September 2008

I never imagined a convention could do worse than GX-Con 2007 until Animania Con 2008.

As of this writing I was in the office, so excuse me if the article is not neatly done.

I heard of this Animania Con around Tuesday of last week, September 09. A friend of mine had informed me about this con. She linked me to the website (http://wowenkho.com/animania/) and I was stunned. I said to myself that this had the makings of failure. Apparently, the con was scheduled on the 13th and we're only hearing about this now. No advertising whatsoever, and It heavily relied on the website for promotion and word of mouth.

Word of mouth is good only if you plan the con months ahead. It gives time for the details to spread to the various communities, that when you officially launch the con a few weeks prior to the event, you will get the hype that you need. Sadly though, it wasn't the case here.

The website, I might point out, was badly designed. The title name, "ANIMANIA", had a really poor logo designed which looked like a hodgepodge of colors reminiscent of the 60's. I need to mention the BOOT. We still haven't figured out why a boot though. Then there was the vector art. I wonder why they picked out Cloud Strife, Suzumiya Haruhi, Rei Ayanami and Pikachu as their mascots. It's so totally random and the art style wasn't something I could appreciate really. I didn't understand what they were wearing and why Pikachu was wearing anything at all. It took me forever to realize that Cloud was actually holding a camera and not "Barret's Gun." Website looked like it was rushed when they uploaded it. The layout used was confusing. The terms they used were kinda weird as well (YEY TO PARAPHERNALIA!)