Tomo-Dachi was an

anime convention An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activ ...

based in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Starting in the summer of 2005, Tomo-Dachi was the first

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

convention to run in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The original venue was The Nerve Centre, on Magazine Street in the city centre of

. Tomo-Dachi, also known as TDXX (the "XX" is replaced by the year - such as TD05, TD06, etc.) is now held annually at the

Magee College The Ulster University Magee campus is one of the four campuses of Ulster University. It is located in Derry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland and opened in 1865 as a Presbyterian Christian arts and Seminary, theological college. Since 1953, i ...

of the

University of Ulster sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

. The name of the event comes from the word , which means "friends" in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

History

In 2004 when the original Tomo-dachi committee was formed there had never been an anime convention held anywhere in Ireland, north or south of the border. The announcement and run up to the first outing of the anime convention was reported in multiple local and national based papers including the

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media. Its editor is Eoin Brannigan. Reflecting its unionist tradition, the paper has historically been "favoured by the Protestant po ...

The News Letter The ''News Letter'' is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in 1737. The newspape ...

and the

Daily Ireland ''Daily Ireland'' was an Irish daily newspaper which existed from January 2005 to September 2006 to cover news stories from an Irish republican viewpoint. It was linked to the Belfast local newspaper, the ''Andersonstown News''. In September 20 ...

Tomo-Dachi 2005

Tomo-Dachi 2005 (or TD05 for short) was held in August 2005. It was the first anime convention to be held on the Island of Ireland, and was operated and run by DAMA, the Derry Anime and Manga Association. The one-day event attracted 83 people.

Location & Details

TD05 took place at the

Nerve Centre Nerve Centre is Northern Ireland's leading creative media arts centre. It was established in 1990 in Derry, Northern Ireland to provide a creative outlet for youth culture and the many young people who feel excluded from the "arts sector". By b ...

, a public entertainment venue in Derry based in the city centre, and the convention made use of its unique facilities. This was venue where the Derry Anime and Manga Association held their meetings. The one-day convention was made up of multiple areas. One screening room, that being an actual

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...

. The event also held Northern Ireland's first Anime Convention Cosplay Contest, which was won by Ryan McDermott.

Tomo-Dachi 2006

The plans for the following year's event included a change of venue and lengthening Tomo-Dachi into a three days event. The convention took place on the weekend of July 7, 2006.

Guests

The convention was attended by several guests, most notably Ms

Tiffany Grant Tiffany Lynn Grant (born October 11, 1968) is an American voice actress and script writer who is known for her English-dubbing work for ADV Films on such anime films and television series as ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', in which she voiced the cha ...

and Mr

Matt Greenfield Matthew Brian Greenfield (born January 12, 1965) is an American producer, scriptwriter, director and voice actor best known for his work in producing the English-language versions of many popular Japanese anime, most notably ''Neon Genesis Evang ...

in their first ever convention visit in Europe. They were joined by

Hugh David Hugh David (17 July 1925 – 11 September 1987) was a British actor turned television director. David was born in Aberystwyth, Wales. His directorial credits include ''Compact'', ''Z-Cars'', '' The Pallisers'' and ''Doctor Who'', for which h ...

of ADV films UK,

Sonia Leong Sonia Leong (born 7 May 1982) is a British freelance comic artist, illustrator and member of Sweatdrop Studios. Biography Leong was born in Malaysia and lived in Thailand from 1989 to 2000. She then attended University of Warwick, Economics a ...

and

Emma Vieceli Emma Vieceli is a British comic book artist and writer. After being a hobbyist at Sweatdrop Studios, she began freelancing professionally as an artist on SelfMadeHero's ''Manga Shakespeare: Hamlet'' adaptation in 2007. Her subsequent artist wor ...

both of Sweatdrop Manga Studios.

Location & Details

TD06 was held at

, part of the

. The campus was fully renovated prior to the event, With classrooms converted into gaming rooms, screening rooms, an artists alley and a Manga library. TD06 was a three-day convention and offered special events, panels, industry information, dealers and more. Over the weekend it was attended by just over 200 people from Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Tomo-Dachi 2007

Tomo-Dachi 2007 was held on the weekend starting August 24. The first guest announced for the convention was Guest of Honour

Mike McFarland Michael McFarland is an American voice actor and ADR director who works on English dubs of Japanese anime at Funimation. He is known as the original English voice of Master Roshi and Yajirobe in Funimation's dubs of ''Dragon Ball'' and ''Dragon ...

, voice actor and director for

FUNimation Entertainment Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

. Other guests include Stuart Claw and

hosts of the UK's

Anime Network Anime Network is an American video on demand (VOD) network dedicated to anime owned by AMC Networks. History The network was launched in North America in late 2002 and is marketed to multi system operators (MSOs) as both a free and subscript ...

, Manga artist and

representative of

ADV Films A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Gre ...

References

External links

*{{AnimeCons con, id=1150, name=Tomo-Dachi, year=2007 Defunct anime conventions Recurring events established in 2005 Recurring events disestablished in 2007