The anime, cosplay & game festival

1 - presskit anime 2016

AnimeCon is a 52-hour non-stop fan convention; featuring Japanese movies (animation and cinematic), video games, competitions, concerts, theatre performances, workshops, presentations and the selling of art and merchandise. Our doors will open early in the afternoon on Friday June the 10th and stay open until the end of the afternoon on Sunday June the 12th.

The festival offers a vast choice of entertainment. Guests can enjoy the continuous video program in high definition in our video rooms, play a diverse selection of video games, enjoy performances by Japanese artists, enter competitions and visit one of the many workshops, workouts or lectures covering many aspects of the Japanese culture. Also very popular are our large sales space, the catering and food and drink tastings and karaoke.

Fan conventionsFan conventions satisfy two of the most basic human needs: the desire to meet like-minded people and the pleasure of behaving differently for a couple of days. Starting from small Science Fiction conventions in the 1930’s, today’s fan conventions are a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States alone1. Nowadays fan conventions attract over hundreds of thousands of people all over Europe, while some American and Asian events attract over a million visitors.

In the Netherlands, commercial fan conventions such as Dutch Comic Con, Castlefest and Elfia both attract tens of thousands of people. Though somewhat smaller, AnimeCon, a non-profit convention, attracted over 12.500 visitors in 2015. We expect more than 15.000 visitors in 2016.

Japan & AsiaAsian culture with its ancient roots has fascinated the West ever since Marco Polo returned from his journey. The enormous economic growth of the last few decades has further increased interest, as knowing the East has become an economic necessity for many people. As the first Asian nation to reach the Western level of prosperity, Japan holds a special interest.

Games, comics and animation are some of Japan’s main export industries and make Japan the only global cultural competitor for Hollywood. This industry exists because of the many comic artists in Japan. While Japan has almost 8 times the population of the Netherlands, a conservative estimate is that about 500 times as many people try to make a living as a comics artist.

Japanese popular culture has invaded our own, mostly without people realizing this. Everybody is eating sushi, and making bento lunch boxes is all the rage. Most people in the Netherlands do not realize they own one or more Japanese game consoles and many of the animations we watched as children were Japanese, such as the Transformers, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh; but also Alfred J. Kwak, Heidi and Maya the Bee, to name a few.

The anime, cosplay & game festival


Anime 2016AnimeCon is a fan convention for people who are aware of and are enjoying the Japanese elements of common popular culture and who want to find out more. AnimeCon is the largest Japan-oriented fan convention in the Netherlands, however with just over 12.500 visitors in 2015 our convention is of average size compared to major European conventions, such as Japan-Expo in Paris, which attracts over 200.000 visitors.

Still, we hold our own as we are the best fan convention in Europe. Where larger conventions consist mostly of giant sales and game areas, AnimeCon hosted over 150 separate events and more than 80 video screenings, in addition to the game and dealer areas in 2015. The new food court further raises the bar for our European competitors. With 9% foreign visitors, we are truly an international festival. We expect an even higher percentage of foreign visitors in 2016 as our new international Cosplay competition has contestants from 13 different countries.

Our visitors agree that we host a high quality convention. Almost 10% of our visitors answered our online survey and on average they gave us an 8.5 out of 10 points.

Manga & AnimeManga and Anime are just the Japanese words for comics and animations. Some non-Japanese people associate manga and anime with the “big eyes”-style of drawing. However, this style was actually copied from Disney by Osamu Tezuka as one style among many. Osamu Tezuka was the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney in the U.S. and Marten Toonder in the Netherlands.

Tezuka used a wide variety of styles and thus targeted a wide variety of audiences with comics for girls and grown up’s, as well as the comics for young boys seen elsewhere.

As the instructor of a large group of comic artists he had a lasting influence, with the result today

that Japanese comics use a larger variety in styles and target a wider variety of audiences than comics in any other country in the world.

