging with BAAU at the Artists Alley + 5 awesome people (Coming Soon)