Before I get ahead of myself, I would like to introduce those neophytes who are not familiar with anime/manga to the beautiful world of shoujo anime and manga directed toward girls and young women up to college age. This is a general categorization of the genre being that many older females, and males are shoujo fans as well.
The art in shoujo is full of flare and is beautiful, subject matter ranges from the campy magical girl series like the Tenchi Universe Series Magical Pretty Girl Sammy or the ever popular Pretty Soldiers Sailor Moon, to the drama and violence of and the all female manga team of CLAMP's ever-popular X (known in the US and Canada as X/1999).
The Shoujocon was important on two levels. First because it one of the few anime related conventions in the Northeastern United States, and second because, unlike other anime conventions, which are dominated by male or shonen anime/manga themes, this convention was solely dedicated to the beautiful art of shoujo anime/manga. The coordinators of the Shoujocon picked the perfect time to premier such an event, now that anime is becoming main stream in America and Canada.
My overall opinion of the event was that it was mediocre. It was what I expected for a first year event. It was a small convention, only 500 spaces were allotted for the entire weekend. 100 of those spaces were allotted for walk-ins like I and my comrade BadSeed. There were few activities, rooms, and literature. The price for the even was fair-thirty-five dollars. I cannot praise them enough for the location and grandeur of the hotel, the Newark Hilton Gateway Hotel. The location was perfect, not in the midst of New York's Manhattan, right next to Pennsylvania Rail Road station, and the New Jersey PATH Trains(which connect New York City with New Jersey). And parking was C-H-E-A-P, it only cost me seven dollars to park five hours, across the street from the hotel! Residents of New York City know that cheap parking is a definite plus, for anyone having an event in the metropolitan New York City area.
The events at the Shoujo-con were the same as those found at many anime conventions around the country. Karaoke, anime viewing rooms, a dealer room, art room, anime/manga discussion panels, and cosplay (for your anime convention neophytes: that is when fans dress up like their favorite characters). A very strange an interesting activity the Shoujo-con gave fans the opportunity to beat the hell out of their most hated anime characters. I saw someone beat the living daylights out of a piņata in the shape of the heroine of Fushigi Yuugi Miaka! There were other characters that met a similar fate, but I do not know who they were because I did not have a program of the day's events. This leads me to my constructive criticism of the event.
I have to complain about two things, but they will be constructive complaints as mentioned. One, I did not get a program because I was a walk-in, and programs were only printed for those who pre-registered. Yes, this makes sense because the con coordinators had a tight budget and such. BUT you never know who will show up unexpectedly! What suppose I was from Animerica, a very large anime/manga periodical, and I just came to the event last minute, not very good public relations. I only stayed for the very beginning of the convention on Saturday, until about 1pm. Now I did want to mention some of the events I missed, just to let people know what to expect next year, but since I did not get a program, I could not. That is lost FREE publicity, which of course events like this needs.
My second complaint was with the dealer room. Like I said first year event, perfectly understand space restrictions due to budget concerns, it was way too small. It was hard to see and even reach merchandise. There were mobs of teens and tweens bombarding the tables, so I was unable to buy many things, and that made me especially sad because I wanted to buy some Marmalade Boy merchandise.
I do give the Shoujocon's coordinators credit on the way they handled the large crowds in the dealer room. Things, though hectic were under control, and everyone got to get into the room. I also admire how the coordinators took into account the number of tweens and teens that would be at the event, and had the over eighteen crowd wear wrist bands, to enter into the mature anime/manga section.
I would like to note that thanks to the Shoujocon I did discover a new series that I will be trying my best to get called Koko wa Greenwood or This is Greenwood. It is a great series about a young man who ends up in a strange dorm at a private school. His roommate looks like a girl, two of his older classmates are just a little to friendly, and to top it off he is in love with his sister-in-law!
I do believe the Shoujocon, despite its setbacks this year, has the potential to be a great convention, and possibly one day become a power house in the national/international convention circuit. The coordinators seemed extremely dedicated to its existence, and shoujo has a hard core fan base, and is gaining rapid cross-gender presence in the United States and Canada.
My suggestions for the Shoujocon's coordinators is to have more activities, see what other con's are doing and do the exact opposite, or just copy it and make it better. Also, try to get press. You are like in the heart of the New York City Metropolitan Area, take full advantage of it! And finally, you need a bigger dealer room, or multiple rooms. Ok, these suggestions seem general. But if you contact me I have a whole slew of ideas! I am willing to help out with press releases and such. If I talked about them here, then all of those male dominated conventions could just steal the ideas. Any of you interested in helping out at next year's convention? Contact the Shoujocon's Coordinators.
So for those of you interested the next Shoujo-con will be held during the first weekend in June, the 1st through the 3rd. For more information visit the Official Shoujo-Con site! I hope to see you there!
Comments and questions about this article should be sent to JenniferJ@ybfree.com