Brace yourself: the geeks are coming.
From Friday through Sunday, downtown Everett will play host to the first Aki Con, an elaborate convention that has a schedule heavy with nerd-friendly activities, such as manga sales, anime quizzes and a Ramen-eating contest.
The convention, which will cover more than 10,000 square feet at the Holiday Inn in downtown Everett, was organized by Danielle and Nicole Pelham, two business savvy sisters who live in Everett and love Japanese culture.
Some quick definitions are probably necessary. Aki Con gets its name from the Japanese word for autumn — aki. Manga is a style of Japanese comic, while anime is its animated equivalent. Think “Speed Racer” or “Pokemon.”
Like those hyper cartoons, the three-day convention may be a caffeinated and colorful affair. Most rooms will stay open 24 hours a day, catering to a heavy schedule that will let attendees:
Watch a steady stream of subtitled anime in one room, while another room shows dubbed anime.
Win prizes for dressing up as anime or manga characters, a pastime called “cosplay,” short for costume play.
See a martial arts demonstration by Velocity Tae Kwon Do, a Tukwila studio co-founded by Danielle Pelham, 23. The athletes plan to dress up as manga characters.
The Pelhams have been advertising Aki Con on the Cartoon Network, and expect to draw about 1,000 people from California to Canada. Despite that, and despite the fact a three-day pass costs $35, the Pelhams said they may lose as much as $5,000 on Aki Con.
They’re ready to take that hit, though. They said many conventions don’t make money in the first year.
“Our hope was just to create a convention that was something anime fans would really love,” Nicole Pelham, 28, said.
Fans seem to be gearing up for the event. Alford Northcutt, a sales manager for Holiday Inn, said attendees have booked 79 hotel rooms for Saturday night alone, a figure he called “fantastic.”
Out-of-towners will be joined by locals like Ariel Clark, a seventh grader at Everett’s North Shore Christian Academy. She said she plans to come dressed as manga character InuYasha.
Conventions like Aki Con give the 12-year-old a chance to see friends from past conventions; she’s been to three others. She said the crowd is like a big, geeky family. She would like to spend the entire convention, all 58 hours, wide awake at the Holiday Inn.
Granted, that won’t happen.
“I doubt my parents will let me,” she said, “because they’re picky about that kind of stuff.”
Andy Rathbun, Herald Writer, arathbun@heraldnet.com, 425-339-3455
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