Hi everyone!

Holy cow where has all the time gone?? The holiday season is just around the corner!

Just a quick update from your resident Panda to keep an eye out for the launch of the new 2009 website coming in the next few weeks. The Animania Factory is kicking off and we hope to bring you some big surprises next year, so keep an eye out on the website for announcements!

Cosplayers can also expect the World Cosplay Summit Preliminary Competition to be on again next year to qualify winners into the 2010 World Cosplay Summit in Japan. Rules will be up with the new website!

In the meantime, more profiles and photos from the WCS Preliminary Final in August have been uploaded, so check them out here.

Oh, and if you haven't booked Animania Festival's 2009 dates into your diary, then here they are:

Sydney - March 28th - Citigate Central Hotel
Melbourne - April 18th - Rydges Melbourne
Brisbane - May 9th - Holiday Inn, Brisbane
Sydney - September 5-6 - Australia Technology Park
Brisbane - September 19th - Holiday Inn, Brisbane

That's it for now - stay cool!!

Amandapanda

After much much delay, I come to bring you the final instalment of my adventures at the Animania Sydney Weekend and show you who won the WCS Preliminary!

The last instalment of Panda’s Adventures @ Animania Festival Weekend 2008: A tale in four parts, is now available. Click here to view the whole roundup plus the complete winners list.

Also, very, very delayed, I'd like to officially announce on the Animania Festival website the results of the inaugural World Cosplay Summit Preliminary Competition. The first ever team that will be sent to represent Australia in the 2009 WCS in Nagoya, Japan are Cattypatra and Tsubaki of the Love & Peace Movement Duo!! The duo brought an excellent Full Metal Alchemist cosplay to the stage. Congratulations!!

The Runner Up Finalists were the Go Wu Go! Duo with their Koutetsu Sangokushi cosplay and the Oh My Bollucks Duo with a Deathnote cosplay. Congratulations to all the finalists for bringing such awesome costumes to Animania's stages!

To read more about the WCS results and finalists, click here

Finally, apologies for taking so long with getting this most important news up (especially the WCS results). After long preparations for our last Brisbane event, all of our web team (there's three of us) got knocked out with a horrible viral flu. But we've kicked the lurgy and are now back to bring you much reportingness.

Keep an eye out for our next bit of news - the Brisbane roundup!

Until then, take care, wear a scarf (it's windy outside) and watch lots of anime!!

Cheers,
Amandapanda

10 hours to go!!!

At least that was the case at the time of this posting!! The last Animania Festival for the year will be on this Saturday, 20th September at the Holiday Inn, Roma Street Brisbane. I'm looking forward to what will surely be an awesome event - not just because of the new features to this Brisbane Animania, but also because as the last event of the year we want to go out with a bang!

To encourage this, I'm really excited to say that we'll be bringing Animania's Happy Brigade, which made its first appearance at the Animania Festival Weekend, to Brisbane!! These gals and guys will be on deck to get you pumped for an awesome day out and provide any guidance throughout the day. Keep an eye out for those staff wearing the pink ureshii-dan sashes clearly indicating their Brigade status and make sure to say 'Hi'! Surprises in store for sure :D.

That's all from me as I crash for an early start tomorrow. If you haven't yet, make sure to check out this upcoming Festival's mini-site here to find out more about the events that will be on tomorrow and plan out your day!

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow! Bring your genki on!

Cheers,
Amanda

Panda's back again with more news on Animania Brisbane & more roundup!

Ah, naughty me, I've been really busy so I've had to put off writing up more of my roundup adventures at the Animania Festival Weekend. But wait no longer for the third instalment is finally here! Read more about my adventures on the Sunday morning of the Animania Festival Weekend and see my happy snaps too! Click here to visit the roundup page :).

Animania Brisbane is fast approaching now - ONLY 4 DAYS AWAY! W00!! As Travis mentioned there will be more features to look forward to. I myself, am keen to see some Newspaper Cosplay :D.

A great new feature though that can be expected is the Talks and Panels. These include an introductory talk on anime (hosted by me!), the Cosplay Panel and an Insight-style panel titled "Merging Worlds" that will look at the broader impact of anime and manga on Western culture. If any of these pique your interest, then make sure to check them out. Head to the Talks and Panels for more information and times.

And don't forget you can find out more about all the other events (and maybe plan out your day!) by checking out the event guide!

Getting pumped up again now! More updates soon :D

Cheers,
Panda

--WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULAR SCHEDULED POSTING TO BRING YOU THIS TOTALLY RAD ANNOUNCEMENT--

Hey everyone!
It's me Travis! I'm being generally disruptive again, but in that cool way like the Fonz or Kenada. Only on the internet instead! But enough about me on to my very important and completely win and wonderful news about Animania Brisbane!!

There's even more features to look forward to, including activities such as:
GIANT TWISTER!!
Origami Workshop!!
Haruhi Dance Lessons
and panels!!!

