Manifest is a not for profit organisation formed by people in the anime and manga community in Victoria. We are all volunteers, and the many hours of work that goes into organising Manifest is done in the spare time of the committee members.

Everyone is welcome to join the Manifest Organising Committee (MOC) for a small annual fee of $10. All we ask from you is dedication, responsibility, a little bit of time, and most important of all, enthusiasm. Simply drop into one of our committee meetings, the details of which will be announced on the front page of the website.

Aims and Objectives

Manifest exists to provide a place for fans of anime to meet and enjoy a common bond, to learn more about various genres of anime, and to expand their knowledge of anime and Japanese culture. It is also an opportunity for those interested, but new to anime to attend Manifest and experience different anime series of new and old, to become acquainted with anime traders for anime merchandise, and to befriend other anime fans.

The purpose of Manifest is to bring new and old anime material to people in a theatre setting, something that is rarely done in Australia except at major and minor film festivals. Manifest also provides other events related to anime, such as Japanese cultural events, anime traders, information panels, costume role-playing (cosplay), and many other events.

Primarily, it's a weekend that is intended to be entertaining and fun to all!

History

In August 1998, the anime clubs of Melbourne and Swinburne universities (WWWA and SAC, respectively) and the Melbourne Anime Society (MAS) staged a fundraising event for the then-new Monash Anime and Comics Club (MACC), featuring six hours of anime and a BBQ lunch. This was such a success that it was repeated in 1999 with the addition of a live band and some cosplay. A number of fans who regularly went overseas to conventions in the USA expressed their interest in seeing something similar in Melbourne. In 2000, the event was christened with a formal name, and expanded to cover the whole weekend. Thus Manifest, the annual Melbourne Anime Festival, was born.

During the wrap-up of Manifest 2000, the four clubs realised that a convention was a good way to bring together the various anime clubs, and keep in touch with each other. Everyone saw it as a great opportunity to bring together the commercial anime industry and vendors with anime fans based in Melbourne and elsewhere around Australia. Other elements that were successful in conventions overseas were incorporated into Manifest. In 2003, along with the four original clubs, we welcomed the La Trobe University anime club (LUNASY) into the fold. As Manifest got bigger, more hands were needed to run it.

The original structure of Manifest meant that only the clubs' representatives could vote at the meetings in financial matters. However, as the size of Manifest and the organising committee increased, people who weren't club representatives became regular faces at meetings. Many of these members had never been part of one of the clubs; Others were ex-committee members from previous years. These people were vital to the running of Manifest, but couldn't vote on some of the matters at the committee meetings.

Because of this situation, the five organising clubs graciously ceded and Manifest took the plunge to dramatically change its constitution, and incorporate. At the start of 2004 Manifest became Melbourne Anime Festival Incorporated, a fully independent body, both financially and organisationally. Now anyone can join Manifest and vote at the committee meetings.

Manifest 2004 showed that there is a huge interest out there in anime, manga and Japanese culture. Despite the committee planning for increased numbers, the participation was so great the we sold every membership that fire and safety limits allowed us to by the end of Saturday.

In 2005, Manifest expanded to include Melbourne University's Wilson Hall, where the ever popular anime traders were placed. Manifest also moved from August to September and went up the Royal Melbourne Show and the AFL Grand Final. Despite this, our attendee numbers increased comfortably from 2004, though we did not hit building capacity. Introduced in cultural events was Taiko Drumming and Ikebana - Japanese war drumming and artistic flower arrangement respectively. AMV also had a new event - AMV Iron Chef, where AMV creators were pitted against each other to create a music video during the weekend featuring the chosen secret anime series.

The year 2006 saw a surge of last minute registration as the date for Manifest that year kept being delayed in announcement due to venue issues. Despite that, by the Sunday morning of that weekend, Manifest has once again reached capacity. The Artist alley and Fan Traders were given the entire section under the Economics and Commerce building as the video gamers were placed in Wilson Hall. Inter-convention relationships were made stronger as part of a cross-convention endevour, the AVCon crew hosted the Trivia night. With the success of the Iron Artist event in Minifest which has just seen its second year running in 2006, it became one of the brand new events to be introduced to the Manifest crowd along with Cosplay Chess and FRUiTS Fashion.

How We Work

The Manifest event is organised by Melbourne Anime Festival Incorporated. Manifest Inc., which is run by the Manifest Organisational Committee (MOC).

The MOC meets on the weekends. For most of the year, there is a ordinary meeting every second week, and an executive meeting once a week. As the Manifest event gets closer, we organise up to one ordinary meeting and one executive meeting a week.

Many of the responsibilities that the MOC members undertake are assigned at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). These include executive positions like the Convenor, Secretary and Treasurer, Whip and Scheduling and Venue Coordinator and elected committee positions like the Publicity Officer, Webmaster and Volunteer's Co-ordinator. Other elected positions, like Cosplay Co-ordinator, Video Games Co-ordinator and Art Co-ordinator are elected in subsequent meetings.

If you are interested in becoming a co-ordinator, please attend one of our meetings.

What can I expect at Manifest?

To get a taste of what the previous years' Manifest experience had been like and anticipate what will happen during this year's Manifest; take a peek at the Manifest 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000 web pages. There are also photos from Manifest 2002, taken and compiled by various attendees over the three years.