Anime Punch!

Anime Punch
Status	Active
Venue	Ramada Plaza Columbus
Location	Columbus, Ohio
Country	United States
First held	2005
Attendance	1,600 in 2011
Official website	http://www.animepunch.org

Anime Punch! is an organization that began as an offshoot of Animate!, The Ohio State University's anime club. After a small initial event held in the Ohio Union on the OSU campus in early 2005, initial plans were made to hold the larger, apocalypse-themed Armageddicon. Anime Punch as an organization manages a number of sub-events. In 2009 Anime Punch restructured itself from an informal organization into Anime Punch LLC, with the stated purpose of hosting events that were educational, entertaining, and enriching to the general fan-culture of Japanese Animation.

Armageddicon

The main event of Anime Punch!, Armageddicon claims to focus exclusively on anime, eschewing the recent trend of conventions to attempt to cover anything and everything remotely related to Japan. Notably, Armageddicon also features a high density of educational, cultural and scholarly panels and workshops. During the 2008 convention, Anime Punch! Armageddicon became the first anime convention to adopt radio-frequency identification (RFID) in order to collect data about dealers' room entrances and panel attendance.

Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
April 30, 2005	Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio	200
March 31 – April 2, 2006	Holiday Inn Worthington Columbus, Ohio	1,030	Steve Conte, Maureen Donavan, Lawrence Eng, Crispin Freeman, Kuwai-sensei, Lillian Olsen, CarrieLynn Reinhard, Joshua Seth, Lien Fan Shen, The Spoony Bards, and Richard Torrance.
March 30 – April 1, 2007	Columbus Airport Marriott Columbus, Ohio	1,400	Maureen Donavan, Lawrence Eng, Crispin Freeman, Mikhail Koulikov, Tristan MacAvery, Lillian Olsen, The Protomen, CarrieLynn Reinhard, Patrick Seitz, The Spoony Bards, Richard Torrance, Harlan Watkins, and Mariah Watkins.
April 11–13, 2008	Crowne Plaza Columbus North Columbus, Ohio	1,337	Maureen Donavan, Lawrence Eng, Hsu-Nami, Mikhail Koulikov, Dr. John A. Lent, Tristan MacAvery, Lillian Olsen, CarrieLynn Reinhard, Patrick Seitz, The Spoony Bards, Harlan Watkins, and Mariah Watkins.
April 10–12, 2009	Doubletree Hotel Columbus/Worthington Columbus, Ohio	1,109	Haruko Nogawa, The Protomen, Patrick Seitz, Mikhail Koulikov, Lawrence Eng, and The Spoony Bards
April 2–4, 2010	Hyatt Regency Columbus, Ohio	1,400	Richard Torrance, Lawrence Eng, Stacey Schlanger, Kinko Ito, Lee Makela, Brad Swaile, Patrick Seitz, The Spoony Bards, Kosuke Saito
April 22–24, 2011	Hyatt Regency Columbus, Ohio		The Protomen, Lawrence Eng, Brad Swaile, Toren Smith, Jared Hedges, Joel Burgen, Alex Muniz

Signature events

Anime Punch! has several signature events that have become a sort of tradition.

• Your Favorite Anime Sucks - Abbreviated "YAnSucks," this event involves the audience supplying titles of their favorite shows for the hosts to "burn." This event travels and is frequently featured at Anime Central.
• Evangelion Post-Modern Puppet Show - Initially a humorous recreation of various scenes from Neon Genesis Evangelion in the form of a puppet show, it has since moved on to take the puppet Evangelion characters into different stories. Such features have included Hamlet, and The World Is Not Enough
• Collective Gaming Room - A room where single games such as Oregon Trail are intended to be played as a group, with one person controlling and the rest shouting directions and suggestions.
• Model Building/ Figure Trading Jam Session - A gathering intended for people that like building models and those who collect trading figures and gashapon.
• Swimsuit Cosplay - Much as the name implies, swimsuit cosplay concerns either a swimsuit seen in anime or a swimwear interpretation of a character's normal costume.
• Anime Trial - an event where a "trial" and subsequent "execution" are held for the anime character most hated by fans.
• Roll a Katamari - Similar to the concept of the popular video game, Katamari Damacy, this event starts as a ball of duct tape, and accumulates many objects that people tape to it, including garbage, tacos, magazines, and even other people.
• Hentai Olympics - Described on the website with the ominous words "What happens at the Hentai Olympics, stays at the Hentai Olympics."
• Pop-art Gallery - Beginning in 2011, the convention will feature an anime-inspired pop-art gallery presenting works from local artists.

