Article and Photos by Derek Orchard
Bak-anime was held at the Bakersfield Marriott at the convention center, on January 24-25 2015
Bak-anime, Where is it might you ask? Well it’s in Bakersfield California. Bakersfield? Where in the heck is Bakersfield?
It’s in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, just north of LA about maybe an hour and a half drive on the interstate. it is a small show, with a lot of people going to it.
This is its 2nd year as a two-day show. The show had high attendance for both days. Had a very good selection of vendors, most of time when I attend a smaller show the vendors don’t have a lot of stuff or there isn’t a lot of variety of stuff, here they were many different vendors and the all had variance amounts of different things for every people who was attending.
the name of the show is Bak-Anime but it wasn’t just about Anime, the show covered just about all aspects of popular culture, comics, video games, Board games, card games and movies. Artist Alley was more was more like an artist hall because they had a room all to themselves. Special guests that attended was Christina Cabanos (Squid Girl of “Squid Girl”), Kyle Herbert (Kiba of “Naruto”) and Christina Vee (new Voice of “Sailor Moon”).
You never know what your going to find when you go to a smaller show. I’m used to attending bigger shows where they have a lot of planning thoughts what they’re going to do and sometimes it just don’t work out how it is plan.
That was not the case here, Bak-Anime from what I can see, it was a well run and well maintained show.
Even though they had a lot of people coming to the show I could never see really any stress on any of the volunteers that they had working.
Everyone I talked to on the staff was very friendly and they really enjoyed being a part of it. You could always find some one to answer your questions.
I didn’t see any of the cliché clicks that are formed when you go to the shows of cosplayers vs. artist vs. whoever.
Everyone was there for each other This is one of the shows you can take your younger brother or sister, the neighbor’s kid and have a good time.
You won’t have to worry about them being lost in the crowd and sold into slavery for some Third World country. It was really nice being with people who were there to enjoy the same thing, were not looking at it to be real we are there because it’s fun.
It was a really good time to hold a convention because here in California we tend to be hot more often then we are anything else. And of course we have some of that great Southern San Joaquin valley Tulle Fog! So with lower temperatures it allowed a lot of the attendees to hang around outside and not completely clogged in the show.
So, wherever you would go, people would be in costumes; whether you’re in the restaurant, out in the waiting area of the hotel lobby, by the pool in the parking lots, along the street there were people there dressed up in costume or just waiting in the line to get an autograph from one of the attending guests.
Don’t worry lines seem to move pretty fast. After the panels and autograph sessions you would see the guests walking through the vendors area and artist area, they would find stuff that they would be looking for and they would purchase from the vendors at the show.
The show was very accessible, I had a really good time, especially from someone who is used to going to bigger shows with all the Gilts, Glamour and overproduction.
This show competes with the bigger shows that are out.
I never felt that I was missing anything or that there was something else I wanted to see while I was there. The masquerade was handled very well and everything ran very smoothly, if there was any mistakes no one who was there attending noticed anything.
The people running the show know that they are providing a service and they’re not just simply being “fans” running the show they are running to show that they want to compete with the bigger shows out there and they are opening up the way for people who are attending that may not be a to attend other shows, have a chance to win tickets to other shows.
If you are looking for show new to attend, trying to add another show to your list of shows that you attend, I think it be worthwhile to give the show a shot.
You don’t need to spend a bunch of money to have a “Great Con Experience” here there looking to keep it a family friendly event, affordable and have people attend. Which is good because I spent all my money inside at the vendors hall.
Overall, Bak-Anime 2015 was a wonderful experience and I look forward to covering it next year!
Check back for more photos from Bak-Anime 2015 in our J!-ENT 2015 Annual scheduled for October 2015