What is Glass City Con?
Glass City Con is a convention celebrating Japanese animation and the culture of fans. This is a fancy, PR-style way of saying a gathering of like-minded nerds who sit around, watch anime, dress up as their favorite characters, and buy things.
The event started as a glimmer in the eye of co-founder Chris Zasada, who had been formulating the idea of a convention at Owens Community College since 2003. He founded the Owens Anime Convention in 2007 to gather together anime fans from around the area to watch anime and share their love for the art. The idea of starting a convention was always in the fine print.
Then in 2008, Chris was approached by Japanese Club president Aaron Auzins, who wanted to team up with the OAC bring a Japanese culture festival to Owens. Being the dictatorial overlord he his, Chris clung to the idea and transformed it into an all-out anime convention that had been lurking in the shadows of his fandom for years.
The first convention, GarasuNoShiCon 2009 (GarasuNoShiCon being a combination of "garasu no shi", meaning glass city, Toledo's nickname, and "con" being short for, well, convention) ran May 30th and May 31st, 2009. Attracting 500 attendees, a slew of vendors and artists, performers Gavin Goszka and the Salad Time Soldiers, and artist Alex Heberling, 2009 was a rousing success, and we hope to make things even bigger and better this year!
GarasuNoShiCon 2010 ran July 17th and July 18th, 2010. Attracting 1,100 registered attendees and 47 vendors and artists. All of our 2009 guest returned, in addition to Robert Axelrod (the voice of Lord Zedd!), Cindy Chu (local actress), Galloping Ghost Productions (an arcade operator and developer led by Dock Mack), Julie Jensen (an Ohio-born voice actress), and Kerry Porter (local kimono expert). We also credited Gwydion (Anthony Doherty), our mascot and local fire artist, for the first time. Our attendees were well-served, with more things to do than before. At our closing ceremony, one fan said it was the best convention he had ever been to.
With a slight name change, Glass City Con III was held July 9th and July 10th, 2011, welcoming 1,600 registered attendees and over 65 vendors and artists. With an expanded Vendor Venue and Artist Alley, gaming area, and panel rooms, attendees had a lot to look forward to. Returning guests included Robert Axelrod, Galloping Ghost Productions Kerry Porter, Gavin Goszka, and the Salad Time Soldiers. GCC 3 saw a crowd of new guests as well, featuring industry legends Tiffany Grant, Doug Smith, and Matt Greenfield, John Oppliger of Anime Nation's Ask John, musical guests Year 200X , DJ TKR, and The mini GAME, video game developer Distant Star Games, gaming podcaster Clasic L337, and indy film production company Linkwise Productions. Also, Gwydion did something too.
This year, the Glass City Con staff strives to continue to bring you the finest in anime conventions!
When and where is Glass City Con?
Glass City Con 4 is a two day event beginning Saturday, July 14th at 10 am to 1 am, and July 15th, from 10 am to 6 pm.
Glass City Con 4 is being held at Owens Community College in Perrysburg, Ohio. Check out the Location section for exact details.
How much is admission?
Admission is just $5 per person! You can either pay at the door or pre-register at at the Registration page. Pre-registers get extra swag and our entered into a special drawing at no additional cost, so why wait?
Don't forgot you'll also be spending money on anime swag, hotel rooms, food, events, game tournaments and very generous donations to Glass City Con, so bring lots o' money!
I sent you an e-mail, but I never heard back!
We try to answer e-mail daily (save for the weekend, because we need time to get away too), so if you haven't received a response to your question, please try again. If you're trying to volunteer, purchase a table, or anything like that, we'll send a confirmation e-mail to let you know you're all set.
If you haven't received a reply from us, check your spam folder to make sure it didn't end up there. If there isn't a reply, contact us again. It's not that we're ignoring you; the e-mail probably got lost along the way.
If you're signing up for anything and haven't received a confirmation and have tried e-mailing a couple of times, please call the convention organizer at 567-661-2586. Please keep in mind that this is a state phone line and any prank calls or unwarranted solicitations will be reported.
Didn't Glass City Con used to be free?
Due to state budget cuts, increased costs, and other boring factors, the organizations that bring you Glass City Con need to make sure all expenses are covered. For a measely five bucks, we get two awesome days of convention fun! Not a bad deal no matter how you look at it!
What happened to the GarasuNoShiCon name?
While GarasuNoShiCon is really unique and cool, try spelling it or saying it. A lot of people had a hard time with the name, so we decided to translate it. Same con, different name!
I want to con it all night! Will the G-Con run 48 hours straight?
Sadly, no. This is a school, first and foremost, and there are safety and security matters to take into consideration, not to mention our staff is tired and needs sleep.
