Anime, comics, cartoons, art, a community, and a desire to meet up and connect. Bring them all together and you get a fan convention. These can include animation conventions, comic conventions, or a combination of the two. Within fandoms of animation and comics, convention or con goers practically make up their own community, coming together to create large-scale gatherings, large-scale marketplaces for artists of all sorts, panels involving overseas guests, cosplay competitions and showcases, concerts, and much more. So it goes without saying that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several aspects of conventions needed to be put on hold. Almost every anime and comic convention scheduled for 2020 has been either cancelled, rolled over to 2021, or converted into a virtual convention held online for the time being.
So how will conventions move forward from here? Let’s look into how cons are faring now.
One method some conventions chose was to roll over their dates to the next year. Several large US anime conventions slated for spring 2020, such as Texas’ A-Kon and Washington’s Sakuracon, were forced to cancel their events with the options for fans to have their tickets either transferred to the next year or refunded. However, some conventions like Sakuracon, a non-profit volunteer-run convention, were reluctant to offer refunds, and from personal experience there is no way on their website to request a refund. You have to email them and then fill out a form that they send back. In the case of the Kansas convention Naka-Kon, they were forced to cancel the day before opening, and may not be able to return another year as they had already paid for the venue and guests and couldn’t get any of that back. This method is definitely not the most successful and much of it was forced by the state before they could come up with a backup plan, but unless they hadn’t already paid for the venue and other event costs, it winds up equating to a year of no or negative income.
Conventions that were scheduled for the summer and winter had a little more time to plan something out, and were no doubt inspired by the small virtual cons that started popping up around early April. One of the earliest of these I could find was one called Cancellation Con, a virtual convention mainly for cosplayers set up across multiple platforms, that took place April 3rd-5th. From the schedule on their website, they had panels streaming on different Instagram accounts, Facebook pages, Twitch pages, and on the convention’s Discord server, as well as a cosplay contest on Facebook. While at least half of the panels were geared towards cosplay, there were some on general aspects of anime and cartoons, as well as art panels. Another one that garnered attention was Anime Lockdown, a virtual convention that was streamed through Discord, Twitch, and Youtube May 1st-3rd. A big hitting point about this virtual convention was that US guests that bigger US conventions would have by default reached out and volunteered their time to be guests for this small-scale virtual con. These two cons were entirely free to participate in, and thought up and run by generally small teams, Anime Lockdown by only 2 people, and hundreds of people gathered online to view the panels and participate in the chatrooms.
As small virtual cons gained attention, larger conventions saw them as a model. Comic Market, popularly shortened to Comiket, is Japan’s largest anime and comic convention. After having to cancel for the first time in 44 years, Comiket decided to try a virtual convention they dubbed Air Comiket on May 2nd-5th. On their livestream they recorded 443,357 views over the 4 days, just under their average attendance of 500,000. San Diego Comic-Con, one of the US’s largest comic conventions and well known for their tickets selling out half a year in advance, streamed their virtual counterpart Comic-Con@Home for free. The virtual con, like others, included video panels, a virtual exhibition hall, and a cosplay showcase across multiple platforms such as Youtube and Tumblr. While critical reviews deemed it a failure in terms of numbers and the hype around it, fans considered it rather successful and a great replacement. Looking at the numbers argument, considering the capacity of the San Diego Convention Center where the con is normally held, the number of views for certain video panels tripled the views the panel would’ve received at the convention center alone. Some like a panel for The Walking Dead went well above tripling in views, receiving over 95,000 views for a panel that would normally be in a room with a capacity of 6,500 people. Fans also connected over social media to share memories, and some even took a trip out to the convention center to hold small socially distanced meet-ups with friends. Back on the anime side of conventions, LA’s Anime Expo found overwhelming success in their virtual rendition AX Lite, Canada’s Otakuthon charged a small fee for their event but created virtual graphics replicating the inside of their convention center for their virtual con as a fun way to make it feel a little more normal, and AnimeNYC has announced plans for a virtual convention this winter.
While virtual conventions seem to be the way to go for the time being, there is also a dark horse among anime and comic conventions: hybrid events. One of these in particular happens to be pretty local, SacAnime held in Sacramento, California. They decided that rather than cancelling their in-person event at the end of September, they would hold a smaller-scale version of their con in the form of a swap meet. While the swap meet happened in-person, some panels were also happening virtually. They enforced the wearing of masks on site and widened the space of the walkways and booths to ensure a socially distant environment. However, it’s very surprising they weren’t shut down for violating any large crowd rules with the pandemic still in effect. They got a pretty decent crowd, so it could be deemed a success, but everyone that attended was still putting their lives at risk.
Depending how the pandemic pans out from here, it’s uncertain when we will see conventions returning in their original offline form. However, if and when they return, should anime and comic conventions keep a virtual element? Based on the overall performance of virtual conventions, I’d say it would only be beneficial for them to keep a virtual element, such as the live streaming of panels. However, it also depends on the context of the virtual element. A lot of what makes conventions special is that they include very exclusive events, which gives the often-expensive convention ticket value. These exclusive events can include early premieres of movies or an episode of a new series, or just the opportunity to meet overseas guests in person. From my personal experience attending virtual conventions, they have been enjoyable but were definitely missing a social element that makes a con feel like a con. It may sound a bit like a cash grab, but if conventions were to keep a virtual element, I think it would be best to charge a fee to view any livestreams of panels involving overseas guests or that would be deemed “exclusive” for that convention. I think that would be the best way for cons to keep that exclusive and personalized element while also reaching a larger audience.
What are your thoughts? Should conventions incorporate elements of virtual cons into their future in-person events?
Works Cited:
https://animecons.com/events/info/16063/comic-market-2020
https://www.amexessentials.com/virtual-cosplay-events-lockdown-online-cosplay-community/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2020/09/12/general/anime-conventions-coronavirus/
http://weirdisthenewnormal.com/cancellation-con-full-schedule