Anime Expo 2017 has come and gone.  The crowds have dispersed, the booths packed up, and the wonderful cosplays packed up until next year.  This was my first time going to anime expo.  Here are my pros and cons for this convention.

I’ve have always been a huge fan of anime, and lately I have been attending more and more conventions mainly San Diego Comic Con and Wondercon.  Every convention  is a little different and has its own flaws and triumphs.  So it was only a matter of time that I made it to Anime Expo which is the largest anime convention in North America.¹

Luckily, I did not go alone, but went with a veteran Anime expo fan.  And what an experience we had.  Now this is only based off of my personal opinion and I only went for one day.  I did not experience the full four day anime explosion as most people did.  I do have my fair share of convention experience after going a few years to SDCC.

Tickets

So this convention was definitely much easier to get tickets for than San Diego Comic-Con, and did not sell out in the first fifteen minutes of going on sale.  In fact, I think I could have bought tickets the day of which is how SDCC used to be like before it exploded (I blame that damn Twilight phenomenon).  Overall, the ticket buying process was easy enough especially for those who may not be used to going to conventions.  There was no waiting anxiously as you hope to get into the purchasing room to, hopefully, buy a four day pass as it is for Comic-Con.

And the ticket prices were so much more affordable.  You could go for four days for $90 or choose one day for $55.  That is only the price I saw when I got my tickets which was really close to when Anime Expo was about to take place.  The tickets are cheaper if you purchase them much earlier.  This convention is definitely easier on the wallet.

LA Convention Center

The Los Angeles Convention center definitely has a lot of room to accommodate the large crowds and I also liked that they had many amenities inside the convention center like several food areas and places to charge your phone.  The large space allowed for more vendors and displays as well as large areas for cosplayers to hang out and take pictures.

The downside of the LA convention center is that because it is a huge space means that it can be confusing when trying to navigate the convention center (unless you are fortunate like me to have someone who is a veteran).  That is not too big of a downside though.  I think the biggest downside was the parking.  Parking for any convention can be nightmarish and this was no different.  Sure there are parking structures around the convention center, but none too close and the neighborhood is not the best to walk in if you are a girl and it is late at night.

Overall though I thought the LA convention center was a nice spot for a convention.

Organization

I definitely think one of the biggest cons for this convention was the organization.  I felt like they just didn’t have a full grasp on how to handle crowds of that size.  Now I went through a similar experience at Comic-Con.  Comic-Con also had to adjust quickly on how to handle big crowds especially with the smaller convention center space in San Diego, but I think Anime expo could use some of their techniques.

Comic-Con (San Diego Comic Convention) and Wonder-con have badges that you swipe in and out of convention halls.  Now while this may slow things down a bit, it does allow them to know a little better how many people are where and control where people go.  This method seems to work fine for Comic-Con, but it may not be used at Anime expo because it may slow things down.

I also felt there was no clear directive to the volunteers on what was going on.  There were three examples of this.  The first was when we were lining up to pick up our badges.  They had everyone follow tape on the ground in very narrow lanes.  Now if you were like me with a bulky costume, it is not an easy feat not to hit people.  I think they should have made the lanes bigger and used actual rope to clearly delineate where people were to stand.  I think it would also alleviate the stress that the volunteers had in keeping everyone lined up.  Now I will say that my badge pickup line moved really quickly, so they definitely had a fast moving system in that aspect.

Another example where organization could have been better was when my friend and I were looking for the room that played a certain anime movie.  We got lost and came to the wrong room, but we were willing to go into that anime room.  As we were waiting to see if we can get in, there seemed to be some confusion where some event staffers sent groups of people to go into the room while there seemed to be a separate line forming for the room in a different spot.  The staffers were not quite sure what was going on and where the line started.  I am not by any means speaking badly about the volunteers.  If anything, I felt bad for them because I could feel their frustration in the lack of communication going on and the subsequent backlash by angry congoers.  Needless to say that we did not get into that room and moved on.

The last example of disorganization was at the masquerade.  My cosplay had a huge prop weapon and  when I entered the hall with my prop weapon, I realized there was no good place to put it.  I asked a staffer if I could lean it on the wall as to not obstruct anyone’s view.  The staffer was really nice, but it seemed I was supposed to have my prop checked at a different station and that I wasn’t supposed to be allowed into the hall in the first place before doing that.  The staffer unfortunately did not know where that checkin station was.  They did allow me to put my prop weapon in a place where wheelchairs were parked.

Overall, I do think the staffers were really nice though I could feel how frustrated and flustered they were.  I think if anime expo could get a little more organized and have clear communication between the staffers, it would make their job so much easier to do.  Comic-Con went through the same growing pain as a convention, but they streamlined how they dealt with the long lines and I think anime expo will be able to do the same.

Cosplay

This was definitely my favorite part about this convention.  Most conventions I have been to I would say maybe half the people are dressed up.  At anime expo, I felt like 3/4 of the people who went were in some sort of cosplay, and it was really an eclectic mixture of cosplay.  Most were from anime or games as to be expected, but I also saw some cosplay from other fandoms like Game of Thrones and Stranger Things.

And there was some really elaborate and beautiful cosplay out there.  I was really impressed with the time and effort that people put into their cosplay.  And everyone seemed to be very friendly towards each other because we were all here for the same love of anime.  I saw a lot of cosplay meet ups and group cosplays.

Persona 5

Hellsing

Now this also is extended towards the Masquerade.  The Masquerade is a show of skits put on by cosplayers.  All the cosplay in the skits were amazing, and, though some of the performances were not my favorite, I do applaud them for getting up on that stage and doing it. Unfortunately, we did not stay for the entire masquerade.  We stayed until the half-time show.  The ones that stood out to me as being hits was a Steve Jobs skit which was super funny, a legend of Korra skit which was beautifully choreographed and a skit where the girl was mirroring her true side of herself in a mirror which had a wonderful message.  Unfortunately, we were so tired we could not stay for the second half.

Schedule

The masquerade was the highlight on the day I went as well as a handful of panels.  Unfortunately, there was not as many cool panels to see that I was really interested in.  The panel and event I was saddened to hear did not fall on the day I went was the panel for the live action Fullmetal Alchemist movie with the cast and the AMV awards.  There were about two panels that my friend and I wanted to see on the day we went (the making of Studio Ghibli and the viewing of a new anime movie).  Unfortunately, we could not get into either even though for one of them we were an hour and a half early in order to get in. Getting to a line that was cut off for space seemed to be what we were running into.

So though the LA Convention center as a whole is bigger, the rooms where events and panels are held are not as far as I can gage.  Again, I only went to Anime Expo for one day, and never managed to actually get into a panel so I can not fairly compare the size of the rooms with other convention centers.  I kind of wished that there were more interesting panels or a way to have the popular panels in a bigger space.

Security

Now security was a definite positive.  With the uncertain world that we live in, tighter security is now a necessity at a big convention.  And Anime Expo definitely had it in spades.  To enter the convention center, each person had to go through a metal detector, and bags were checked.  All prop weapons were checked outside and tagged.  I saw a handful of police officers patrolling the halls as well as police dogs.  I did feel safer seeing this heightened security and I do appreciate the lengths that Anime Expo went to ensure people’s safety.

Ultimately, I definitely had fun and really enjoyed the experience of Anime Expo.  Though there were some cons to the convention, I think there are things that can be ironed out in coming years as this convention is sure to expand even more than it has.  Would I go back?  Definitely.  It was an experience that I would encourage people to try out at least once.

1.) animecons.com article