japanese anime/manga conventions
 

well me and a couple of friends are going on a trip to japan around sept-Oct and we were trying to find some Japanese anime conventions, we couldn't find any near out trip.
but we generally found like maybe 4-5 so i was thinking there might be some more and that we just couldn't find them in general.

so can anyone please help find Japanese anime conventions, or maybe some place with info where i can find them?

also if anyone know of a convention at September-October that would be great. :D

Sunshine Creation 41
Official Site: http://www.creation.gr.jp/

Oct.5(Sun) 2008 11:00~15:30
http://www.creation.gr.jp/schedule.html

World Import Mart, Sunshine City, Ikebukuro, Tokyo
http://www.creation.gr.jp/coming.html

You need to buy a catalog as a ticket.

thanks!!
that really helped!

are there any places that have info about those kinds of things?
i was really wandering about that..
tried to search google and all that and couldn't find any...

Keep in mind Anime "conventions" in Japan are VERY different than in the US. I wouldn't even use the word convention, as "market" or "fair" is generally more appropriate.

Almost all of them are doujinshi events, where a bunch of doujinshi groups (anywhere from 50 to like, 1000s) come and set up tables to sell their books/goods, etc. Depending on the size of the fair, there might be some retailers, too, or a separate industry section. Most also have cosplay areas set up for cosplayers to pose and have fun. I've also seen events like raffles and stamp rallys that I guess are designed to encourage people to take a look at all the different tables.

Although admission is very cheap, normally the price of the catalog as mentioned above.

Oh, and maybe this goes without saying, but pretty much all of them have 18+ adult content. I've been to ones where that content was clearly marked in a separate section, but at most it's mixed up with the non-adult stuff, so it's generally not a place to bring young children unless you don't care about them reading doujin porn :).

Also, if you want to cosplay yourself at these conventions, DO NOT wear your costume on your way there. If you do they will not even admit you to the event. You normally have to pay an extra fee when you enter for cosplay (some bigger events require pre-registration, too), and they provide changing rooms for you to change.

It's really a very different sort of thing than a US convention. It's not about seeing guests (there usually aren't any) or hearing announcements (there aren't any), or dances (nope), or panels (none). It's basically a giant artists alley and cosplay area, and that's it. People tend to show up, look around at the new doujin, buy what they want and then leave.

well i more or less understood that the doujinshi selling was the main point, but i guess i was thinking there are some other side activities.
anyway that was really informative so thanks for that.
I guess that things such as TAF are also rare..
well, i guess that even thou doujinshis weren't really the main thing for me i still wanna check a couple of markets to see how it is(I might even find out that i like doujinshis :P)

thou now that you mentioned it i remember i did use the term "CON" and "CONVENTION" when searching.. i guess using market and the like will give me better results :D

Almost all general remarks were said by Quarkboy. I have not visited to US anime conventions, so I can not tell the difference between Japan and US events.

One more comic event.

COMIC CITY SPARK3
http://www.akaboo.jp/event/spark3.html

Sept.28(Sun) 2008

Tokyo Big Site

You need to by a pamphlet as a ticket.

Thanks again!:)

wow tokyo Dome thats big :D

Uh, tokyo big site is not Tokyo dome. Opposite sides of tokyo :).

Tokyo Dome is a big sports arena where the Tokyo Giants baseball team plays, and there are lots of large concerts there as well.

Tokyo Big site is a giant convention center down in Odaiba, one of the man-made islands in tokyo bay: It has 4 absolutely giant halls ( about the size of a football field each) and a few smaller ones.
The thing you've seen pictures of that looks like an inverted pyramid is Big Site.

oops I've mixed those XDD
i just saw the upside down pyramids and the first name that popped up in my head was tokyo dome:heh:
it's the place where Comiket is held right?

I guess that the association of Tokyo+big event to Tokyo Dome means i have watched too many sports animes(or at least too much Major) XDD

Yes, that's where comiket is held, as well as the Tokyo Anime Fair, and pretty much a solid majority of large conventions in Tokyo. Reitaisai 5 was held there, as is a bunch of "not" comiket doujinshi conventions like the one linked to above.

