What is Chibi Chibi Con?
Chibi Chibi Con is a Japanese animation festival held annually by the Giant Robot Appreciation Society (G.R.A.S.) at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. It is free to attend and provides an opportunity for the Olympia community to become familiar with what Japanese animation has to offer, while also offering a meeting space for the local area high school, college, and community animation clubs to get together and find out what everyone has been up to.
How did it start?
In 1992, the local tabletop gaming club decided to host a 3-day gaming and science fiction convention on campus named GeoCon. G.R.A.S. (still known as Evergreen Students for Anime back then) ran a room at the convention devoted to Japanese animation. This continued annually until 2000, when GeoCon collapsed under its own weight. In 2001 G.R.A.S. decided to continue the anime room as the foundation of its own convention, named Chibi Chibi Con. This year will be the 10-year anniversary of the convention. ^_^
Why call it Chibi Chibi Con?
Originally, we had thought to name it Chibi Con, but discovered that another convention (several, technically) already had that name. Our convention is not-for-profit, funded by an award from the campus Services and Activities board. It is run by volunteers, many of whom come from the college’s Japanese animation club. While this gives us certain advantages, it also provides us with certain limitations. In the wake of GeoCon’s collapse, the idea was to help us remember the dangers of growing too big.
For more information you can email us at evergreenchibicon@gmail.com or call 360-867-6220.
