With another year comes along another time for North America’s largest anime convention to shine. I’ve been to Anime Expo two times prior to this article, but 2015 proved that the phrase “3rd time’s the charm” is more than just a saying.
To start off I just want to say that I had an amazing time at Anime Expo. The con has always been a treat to go to especially when coming in from across the other side of the country. It’s also great to know that the convention’s efforts to improve themselves are almost always prone to show. For example, the convention has been known to be the biggest “Line Con” out of all the anime conventions in the United States. The registration lines for AX would usually wrap around almost halfway the convention center (which is really large I promise you) and would in result take possibly up to 4-5 hours just to get a badge. However, this year Anime Expo has streamlined their registration process and kept the registration hours open for practically 24 hours. People could actually get their badges in less than 30 minutes! For a convention with almost 100,000 attendees, this a very large accomplishment that they should be proud of.
With a convention with about 90,000 attendees, it’s not surprising to see so many great cosplays from almost every series in existence. I’ve always enjoyed walking around the con and coming across cosplays from series as recent as the current season of anime (like Shokugeki no Soma, FSN/Unlimited Blade Works, Tokyo Ghoul:RE, etc). This is a huge treat for me, since where I’m from the cosplay scene is pretty slow when catching up to newer shows. All of the cosplayers were friendly, looked amazing, and really knew how to have a good time portraying the characters they love. Just coming to the convention for the cosplays by itself almost makes it worth the flight every year.
To tell you the truth, the main reason I really went to the con this year was for the amazing guest line-up. Some of you may or may not know that I’m a huge Type-Moon fan. This includes Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai, and many more of their works. This year the studio team that created the latest Unlimited Blade Works anime, Ufotable, were guests of honors. Not only them, but Ayako Kawasumi, the voice of Saber, made her first US appearance. Being in their presence couldn’t have made me any happier, but when I attended the UBW with them AND musical singers, Aimer and Mashiro Ayano, I could feel myself drowning in bliss. Anime Expo always brought big name guests to the states, but their guest line ups and events this year will always hold a special place in my heart. Hearing Aimer sing Last Stardust right in front of me will always be one of my most treasured memories. Putting my fanatic obsession over Type-Moon, great guests I got to come across included the legendary creator of Higurashi, Ryukishi07, and one of Japan’s biggest idol groups, Momoiro Clover Z. The convention also premiered the English Dub of the DBZ: Resurrection of F, which also had the attendance of the English VAs themselves. It’s definitely an understatement to say that I was busy getting to meet all of these people.
(Autographed goods from the aforementioned guests)
As I said before, my time at the con was an overall great one. I did have issues with how they issued autographs this year since it very well became a line con of it’s own, but I did somehow manage to get all the ones I needed. The 1 ticket per person rule seemed really rough on a person who wanted autographs from multiple guests, but it did prove to be fair for everybody to be able to get the ticket of their choice. Another point to add is that hopefully the convention will be able to fix their crowding problem. It makes sense for problems like these to arise due to their increasing attendee count, but it’d be great for them to open up more parts of the convention center or find more spaces for attendees to traverse. Improving these issues takes time, but with what they’ve done with their registration process, I have no doubts that they’ll be able to solve these issues in the next couple of years. Even though this year may be favorite year of all, I’m sure that my time there next year will still be a blast.
Bulgogi Chan 