Animania Festival is a celebration of all things anime, bringing together the best of the best for competitions and demonstrations, entertainment and commercial exhibits.

Animania began as the first Japanese animation festival ever to be held in NSW. Its inaugural event in 2002 was attended by more than 500 people. Each year after this first successful event, Animania has strived to achieve new heights and grow. In 2005, Animania took its events to Brisbane and in 2006, Melbourne, receiving great support in both states.

Bringing together thousands of people from local, interstate and overseas, Animania creates an environment for fans - old and new - to come together and celebrate Japanese pop culture in a fun and friendly atmosphere. As more and more individuals have become aware of anime as a versatile medium and manga as a unique form of story-telling, these aspects of Japanese pop culture have exploded into regular Australian life. Animania has been proud to play its part in this boom. It has hosted a wide variety of displays, performances and lectures that have (we hope!) provided a little bit more insight into the quirky but vibrant fan culture of anime and manga, piquing interests and broadening the community.

A real testament of this impact of anime in the West was the inclusion of Animania Festival in the Official Program of the 2006 Australia-Japan Year of Exchange - a year marking the 30 year anniversary of cultural exchange between Australia and Japan. This yearlong program endorsed by both embassies in both countries aimed at promoting cultural exchange and friendship between the two countries.

Since 2002, Animania Festival has steadily transformed in its diversity of events and focused on bringing not only a more exciting Festival than the year before, but a better Festival experience for fans of all types. This focus (which drives the Animania Team) has seen Animania produce one of the most awesome and most fulfilling Volunteer Programs and the best staged Cosplay Competition events in Australia. Not to mention a wide range of staple events including all-day screenings, karaoke, video games, yukata-workshops, art displays, panel discussions and forums, traditional cultural performances and demonstrations, and lots, lots more! Top this off with a fabulous Festival community (online and off) and you have a pretty well rounded Japanese pop culture experience in Australia!

What will 2009 bring for Animania Festival?

Animania Festival can only get better. 2009 presents a whole new year of stage shows, art, song, dance, insight, games, and lots, lots more. And don't forget about the Cosplay!

Last year, Animania Festival was proud to host the first ever Australian Preliminary Competition for the World Cosplay Summit (WCS), an international-level Cosplay event. This brought out some of the best Cosplay we have seen in years - and now it's a fresh new year. While our 2008 winners will be working hard on their entries into the 2009 World Cosplay Summit, Animania Festival will be starting a new round of WCS Preselections and Preliminary for the next team that will represent us in Japan at the 2010 event. The bar was set high last year - we can't wait to see what this year's round of Cosplayers have to present.

And what other surprises will be in store?... well you'll just have to wait and see!

This year, we'll be pushing the envelope to bring Australia's anime and manga community one truly kick-ass year of events!

To find out the latest info on upcoming Animania Festivals, choose an event from the right menu.