In case you were curious...

[davemerrill]

(crossposted from various places)

how to run your own anime hell

You can't.

I think the situation with Anime Hell is... I don't particularly know if there needs to be any more. I think there are enough, if not too many Anime Hells already.

It's not an event that needs to happen at every anime con - it's not a costume contest or a game show. I would rather people come to the anime conventions that already have Anime Hell, and have Anime Hell be something special that only happens at a few conventions. It's a selling point that attracts people to these conventions. The audience enjoys Anime Hell more, because they haven't seen five of them already that year.

Anime Hell was my idea. The other people doing Anime Hell events at other conventions are all friends of mine, they are people I know personally, there was a dialog about what kind of show they were going to do and what their plans were and I feel comfortable that they can do a good show. But it's not a franchise, it's not "open source" for everybody in the world to go crazy with.

If you want to do crazy clip show events at Doofuscon '10 or Joe Bob's Anime Hoedown or wherever, then by all means, go for it. But - -AND THIS IS THE KEY PART SO READ THIS PART CAREFULLY - be original. Come up with your own name for the event, and work out your own personal approach. Find your own clips that your audience finds amusing. If you can't find any crazy video clips, THEN PERHAPS YOU MIGHT WANT TO RECONSIDER RUNNING A CRAZY VIDEO CLIP SHOW EVENT. Maybe.

Quit trying to ride on our coattails, quit capitalizing on the hard work and talent of others. This will be better for you, better for the audience, better for the conventions, better for everybody.

Am I being a total jerk? Probably. If so, the best way to show the world what a jerk I am is to get your own gang together and do your own thing and make it so awesome that even I will be writhing in misery, heartsick at your awesomeness.

Just don't call it "Anime Hell."

Comments

[spook-town.livejournal.com]

Can I call it "Annie Mae Hell?"

[hooverdam.livejournal.com]

Call it Fannie Mae Hell and just show information about mortgages and foreclosures.

[ersatzinsomnia.livejournal.com]

...or candy!

[efathefinger.livejournal.com]

We ran a copy of it for a while, dropped it, picked it back up, I don't think we had a constant name. Best one I remember was "Covert Operatives and other crap found on Joey Snackpants hard drive".

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Hey, truth in advertising!

[efathefinger.livejournal.com]

Well, I mean the Orlando conventions were pretty much copies of AWA anyway. But it wasn't like we couldn't come up with out own names. We stole the stuff we liked from AWA cause it looked like fun.
I mean nobody likes the reality of running a fan convention, its a cast iron bitch, but at least not getting paid means you get to do what you want some of the time.
I think showing actual anime is the only thing we do because we feel obligated, and one of my conventions shows as much live action super sentai stuff, cause the staff likes it.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with stealing events; if you see something that looks like people might enjoy it, why not do it? You guys had/have the right idea, though - have somebody local run it, put their own spin on it, have fun with it. Not just run the same exact event.

[snackpants.livejournal.com]

The official name of the last one was, "Joey Snackpants wants to watch the Covert Operatives and other crap he finds funny". *chuckle* I had stopped doing "What the..?!?" in '04 when Daryl started doing his "Panel of Doom" and I had too much to do on Friday night. Being JACON's last year, I decided to do the zany clip show again, and it was EXACTLY everything I showed in '04. Nothing changed.... *chuckle*

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

I jokingly suggested calling mine "The Original" as a joke sometime ago (the Coney Island hot dog restaurants I often come across often boast those type of names).

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

I think I had something to say on this before, but it still holds. Anime Hell (tm and r) has become a 'thing', and the Ameriotaku (tm) don't even know or care about the origin or history, they just want to go into a room where 'anime hell' is playing so they can watch junk for an hour or so. It's like the ultimate YouTube experience for them.

And of course cons, staffed by people other than us, who didn't come up thru the ranks, just hear the name on a mailing list or website and figure 'hey, what the heck, I'll just take that'...of course what's even worse is the people who contact you or Danno and say "send me lots of stuff mmkay?" which I assume you get.

altho, not to be a prick, I think the image IS that Anime Hell (tm and r) is a franchise. I, were I uneducated, would surely take that away from a look at the Anime Hell blog. No disrespect to Danno et al, but...well, what I said.

