Welcome to Los Angeles, the biggest city in the USA that I can drive through at full tilt. It’s also home to the 19th year of Anime Expo, the biggest anime convention in the United States. Last year they brought in 44,000 unique fans over the course of 4 days. This year they’re back at the Los Angeles Convention Center, with events in the nearby Nokia Theater, Plaza, JW Marriot, and Club Nokia. The convention boasted a wide variety of Japanese and American guests, events, panels, and dealers.
Anime Expo typically offers the most industry guests and events of US conventions, as it is mostly industry supported as opposed to fan run conventions. Many US market companies also make announcements during the convention. 2010 is also the first year since Michael Lattanzio was hired as the CEO of the Anime Expo head organization Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). Attendance suggests this is also the first year since 1993 that the California event has failed to grow. Anime Expo did not release a unique count for 2010, only a turnstile count (4 day pass = 4 people) of 105,000.

Yui Horie, Eri Kitamura & NIS America
NIS America, subsidary of Nippon Ichi Software (of Disgaea fame), recently dove into licensing anime. Their first title is Toradora and they were promoting in full force at Anime Expo. They brought both Yui Horie and Eri Kitamura over and hosted 3 panels. Yui Horie is best known as Naru from Love Hina, Ayu of Kanon, Hanyuu in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai and of course Minori in Toradora. Eri Kitamura seems to be growing in popularity quickly and has played Rin of Kodomo no Jikan, Makoto in Idolmaster: Xenoglossia, Ami in Toradora and more recently Yui in Angel Beats.
Horie and Kitamura both had panels in addition to a Toradora panel; however each panel seemed to be a bonus Toradora panel. Kitamura’s was normal enough until they asked that attendees refrain from asking questions unrelated to Toradora. Then later when Horie’s panel came along, a quarter of the time was lost to delays, half was dedicated to showing Toradora episode 1, and the remaining 12 minutes or so went to prescreened questions. No questions were taken from audience members for Yui Horie. In addition, many con attendees were informed that panel attendees would receive tickets for priority in lining up for the autograph sessions that followed the panels. There seemed to be no distribution of any tickets after the panel. However, these guests stayed a bit later for their autograph sessions than originally planned.
A press conference with both Eri Kitamura and Yui Horie was held Saturday. The small room, with equally small attendance, made for a rather personal atmosphere. Everyone was given a chance to ask their questions. This was an opportunity to ask questions and make up for the previous panels.
Eri Kitamura Panel Transcript
Yui Horie Panel Transcript
Press Conference Transcript

MangaGamer
Of course it’s easier to complain than compliment. Still, despite issues, MangaGamer’s panel was one of the stealthy highlights of Anime Expo. It had its issues as well, a lack of translation ability held them up a bit during the discussion segment, but it worked out and the laid back atmosphere brought out a lot of entertainment. The Japanese guests, such as artist Shinji Katakura and Overdrive president Bamboo were quite humorous. By the end the room remained rather full of enthusiastic fans, to the point where attendees requested they raffle off the box from which they drew raffle tickets. Not to mention, they put on mini live shows during the panel, bringing the otagei out of the audience.


Photo by Cyanoacry & Agilis

They also announced the latest Higurashi chapter, Matsuribayashi, which is available now. As well as De Capo: Innocent Finale, De Capo II, Koihime Musou, and Dear Drops. Finally, they announced Overdrive is producing an exclusive visual novel for the English community on their behalf. The game was likened to a digital study abroad, which they hope to have available for sale at Anime Expo 2011.
The panel was actually just a fraction of the activities MangaGamer led at Anime Expo. They invited many other guests from Japanese game companies Overdrive, Circus, Age, and Frontwing. Singers UR@N, Kase Aina, and rino (CooRie) performed several concerts over the course of Friday and Saturday at their booth in the exibit hall. Artists from the individual companies were at the booths most of the weekend for sketches. In addition, they also brought Hobibox out who resold various goods such as the newly released Super Shot 2 album, a bishoujo game remix collection. Hobibox also had some interesting School Days goods for sale and a display of the “English trial” of Summer Days (School Days sequel). The trial was originally distributed as an April Fools joke, but rumor has it an official English release is being contemplated.
MangaGamer Panel Transcript
Panel Photos by Cyanoacry
MangaGamer Homepage

Staff
I have a lot of respect for the people who work to bring these conventions together and keep them running. Most of the staff I encountered over the course of the con tried their best to be helpful and usually addressed people with respect. For example, you would think event staff would tire of badge checking photographers in the audience. Many events prohibited non-press photography. I was asked to show my badge numerous times but I wasn’t treated rudely and even got apologizes for the interruptions.
On the other hand there are always going to be short comings. Event staff for a concert informed me that I would have to shoot from my seat but I later learned some press, other than the Anime Expo crew, were allowed to shoot from the floor up front. Most annoying was the convention center staff, who were more often than not rude. They would randomly forbid sitting almost anywhere that wasn’t an actual seat for reasons of fire hazard. An out of the way wall, in a quiet area of the con center, recessed from any possible traffic path shouldn’t be a fire hazard. It should have been obvious in planning that there would be many people trying to sit or gather in places. Not to mention being repeatedly told to move, after only getting seated, would agitate many people. Signs would have gone a long way towards keeping people happy and more efficient staffing.
In January, four of the seven Anime Expo division managers publically resigned over decisions the board was making. As I wasn’t in attendance in 2009, I can’t speculate over a direct impact. However, such a large change in management shouldn’t be quickly dismissed.

