Matthew's FanimeCon 2018 Report: Part 1 - Prologue

The photo above is of me back in 2008, 10 years ago when the fountains still existed wearing clothing that either won't fit or don't exist in my life anymore.

10 years.

While 2007 was my first sortie into FanimeCon with the assistance of the Consumes River College Anime Club, 2008 was my first sortie solo - meaning I did all the purchasing, booking, and traveling, perfect for a fresh adult one year removed from high school. Of course, I didn't go alone - Tom Gifford, who I met about three years ago from this point in time, came with me starting a three year string of us attending together. In this timeline, it would be another year before I met Ryan and another two before Lucas with Robbie somewhere in the middle - the five man team that headed our first FanimeCon press team in 2011.

Back in 2008, a Fri-Mon room at the Marriott was around $280 and a pre-registering for a weekend badge in January was $50; fast foward to 2018 and that same room is now above $500 and pre-registering will cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 to $70.

2014 was the last time I went to FanimeCon. Since then, some things have changed and some things things have stayed the same. Despite not attending my 2nd hometown convention for almost four years, I went to Phoenix and Seattle - and what I experienced there I brought back me to re-expereince the area and continue to explore every part that I haven't touched yet, both the convention and the city.

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This report is dedicated to the late Anthony Bourdain - a personality who showed the world how to travel, explore, and experience new things. He was one of my inspriations behind my method of blogging and reporting from anime conventions, comic conventions, and video game tournaments - showing people what it is like in a typical weekend and what is out there from a unique point of view.

-Prologue End-