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.
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