welcome back the largest independent anime convention company in the US is returning to the Duke City this weekend for anime New Mexico now if you didn't know it's a weekend long celebration of Japanese art animation fashion music and merchandise it's all happening at the Crown Plaza Albuquerque now telling us more about everything we need to know about the event we are joined this morning by Megan Wilson who is the event director for fandom events and Josh Wilson who's their owner and CEO welco
me to you both thank you good morning good morning and this is incredible because uh we know there's tons and tons of anime fans out there and especially here in New Mexico for you both to bring the show here I mean this is incredible three years in a row now like you were saying earlier um let's talk about all the fun that's to be had at anime New Mexico absolutely so we have three Jam pack days at the Crown Plaza there is something to do from 10:00 a.m. to 2: a.m. the next morning for three da
ys in a row there are concerts parties um shopping cosplayers um over almost a hundred different activities that people can do you can grab a foam sword and fight with knights you you can attend the nation's longest running Japanese ma Cafe uh Neco Square there in on site as well in addition to of course meeting some of these amazing voice actors that are stars of the top Anime in the United States yeah let's talk about some of those celebrities Megan absolutely um we have uh some of the stars f
rom my hero Academia we have chainsaw man um there's lots from uh Demon Slayer and Dr Stone and reincarnated as a of slime Attack on Titan um all the things that are really popular right now we wanted to bring to New Mexico that is exciting and again this is something that uh has been growing over the past few years so let's kind of talk about you know the Leaps and Bounds that gotten du to year three certainly yeah so every year the attendance is grown and that's allowed us to put on a better p
roduction so we're very excited for this year pre-sales have been very solid on our end which is super exciting because that means we know that the Crown Plaza is going to be jam-packed with anime fans from all different walks of life this is an incredibly familyfriendly event we get that question sometimes can I bring my kids to this absolutely yeah our Target demographic are teenagers and and younger adults so if you've got uh kiddos or grandkids and you may not specifically be into anime but
you know your kids or your grandkids are this is the place to be this weekend there go what kind of sets this one apart from other ones um so for us it's all about the experience um a lot of conventions um you know it's about the celebrities and it's about the vendor floor but we really want to create an environment where people can me each other and build that community and so there's lots of panels and interactive events where it provides that to this community and it really lets them grow and
build for the whole year and not just for our event yeah uh again that's it's uh the one-of aind situation and and event that we're having here in New Mexico for this So for anybody like yourselves let's kind of talk about what got you into it real quick here what about you so I started watching anime in the mid 90s and at the time it was uh it was called japanimation which was sounds silly today but that's just what we called it about 94 to '95 uh an amazing show called Cowboy bbop came out an
d it just uh totally reset the landscape of of the American audience and of course um Sailor Moon came out about that same time in the states and I've been a fan ever since and it's been wonderful to see how widespread anime has become because it was very Niche back then it was wasn't a lot of people that liked anime uh I think during uh the the shutdown during Co a lot of people were stuck in their houses and they said you know I'm just going to give Dragon Ball a try let's and then over a peri
od of a year now there are tens of millions more anime fans and it is now mainstream which is something I never thought I'd see that happen but I'm so glad it did it start somewhere yeah Megan how about you um absolutely um I remember watching you know Sailor Moon and things when I was a kid but um for me I started out more on the gaming side and the the interactive roleplay and things like that and then I moved into the anime scene um actually as an adult and kind of discovered um a whole new c
rowd and a whole new group of people and it's really amazing very exciting uh date time and price what do we have for the event absolutely so doors open today at 3 p.m. for our VIPs VIP tickets are sold out on pre-sales but you can grab one in person if we have the badges until they're rent out there are a variety of ways to experience anime New Mexico either through a day pass or a weekend pass there are kids passes we do military discounts to support our active and First Responders and uh pric
es just vary based on what package they'd like to choose and again opens at 3:30 opens at 10:00 on Saturday and Sunday and there is stuff to do all night there you go very fun for the weekend welcome and thank you both for joining us we appreciate it our pleasure
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