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Gen Con - Thursday Walkabout - 2006 Page 1 of 5   Next Page 2006 was the year that the Gen Con gaming convention took on a new anime emphasis. In the Westin Hotel, across the street from the main convention center, could be found a miniature anime convention. We heard that actors Michael Sinterniklaas and Lauren Goodnight were supposed to be on hand during the weekend, and we bumped into Matt Greenfield of ADV Films in the main convention center. A hotel meeting room was given over to a manga library, a smaller version of the library seen at East Coast events such as AnimeNEXT. The Westin also held some video rooms for showings of anime, live-action asian films and other shows, although the karaoke event supposed to be held here was delayed by "technical difficulties." Across the street at the main convention center, anime-themed card games again had a major presence (keep Yu-Gi-Oh! in mind, you'll see a lot of it later). Much of Gen Con's reputation comes from card game and RPG play, and there are many Japanese games that have been translated and brought to the U.S. for English speaking fans - although we can't imagine anything more different in philosophy than Fruits Basket and Tekken 5 games. When we chatted with people about the latest Naruto card game, they referred to it as a "Shonen Jump" game, a hint that someone's working hard to establish the name of the translated manga anthology as a separate brand name. Page 1 of 5   Next Page Gen Con Main Page