Domo-kun says hi

This year, Vancouver’s Anime Evolution had its eleventh year at the Vancouver Convention Centre, rather than its norm of SFU or last year’s UBC. It warranted a change of atmosphere, but so did the increased amount of attendees. This year’s guest list included the many star studded, from Cybersix to Storm Hawks to the coveted Reboot, with panels of webcomics and artists and all the things an anime convention brings to us aside from the actual anime.

The opening ceremonies kicked things off with a demonstration from Academie Duello’s longsword and rapier fighting, followed by an introduction of the band MINXZONE and then the incredibly crowd pleasing performance of Thriller by the cast of Death Note. Introductions and a little improv by the 404s, immediately followed by a marriage proposal and a finale of painting in a Daruma doll’s eye to start everything off.

So this year held the usual crop of the 404s, returning artists, dealers and returning guests. Things were considerably well run and new events included the Lolita Fashion Show, Speed Dating, a lot more diversity in the games plans and this year’s bands Paris in Tokyo, CJ Li, Soul Candy, Eve, MINXZONE, Locus and x:Enders.

The turn out itself is remarkable and the sheer amount of excitement crowded even the high ceiling main and dealers’ rooms, the latter of which much more spaced out and accessible. Incredible cosplays held the majority of attendees, a sight to behold at the tourist-busy North area of the City Centre. This year’s placement also held a lot of convenience–public transit, food–and public exposure, which was just about as interesting to watch as all the events, panels and viewing rooms.

Despite the change of date from August to the second week of June, this year was considerably notable for positive advances in Anime Evolution’s developments. Cheers.