About Us
This is just a small portion of our unpaid, volunteer Staff. Others were busy setting up or completing projects for the Anime Banzai Convention. We love this convention, and we all pour our hearts and souls into it!
The Anime Banzai Convention is an educational convention focusing on Japanese anime (animation), manga (comics), and culture. Anime Banzai is sponsored by Utah Anime Promotions, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to bringing the culture, art, and fun of Japan to Utah.
The goal of the Anime Banzai Convention is to bring an event to Utah where fans can come together to celebrate Japan and Japanese Culture in a fun, safe, family-friendly atmosphere. To that end, we hold our convention three days each year in October over the weekend with panels, events, and contests that will let fans enjoy their favorite aspects of anime and Japanese popular culture.
The Anime Banzai Convention was founded by the Salt Lake Community College “End of the World” Japanese Animation Club in 2005. That first year, there were over 600 attendees. We were only expecting, at most, 200 attendees! The second year was also held at Salt Lake Community College.
This is a group of cosplayers dressed as several characters from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist at the second Anime Banzai in 2006, which was held at Salt Lake Community College for the second and final time. Fullmetal Alchemist is just one of many popular animes. The manga first ran from 2001-2010, and the first anime began running in 2003. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood came later in 2009.
To provide more room for our attendees, we moved to the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City for three years: 2007, 2008, and 2009. But even this wasn’t enough! We quickly outgrew the hotel with approximately 3,000 attendees in 2009.
These are some attendees at the highly popular AMV Contest at the Ten Year Convention held in 2014 at the Davis Conference Center in Layton. The AMV, or Anime Music Video, Contest is an extremely popular event where contestants submit their videos to the contest in hopes to win one of the prizes in the categories of Action, Comedy, Drama, and Category X (for everything else). These are voted upon by the attendees watching the contest. There is also a prize for Best of Show; this is awarded by the judges who saw something special in that particular AMV.
2014 was also the first year we hosted our Scavenger Hunt, now a staple of the Anime Banzai Convention. Another free event, Attendees search the convention halls for the Staff indicated on the character sheet who are carrying special bags with different charms in them. Collect ’em all, win a prize! Collect only some, still win a prize!
Some of the biggest draws to Anime Banzai include the AMV Contest, the Cosplay Contest, the Formal and Informal Dances, our Video Gaming Room, and the fact that a ticket is all-inclusive. Attendees can get into the Viewing Rooms, all events, all panels, and all contests without paying extra. The guests are free – you can get autographs, get photographs, and go to their panels without paying anything extra. This is the way we’ve always run Anime Banzai, and it’s the way we plan to continue to run Anime Banzai.
A panel with all our guests at the 2015 Anime Banzai Convention held at the Davis Conference Center in Layton – Tanglwyst De Holloway, Michelle Ann Dunphy, Christopher Escalante, Bill Galvan, Danielle McRae, Steve “Warky” Nunez, Larura Post, and David Vincent. We are grateful for our guests who help make Anime Banzai the great convention it is each and every year.
2019 was Banzai’s 15 year anniversary, and it was a big one. Guests included Trina Nishimura, Derek Stephen Prince, Alejandro Saab, Tara Sands, Ben Dunn, and Bryan Young. Our Cosplay Contest, a crowd favorite, winners included:
Industry Awards
- Cosplay Coco
- Hideyo Mochimo
- Hitachiin Sisters
- Narwhals in Jars
- Robert Layne
- Shawni Bastian
Craftsmanship & Performance Awards
- EphonaJizabel Cosplay
- Icy Inferno & spookywhitt
- Prismatic Gems
- Scarlet Warrior Cosplay & Rockertblaster3k Cosplay
Beginner Class
- Amanda Bruin
- Crowfeather Cosplay
- Fire Emblem Marth, Caeda, Ike, and Elincia
- Kofi Cosplay
- Robert Layne
Intermediate Class
- Garnet Banzai & Cookieface
- Hideyo Mochimo
- James & Sachie
- RoyalPara
- XAngel Design
Master Class
- RENNAgade Cosplay & Collett Cosplay
- Shining Revolution
- SilverFyre Cosplay
- Taeminnie
- Trashbabies Cosplay
Best in Show
- Shining Revolution
And then, 2020. Covidention – the Con That Wasn’t. That’s enough said about that mess!
But 2021, we were back and ready to get our anime on! Our Attendees showed up and our Staff gave them a show to remember. Guests included Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, and Max Mittelman. Attendees came to support their local anime convention and show the tremendous love they have for Anime Banzai. A theme of “Fantasy” brought our the amazing talents in the Cosplay Contest, the fun costumes at the Formal Dance, and the wonderful cosplays wandering the halls. We love seeing the Attendees’ creativity and skill!
Some of the cast of the popular anime Jujutsu Kaisen came out for 2022 – Adam McArthur, Landon McDonald, Matthew David Rudd, Kaiji Tang, and Anne Yatco. For our theme of Supernatural/Horror, we pulled out all the stops to bring epic contests (AMV, Art Show, Cosplay), amazing panels (Anime Deaths We Will Never Forget and The Demonology of Inuyasha and Yashahime), fun events (Deadly Tea Party and Murder Mystery), exciting Scavenger Hunt (Isekai theme!), dances (Masque Bal and Monster Mash), gaming areas (card & tabletop room hosting D&D games and so much more, and our video gaming room where consoles galore are available), and our ever-popular Artist’s Alley, Secondhand Sale, and Vendor’s Hall shopping areas.
Join us for another amazing year in 2024! Our theme is Back to School, and our Scavenger Hunt will have Attendees searching for Banzai Academy Students and Headmasters.
And, not that we’re suggesting anything, but there are people who get engaged at Anime Banzai also!
We can’t wait to see you again next year!