But, as you say, ANYONE can put on a 'clip' show with just a little effort and some minor skill. But I suspect that 'Fred's goodtime stupid clips from all over the place' just doesn't have the flash, the import of 'anime hell'.

Altho suddenly I feel that doing a show like the old, forgotten afternoon 'kidvid' hosted cartoon block might be....no, that's been done, it's called Pee Wee's Playhouse...

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Actually from what I see, the "Ameriotaku" don't care one way or another, but the people running events for these conventions feel that their show is somehow incomplete without an "Anime Hell", even if it's youtube videos of somebody getting smacked in the crotch being played to an empty room. From what I can see from message boards, etc., it's like these events never took place. These shows would be better served with just about any other kind of programming.

The Anime Hell blog is pretty vague about who does what to whom when where and why, and part of that is me not putting my foot down ten years ago, and another part of that is me feeling like it's no use closing the barn door after the cow done got out, but now I'm feeling like I don't care, I expect to at least be consulted about this shit from now on. I don't want money or fame or power, I just want to be asked, is all.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

The Ameriotaku want their '60s, they want their Woodstock. the convention is a weekend long rave and they want to do what they want to do and poop where they want to poop and don't harsh their buzz, MAAAAAAN.

And Anime Hell (tm and R) is one of those things that they hear was 'EPIC!!' at one of the key cons.

Yeah, I know, cynical much. Sorry. If it's not like that now, it WILL be. Very Very Soon.

OTOH if AX goes shitcan like it sounds like it's doing, that may be the Al Kahn 'Japan is dead' moment, the ravers and the skatepunks and the cosplayers of everything except anime might just go away...

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Well, the reality of it is - I mean, this is what people at conventions actually say to me - is that they don't know what Anime Hell is. I mean, they ask me, "So, what is Anime Hell anyway"? or "This is all about the worst anime ever right?" or "You're showing music videos?" or "This is anime parody videos?"

Of course the program book and the website all have pretty coherent descriptions of the event and have had so for years and years, but there's always somebody new.

And after the show I get complaints from people who were expecting the worst anime ever or parody videos.

But there isn't a groundswell of demand for Anime Hell at conventions that don't have one. Danno has to get into A-Kon with a crowbar. He fills his room, but it's almost in spite of the convention itself. Nobody's on the message boards or in the staff meetings demanding Anime Hell.

The requests come from the con organizers. They see Anime Hell filling main events at AWA or Anime North and they figure it will do the same thing at their show, regardless of the various XYZ factors that lead to AH success. This is happening right now with Tekkoshoucon (the inspiration for this post) and it happened with Youmacon (which started its own event) and it happened with Con No Baka and it's happened to several other shows that I've only dealt with via email so I don't know what happened, and who knows how many times Ryan and Danno and Jeff have had to deal with cons bugging them to do Anime Hell. Heck, Anime Detroit had a version of their schedule with "Anime Hell" listed prominently, until we asked around about it and it turned out they were just sort of filling timeslots with fantasy programming.

The Tekko guy we're dealing with seems to think that Anime Hell means a pipeline to crazy anime parody videos and that if he's our Licensed Anime Hell Representative, he'll get the inside track on the latest anime parody dubs. So everybody has an angle they're trying to work.

The rank and file anime congoers, the ones who agitate for events, THEY want cosplay chess. They could care less about Anime Hell. There isn't a lot of "buzz" about Anime Hell. And that's how it should be. It's like sex - if you do it right, it's hard to talk about afterwards.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

and it's kinda sticky in places that had nothing to do with...YOU know- and you can't figure out why and you wonder if you farted a little during...

UM. yeah. un.

How about that snow in Dallas?

[hipsterdad.livejournal.com]

"The rank and file anime congoers, the ones who agitate for events, THEY want cosplay chess."

Oh, do tell.

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

It's big at some other shows, so we get asked to do it every year. Something for the AWA Events FAQ I never get around to writing.

I'm all for interactive events, but a full on stage combat chess match takes months and months of planning and rehearsal. Most of the folks asking assume everyone just shows up at the con and it happens automagically. The insurance nightmare alone makes it a non starter from my end, besides the fact that I have plenty of other things to be worried about.