Anime Banzai 2011 Saturday Coverage!

So due to a lot of things going on in both Ktdata and my life, we couldn’t cover all 3 days of the Utah Convention, Anime Banzai 2011. But we did manage to talk with the staff and got there okay to do the coverage of the convention.

So a little back history on Anime Banzai. Banzai started back in i believe 2004/2005 at the Salt Lake Community Collage. Then they moved from the collage to the Hilton Hotel near Down Town SLC. And from the last 2 years they moved again to the Davids Conference Center in Layton. Each year they tried to add new things, try new guests and tried to make the convention more fun for the fans. But from what i saw in some of the years past Banzai did start to lose there edge on there conventions a few years back. I’m only saying this since i went one year and i didn’t really think it was that great and so i never really thought to want to go again. It’s more to do with there guests or panels. But within the last 2 years Banzai did bring there convention out and gave it some new life by moving it to Layton. And this year we had lots of fun walking around talk with everyone and getting a chance to get to know some of the vendors in the Artist Alley.

I think some of my only concerns i have with this year was some of the dealers. I’m the kinda guy who likes to look for collectibles. I know Banzai has no control over what they sell, well for the most part, but when i’m walking through the dealers room i’m seeing mostly the same things from everyone with a few different things… But the one thing that really concerned me was one dealer a few bootlegs he was selling off. I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble for this, but this does bring up a concern for the fans i think. If they are selling bootlegs i would like to at least tell the people that they are not the real items so at the very least they don’t go to friends and show them sometime awesome they got and they have to tell there good friends that they bought a fake item. That would just be horrible to have to tell your or being told by a friend. But other than that they had a lot of great things and sadly i didn’t have enough money to get much of anything.

We did end up getting what we now call the, “Grab Bag of Crap!” So let me break this down so i don’t get the few people out there going to start flaming me. So we got 3 of the grab bags from 2 dealers and i knew i may not get anything that great and sometimes just crap since one dealer told me that, “we just put in things that don’t sell” But we did get some really cool things from these grab bags! Check out the videos when we get them up as well.

Okay now for the Cosplay. I think one of the things i like from any convention is the cosplay that everyone comes as. And this year i saw some really good ones and like at all conventions, bad ones. So i just think that if it makes you happy do it, we’re all nerds, geeks, or what not, let us have fun with what we like in our hobbies. But that’s still not going to stop me from raising an eye brow. (no offence mind anyone)

This time around we couldn’t get in as many interview as we did at GEEX here. That’s really due to all the panels or other things going on and also trying to track down some of the cosplayers that i see from time to time. So sadly we had a hard time getting our interviews and panels timed out right, and also we didn’t get press passes so we couldn’t just walk into them film for a while then move on. But for everyone we interviewed and would like us to post something about you just leave us a comment or a email and/or if you just want us to take something down, just let us know. There are some interviews we did that i didn’t get a picture of you, i am sorry that i spaced it but if you like to leave a comment and let us know if there is anything you want us to add.

Now for the break down of Anime Banzai 2011. I found this year to be fun! (at least for the only day we could go for) And i think they are going the right direction for a Utah Convention since we’re in a state that doesn’t like different things so much. Anime Banzai is a good thing for the local fans and i just hope in the next few years they get better guests, better panels, and of course, a bigger area! Next year i’ll be sure to ask about the press passes much, much, MUCH sooner so that in the last week before the convention i’m not sending out an email asking if we can get press passes. lol But once again to the staff at Anime Banzai, thank you for letting us cover your convention and i hope we can next year as well.

We will try to get the interviews up as fast as we can but till then you can see what little pictures i could take of some of the cosplayers we saw around.

 

 

 

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