Con Report: Castle Point Anime Convention 2009

Or click here for the Photo Gallery Castle Point Anime Convention 2009
March 29, 2009
Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, NJ, USA

Why do we go to conventions? To meet thousands of people who love the same silly cartoons that we do? To scout out great deals on DVDs, figures and the like? To meet guests and attend fascinating panels? Nobody has the same answer, and that's why it is not just the Otakons and the Anime Expos that are running the anime con scene. That's why a college anime club at Stevens Institute of Technology can concoct a new convention in 2008, and pull a startling number of attendees and panelists (EDIT: 1,016 attendees to be precise) to a college convention held in a small venue, with one guest, on a Sunday!

The reasons why fans flocked to Castle Point for the second year in a row are numerous. First was the price point, bumped up $5 from last year, but still at the low figure of $10 for the whole day. Also, the con was only one day, so all of the programming was packed in, making for a very dense, satisfying day. Finally, the Stevens campus is in Hoboken, right down the street from the train station, so commuting was easy from either New Jersey or New York City. All of these factors add up to an experience that doesn't require the time or money commitments of a big convention, with its high fees for travel, lodging, and attendance.

The programming was astounding for such a small convention. My favorite part about CPAC has consistently been that it provides the sort of panels that you get at bigger cons, but in a smaller, more personal venue. For example, CPAC 2009 was home to C.R.A.Z.Y.O.T.A.K.U. and the Super Mario Super Panel, two popular panels that are often run at AnimeNEXT and MangaNEXT. Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon – typically seen at AnimeNEXT – were even in attendance, running two panels in which they described old-school anime fandom ("Otaku History 101") and showed clips of their favorite scenes (appropriately, "These Are a Few of My Favorite Scenes").

Of course, the convention also featured Ani-Gamers' first panel: "You Wanna Be a Blogger/Podcaster?", in which Ink, Hisui, DJ Ranma S, and I laid down the basics of how budding Internet superstars can create and maintain their very own blogs and/or podcasts. I've been talking up the idea of running this same panel at both AnimeNEXT and New York Anime Festival, so keep your eyes open for that. (And JT Maguire kindly recorded part of the panel, which you can view in its sweet video-tastic glory over at blip.tv.)

Unfortunately, despite its great programming, CPAC 2009 faced some fundamental problems. First and foremost was the fact that it only had one guest: locally-based voice actor Bill Rogers. (Michele Knotz was supposed to come, but canceled at the last minute.) That meant that there was very little in the way of Main Events programming, lending to the con an unstable, decentralized atmosphere. The other major problem was that the staff had decided – for some unfathomable reason – that no panels could possibly compete with their concert/rave, which featured some 8-bit musicians and other geeky music. So naturally, there were no panels during the concert, while the video game and dealers rooms both closed up shop right as the show began. For the considerable number of people who weren't interested in the concert, that meant that the convention was effectively finished a full two or three hours earlier than they had thought.

Despite these flaws, the convention staff volunteers (made up entirely of Stevens Anime Club members) were very friendly, and they could be found nearly anywhere at the con. There were occasional complaints from attendees, panelists, and staffers about registration and other logistical issues; probably due to the inherent difficulties of a college club organizing a quickly growing anime convention. One attendee inexplicably wasn't in the system when he arrived, and had to convince the folks at registration that he had a panel that was about to start before he could be allowed upstairs to set up. One anonymous staffer expressed some exasperation at panelists who were simply not showing up for their panels.

I really enjoyed my time at the Castle Point Anime Convention. It's a small, personal environment in which fans, guests, panelists, and staffers can all get together and talk about anime, a pursuit that is so often forgotten in our age of big conventions and the Internet. "Little guys" like CPAC provide a way for us to connect with each other as our predecessors did – through the amazing technique of "talking to each other." If, years from now, anime conventions cease to be, it will not be for lack of money or guests; it will be because fans will have forgotten the simple, priceless significance of their own interaction.

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