Wait, there seems to be a big change in an event/guest/rule!
The harshest reality in the world of conventions is there are going to be changes as we find things that aren't working, aren’t right, or have someone bail on us the night before the event. Check the site often to ensure the most up-to-date information. Whatever’s on here is law, until we change it!
I found an error on the website! Should I report it?
Yes! While we try to keep the site error free, bugs do slip in from time to time. If you find broken link, mispelled word, or something that looks funky (not including Big Uncle Fuku), contact us immediately at owensanimecon@aol.com. We'll fix the problem ASAP!
I'm feeling nostalgic! Are the 2009, 2010, or 2011 sites still around?
You can find an archived version of the 2009 site here, the 2010 site here, and the 2011 site here. Expect a few broken links as time goes on. Don't ask us to fix these. We don't want to touch these websites unless we get sucked back in time.
What’s the deal with this Big Uncle Fuku guy?
Big Uncle Fuku is a man’s otaku, traveling the country in his semi-truck packed to the bolts with anime merchandise that he takes with him on his travels. No one knows how he can afford all this stuff, since he can’t haul any actual cargo with all of that anime in there. It’s one of the many nerdy mysteries in life, and if you question him, you can expect a monkey wrench upside the head.
Big Uncle Fuku was created by Chris Zasada in 2002, stitched into creation with a fake beard, flannel coat, and a school girl uniform he just happen to have lying around. After having the hat made, Big Uncle Fuku was ready to stomp into the nearest convention.
He made his first stage appearance at Ohayocon 2002 during a very poorly planned cosplay where the only good joke involved Big Uncle Fuku ripping off his bathrobe, revealing his manly attire. At Jafax 2002, he made another appearance in a far better skit involving plastic swords, ninjas, Doug Smith, and toilet hugging. The skit was well received, and won the group a hardy award.
His final stage appearance was at Jafax 2004, where he co-starred in a first-place winning skit where a group of role playing stereotypes took on the executive of 4Kids Entertainment. He since dropped off the face of conventions, making a brief appearance at Anime Central 2006 wearing a bathrobe, but there were no reveals.
In 2008, after plotting out the preliminary details of what is now Glass City Con, Zasada, now the advisor for the Owens Anime Convention, frantically searched for an image of Big Uncle Fuku online while at an impromptu planning session. Hitting pay dirt from a video on YouTube, Zasada pointed to everyone who would listen and informed them this was their mascot.
Artistic duties for turning Big Uncle Fuku into a marketable symbol was placed on Josh Smith’s shoulders, who worked diligently to produce the artwork you see now.
At GarasuNoShiCon 2009, the original Big Uncle Fuku showed up in the middle of opening ceremonies, enraged that we altered his image to make it more appealing. As hosilities rose, the new Big Uncle Fuku stomped on stage and battled it out. The fight continued throughout the convention, until finally MC Natalie had enough and demanded the two call a truce. The truce was quickly broken, however, when new Big Uncle Fuku whacked old Big Uncle Fuku over the head with his trusty hammer and sped off.
GarasuNoShiCon 2010 was declared the battle ground for their final showdown. After posturing at the opening ceremonies, both Fukus greased the palms of attendees with prize money to gain support. The ultimate battle went down after the Cosplay Contest, when both Fukus strode on stage, stared down each other for a brief, tense moment, and commenced their battle using the most ancient of arts: rock, paper, scissors.
Old Big Uncle Fuku came out the victor, and the battle seemed to be over. However, new Big Uncle Fuku challenged him to a battle in Cosplay Arena, and came out victorious. Suddenly at a draw, the two quietly retreated, each vowing a re-match at the next convention.
At Glass City Con III, the con staff was tired of the Fukus fighting on stage, so they arranged to have the fight taken to the digital realm. The two battled in a game of Fuku Fighter II ' Championship Edition, and as new Big Uncle Fuku was about to win, old Big Uncle Fuku angrily slammed the console, crashing the game..
At closing ceremonies, Josh forced a reconciliation between the two, and peace had seemly at last been reached as he pointed out both Fukus had their own place at Glass City Con. That is, until they once again got into a squabble, causing Josh and Natalie to leave in frustration. This was apparently a ruse to get the two MCs out of the spotlight, as it turned out they seemly did form an alliance, at least for now...
I have a question about…
Not that we don’t want to hear from you, but if you have a question about the convention and you haven’t looked through the site, please take a moment to check it out. More than likely you’ll find your answer somewhere around there. If there’s mention of work still being done on the site, check back! Chances are, if it’s not done yet, we don’t know.
However, if something looks missing, or you have any questions or comments, please contact us at owensanimecon@aol.com!
