AUKcon was a one-day

anime convention An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of acti ...

held in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, on 19 February 1994. The venue was the Conway Hall (

Red Lion Square Red Lion Square is a small square in Holborn, London. The square was laid out in 1684 by Nicholas Barbon, taking its name from the Red Lion Inn. According to some sources, the bodies of three regicides—Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw and Hen ...

), and the registration charge was £10. AUKCon was chaired by

Helen McCarthy Helen McCarthy (born 27 February 1951) is the British author of such anime reference books as ''500 Manga Heroes and Villains'', ''Anime!'', ''The Anime Movie Guide'' and ''Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation''. She is the co-author of ...

. During the convention, Lawrence Guinness of Manga Video announced that the company had acquired distribution rights for ''

Ranma ½ is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in '' Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from August 1987 to March 1996, with the chapters collected into 38 ''tankōbon'' volumes by Shogakukan. The ...

'' and planned to start releasing it in 1994. Also announced included plans for the series

Bio Booster Armor Guyver is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshiki Takaya. The Guyver itself is a symbiotic techno-organic (or biomechanical) device that enhances the capabilities of its host. The manga was originally serialized in Tokuma S ...

. One of the guests that attended was

Toren Smith Toren V. Smith (April 12, 1960 – March 4, 2013) was a Canadian manga translator and founder of Studio Proteus. Early life Smith learned to read by the age of four, and by the age of 12 had won his first award for writing from the Calgary Sta ...

, writer of the American

Dirty Pair is a series of Japanese light novels (the first one being a fix-up) written by Haruka Takachiho and illustrated by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko that was later adapted into anime and manga versions. The first stories that make up the first volume ...

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

and founder of

Studio Proteus Studio Proteus is a Japanese manga import, translation and lettering company, founded in 1986 by Toren Smith and based in San Francisco. Other staff included translators Dana Lewis, Alan Gleason, and Frederik Schodt, letterer Tom Orzechowski a ...

. The convention was the first UK

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

event to provide a fan room with free space for

fanzine A fanzine (blend of '' fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share t ...

s and fanclubs. It also ran a gaming programme and an art and model show, as well as anime screenings and talks.

References

{{anime-stub 1994 in the United Kingdom Defunct anime conventions Conventions in the United Kingdom

See also

References