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- Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!csus.edu!netcom.com!spiff
- From: spiff@netcom.com (Chris Keller)
- Subject: Idiotic Con Wars
- Message-ID: <1992Dec24.013600.4945@netcom.com>
- Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
- Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 01:36:00 GMT
- Lines: 48
-
- Well folks Im very saddened that it has taken these idiotic anime convention
- fights to get me to post, but Im afraid that I have to clarify a very important
- issue.
-
- The infantile tirades of Anime Expo and Anime America and their surrogates
- in no way reflect the true nature of the fan community of the Northern
- California Bay Area. Im no elected spokesman, but I have been an anime
- fan in this area for the last six years. Ive been amazed by the diverse pool of
- talent and the generous nature of the fans Ive met. From the folks in the
- Monterey peninsula to the south to Santa Cruz, San Jose, San Francisco,
- Berkeley and Sonoma in the north, this area has historically had one of the
- least political fan environments in the country. During my time working on
- anime presentations at Comic or Sci-Fi conventions usually members from
- various organizations worked together under the umbrella name B.A.A.A
- (Bay Area Animation Alliance). No one took the lions share of the credit (or
- the blame), there were no egos to bruise and overall things went pretty
- well. Only with the advent of AnimeCon did this whole political crap start.
- The reasons are many and yes, I think certain people are to blame but that
- really isnt the point.
-
- The true damage here is to the fan community in the Bay Area. As one of
- the publishers of V.Max, (buy it today: shameless plug) Ive been privy to
- the perceptions of some of the American and Japanese professionals and
- their take on things has been anything but positive. The problem is that the
- whole region has taken the heat for this garbage and not just those certain
- convention organizers who deserve the blame. To top it off, it has caused a
- lot of the people who have worked on the cons to "take sides". As a result a
- lot of people have stopped working on anime projects, fan or professional.
- That is the real tragedy here. Ive been a part of both AnimeCon and
- AnimeExpo and I have my complaints (boy do I), but I worked on the
- conventions to provide entertainment to the fans. I certainly didnt do it to
- advance someones career or to put money in anyones pocket. I havent
- "gotten anything out of it" other than that simple satisfaction. Now the
- situation in this region is being compared to those wonderful days of yore
- when Randall Stukey and the CFO empire ruled. I just dont think that
- anything at this point that either convention can offer fans will replace
- everything that has been lost.
-
- For those of you whose only perception of the fans in this region is from
- what gets posted about the conventions, I would like to state unequivocably
- that these people involved in the con politics are not representative of the
- majority of the fans here. Northern California fans are for the most part,
- friendly and generous people who simply appreciate anime as a unique
- medium and as enjoyable works of art.
-
- Chris Keller
- spiff@netcom.com
-
-