Revoluticon

Revoluticon was introduced for a debut in 2012 as a new line of events hosted by Anime Punch!. Whereas Armageddicon is entirely focused on anime with limited to no non-anime content, Revoluticon was billed as the anti-armageddicon. It is still aimed at anime fans, but only their tangential interests, with zero anime content. Covered subject matter includes video games, fantasy, science fiction, western animation, comic books, traditional Japanese culture, Japanese modern/pop culture, and cosplay.

Event History

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
March 16–18, 2012	Ramada Plaza Columbus Columbus, Ohio	TBD	Lawrence Eng, +2 Comedy, 2d6, Custodians of Otakudom, OSU Quiddich, Analytical Couch Potato, The Fishnet Mafia

Signature Events

• The Variety Hour - A variety show featuring skits from the staff, guests, and even general attendees.
• The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Challenge - A physically demanding game show that challenges contestants to perform many of the feats the hero Link of the popular Legend of Zelda franchise must perform. Such feats include swordsmanship, puzzle solving, and fishing.
• Assassins Creed LARP - A complex live action role playing game wherein any participating attendees and staff are subject to "attack" from hidden assassins at any time or place throughout the duration of the convention.
• Wario Ware - A series of short mini-games that attendees must decipher and perform in very short amounts of time.

Fieldcon

Fieldcon is another line of conventions that since 2006 has been hosted by Anime Punch! It takes place entirely outdoors without access to electricity, running water, or the internet. Its remote location in the AEP ReCreation Lands near The Wilds takes it far from most people, and even cellphone reception. Attendance is small, and events are informal.

Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
July 28–30, 2006	AEP ReCreation Lands Morgan County, Ohio	18
June 29 – July 1, 2007	AEP ReCreation Lands Morgan County, Ohio	31
July 25–27, 2008	AEP ReCreation Lands Morgan County, Ohio	38
June 26-28, 2009	AEP ReCreation Lands Morgan County, Ohio	58
July 25-27, 2010	AEP ReCreation Lands Morgan County, Ohio	51
July 1-3, 2011	AEP ReCreation Lands Morgan County, Ohio	64

Signature Events

• Building the Tent - The common shelter tent is constructed every year by the first time attendees amidst ridicule by the previous years attendees.
• Roasting the Boar - Beginning in 2011 a pig is roasted on a spit as an homage to Lord of the Flies.
• Brewing the Stew - All the attendees bring a contribution for the stew, which is cooked for 24 hours before serving.
• Sword Football - A variant of football that utilizes swords.
• Battle Royale - Based on the novel/manga/movie, in this event attendees are lead deep into the woods and randomly assigned a mock-weapon. The game narrows the playing field over the course of an hour, during which time the attendees must use their weapons to "kill" each other. At the end of the hour, any remaining competitors have a final showdown in a constrained area.
• Assault on the Mech - The attendees take up weapons and ceremonially lead a charge at the last remaining part of Big Muskie, the worlds largest "walking" machine.

Urban Arts Outreach

Along with hosting larger, annual events aimed at anime fans, Anime Punch in 2011 began hosting a series of lectures on Japanese Animation at The Ohio State University Urban Arts Space. The program is designed to expose anime art and works and fandom to the Columbus art community, create a place for positive creative outlet for youths in the downtown Columbus area, and to prompt discussion and debate within the central Ohio anime community outside the noisy and cluttered atmosphere of anime conventions.

Monthly Anime Adventure

The Monthly Anime Adventure is a series of talks, discussions and multimedia events all centered on Japanese animation. The meetings are intended to be as entertaining as they are informative. They are designed with the aim of providing enriching content to both seasoned otaku and to casual fans of animation. The Monthly Anime Adventure is part of Anime Punch's ongoing commitment to bring college-level discussion of anime to anime fans and the central Ohio area.

G.A.P.S. Coliseum

G.A.P.S. (Gaming Anime Punch Style) Coliseum an interactive event wherein gamers can their skills to the test in a head-to-head, tournament-style video game competition. Ranging from fighting games to shooters, these competition are arranged to be more casual than more professional tournaments and have the intention of bringing together gamers both socially, and to converse about the different themes, genres and art behind the games. This event is also aimed as an outreach to inner city youths by fostering a fun, safe, and friendly environment for teenagers to participate in group activities.

External links

• Anime Punch! website
• Fieldcon website