This variety is what draws in a large group of fans to Japanese comics. When your own country does not create comics that spike your interest, chances are somewhere in Japan there will something to your taste. Stories about girly romances, office intrigues, economics, food,

Anime 2016June 10th, 14:00 - June 12th, 17:00 / World Forum, The Hague

Gender visitorsMale 49%

Female 44%

Will not tell 7%

friday Visitors2013 / 2.500

2014 / 3.000

2015 / 3.600

2016 / 4.000

sunday Visitors2013 / 2.600

2014 / 3.200

2015 / 3.900

2016 / 4.500

saturday Visitors2013 / 3.500

2014 / 4.800

2015 / 5.300

2016 / 6.500

total number of animecon Visitors2013 / 8.600

2014 / 11.000

2015 / 12.800

2016 / 15.000

Visitors answering our online survey: 9.3%Average appreciation: 8.7 points out of 10.


soccer, baseball, gaming, and more can all be found there in great abundance.

CosplayCosplay is a conjunction of the words costume and play. People with this hobby create their own costumes, based on their favourite game, animation or comic book character. With this costume, they perform a short play on stage, either as a single person or in a team.The material used in these costumes ranges from fabric to complex technological constructions with added light and sound effects.

Cosplay may be just a hobby for most participants, but the best of them plan to make a living using costumes, either by wearing them while performing on stage or by creating costumes and props for theatres and movie studios. One of our 2011 representatives at the World Cosplay Summit is now earning a living by making props for popular TV shows, such as Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, and has just finished a clothing project for a Channel 4 period drama.

There are six renowned international competitions in the cosplay scene, and the AnimeCon organization is the only one in the world hosting preliminaries for all of them. Also we host our own international competition for the second time in 2016: Clara Cow’s Cosplay Cup is now the seventh international cosplay competition!

Dutch Manga AwardsOur organisation wants to promote the variety of comics produced in The Netherlands by supporting recently started comic artists with

the Dutch Manga Awards. A professional jury, consisting of a Dutch publisher and two professional Dutch comic artists, decide whichartist or group of artists that deserve the awards for Short Comic, Fan Comic and Original Story. The prizes are a small monetary prize to encourage further production and a small ‘golden’ statue as a permanent reminder of their accomplishment.

Dutch Manga Awards Jury 2016Marissa Delbressine, Dutch comics artist, chairwomanMarc de Lobi, Uitgeverij SyndikaatKenny Rubenis, Dutch comics artist

As The Hague is a city of international allure, we decided to start our own international cosplay event in 2015 named after our mascot Clara Cow, in Clara Cow’s Cosplay Cup, or C4, teams of two cosplayers from ten countries competed for the Golden Marieke statue and won a week long all expenses paid trip to Japan.

C4 is a relaxed event: the World Forum Theatre offers ample space backstage to relax, top notch facilities, a hotel on top of the venue, and all judging is done by veteran cosplayers from non-

World Cosplay Summit, WCS (attendance not measured), Nagoya, Japan, for pairs

CICAF, China International Cartoon and Animation Festival (attendance 2.000.000), Hangzhou, China, for teams from the Benelux

Yamato Cosplay Cup, Anime Friends Festival (attendance 150.000), Sao Paulo,. Brazil, for individuals from the Benelux

Euro Cosplay Championships, MCM London Comic Con (attendance 120.000), London, UK, for individuals

ECG (European Cosplay Gathering), Japan Expo(attendance 250.000), Paris, France, for pairs and individuals

Cosplay World Master, Iber Anime (attendance 25.000), Porto, Portugal

Clara Cow’s Cosplay Cup (C4), AnimeCon (projected attendance 15.000), The Hague, The Netherlands, for pairs

International Cosplay competitions


competing countries. In 2016 teams from thirteen countries will compete, including the United States.

Clara Cow’s Cosplay Cup ParticipantsUK: MCM London Comic Con since 2001, attendance: 120.000Spain: Salon del Manga since 1991, attendance: 130.000France: Mang’Azur, attendance: 20.000Germany: Animuc, attendance: 20.000The Netherlands: Abunai, attendance: 8.000Poland: Japanicon since 2009, attendance: 10.000Denmark: J-Popcon since 2000, attendance: 7.000Romania: Otaku Festival since 2001, attendance: Not measuredPortugal: Iber Anime, attendance: 25.000Switzerland: Japanimanga Night since 2001, Attendance: Not measuredRussia: Hinode Moscow, attendance: 80.000USA: Omni Expo, attendance: 40.000Belgium: F.A.C.T.S, attendance: 40.000

Exhibitors & tradersAll over the festival you can find different stands offering a wide range of purchasable goods, games, activities and information.

