Anime Evolution 2009

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A recap of Anime Evolution 2009 from June 12th to 14th at the Vancouver Convention Centre in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. Pictures are now available on Gallery.

This year, thousands of anime fans descended on Vancouver’s waterfront for another incarnation of Anime Evolution and given an amazing time. The convention was held in the new facility just west of the iconic Canada Place and was a significant improvement over the cramped rooms of Simon Fraser University or the University of British Columbia.

Vega
Vega

Although the convention did not have access to the entire centre; only the lower floor (with the cavernous exhibition halls) and second floor were opened up. The exhibition halls held the main theatre for the concert and walk off, along with registration, artist’s alley and the dealers room. The second floor had the smaller rooms for panels, screenings, AMVs and gaming. The walkways were spacious and the immense glass walls were perfect for snapping photos of passing cosplayers. I really hope the organizers are able to secure the convention centre again for next year, since it’s more than adequate for Anime Evolution.

The convention itself was much better, with a strong line up of voice actors, directors, artists and other distinguished guests. Some notable names included Mark Hildreth, Trevor Devall, Paul Dobson, Michael Dobson, Gavin Blair, David Stanworth, and Cathy Weseluck, were amongst the many to attend. Panels featuring ReBoot, 4chan, sessions on writing fan fiction, creating manga or using YouTube also filled up the schedule. With something always going on, it was impossible to get bored. My friend, Jesse, hosted a few panels (of which I unfortunately missed) on the state of anime in Canada, copyright in Canada (always a favourite) and… Prince Adams Fabulous Secret Panel? Not sure about that one.

The dealers room was little lacking this year, most likely due to the current status of the economy. There were still a decent amount of vendors selling manga, toys and figures, cosplay accessories, but only one stall really selling DVDs.
Artist’s Alley had a strong line up featuring two full rows of talented people displaying detailed posters, hats, plushies, bookmarks and cards. It was all really well done.

Neku Sakurama
Neku Sakuraba

The costumes were elaborate this year, as always. There were a number of characters: from Bleach; featuring Ichigo, Byakuya, Hitsugaya, Grimjaw, Orihime, Kisuke. Hetalia was popular as well, seeing as Canada was on the three-day adult badge, so there were many representations of Canada, Russia, United States, Greece, China, Korea and a France. Link and Zelda from the Legend of Zelda made an appearance, as did Mokona from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, NHK’s Domo, Marth, Roy, Kirby, Peach and Dark Peach from Super Smash Bros., Snake from Metal Gear Solid, Vash from Trigun, and a number of Death Note’s L and Light along with Matt and Mello. Neku and and Beat from The World Ends With You wandered through the crowd with Sora, Roxas, Riku and Kairi from Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon’s Mudkips, a grouping of Gatomon, Palmon, Lillymon and Wizardmon from Digimon, Bakura, Jaden and Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh!, Simon, Kamina and Yoko from Gurren Lagann. Sailor Moon, Queen Serenity and Tuxedo Mask stopped by along with the obligatory Pyramid Head of Silent Hill fame. The list is long.

So, being one of two Naruto Uzumaki’s on Friday (the second one showed up in the evening), I had a large number of photographs taken of me. It’s unusual since there’s at least a minimum of ten of Naruto’s running around at a convention, but this time there were more people cosplaying Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, and endless numbers of Akatsuki.

It’s pretty neat to get all the attention of having someone ask for your picture, but it’s even more amusing when you’re outside walking along, and tourists are slyly taking your picture hoping you won’t notice. There were a lot of strange looks and inquisitive visitors asking why everyone was dressed up. Many of the tourists were quite surprised when I explained this was a convention, but a number of the sightseers visiting from Asian countries were able to pick up with what was going on and knew who was who.

Naruto hugs Naruto
Naruto hugs Naruto

Things got interesting on Saturday night when me and a group of friends went down to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown. I was described as “a Yu-Gi-Oh!”, “a Super Saiyan”, “Goku”, and “Pokemon” from passers by. When we were actually seated, there was a table of people who were having a small celebration to which they immediately roared “NARUTO!!” when I walked past. Of course I had to stop for pictures, and small talk. After dinner, I posed for some more pictures with them before they left.

I checked out a few of the panels, including the one with Mark Hildreth, Garry Chalk, Brian Dobson and Paul Dobson. Unfortunately, Mark did not appear at his own panel, most likely due to preparations for his concert… that or Scott McNeil found him. I also attended the 4chan panel, however, due to some last minute changes, the original organizer had some other plans, the panel wasn’t too organized, but was still fun nonetheless.

The AMV room was a large hall and had a huge screen for displaying the videos. It was well planned out, and presented nicely. I sat in on the last “Top Twelve Music Videos” that featured the obvious. Nicely done.

Convention Centre
Convention Centre

The weekend was too short. The convention was well planned, the costumes were beautiful, the guests were amazing — just outstanding overall. This made up for the past two instances of Anime Evolution I had attended where panels were scattered all over, last minute changes, and the like. The staff did such a great job organizing the event this year and the facility was just amazing, I hope we get to return next year.

The Vancouver Sun posted a few pictures in their online gallery. My photos are available here.

 

 

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One reply to “Anime Evolution 2009”

  1. Great Site man i love the resources you got here, I love the new Anime season coming up it’s going to be really something out of this wold.

    Also Please make a post about One Piece ENDING.

    I think a lot of people are waiting for that.

    Cheers

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