April 11, 2010
The Castle Point Anime Convention (CPAC), run by the Steven’s Institute of Technology Anime Club, welcomed its third year as a public event with beautiful weather and excited attendees. The pristine weather kept most people outside, leaving the indoor locations less packed than in previous years. The campus is well-suited for a smaller con and CPAC still has a little room to grow. Much like in previous years, we believe the increase in attendance is due to the anime club’s advertisement at other cons and word of mouth from previous attendees. This con continues to show promise; the organizers have definitely learned from previous years’ problems. For example, the problem of overcrowding the gym that serves as the dealers’ room was solved this year when organizers set up an ordered line and took a headcount of how many people could enter at any time.
There were some slightly odd things that they did with the schedule though. For the main events, they put their masquerade and hall cosplay in the middle of the day, rather than at night as is customary. The voice actor guests they brought in hosted the Pokemon and Genshiken panels early in the morning and late in the event, rather than during the afternoon. But they were able to bring back Uncle Yo for another comedy performance.
The mix of panels was also off. We wish there was a bit more diversity in panels as there were two zombie panels and three hetalia panels. On the up side, smaller cons such as CPAC are great places for first time panelists to try out a new ideas. One such panel was the Super Mario Super panel, which is about the Super Mario Show produced for America. The panel was introduced during the first CPAC and has had a good run though the local con circuit.
Psychology of Anime
Another highlight among the panels this year was “Psychology of Anime.” The presenter put complex psychological theories in simple terms and then went on to describe why we like anime so much. One reason, we, and the rest of the audience, were dismayed to learn, is simple laziness. He explained that the brain likes to take information in in simple ways, and anime presents simple, easy-to-digest images and stories that our brains eat up. The audience seemed riveted by the panel – very few people left early and most of the attendees got in at least one or two questions. The presenter was remarkably patient in dealing with all the questions; in fact, that was one of the best parts. The audience was encouraged to participate. It was really more of a back and forth than a straight presentation. The panel will also take place at Anime Next this year, and we wouldn’t be surprised if those who attended at CPAC came back for more.
This year was another great production from the CPAC staff. The addition of the campus police being visible was also very welcome. Hopefully this year’s increase of fans translates into CPAC being able to bring in out-of-area guests in the future. But that would me also potentially needing an attendance cap to continue to run this at the school. As for cosplayers, there were plenty of them around. We were only able to get about half of them into the gallery. Being on a active school campus, there were some interesting interactions between cosplayers and the students and even people visiting the campus. For the most part, though, people were friendly and even seemed curious and interested in what was going on.
