For those that haven't heard of FanimeCon, or "Fanime", it is a 3-day convention celebrating Anime, Manga, and other aspects of Japanese and pop culture in downtown San Jose. Fanime takes place over 3 days and offers panels, special events, viewing rooms, merchandise, and lots of cosplay opportunities. It's official slogan is "By Fans, For Fans".
Fanime 2023 is a wrap! Our team worked hard and had tons of fun outreaching and promoting the library, signing up artists for our Graphic Novel Making Contest, taking photos of cosplayers for Cosplay on Display, and promoting other library programs like the fandom swap meet. In total, we managed to outreach to over 1,000 con attendees!
We invited con-goers to stop by our table and grab some free library goodies including stickers, tote bags, books of previous Graphic Novel Contest winners, and even anime figurines from our upcoming fandom swap meet. Plenty of them expressed their love of library.
“The Library is my second favorite place… the first is home.” one con attendee told us. Many shared similar sentiments, including library workers from other systems who were happy to see their profession represented in the fandom. Plenty of cosplayers as well showed up to pose in front of our library backdrops with a giant SJPL card to be part of our Cosplay on Display showcase.
What other conventions or events would you like to see SJPL visit?
Overall it was a great experience representing the library at Northern California’s largest anime convention. We were even invited to host a panel on the library at Fanime 2024.
Hope to see you next year!
Add a comment to: Post-Fanime Wrap-Up!