Anime Expo 2012: Convention Report
Anime Expo this year seemed to fly by! It was my sixth year attending the crazy festivities. The LA Convention Center was overrun with cosplayers, lovers of Anime and the overflow from the X Games. Needless to say, it was a bit crowded inside the convention center and out on the streets.
This year AX turned 21! They celebrated by introducing “Lounge 21,” an area upstairs with live music, DJs and ALCOHOL. It was crowded every night, there were long lines to get your drinks and there was often a line outside waiting to get in. Obviously AX did not anticipate the huge popularity of adding alcohol to an otherwise “dry” convention. Tune In Tokyo, a DJ group, was one of the hosts and they provided cool J-Pop and K-pop sounds to sit back, relax and enjoy a drink to. On Sunday, they hosted a special press concert featuring the high energy band, Apocalipstick (an all girl pop/punk rock band). Hopefully AX will keep ‘Lounge 21’ around and expand it for the increasing number of attendees that are in the 21+ age bracket.
Another example of AX growing up, is the increased number of 18+ adult panels. Last year, was the first year that adult panels made their way into AX and they were well received. In 2011, FAKKU!’s (the largest English speaking hentai, animated porn, website in the world) panel ‘Hentai Worth Watching’ had people lining up early in long lines that extended far further than anticipated. FAKKU! was back again this year with their ‘Hentai Worth Watching’ panel (most of the same material from last year though) so we got in line over an hour and half early but we were still so far back in line that we were put in another waiting room. Luckily we made it in to the panel just fine and had a great time laughing with the FAKKU! guys’ narration of the x-rated stills (they do not show actual video) with our friends and a room packed full of strangers. The overcrowded adult events make it clear that the Anime Expo audience is definitely growing older.
Cosplay is, of course, always a major part of anime conventions and rightfully so. Many cosplayers work on their costumes all year long though some just throw it together at the last minute. However, that is what makes Anime Expo awesome, the amount of people who dress up and how their fellow attendees love and respect those works of art. Some people do dress up at the mega conventions like San Diego Comic-Con but I would say only 40% or so. At Anime Expo, however, it seems more like 70-80% of attendees dress up. Obviously, it is a bit easier to make a school girl uniform than an Iron Man suit, but anime fans generally love their shows so much that they cannot resist dressing up as their favorite characters. It can be fun running into alternate versions of your character outfit (everyone puts a little bit of their own style into their creations). Then there is that moment when someone asks you for your photograph because they like your work so much that they want to document it. It makes you feel so proud of all the effort you put into making something unique.
It felt more crowded this year during the first two days but this might have been a result of the restricted access caused by the nearby X Games. Normally, you can walk outside to get to the other side of the Convention Center, but most of that traffic was blocked off this year. On Monday, however, AX was nearly empty in comparison to the previous few days. This might be due to the fact that the convention went from Friday to Monday this year instead of Thursday to Sunday. It proved to be a good thing if you were lived close by because AX gave out free exhibit hall badges for its final hours of operation. It is always a bit more relaxed on the last day, but I cannot recalled AX ever giving out any types of badges before. It is a good way to bring people in to get a sample of the convention and help the vendors out by bringing in more shoppers.
The panel selections this year were pretty decent. AX continued to provide educational panels such as, ‘Destruction Tokyo’, which focused on why the destruction of Tokyo is so ingrained in the culture’s literature and storytelling. There were also many fan panels which are a wonderful way for people to gather with a shared interest. It is the educational panels, however, that make AX stand out as a convention and give it academic credence.
Those were the positive points on AX, but there is always room for improvement for next year. One of the major downsides to having two conventions at the same time and so close to each other was that the local food establishments could not handle the sheer volume of foot traffic. This is not AX’s fault, but maybe they could consider keeping the convention food courts inside open later. There are many panels that go late into the night and plenty of people milling about to justify the longer hours.
The most frustrating issues this year was the program/mobile online schedule/posted schedule. The program had no descriptions of the panels (they only listed names) and the mobile online either had no information or very little. You had to rely on the name alone when deciding to go to a panel. Also, since there were no descriptions, it was easy to go a panel/event but realize it was the wrong one for you. I was excited to see the Fate/Zero advertisement but I could not tell if it was a movie or just the show. I thought it was a movie, waited over an hour in line, sat down inside only to leave once the host announced they were screening the finale of the series. Whoops! Chocolate Covered Cosplay had a panel that was added last minute, but it was listed at the wrong time (according to one of the panel attendees) on the daily schedule update. So, either there was no information or the information was potentially incorrect. As you can imagine, this can become rather frustrating.
One more aspect AX can improve on relates to the panels. First, they can make sure to schedule at least five minutes in between each panel (they have a mandatory room clear) so that panels do not start late because they could not clear and fill the room in a timely manor. This is especially relevant to the Adult panels because they require an ID check so it takes longer to seat the room. Second, AX needs to learn from their previous years. If a panel was packed full and had overflow, they will be back the next year so maybe they should anticipate needing a bigger room. For example, FAKKU! had too small a room last year and the same thing happened again this year. Finally, AX needs to be more aware of what panels are placed next to each other. One of the late evenings, I was in a relatively quieter panel but the panel next door was insanely loud making it hard to hear.
There are many fabulous new things AX tried this year but there are some areas that they can improve on. I had a marvelous time even with bumps along the way. Another thing I noticed this year personally, was how much anime conventions make and foster friendships. I ran into so many more friends this year than any other year and almost all of those friends I have met at an anime convention. Some argue the smaller cons are better because you see your friends more and they dislike the business/corporate aspect of bigger conventions like Anime Expo. I would argue AX is the perfect blend of friends, cosplay, informative panels, industry insight and is far better organized than the smaller hotel cons.
All pictures in this article belong to Rafael Rodriguez.
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