The Growth of Anime Events

The growth of anime in North America is unquestionable, even if it is a little difficult to quantify. We know that Crunchyroll has over 2 million paid subscribers, which is twice what they had 18 months earlier, and we know they are up to 40 million registered users. We don’t know how Funimation or Netflix or Amazon are doing with anime, nor are we ever likely to. So how can we measure it? There are a lot of ideas floating around out there (including starting a Nielsen-style service for anime!), but who knows if/when that will come to pass. In the meantime, we have events.

This is the second in a series of articles leading up to Project Anime, the anime business conference preceding Anime Expo. Taking place July 2-3 in Los Angeles, Project Anime will bring together business leaders to talk about the growth of anime and of anime events, which, as you’re about to learn, have increased a lot over the past few decades.

Anime conventions got their start in the 1980s and were similar to comic-cons; they were groups of fans coming together to talk about the stuff they loved. Being an anime fan back then was not a simple thing as it required trading fansubs on VHS tapes. In fact, it was only by going to these conventions that fans could see some anime at all. Viewing rooms were an essential part of the experience, offering a small number of shows on a small screen with dozens of people crowded around it. An entire convention would attract hundreds of people, the big ones would go over a thousand.

Yamatocon, generally considered to be the first US anime convention, was held in Dallas in 1983 and attracted 100 attendees. 1990 saw Project A-Kon, also in Texas, which is one of the main hubs for anime fans in America, hit almost 400 attendees. In 1991, AnimeCon in California broke the 1,000 attendee mark. AnimeCon is even more significant, because although it collapsed after its first event, from its ashes grew Anime Expo, now the largest anime convention in the US and one of the largest in the world. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

The 90s would see a proliferation of anime events, many of which are still running today, including Otakon, Fanime, and Anime Weekend Atlanta. An interesting bit of info that most people outside the events industry don’t realize is that most anime conventions remain non-profits. They’re hardly alone in that regard; San Diego Comic-Con is also run by a non-profit company. The thing is, this has resulted in most conventions being run by fans in their spare time, with only a few anime events run by dedicated, full-time staff. Running an anime con is a passion project for a lot of people who truly love the medium and what it represents.

But we’re here to talk about how anime events have grown, and I feel a chart coming on.

These are some of the most popular dedicated anime events in North America. As you can see, they’ve almost all been climbing steadily since 2000. Of course, one stands out, and it is 3.5x the size of any other con: Anime Expo. AX has positioned itself at the forefront of anime cons and it shows no sign of giving up that space anytime soon.

Quick side note: in fact, Anime Expo is one of the largest anime events in the world, but most people don’t realize that. Comiket in Japan most recently had over a half million attendees (up from 700 people when it debuted in 1975!), and Japan Expo in France claims around a quarter million. Both of these seem like a lot less than 110,000, right? Turns out they’re not. Japan Expo and Comiket use “turnstile” numbers, while Anime Expo reports tickets sold. Reporting turnstile means that you’re counting people for every day they attend; if a person has a three-day pass, they’re counted three times. When you count tickets, you only count that same person once.

So if we look at turnstile numbers it turns out that Anime Expo, with almost 400,000 attendees, is, in fact, the largest anime convention in the world outside of Japan. Okay, side note over.

Running cons isn’t easy. (Trust me, I ran Crunchyroll Expo for two years. My family still refers to the months leading up the first one as the “dark time”.) Remember, most of these are run by people in their spare time. That so many run so efficiently is an amazing accomplishment. The logistics involved include:

• Lining up Japanese guests (which is way more complicated than it sounds)
• Securing exhibitors
• Marketing the event
• Getting sponsors
• Setting up a website and app
• Programming the event with dozens, maybe hundreds, of panels
• Ensuring that the tech is up to snuff for every aspect of the event
• Bringing in music talent and running a concert

...and those are just the big buckets. It’s not easy, and that so many have stayed in business so long is a testament to their organizers’ ability and passion.

To get back to my original point, anime conventions are one more way for us to measure the phenomenal growth of anime in North America. We can also track the proliferation of merchandise and toys, subscription boxes, television programming, and a few other things, all of which we’ll be discussing at Project Anime on July 2-3.

Aw, c’mon… if you read the last piece, you knew I was going to end it this way, right?