I've also seen auto shows, pet-shows, motorcycle conventions, industrial paint associate convention (yeah, I know, that one sounds about as boring as.... well, you know....), etc... Big site handles it all, as you can rent just 1 of the halls, or like comiket basically take over the entire building for 3 days.
There were something like 200,000+ attendees at comiket... There aren't that many venues in the world that can handle a crowd like that INDOORS.
It's not like the place is particularly impressive, really. It's nothing but 4 airplane hangers with connecting hallways. The inverted pyramids you see in pictures actually is not the main halls at all. I think there's a lounge or something up there but it's normally just there to mark the entrance, and the actual halls are completely seperate buildings. all around the back. You can see it on google maps:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=3...14656&t=h&z=17
The 2 sets of 3 squares to the east are the 2 giant east halls.
To the lower left you can see the west halls which are the 5 smaller squares in a corner shape. This one is 2 stories with one hall on the bottom and one on the top, plus a large roof area (that's the cosplay area for comiket).

The famous pyramids are actually north of those and to the west of the east halls, right at the entrance.

btw i've been wondering,
i know it take hours to enter comiket how is it with conventions like the ones you gave me here?

Yay! I'm cosplaying as Near from death note, and it's only going to cost me 30$! For the wig.

That entirely depends on how big the convention is. I'd say that apart from Comiket you shouldn't worry about the wait... Even comiket doesn't take hours to get in if you don't try and show up in the morning.
If you are content to show up around noon, the line is mostly gone by then and you can walk right on inside. Of course, by then, all the big groups have sold out of their new books and all the limited edition merchandise from the industry booths is gone for the day... I had to get my Hatsune Miku Muffler Towel, DAMMIT... ahem...
The only reason to wait in line at Comiket is to have the true "experience" or to position yourself for a carefully orchestrated table rush plan designed to get onesself the most number of "shinkan"s as possible. Generally this is impossible to hit every group you'd want to since each circle also often has a long line, therefore the only true way to defeat comiket is to go in with a large raiding party, making sure to coordinate before hand, split up into the two different queues for the east and west halls, where every member of the party knows their role before hand. Truthfully, comiket is a lot like world of warcraft except it smells a lot more.

Anyway, outside of comiket don't worry about the lines. Even Tokyo anime Fair didn't have a particularly long line, it was only about a 30 minute wait (not even a wait so much as a walk :) ).

but there was this video a japanese(i think) guy uploaded to youtube, and it looked aloooooooooooooooooooooooooot longer then 30 minutes.. it seemed more like a 10 hours line #_#


anyway, I don't know..
i mean i'm not particularly waiting for any doujins XD
so on one hand i don't -really- have a reason to come early and raid the boothes,
on the other hand it kinda kills the point if i'm not planning to buy any doujins..
so i'm kinda split.
if this was a 2 days con then i would have had gone at noon during the first day, and then after i'd already have an idea of what(if at all) kind of doujins i want to but and then go early the next day..


but it seems i got it backwards the big con is first and the small con is second XDD

you mentioned limited edition merchandise from industry booths
should i expect any of those in one of the two cons mentioned here?
while i don't know whether or not i'll like doujins i'm pretty sure merchandise(and limited edition at that :D) will be relevant to me at least in some way...


oh and one more thing,
assuming that i'm not really interested in the H (or at least things which are more H then story etc.) is there any way for me to know where i should look first?

I think you misunderstood my english. I said "outside of comiket" not meaning "outside" literally, but "with the exception" of comiket. Comiket's lines are legendary. If you want to get in within the first 30 minutes after the doors open, you need to line up the day before :).
The only way to see if the industry booths will have anything interesting is to check their websites. They'll almost always advertise what will be for sale.
Avoiding H doujin is pretty easy... Most doujinshi tables will let you take a look at the book before hand and flip through it, so you can usually tell if there's a story or simply "action".

actually i was refering to TAF when i mentioned the huge line.. XDD

and about the H doujins i wanted to know if it's usually oredered in such a way that differentiate H booths from non H, or booths that are mainly H...

Depends on the convention. At a pretty cure meet I went to they were generally sorted but slightly mixed up. Whereas at a digimon one the 18+ was ver clearly marked in a special area.

I think that the "usual" situation is that the groups are sort of generally sorted, but that they are not clearly marked in any way.

well then, I'll have to acquire a six sense to tell which is H and which is not :p

thanks again for the info btw :D

H doujins are written "18禁" on their cover, so you can distinguish them if you look carefully at their cover.

hehe i was talking about identifying H booths,

but that will also help me alot when i'll actually get to the booths and check the doujins out..
so thanks again :D