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You Can't Handle the Catgirls
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Mall of America Ramada<br>Bloomington, Minnesota
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2004 to present
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2,500 in 2006
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Art show, video rooms, panels, AMV contest, console and tabletop gaming, dealers' room, cosplay competition
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http://wwwanimedetourcom/indexphp
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is an
Anime Convention located in
Bloomington, Minnesota . Anime Detour takes place near the end of March, and draws its name from an in-joke about the never ending road construction in the Twin Cities. Until
Sogen Con began in 2005, it was Minnesota's only anime convention.
Anime Detour was started by Travis Hildebrand and Jon Hughes, who held parties and discussion panels at ,
Carrie Savage , voice actor
Kyle Hebert , physics professor and anime fan Dr. Marc Hairston, and founder of
AnimeMusicVideos.org Kris McCormic.
For 2005 Anime Detour moved to the second week in March and across the street to the
Ramada Inn Mall of America , better known to locals as The Fabulous
Thunderbird . "Of course we had to hold it there," the
Chief Wombat remarked. "It's the only hotel in the Twin Cities with ''stuffed animals''!" Attendance increased to over 1600 in spite of the staff's decision to avoid advertising, and despite problems in some departments again the fans and guests were well pleased. All of 2003's guests returned for a second year, and were joined by voice actors
Greg Ayres and
Travis Willingham .
How pleased the fans were could be seen in 2006 when pre-registration surged to 1600 and the Thunderbird was sold out by early February, despite the loss of its iconic Indian statues and most of the stuffed animals. Steps were taken to avoid the crowding in the halls that had been a problem in 2005, and more programming was added, featuring author ,
Carrie Savage ,
Kyle Hebert , Kris McCormic, and
Greg Ayres .
- An Anime Music Video (AMV) contest is held, in which attendees submit their video to be judged. The WTF Contest (which awards prizes based on how bad an AMV is) is a related event.
- There are 5 video rooms which run various anime, old and new, 24 hours a day during the convention.
- Guests including voice actors, producers, writers, artists and directors are in attendance and hold panels on anime, manga, Japanese culture and related topics.
- A cosplay contest, in which attendees are judged on the presentation and (optionally) workmanship of their costumes.
- An art show and auction, plus an extensive Artists' Alley
- Charity auction and blood drive
- Consuite offering soda and snackage
- A large and varied dealers' room
- Friday and Saturday night dances/raves
