is an
Anime Convention held at
Simon Fraser University in
Vancouver, British Columbia ,
Canada . It is put on by the
AE Convention Corporation , the parent body of this convention. It is traditionally held in
August , but it has taken place in
July at a couple of points in previous years.
Originally known as and held in
1998 by the SFU ARC club. It was a two-day showing of anime to be held annually. Assisted by the Vancouver Japanese Animation Society, the
UBC Anime Club, and V-SWAT.
In
2001 it was renamed and in
2003 became a full
Anime Convention . It has grown each year since 1999, and had attendance of over 2,900 people in
2005 . It is currently held during the second-to-last week of August each year.
2006 marks the year where not one, but two
Japanese guests will be performing live in a concert. This includes
Kumiko Kato and
ZZ .
Anime Evolution is comprised of volunteered staff who work most of the year prior to the convention.
The convention itself is lead by a nine member elected executive board, which includes four top-level executives and five directors. Under these directors, there are managerial staff, then there are coordinators, ending with volunteered staff. The current board structure was introduced in the 2006 elections. These elections are held one month after the convention has completed
AKA Kon was an anime convention that took place in
November in
2000 and
2001 .
Since the convention was disbanded, Anime Evolution has had to shrug off comments that relate the convention directly to AKA Kon. The two conventions were run separately, and although some of the staff from AKA Kon did come over to help out with Anime Evolution, the main staff were and have never been involved.
Because of the debts left with the area hotels, and the relationship damaging that the former convention had done with guests and industry, Anime Evolution has slowly been working to get the former problems resolved. With the convention rapidly expanding to the point where its current existence at the university is starting to meet its maximums, finding an appropriate convention space has been difficult due to the problems left behind by AKA Kon.
Anime Evolution is working to align itself more with Asian entertainment than it currently does with
Japanese Animation . It has been welcoming various Asian interests to the convention, but also has taken an alternate approach with
Science Fiction . This is all due to the fact that the convention would like to be around if and when anime becomes more mainstream and anime conventions become less popular.
