ANIMAINE 2012: Convention Review & Photo Collection

Review by Shauna Leva, Photos by Kelley Griffin.

This past weekend, a trip was taken up interstate 95 by Kelley and myself to the Merry Manor Inn in South Portland, Maine. After some difficulty finding the correct door, we had arrived at ANIMAINE 2012. A small convention, nestled in the hallways of the Best Western Merry Manor Inn & Conference Center. Animaine took place  from Friday August 31st until Monday September 3rd, and featured all of your standard Anime Con attractions. There was a spacious marketplace featuring both dealers and artists, multiple panel rooms, and a gaming room upstairs with both consoles and board games set up for attendees to enjoy at their leisure.

Animaine is a very small but very personable convention; we were practically greeted at the door by Head of Guest Relations and escorted to registration to get our press passes. I found all of the staff to be incredibly warm and welcoming. We were given a tour of the convention and introduced to the chairman at his first availability. Kelley and myself were fortunate enough to arrange an interview with the Chairman and Chief of staff–an opportunity rarely given at the larger conventions in the area. Look out for that interview on Nerd Caliber in the following week!

Despite the convention’s small size, I was impressed with the convention’s list of notable guests. The ever-entertaining Greg Ayres was extremely visible and accessible throughout the day Sunday, hosting multiple panels, telling funny stories, and helping to promote the Convention’s over-arching theme of anti-piracy in the Anime & Gaming industry. More on that important political issue in another article…coming soon. Other noteworthy guests include Scott Melzer, David Williams, Terri Doty, and musical headliner Asterplace.

Speaking of music–for a small convention the sound quality in the panel rooms was exceptional. The guys at Animaine could really stand to give a few tips to the larger conventions which always seem to be having trouble with their microphones or  projectors inside panel rooms. I saw not one malfunctioning piece of equipment all day, which is unusual, and the sound was perfectly clear without being deffening. Asterplace’s performance Sunday night was…energetic…but the sound system performed beautifully and the crowd seemed to enjoy what they heard.

The cosplay at the Animaine was a refreshing surprise. The ratio of cosplay to non-cosplay at this convention was way up! There may not have been many attendees present, but a huge percentage of them were in some sort of costume or counter-culture get-up. With such a small selection of costumes, the “wow-factor” was underwhelming–you weren’t going to see any giant ball-gowns or 60lb props at this convention–but still the enthusiasm and consistently above average costumes for a Sunday were a delight to behold. However the narrow and dimly-lit hallways didn’t exactly allow us to capture the cosplay in the best light, but isn’t that always the issue with a convention in a hotel?

The panels at this little gem of a convention were very well executed. You would think that a con with only 2-3 panels going on at any one time would leave people searching for ways to entertain themselves, but really I found every panel I attended to be captivating. There were a lot of interesting things happening on other days which really peaked my interests as well; had I been in the area longer, or lived closer, I certainly would have gone back a second or third day to check out “Why I’m a Pirate” (not the sailing kind), and the “Official Bear Game Panel,” who’s description in the program reads….”Do YOU know about BEAR GAME? It’s a GAME. About SWANS. NO IT ISN’T. It’s about BEARS.” I really wish I made it to that one, since I read it in the voice of the narrator for “Power Thirst.”

Anyway…. Let’s talk about the shopping. Though none seemed overly enthused by the Sunday afternoon crowds (or lack thereof), the vendors that we did talk to said that the convention was worth the trip for them. The competition in the dealers room was non-existant, meaning if a guest wanted to buy something, every dealer had a pretty good chance of making a sale. From a consumer standpoint, there may not have been a lot of booths to look through, but most of the bases were covered, and for such a tiny convention it was more than I expected. They had a food vendor selling pocky and any other important Japanese snack you could be craving. There were keychains and buttons and manga, dvds, plushies, soundtracks, official convention gear, and even a cosplay photo booth. The things that I did not see that a larger convention would likely have, include artwork, wigs, leather goods, weapons, and clothing for sale. This marketplace has lots of room to grow, so all you artists and vendors just getting off the ground, this may be a good convention for you to look into for next year.

Overall, I would call Animaine, a convention in its infancy, a great success. I did not encounter a single unpleasant or unhappy person while I was there, and we all know how hard it is to keep everyone happy at a convention! I look forward to seeing where this convention goes in the future, considering that the chairman totes the small setting as a “testing ground” for new ideas for larger conventions up and down the east coast.

As of yet, this convention is a non-profit endeavor: organized for the love of the industry, and the love of a good time. While standing around the halls, we really got the sense that for the staff members, this was just another weekend chillin’ with friends…except with walkie-talkies.

Thanks for reading!