Vocaloid: The Sound of the Future 2010 Panel
I heard good things about the Vocaloid panel at Anime Expo 2009. The same crew returned to present Vocaloid: The Sound of the Future 2010. I wasn’t in attendance at 2009, but 2010 showed a lot of promise. Unfortunately, technical issues kept the panel from starting on time. Audio from their computer didn’t want to cooperate with the house equipment and the translator’s microphone was tough to hear. As a result, they ran out of time and AX staff had to cut them off before the raffle or questions. Still, they showed off an original opening PV for the panel. Personal messages from Japanese artists for the fans at the panel were a nice touch. I hope they return with things in order for 2011.
The majority of the audience seemed to stick through the issues. They collected many surveys at the end of the panel with input for their panel and fans knowledge of Vocaloid. Personally, it’s always nice to find good music I miss. I picked up a few new favorites from the PVs shown at the panel. Mr. Circus by Swing Holic with a PV by Hazumu Sakuta; Tower by Eshijanai-KEI, PV by tsukimido; and Suteneko Russian Blue by SHUN & Mucchi (sorry the PV author is unknown).
AX Forums Thread
Panel Homepage

Cosplay
Trips to the west coast generally leave me inspired by the diversity and freshness of Cosplay. Anime Expo was no exception! This year at least half a dozen Angel Beats cosplayers were running around. Touhou and Vocaloid, some of my favorite niches were in full force as expected. I can’t exactly call them niches anymore as I’ve started seeing them in the smallest east coast events. While I’m at it: a shout out to the Cirno whom first I saw at Anime Central, the strongest Cirno. The May’n & Megumi Nakajima concert had at least 10 Macross Frontier cosplayers infront of me. I saw more Vocaloid cosplayers scattered about than I could count. There was even a little Ayu (Kanon) cosplayer running around, surely hunting for a taiyaki stall.

Concerts
Speaking of concerts, Anime Expo held quite a few at the Nokia Theater. In addition to May’n & Megumi Nakajima there was AKB48, MELL, and Sophia. Except, to make up for it they were charging $15 to $30 for tickets (depending on full weekend registration). I can’t comment much on that, I don’t know if AX charged for tickets to concerts and masquerade in the past. I feel the masquerade should be free, but if the concerts were free they would be filled with all the bored fans who want to get the most out of their tickets, rather than fans.
I went to the Megumi Nakajima and May’n concert, or Macross Frontier concert for short. There were lots of excited fans with glow sticks in hand. This was a great venue but the performance they put on was nothing short of awesome. Yoko Kanno made a surprise appearance and convinced me to switch to Nikon. At the beginning of the concert my Canon camera actually died. It’s still in repair now. Yoko Kanno was awesome though, she can be described by nothing less. If you missed this, I’m sorry. For me, at least I wasn’t as distracted by taking photos.

Hardcore Synergy
Friday night, the alleyways behind the Nokia Plaza were alive with the some of best names in Japanese Hardcore. Hardcore Synergy, care of mydjsobad.com, brought REDALiCE, M-Project, and DJ Amaya among other popular names to Anime Expo. Hardcore Synergy introduced many American fans to these styles at Anime Central, following what started with the Soapbubble in 2007. Club Nokia hosted the event for Anime Expo, which was definitely the best venue of any con I’ve attended for an event like this. The crowd kept up with the event late unto the night, definitely a success for this style in California. During the REDALiCE set, there were plenty Touhou tracks and cosplayers. I came to AX for Yui Horie, but if Hardcore Synergy returns in 2011, there is my excuse to go again.
mydjsobad.com has a nearly 30 minute sampler clip of the tastes of Hardcore Synergy.
Video Clip from Bad Apple during REDALiCE set

Wrap up
I had fun at AX, and despite the disappointment of camera failure, I wasn’t let down after flying cross-country to attend. It has a bit of west coast charm and the weather was a lot nicer than what I am expecting for Otakon. Too early to say if I’ll be back next year, but if they keep the temptations coming then I won’t have much choice. I got a chance to meet some of the encubed staff, MangaGamer staff and guests, and many others. Those of you mentioned above for lending me photos, etc. You know who you are. Thanks for taking it easy!

I picked up quite a bit of loot too. I bought too much but I needed an outlet for my camera rage. Sorry for the camera quality, like some of the photos in the gallery (again, sorry!) Nexus One camera phone. Great phone, but like all camera phones, low light performance is quite mediocre. Anyways: Little Busters doujinshi and Chibi-Miku-san from HenDaNe, MangaGamer’s KiraKira and Higurashi and extras like T-Shirt + Mousepad + DearDrops books, Cross Days pillow + phone strap and Super Shot 2 + DJ Shimamura’s Essential Works from Hobibox, Hardcore Syndrome 2 and Loungesta Session:01 from mydjsobad.com, GIFT’s Marisa puppet and Maikaze from Toylet, and several prints from artists alley. Finally, the Ayu sketch in the middle should look familar. It’s from RyuMoto at NYAF ’09, but I got it signed by Yui Horie. :)

MisuzuLive Gallery
Thanks to Kyosuke for helping with photos and gear after my camera died early Friday.