It is definitely no secret that we here at the @rcade are huge fans of Anime – all you need do is look around our homes and you will find hundreds of DVDs, Manga, sketches, collectibles, video games and posters everywhere – we are total fan girls and fan boys! When we heard that a new Anime convention was coming to Ireland we got a little excited and we had to try and find out about it – we uncovered Nom Con!
After making contact with the committee, we arranged to meet up with Lorraine, the co-director of the convention. We head to a small little cafe just on the Dublin Quays – Lorraine is friendly, energetic and very excited to tell us all about Nom Con. We take a seat inside but before we begin, we needed to get a few things out of the way…we discussed favourite anime, manga, villains, heroes and of course love stories! After ironing out the details and serious debates over hot chocolate we are finally ready to begin to talk about Nom Con!
What is Nom Con?
Well, Nom-con is a labour of love!! *big smile*… Oh wait… you mean what is it… as in actually… not metaphorically… okay, well Nom-con is a new anime convention in Dublin, That was made by fans for fans! We are running it on the last weekend of August, and plan to do so each year
What are the plans for the weekend? What can we expect from Nom Con?
Wow, plans… *takes a deep breath* there’s so much we have planned, Workshops, guest panels with Chris Patton and John Swasey!!, a Big traders hall, a disco, Karaoke OH! We have Cosplay speed dating!! I am so looking forward to that!! We have a maid cafe too, we are setting up huge tables for the attendees to sit around while they are served, should be cool, the gaming corner, hoping to run Assassin too, and should be a laugh! Oh what else! Well general madness and the what not!
Can you give us more information about registering and attending the event?
Yah absolutely! All you have to do is go to the website Nom-Con.com and click on Registration, fill out the form. From there I will get back to you. BUT pre-registration closes on the 31st of July! And a week earlier than that if you plan on paying with Postal order.
If you pre-register you get an awesome super cool badge – which you don’t get if you pay on the day!
Are there any surprises in store for the weekend? Feel like giving us some hints….
*Grins* We DO have something planned, all I will say is it involves an announcement for next year.
Why should people go to Nom Con? What sets it apart from the other conventions taking place during the summer?
You know, I am not going to say Nom-con is better than other conventions, each event has its own charm, and in fairness, a lot of the guys in England have been REALLY GREAT in helping us out, we are all advertising each other as much as we can, and we are so grateful to them. But as to why people should come. That’s an easy question to answer! You should come to have FUN!
Anime has never really had a huge community following in Ireland, why do you think us as anime fans are still only a small little group?
There is a bit of a stigma to being an anime fan, I find people looking at me as though to say… “You’re meant to be an adult, what are you doing watching a kids show?”. Anime is viewed by most adults as ‘cartoons’ they don’t see them as being for older age groups and so they either never get shown on television or are shown to the wrong age range and the ones that are shown, are being dumber down to target children more.
Naruto is a good example of that. The Japanese version of Naruto is quite dark at times, and has a lot of emotion going on with its characters. In the Japanese version is a child that has been prejudiced his entire life that is struggling to gain recognition from the people that shun him. In the English version, he is portrayed as a happy go lucky rascal that generally acts the fool and can’t be serious at all.
Then there are the stores that provide Manga, sadly for the most part, Ireland is being ripped off, having to pay exorbitant prices to collect their favourite series, there is just not enough competition between stores to lower the prices… and so new people that might have been interested in collecting are put off by the cost of it. And the DVDs are no exception to that.
Thankfully the traders we are getting in will have fair prices and a great selection.
When it comes to your own personal tastes, what kind of anime and manga do you like?
Oh man, I have over 400 books in my collection and Tons of DVD’s, Right now I am on a Kuroshitsuji kick, though the Manga, not the Anime, the anime annoys me a bit. I also love Pandora Hearts too! It’s beautiful! Long term ones are Blood+ Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, love Chrono Crusade, oh and Suikoden and Tales of the Abyss. Gah! There are so many!! But one I always go back to time and time again is Blade of the Immortal, it’s not your traditional Manga, but it is just wonderful! And there was a short anime made of it.
What are you looking forward to most from the convention weekend?
Seeing everyone having a good time! This is all about people having fun! And I am friends with a lot of the attendees too. So getting to see all my friends is a definite bonus! The main reason for this convention was to give Anime fans in Ireland a taste of the madness that goes on around the convention circuits. So if people have fun, that’s all I can hope for!
Finally if you and the gang at Nom Con were trapped in an Arcade for eternity, what game would you play to pass the time?
Oh that is an easy one! I would play Disgaea! Most addictive game ever! And it has soooo many things to do in it that you really could play FOREVER!!
Lorraine and our Editor discussing Anime and looking adorable!
Thanks to Lorraine and all the gang over at Nom Con we have two pairs of Weekend Passes to give away! To get your hands on these highly coveted tickets, just head over to our competition page and answer a simple question and you could be on your way to a weekend filled with Anime and Manga!
For more information about Nom Con and all the exciting events taking place over the weekend then head on over to the official Con page here – Nom-Con.com
You can also join the Nom Con Facebook page here!
Fancy winning tickets to Nom Con? The Con staff have been kind enough to give four tickets to the @rcade, and we’re giving them to you guys – check out the competition here!
