Club offers highly animated convention

By Carol South
Special to the Record-Eagle

May 07, 2008 05:12 pm

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A day of cultural immersion, anime style, is on tap Saturday for fans and devotees of the Japanese animation genre.

Scholar's Hall at Northwestern Michigan College is home base for the region's first anime gathering, the Northwest Michigan Anime Convention — or NMAC '08 for short. As word spreads online among anime enthusiasts around the region and state, organizers hope to exceed their goal of 200 attendees at the all-day event.

"We want to bring another culture to this area that wouldn't normally be seen here," said Will Burgess, a member of the sponsoring Northern Michigan Anime Club.

Open to the public, the convention will run from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. and admission is $15 per person. Opening ceremonies and the closing masquerade will be held at the Milliken Auditorium with remaining activities at Scholar's Hall.

From attendance at previous conventions with her husband Justin, Erin Pieske noted that the lure of anime crosses demographic lines. In other words, anime appeals to more than just young technophiles.

"I've seen all ages, grandmas, mothers with strollers," she said.

The Pieskes and Burgess conceived of and began pulling together the Anime Convention barely two months ago, with a formal budget approved by the college received in April. They decided to bring a convention to Traverse City after the Northern Michigan Anime Club members contemplated a group trip to a Chicago event this month.

"But instead of taking a select few, why not include everybody and have one here," said Pieske. "It just blossomed into this big event. We've done most of the work in the past three weeks."

NMAC '08 has an action-packed schedule of events throughout they day, including cosplay contests, a video room, trivia contests, vendors, gaming, fan art and storytelling. An AniMaid Café staffed by volunteers will offer a limited number of lunches.

Forums on a range of topics will also be offered throughout the day. The evening closer will be a costume dance rounded out by a Mr. and Mrs. NMA pageant-style masquerade contest.

Organizers tapped the resources of Northern Michigan Anime Club members for help with all aspects of the convention. The club, which began in February as a clearinghouse for reading and sharing Japanese animation, manga and culture, has about 50 members who meet regularly. Since committing to host an anime convention, the pace of meetings has jumped to handle myriad duties.

"The club has just been a fountain of knowledge," said Justin Pieske.

Thanks to Pieske's Web research and a "what do you have to lose" phone inquiry, Tiffany Grant will be a special guest at the convention. The actress is known to anime fans as the voice of Asuka Langley Sohryu in the Neon Genesis Evangelion series. Grant will both speak on panels and be available for autographs.

"Her role is a pivotal role in a pivotal series that actually changed the genre," said Burgess.

Members of Baka Savant Productions, an online animation team creating animes based on the "World of Warcraft" game, will discuss their Web-based series. The online media group, Geek Media, plans to cover the convention live.

"There's a lot of other groups engaged in the same things we are," said Burgess.

For more information about the upcoming Northern Michigan Anime Convention, which runs Saturday from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. at Scholar's Hall on the NMC campus, see www.nmacon.webs.com. For more information on the Northern Michigan Anime Club, see their Web site at www.nmaclub.webs.com.

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