Pirates befriended ninjas. Power Rangers mugged with spiked-hair super villains. And French maids hung out with fuzzy huggables.
The chaotic, colorful world of anime filled San Jose’s McEnery Convention Center and spilled out onto the street Saturday, as perhaps 15,000 fans of Japanese cartooning and animation gathered to re-enact scenes, hear tips and see and be seen in costume.
Think Halloween in the Castro, with a younger set and more taste and imagination. Whether dressed as yellow Pikachu, a Pokemon creature, or menacing marauders, fans were flaunting or seeking to whip out a cell phone to snap the next favorite character or fantastic costume passing by. They could pursue autographs of anime stars, sing karaoke, be served by bowing Japanese-style French maids, listen to numerous panels and, of course, watch popular and original anime on big screens.
Matthew Hopkins, 25, of Chico, waited to get his photo taken with a red Power Ranger, while seemingly oblivious to others checking out his blue hair. He was dressed as Marth, a prince who sets out to reclaim his kingdom, in the popular video games “Fire Emblem” and Nintendo’s “Super Smash Bros.”
Kenneth Juarez, 20, dressed as Kakashi, a character from the popular “Naruto” anime, said that in the exciting yet relaxed atmosphere of the second full day of the downtown convention, “it’s easy to approach people, especially if you are from the same anime.”
Japanese animation’s worldwide following was reflected in the international attendance at the convention. Anime’s popularity has accelerated with the Web, where dedicated fans post the latest episodes on YouTube or the free video site Hulu, with English subtitles soon after they’re released in Japan.
In the convention’s 16 years, the average age of attendees has risen, from 15 to 20 in the early years to 17 to 25, said Milton Le, marketing director of Fanime.com. He speculated that’s because some fans are bringing their parents.
Very little sleep
Diane Berger, 50, started watching anime because her daughter Amelia did, about eight years ago. Now Berger is a full-fledged costumed fan herself. She and Amelia, 21, each carried two dolls, ball-jointed to enable posing and dressed in costumes sewn by Amelia. Although they live in San Jose, the pair had booked a downtown hotel to catch more of the 24-hour convention. “We don’t sleep much while this is on,” said Berger, a software engineer.
By far, most of the conventioneers were in their teens and 20s. Many admitted their parents don’t really get their anime addiction. “My mom thinks I’m kind of a nerd,” said Amber Corzo, 15. But her mother drove her and three friends from Concord, and was staying with them in a hotel.
Anime-soaked world
Some fans are attracted by stories that are complex and characters that are more realistic than those in American cartoons, said fan Nichole Radcliff. “They aren’t perfect. They have issues.” She and Paul Schilling, a semiconductor engineer, came from Seattle, both dressed as characters from a favorite anime, “Bleach.” She used to anticipate new episodes every Wednesday, although lately the series has gone downhill, she said.
Fanime.com. and the convention are staffed by 400 to 600 volunteers across the nation, Le said, although the company’s servers are located in San Jose.
While the organizers didn’t estimate this year’s attendance, they expect it to grow at least 10 percent from last year’s 15,000 people, Le said. Why the increase in a contracting economy?
“Fanime is very cheap. It’s the price of one video game” for five days of entertainment, he said.
But mostly, fans want to be with other fans in the colorful, costumed anime-soaked world. Even though fans don’t know one﻿ another, said Randy Padua, 15, of Concord, “Here you can hang out with other people who like the same thing you do.”
Contact Sharon Noguchi at snoguchi@mercurynews.com or 408-271-3775.
Each year on Memorial Day Weekend masses of Anime fans descend upon the San Jose Convention Center for FanimeCon; this year was no different.  This year was the 15th year of the Convention, which started in 1994 at California State University in Hayward.  It was estimated that over 16,000 people were in attendance over the 4 day course of events.  While the event is called FanimeCon and was originally centered around the Anime subculture, it has become a more broad event in its run.  Videos Games and Japanese culture tend to be two very popular cross overs with the world of anime. 

During the weekend there were numerous events in which attendees were able to participate.  Some of the most popular proved to be the panels which varied in topic from "Editing Manga", "Intro to Lolita and Fashion Show", and "How to talk to girls".  Along with the panels there talks and autograph sessions with the convention's guests of honor which included: Haruko Momoi, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Ken Lally, Reuben Langdon, Patricia Ja Lee, Carl Gustav Horn, Gilles Poitras, Jonathan Osborne, Keith Burgess, Ric Meyers, and Ryan Gavigan.  For those that were more action oriented, this year's FanimeCon introduced "The Dojo" which featured hourly training sessions and weapons instructions.

Cosplaying is not an uncommon occurrence for this convention's attendees.  Typically, the cosplaying is based on the attendee's favorite anime or video game character.  The majority of con goer's seemed to be dressed up in one form or another.  Some of these people had spent the previous year making their costume and most were gladly posing for pictures.  Unlike Japan, cosplaying in America is a fairly rare occurrence, thus when the costumed attendees wandered away from the convention floor, they tended to get confused looks from anyone who happened to be passing by the venue.  As with most large gatherings, the attendees flood most of the local establishments during the weekend, which the businesses take in stride and with great appreciation (perhaps even more so given the current financial difficulties) for their custom.