MechaFest: An Anime Celebration

Robots are taking over ACMI for a weekend festival of classic anime screenings, talks, trivia and cosplay.

A future where our daily lives are intermingled with robots seems closer than ever before. But anime has been exploring robots and our relationships with them since the 1960s.

Early works like Testujin 28-go (Gigantor) and Astro Boy helped to define robotic representations as well as anime story structure itself. These series proved resoundingly popular with western audiences and throughout the 80s, anime grew into a family affair with titles like Voltron becoming stalwarts of the Saturday morning cartoon experience.

The 90s anime boom saw key works like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell reimagining and recontextualising ideas like cybernetic humanism and the concept of the “mecha” – a uniquely Japanese imagining of the (giant) robot. Post-2000 access to anime has only seen its cult popularity grow worldwide.

Join us to welcome our robot overlords over one mega weekend at ACMI. Show off your anime expertise at our trivia night or stomp your mech suit down our cosplay runway. Catch classic anime screenings, sit in on a live recording of the Gateway to Anime podcast, or count down the most iconic moments of Neon Genesis Evangelion with a live panel discussion celebrating its 30th anniversary.