| Big Apple Anime Fest | |
|---|---|
| Status | Defunct |
| Venue | Marriott New York Marquis |
| Location(s) | New York City, New York |
| Country | United States |
| Inaugurated | 2001 |
| Most recent | 2003 |
| Attendance | 12,832 in 2003 |
| Organized by | Central Park Media |
The Big Apple Anime Fest (BAAF) was an anime convention sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors which was held annually between 2001 and 2003 and supported by a consortium of anime and manga companies.[1]
| Dates | Location | Atten. | Guests |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 26–28, 2001 | Directors Guild of America Theater New York, New York | 3,500 | Tim Eldred, Tiffany Grant, Matt K. Miller, Yuji Moriyama, Toshio Maeda, Kobe Tai, Asia Carrera and Koichi Ohata.[2][3] |
| August 30 – September 2, 2002 | Times Square New York, New York | 7,500 | Mandy Bonhomme, Akitaroh Daichi, Yoko Kanno, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Yoshihiro Komada, Rachael Lillis, Taro Maki, Liam O'Brien, Tommy Ohtsuka, Ed Paul, Eric Stuart, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Shinichiro Watanabe, and Jimmy Zoppi.[4] |
| August 29–31, 2003 | Marriott New York Marquis New York, New York | 12,832 | Michael Alston Baley, Mark Diraison, Keith Giffen, Tsukasa Hojo, Amy Howard-Wilson, Yasuhiro Irie, Takeshi Koike, Satoshi Kon, Hyun se Lee, Masao Maruyama, Taka Nagasawa, Takashi Nakamura, Liam O'Brien, Lisa Ortiz, Eric Stuart, Tomoko Taniguchi, Veronica Taylor, Ren Usami, and Tatsumi Yoda.[5] |
Despite confirmed dates for 2004, Big Apple Anime Fest announced on its web site that it would skip its event in 2004 due to the Republican National Convention, which was to be held in New York City over Labor Day weekend.[6][7] The following year, John O'Donnell of Central Park Media, one of the companies supporting Big Apple Anime Fest, informed AnimeCons.com that he was, "unaware of any plans for BAAF 2005 at this time."[8] The convention has not been held since and it is uncertain if there are any plans to revive it.
Big Apple Anime Fest's metric for counting attendance differed from those typically used by other anime conventions, counting person-days ("turnstile attendance") rather than memberships sold.[9]