Anime Expo kicked off its 22nd year at the Los Angeles Convention Center with its largest attendance to date: 61, 000 unique attendees and 161,000 turnstile attendance. With AX offering new features and exciting guests that entice more convention goers each year, I have no qualms in dubbing Anime Expo the “Comic-Con” of everything Japanese manga and animation. Check out my overall run down on the brilliant and the could-be-better’s at AX after the jump.
The Brilliant
It’s been three years since I attended AX at the L.A. Convention Center and 2013 introduced a lot of new improvements since my last visit. The Entertainment Hall was hands down my favorite new feature at AX. First and foremost, you cannot believe just how much wide space was designated for all your gaming needs. There were sections specifically for tabletop gaming, console gaming which housed classic and next-gen systems (Watch out for the cosplay X-Box Kinect players~), TWO huge projectors for console tournaments, and a wide back area for all your arcade needs. Also, don’t forget the amazing “Fate/Zero” charity mural done by the Chalk Twins. For the completed photo, click here

In addition, the crowd favorite of the year was definitely the cosplay sets. Whoever came up with this concept deserves all their favorite sweets and a multitude of hugs. You have no idea just how much fun even non-cosplayers had taking photos in those sets, especially the classroom and the temple cherry blossoms. I really hope they expand on this concept next year; and if and when they do, I highly suggest you guys to get there super early so as to not get in the way of the professional cosplayers and photography shoots that seemed to happen all at once in the late afternoon. To check out more footage of the cosplay sets, check out Gigaventure’s AX adventure on their YouTube channel

The AMV Contest is one that is near and dear to my heart. It was the first event I attended at my very first AX back in 2004 and introduced me to the world of anime music videos. So, fast forward to 2013, and I am in the Main Event Hall at the tail end of a very long Day One and I feel like I am watching a theatrical film. I was also impressed with the ballot system. Upon entry, everyone received a list of contest entries with the video’s name and creator printed on some quality card stock, and had a tear away ballot with boxes for category votes and numbers “P” for Parody/Trailer; “D” for Drama, “A” for Action/Adventure, etc. You also get to keep that long list, just in case you want to follow up with your favorites. This year, they even split the Drama category into Drama / Theatric and Romance / Sentiment. It definitely broke down the normally long list of Drama AMVs. I also highly suggest attendees to take their seats early as even the pre-show is something not to be missed, as it highlights past winners with as much depth and quality as current contestants. Finally, it also goes without saying that the quality of anime music videos has risen exponentially since my first introduction to the genre and I couldn’t be more excited. Check out the list of 2013 contestants and you can check them out at animemusicvideos.org.

Hands-down, Lounge 21, sponsored by Cosplay Deviants, was one of my favorite places to relax. It’s exactly what you think: a lounge area filled with low and comfortable couches where you can sip on beverages, alcoholic or otherwise. Granted, it will cost one at least $8.00 per drink. However, keep in mind you are in the middle of Downtown Los Angeles and at a special event. These prices shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with city lounge nightlife.

Side note: it also never hurts to make friends with the intrepid bartenders manning the lounge. You will find some are more inclined to be heavy handed with their pours when you’re honestly nice and tip them for their hard work. Lastly, if you own a smartphone, do install the Guidebook app for Anime Expo. You will get updated schedules for each day as well as policies, general information, and maps to where you want go. You can also customize your own AX schedule. I highly recommend it as it’ll also make one less large item to carry around as you go through the convention.

The Could-Be-Better
Disclaimer: I am not the type of person who will go out of their way to say something negative about an experience or a person. Life is too damn short to be That Person. Moreover, anything I say in this section is my own personal experience and preferences and do not necessarily reflect the whole of Henshin Justice Unlimited, its owner, or its other Team Members.

With that out of the way,  Anime Expo is the largest anime and manga convention in North America. Just take a look at the official staff list in the AX program and see just how much many people it takes to run AX, not including volunteers. In addition, you’re also talking about people who often work for free, all for the love of this particular fandom. So, yes; I completely understand there will be some miscommunication when it comes to the numerous staff members.

So, with that said, I do hope communication between access staff members to be even smoother next year. Unfortunately, at one high interest panel, the priority line for Press, Industry, and Premiere Passes was completely forgotten by staff members when they opened the doors to the general attendees and missed out on preferred seating. However, I mostly felt disheartened by the handful of obviously frazzled staff members in the panel rooms, who not only had to deal with safely guiding lines to two or more high interest panels happening in adjacent locations, but also deal with general questions from on-coming attendees. Yes, I did see some questions answered very shortly, as some Staff needed to prioritize swiftness and safety over customer service. As someone who works a customer service job on a daily basis, I really, really feel for the Staff at AX and applaud them for their hard work.

So, even as someone who did have one minor not-so-great experience with panel access, I think it’s best for general attendees to keep in mind that general staff members may be volunteers and doing at least three different jobs, handling three different crowds of people at any given time. Cut them some slack, relax, and have alternatives to any plans you may have. If one does have a very specific problem, it would be best to talk to Convention Operations who handle many things with poise and swiftness.

Lastly, and really just an aside, I absolutely loved the all day designated AMV viewing room. It was like watching an AMV cable channel; like MTV, when, you know, MTV still showed music videos. 2013 was its first year, so I understand housing it in a relatively small room. Therefore, considering the amount of interest it generated, and just how many people they had to turn away due to capacity, it’d be really great to have the AMV viewing room in a much larger space.

In Conclusion (and some tips)
I cannot stress enough, if you’re able to, come for Day Zero to pick up your badges and take a preliminary look around the Convention Center. I highly recommend finding the back alleyways between the West Hall and South Hall.

These back routes are outdoors, wide, and contain hardly any people (well, once the Exhibit Hall lines get inside). The alternative routes between the South and West Halls will save you a lot of unnecessary claustrophobic walking through the Concourse Hall. Speaking of the Concourse Hallway, despite how crowded it can be, if you stay on the sidelines, you can get a nice view of people watching. It does go without saying that if you are going to take pictures of a cosplay, please take it aside as not to cause a traffic jam. Also, if you want more a more aerial view for your people watching, there are plenty of areas on the second floor of the West Hall containing glass railways that will allow you to look down at the people below. As a general warning to those who wear skirts, do watch out for anyone taking an upskirt shot.

On that note, do watch out for each other and stay safe. If you find any behavior that makes you uncomfortable, or see any behavior making another person comfortable, be firm and make it clear the behavior is unacceptable. If it does escalate, please bring it to the attention of security and staff members. Keeping fandoms open and safe for everyone is our responsibility, guys.

I did manage to capture some more fun cosplays while roaming around, so do check those out below. (PS. I wasn’t always able to get the cosplayer’s name to be credited, so if you or someone you know is on here, please contact me so I can probably credit your hard work!)

Overall, I highly recommend the Anime Expo experience to any fan of anime and manga, at least once. It is immensely overwhelming, so it’s best to plan ahead to where you want to go and what you want to experience. It’s also important to relax and allow alternatives to those plans, as they may (and probably will) fall through; but there really is always something fun to do at AX.

Also, Los Angeles is a really big city with plenty to do outside AX. Do take the time to look up things off the beaten path outside of Hollywood and other ‘tourist’ areas. If you can, hit up friends off and online who live in the area to recommend places to go. You may find your Anime Expo and Los Angeles trip experience to be much, much better.

If you haven’t done so already, you can check out my recommendations, parking tips, and other adventures I went on Day One, Day Two, and Day Three of AX that I didn’t cover here.

If you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns, do hit me up on the Twitters @angelicnoir or my personal website www.angelicnoir.com. See you guys at Comic Con!