And of course everything else including cosplay and screenings!
To read more about what's happening at Animania Brisbane download the event guide! (pdf) [fixed the link!]

Well that's it for this update. Catch ya next time!

-Travis

Continuing on from the last post, you can now read the latest instalment of Panda's Adventures at Animania Festival Weekend! Or that's what I'm calling this year's roundup anyway XD. Click here to read more + see some of my happy snaps :D.

Also some exciting news is that you have a chance at winning a double pass to the last Animania Festival for the year in Brisbane!!

Alchemy Asian Pop Show is again running a competition with two double passes to Animania Festival Brisbane up for grabs!! Head to their website for more info.

You can catch the Alchemy Asian Pop Show every Thursday night from 11pm-1am on SBS Radio with Jennifer Ho playing you all the latest Japanese, Korean and Chinese beats. Check out the Alchemy website for your local frequency.

And I'll be back again with the next instalment of my adventures of Animania Festival Weekend soon!

Cheers,
Amanda

P.S. Tickets will still be available at the door on the day too! (Cash only at registers thanks, sorry!)

Animania Festival Weekend was a HUGE event full of terrific costumes, tremendous spirits, some troubles, and lots and lots of FUN!

Indeed, I was so inspired by all the things I got to see and do that now, I thought I'd do something a little different this year to the usual formal report, and do a piece-by-piece tale of my adventures throughout the Festival. To read the tales of a wandering Panda @ Animania Festival Weekend, click here.

And of course, I should remind that Animania Festival isn't over just yet! There's still one more Festival - our last one for the year - in sunny Brisbane!! For more information, please visit the mini-site here.

After the recent huge event, the Animania crew are finally rested up and back on ball to bring you another awesome Animania ~ Keep an eye out for more info, and the next instalment of my roundup of the weekend :D.

Cheers,
Panda

At the time of this post there were only 9 hours left until Animania Festival Weekend hits Sydney!!

This weekend will definitely be a huge one and there's so much to see and do that things may get a little daunting! If you find yourself not sure what's on or how/where to go see/do something, then make sure to ask any of the friendly Animania volunteers who will be able to point you in the right direction! All Animania volunteers can be spotted by the bright green vests they'll be wearing, marking them as staff.

Also on hand to offer directions and uplift spirits (especially with the current weather!) will be Animania's very own Happy Brigade!! Keep an eye out for these happy ladies and gents who'll be wandering around the Festival - surprises in store for sure!

Along with all of the marvelous volunteers, three people you are likely to see a lot of are our Animania Festival MCs. These guys have been the hosts of Animania's events for several years now. Here's more about them!

It's sooo close till Animania Festival Weekend @ Australian Technology Park and we've got a STELLAR schedule of events lined up! But wait, there's more!

Announcing the Madman Panel!!

Madman are Australia's leading distributor and our hottest gateway to the latest and greatest anime and manga titles. In fact, pretty much all of our scheduled screenings are courtesy of Madman! Thanks white-bound-up-Ninja-guy! Especially for the special screening of the latest Death Note movie, L Change the World scheduled for Sunday afternoon at the Chibi Stage.

Those who have visited a Madman Panel can expect the latest updates on what's to come in the anime/manga scene for DVD releases and more. If you have never been to one of their panels, well go on along and learn more and meet some of the guys that BRING YOU ANIME!

Oh man, I'm so pumped! (and it's not all that sugar I promise...)

Looking forward to an awesome weekend! Final announcements tomorrow night - and a surprise? Maybe? Who knows?!

Cheers,
Panda

P.S. Animania Festival Weekend has Facebook-ified! Click here to say you're coming to the event! (Facebook account required :D)

In addition to the judges introduced yesterday, Animania Festival will be welcoming Akiko Okubo as a Special Guest Cosplay Judge from Japan!

Okubo-san will be visiting Animania Festival as the official World Cosplay Summit representative from TV Aichi, Japan. She worked with the WCS as a PR/Manager for two years before taking on the role of Chief Secretary. We welcome Okubo-san's intuitive sense in the Cosplay Competitions and we're sure she'll bring a critical eye for Japanese fashion.

If you're interested in what Animania will be doing with WCS next year, then head to the Doujin Stage at noon on Sunday to learn more. Our special guest will also be taking part in our panel on Animania Festival 2009's participation in WCS 2010. More details on this here. Okubo-san will also be offering her assistance in judging the Bankai competion.

On the topic of Cosplay, don't forget there'll be heaps on in the Cosplay HQ at Animania this year - our special dedicated area for Cosplay events and Cosplayers!! There's the Cosplay Market, Cosplay Expo, Cosplay Photo Shoot and in the spirit of the Olympics of course, the Cosplay Games! Click here for all the info!.

Home stretch now!!

I'll be back again with more tomorrow! \o/

Trying to contain my excitement,
Panda