Since 2015 Japanese caterers have stands in the Food court, so our visitors can discover that there is more to Japanese food than just sushi, and more to Japanese drinks than just sake.

The newest electronic games can be played in the Game room, with stands from Namco Bandai, Warner Brothers any many others showcasing new and upcoming games. However we also make sure our visitors can play old arcade games from the 1980’s, as well as more recent classics.

The Event plaza stands teach non-electronic games like Shogi, Go or card games, but also workshops to learn how to sew, crochet and repair cosplays. The Event Plaza is a great place for groups, associations and sellers to show the visitor how to do something new, promote their goods or group, and let visitor try something before buying it.

The largest number of stands can be found in the Dealer room. With over 2.500m² and more than 90 traders, the Dealer room is by far the busiest room of the festival. There traders sell all kinds of Japan-related merchandise.

ActivitiesAnimeCon spoils its visitors with an abundance of events. There is never a dull moment: in 2015 there were over 150 events varying from Japanese concerts, cosplay competitions, lectures, exhibitions to workshops. The concert by Back-ON! was the most popular event, filling the theater to its maximum capacity. In 2016 the even more popular band fripSide will be the main act.

A surprise success in 2015 was the American Wrestling show. While during the festival we show continuous demonstrations of all kinds of martial arts in our Dojo, American Wrestling requires a special stage and a higher ceiling than those other martial arts. While American Wrestling is very popular in Japan, we were not sure if our public would feel the same way. Afterwards many visitors told us it was the best event of that year, so in 2016, they will be back.

Whether visitors want to improve on their costume making, manga drawing or cooking skills, learn about the history of manga and Japan, dance to the music or sing at karaoke, they can do it all at Anime 2016.

GamesJapan’s most successful cultural export product is not anime, manga, or even tea ceremonies, music or rice wine. The single largest cultural export category of Japan consists of video games. Brands like Sony’s PlayStation, Nintendo’s Wii (U) and 3DS series and publishers like Namco Bandai,


Capcom, Sega and many more ensure Japan’s position as one of the top players in the videogame industry.

Game consoles are found in over a third of Dutch households and of course our 1400m² Game room is filled with them as well. The event features all the latest hardware from all major players.

The best thing about the Game room is the fact that visitors are able to play the newest games, and even some still unreleased games. In 2014, our visitors could, for example, play Tales of Xillia 2 three months before the official release, thanks to our partner Bandai Namco, one of Japan’s largest game developers. They even flew the series producer Hideo Baba over from Japan. But it is not just about the big companies. We also support Dutch independent developers (also know as indie developers) by giving them the opportunity to show and promote their games at our event.

Press opportunities / Special guestsOur festival offers a wide range of interesting material for media coverage such as lecturers like internationally acclaimed author Helen Mccarthy, Dutch as well as international comic artists and publishers, voice actors and last but not least, the band.

Every year we invite a Japanese band or artist to perform at our convention. We try our best to

get acts from the top of the Oricon chart (the Japanese equivalent of hit parades like the Dutch Mega Top 50, UK Top 40, Billboard Hot 100 and so on). In the past four years we successfully invited some of Japan’s hottest artists to perform in the Netherlands. Some of these artists had never performed outside of Japan at the time of their performance at our convention, providing our guests a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a live show of one of their favorite acts.

We also have some of the world’s best cosplayers coming to AnimeCon to compete or to judge our cosplay competitions. These amazing artists can make fantasy into reality by using mere fabric and paint, and they have knowledge on how the cosplay scene has evolved over the years.

Press accessAs an organisation, we offer many different opportunities for press and media coverage of our convention. We provide a wide range of opportunities for the media before and during our convention, such as interviews with our organisation, special interviews with our foreign guests and video footage on some occasions. Please contact our press department at [email protected].

Members of the Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten can get a free Press badge at the V.I.P. line at the registration desk during the convention, please do bring your NVJ-Perskaart. Members of comparable international organizations are advised to contact us in advance so we can check their credentials.

