Animania is an annual anime convention

Anime convention

An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activities and panels...

 that has been held in Sydney, Australia since 2002. It is Sydney's first dedicated anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 and manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 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.

Programming

Animania features many of the typical events found at anime conventions including cosplay

Cosplay

, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...

 and AMV (anime music video

Anime music video

An anime music video is a music video consisting of clips from one or more animations set to an audio track ; the term usually refers to fan-made unofficial videos. An AMV can also be a set of video game footage put together with music which is known as a GMV...

) competitions, anime screenings, workshops, karaoke

Karaoke

is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...

, video games such as Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...

.

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

Fly Me to the Moon

"Fly Me to the Moon" is a popular standard song written by Bart Howard in 1954. It was originally titled "In Other Words", and was introduced by Felicia Sanders in cabarets...

 from Neon Genesis Evangelion and HT from Trigun

Trigun

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yasuhiro Nightow, published from 1996 to 2008 and spanning 17 collected volumes....

.

World Cosplay Summit

At the September 2007 Sydney event Animania announced they had been accepted by the World Cosplay Summit

World Cosplay Summit

, also known as WCS, is an annual international cosplay event that promotes friendly international exchange through Japanese pop culture. The event is hosted by TV Aichi and held in Nagoya, Japan...

 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

World Cosplay Summit

, also known as WCS, is an annual international cosplay event that promotes friendly international exchange through Japanese pop culture. The event is hosted by TV Aichi and held in Nagoya, Japan...

 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: Argent La Rosa, a J-Rock styled band, and Yunyu

Yunyu

Yunyu is an Australian musician originally from Singapore, now living in New South Wales. Her music is mostly played on keyboards and pianoforte...

.

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

Event history

Dates	Location	Guests

External links

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