2017 marks the 20th anniversary of Anime Central, the biggest anime convention in the Midwest. Having attended this convention most years since its fourth, I have seen the convention grow from a small convention to the massive success it is today.
The people behind Anime Central really went all out to celebrate the convention’s second decade of existence. The layout and programming of the convention were top notch. One of the biggest improvements over other years was the video game room, which was taken from the basement of the Hyatt to a massive room in the convention center. The room featured classic arcade games at the entrance, a ton of consoles, tournament areas and a large selection of Japanese arcade games- like Initial D, rythym games, fighting games, etc. The expansion of the video game room made it a more welcoming, social and easy-to-navigate experience. I was too busy enjoying the video games to snap a pic of the video game room. So you will just have to take my word for it.
I hit up a few panels: a Q&A, improv comedy panel and a couple learn to dance choreography classes.
On Saturday, there was a concert at the nearby MB Financial Park.
The opening act was Gacharic Spin, an all-girl Japanese rock band with energy to spare.
The headliner May’n, is the voice behind Macross Frontier’s Sheryl Nome. Sheryl…I mean May’n, played a wide variety of songs including a few from Frontier. Her live rendition of Lion was amazing! It was like getting a condensed shot of the Macross Frontier series injected into your ears. You could really feel Sheryl’s desire to live in the song. We ended getting really good spots, since we arrived to the concert way ahead of May’n’s performance. Being in the second row and having my 70-200mm lens, I was able to get some really nice shots of May’n. Here are a couple for your enjoyment.
Of course, there were a ton of costumes at the convention. Here are the ones that caught my eye.
All in all, Anime Central was a blast the two days I was there, Friday and Saturday. I had to meet a client on Sunday and was not able attend the third day. However, I have heard that Sunday was just as good, if not better, than the other days of the convention.
Stay tuned, I have interviews with Tohru Furuya and Crisping Freeman, which took place at Acen, that I will be posting soon.