Some of our featured indie developers include:2awesomestudio www.2awesomestudio.comKarmaflow www.karmaflowgame.comRageSquid www.ragesquid.comRoche Fusion www.rochefusion.comSpeelbaars www.speelbaars.comTeam Reptile www.reptile-games.comTurtleneckstudios www.turtleneckstudios.comWispfire www.wispfire.com

Popular activities in 2015 Basic Manga Drawing, Combat Dojo,Cosplay Competitions, Cosplay materials 101 workshop, Go workshop, Japanese cooking 101, Maid and Butler Cafe, Military Science vs Japan: the Meji restauration, Sake tasting, Speed dating,Sushi workshop, Tea ceremony, Thermo Plastic workshop, Whisky tasting, World Karaoke Grand Prix

Some videos from 2015 Akira, Cute High Earth Defense Club, Diebuster, Food Wars, Fullmetal AlchemistGothic & Lolita Psycho, Metropolis


usefull links and suggestions for pressAnime 2016June 10th 2016 14:00 - June 12th 17:00World Forum, The Hague

Venue informationWorld ForumChurchillplein 102517 JW Den HaagThe Netherlands

Contact informationE [email protected]@animecon.nlW www.animecon.nlwww.animecon.nl/contact/press

Mail The J-POP Foundation Oostzeedijk 314 3063 CC Rotterdam The Netherlands

Whats in a nameAnimeCon: the name of our website and the name for all our yearly festivals since 1999Anime 2016: the name of next year’s festivalAll Aboard!: the theme for Anime 2016J-POP Foundation: the organizer of the AnimeCon festivalsWorld Forum: the location of the festival since 2013GL Events: the management of the World Forum

The J-POP FoundationAnime 2016 is organized by the J-POP Foundation, a non-profit organisation that has been around since 1998. The main activity of the Foundation is the yearly AnimeCon convention. The foundation and the convention are run entirely by volunteers.

Suggested events abroad

Stichting J-POP closely works together with foreign partners to assure our visitors do not miss out on some great new developments. Which is why we share information and knowledge with great events in and outside of Europe.

We would like to suggest some of these partners if you are interested in learning more about the world of Japanese Pop Culture:

Germany:Connichi: www.connichi.de, [email protected]: https://www.dokomi.de/en/contact/

Denmark:J-Popcon: https://j-popcon.dk/en/, [email protected]: http://genki.de, [email protected]

Spain:Salon del Manga:http://manga-xviii.ficomic.com/default.cfm/cat, [email protected]

Dutch fan conventionsCastlefest, Keukenhof Lisse: 40.000Elfia, Haaren: 40.000Dutch Comic Con, Utrecht: 25.000FirstLook Festival, Utrecht: 20.000AnimeCon, The Hague: 11.000Abunai, Veldhoven: 8.000Tsunacon, Rotterdam: 3.000

International convention visitor numbersCICAF, China International Cartoon and Animation Festival, Hangzhou, China: 2.000.000Comiket, Tokyo, Japan: 600.000Japan Expo, Paris, France: 250.000Romics, Rome, Italy: 200,000New York Comic Con, New York, United States: 150.000Anime Friends Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil: 150.000Salon del Manga, Barcelona, Spain: 130.000San Diego Comic Con, San Diego, United States: 130.000Anime Expo, Los Angeles, United States: 120.000MCM London Comic Con, London, UK: 120.000Anime Festival Asia, Singapore: 85:000Toulouse Game Show, France: 60.000Facts. Ghent, Belgium: 30.000Connichi, Kassel, Germany: 20.000Japanicon, Poland: 10.000

Supporting organisations Anigenda www.anigenda.nlDutchNoobz www.dutchnoobz.nlJPCU www.jpcu.nlKinjin www.kinjin.nlMangaKissa www.mangakissa.nlMangaSchool www.mangaschool.nlNamco Bandai www.namco.co.ukSparkling Potpourri

www.sparklingpotpourri.comLumière www.lumieredvd.comWarner brothers www.warnerbrothers.com

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The anime, cosplay & game festival