Animania

Animania Festival
Jono and Guu, the Animania mascots, with the Animania logo (2006 event)
Status	Defunct
Venue	Australian Technology Park (main convention)
Location(s)	Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide
Country	Australia
Inaugurated	2002
Most recent	2014
Activity	Game shows, concerts, cosplay, competitions, dealers room, panels, workshops, karaoke, video game room, artist's alley, community groups, video rooms and food fair
Website	http://www.animania.net.au

Animania was an annual anime convention that was held in Sydney, Australia. Originally run by local University anime societies, Animania and later organised by Aurora Entertainment, including several events in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide. The term Animania in the 1990s referred to online-organized meetings of Animaniacs fans from around the world.

Programming

Animania featured many of the typical events found at anime conventions including cosplay and AMV (anime music video) competitions, anime screenings, workshops, karaoke, video games such as Dance Dance Revolution. In addition to such staples, Animania 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 from Neon Genesis Evangelion and HT from Trigun.

World Cosplay Summit

At the September 2007 Sydney event Animania announced they had been accepted by the World Cosplay Summit to host the Australian competitions to compete in Japan at WCS 2009. This was the first time Australia has been represented at WCS.

Preliminary competition events were held at the 2008 events with the finals taking place at August 2008 Sydney event. The winning team was 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.

The 2008 Sydney August event featured two live concerts: Argent La Rosa, a J-Rock styled band, and Yunyu.

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

Event history

Dates	Location	Guests
12 October 2002	Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre and Auditorium Complex Sydney, Australia
11–12 October 2003	The Scientia, University of New South Wales Kensington, Australia	Lewis Morley.
23–24 October 2004	Sydney City Town Hall Sydney, Australia
3 September 2005	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
8–9 October 2005	Sydney City Town Hall Sydney, Australia
20 May 2006	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
1 July 2006	The Victoria Hotel Melbourne, Australia
12 August 2006	Carlton Crest Hotel Sydney, Australia
9 September 2006	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
30 September – 1 October 2006	Sydney Town Hall Sydney, Australia
31 March 2007	Carlton Crest Hotel Sydney, Australia
28 April 2007	Rydges Hotel, Melbourne Melbourne, Australia
26–27 May 2007	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
28–30 September 2007	Sydney Town Hall Sydney, Australia
29 March 2008	Citigate Central Hotel (formerly known as Carlton Crest) Sydney, Australia
19 April 2008	Rydges Hotel, Melbourne Melbourne, Australia
10 May 2008	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
23–24 August 2008	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia
20 September 2008	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
28 March 2009	Citigate Central Hotel Sydney, Australia
18 April 2009	Rydges Hotel, Melbourne Melbourne, Australia
9 May 2009	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
5–6 September 2009	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia
19 September 2009	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
10 October 2009	Adelaide Festival Centre Adelaide, Australia
20 March 2010	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia
10 April 2010	Rydges Hotel, Melbourne Melbourne, Australia
1 May 2010	Mercure Hotel, Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
11–12 September 2010	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia	Rica Matsumoto
2 October 2010	Adelaide Festival Centre Adelaide, Australia
30 October 2010	Mercure Hotel, Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
5 March 2011	Rydges Melbourne Melbourne, Australia
19 March 2011	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia
30 April 2011	Mercure Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
17–18 September 2011	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia	Ikue Ōtani
8 October 2011	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
10 March 2012	Holiday Inn Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
24 March 2012	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia
22–23 September 2012	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia
6 October 2012	Mercure Brisbane Brisbane, Australia
23 March 2013	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia
14–15 September 2013	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia
22 March 2014	Australian Technology Park Sydney, Australia

See also

• List of anime conventions

External links

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