F.A.C.T.S. - A Belgian Anime Convention (and much much more)

The 11th and 12th of October, it's time for F.A.C.T.S. An occasion any anime fan from the Benelux shouldn't miss. It isn't only about Anime but it's the biggest one we got.

The F.A.C.T.S. convention is organized once a year by Con-Fuse bvba, an organisation promoting Science Fiction, Comics, Fantasy and Japanese animation. Con-Fuse bvba creates a forum for all fans of the "fantastic genre", giving them one day during which all of their favourite events are united under one roof. As one of the few convention in the Benelux, the convention had more visitors than the previous edition.



F.A.C.T.S. was originally a convention where every corner of the I.C.C. was filled with merchandise ranging from DVD's, CD's, occasionally a videotape, to model kits, action figures (mint on card, los, vintage, modern, etc.), posters, postcards, books, computer games, comics, manga, magazines, trading cards, card games, etc. etc. We have more that ninety dealers from Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, U.K, Luxemburg, Sweden, U.S.A., etc. Every diehard collector finds something to complete his collection.

Since the early beginning F.A.C.T.S. received many comicartists and mangaka: Cam Kennedy (artist from the Star Wars comics) from Scotland, George Pérez (comic book veteran) from the U.S.A., Koichi Ohata (Gunbuster) from Japan, French manga talent Jerome Alquié, Steve Firchow (The Darkness) (US), John Avon (Magic the gathering), Steve KyteRomano Molenaar (Witchblade) from the Netherlands and don't forget our annually cartoonist Lectrr.

At the end of the nineties the first actor popped up at F.A.C.T.S. This was Richard LeparmentierRay Park (Darth Maul in Star Wars : The Phantom Menace), Jeremy Bulloch (Bobba Fett), Dave Prowse (Darth Vader). Another popular film saga is Lord of the Rings, where some of its actors were guests at F.A.C.T.S. : Lawrence Makaore (Lurtz), Paul Norell (King of the Dead) and John Rhys-Davies famous for his unforgettable role as Gimli.

F.A.C.T.S. also had the privilege to received some film legends such as the legendary director Roger Corman, David Carradine (Kung Fu - The Legend, Kill Bill), Dirk Benedict (Battlestar Gallactica, The A-team) as well as the tallest Dutch actor Carel Struycken in Hollywood.

But also television actors can be spotted. At the F.A.C.T.S. 2005 edition, two actors in a leading role in the popular Stargate SG-1 series were present : Don S. Davis en Corin Nemec.

F.A.C.T.S is not only about merchandise and actors. Many activities are organised during the F.A.C.T.S.-weekend ranging from an arcade gallery, card game demonstrations, model kit demonstrations, anime-projections, Q & A's with the actors, swordfights and an extravagant cosplay competition with many costumed visitors. (Thunderbirds) from the U.K., and was followed afterwards by other Star Wars colleagues like

(Photo under creative commons from ClausM's photostream)

Upcoming anime series

Not having seen any new Anime for some time, I stumbled upon this image on a forum listing upcoming OVA series for the summer of 2008. One of them is a remake of an old manga series I know: Cobra. One of the series I knew from Club Dorothée from TF1. Click on the image for more details.

A nice change from the still ongoing Naruto & Bleach. One of the latest Anime I have seen was Death Note. Also worth a look.

Why Japan?

People sometimes ask me: 'Why do you like Japan (or the Japanese culture) that much?

It all started when my father started a Jiu-Jitsu club when I was around nine years old. Of course, I had to join from my father. In the beginning, it was somewhat against my will but I soon started enjoying it. I followed Jiu-Jitsu for about ten years till I went to the university. During the last years, I tried out some others like Wing Shun, Taekwondo, Karate,.... but I didn't like sparring all too much.

My father's club was a sportsclub and not a dojo. He really did it as a sport and didn't learn too much about the origin of this discipline. Out of interest, I started to read about the subject from books from the library. I eventually also read a lot about Samurais and Bushidō which I found fascinating. This got me interested in the culture.

A second element were the cartoons I watched during childhood. Although not a native French speaker, the channel with the most cartoons was TF1 (Télévision Française 1). So I grew up watching Dragonball, Les Chevaliers du Zodiac (Saint Seiya), Ken Le survivant (Fist of the North Star), Nicky Larson (Cityhunter), ....
At the time, I didn't know these were Japanese Anime but dubbed in French. Later on, I tried to collect these series in original Japanese and so my collection of Anime started. Although I wanted to follow some series without having to read the subtitles. Hence my wish to learn the language.

I got to know fellow collectors and over time I found a lot of new series like Ghost in the Shell, Naruto, Bleach (some of my favorite series) etc......

So my goal is to

1. Start a blog to track my progress and keep track of resources (and exchange them with others)
   
2. Start Japanese evening classes this year
   
3. Visit Japan within the next year
4. [Classified]