ANIME EXPO 2015

Guys, I think I have a favorite convention. Yes, out of all the events I've been to that is nerdy and geeky, Anime Expo has absolutely won my heart. I enjoyed every single day, every second of it. °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

At first, I was kind of hesitant because my scope of anime is more of the older ones, classics to the early 2010s. I know nothing of the on-going and newer ones. My preferences are slice-of-life and music anime. I've watched my share of long-runners such as Yuyu Hakusho, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Rurouni Kenshin. I was a kid when Sailormoon R was released. And having a Japanese aunt meant that I had a Sailormoon related gift every Christmas until I was old enough to braid my own hair. I played and enjoyed video games and JRPGs. I felt I could keep up with it but at the same time, what about the newer crowd?



Turns out, it was not a problem. The anime community is the nicest, most passionate, and welcoming community ever. There was no judgment. So much love and acceptance. It doesn't matter if you put all your time and effort into a costume that you made yourself vs someone you bought off the shelf. I've been ridiculous fat and hairy males dressed up as Sailormoon or Velma from Scooby Doo. It doesn't have to be an anime or cartoon... a good chunk was dressed as Marvel characters especially Captain America on 4th of July. Some of us didn't even bother with costumes or anime-related apparel. But everyone had smiles and excitement. I loved the energy coming from every person on that floor.

DAY ONE

My brother and I got 4-day passes. Whoa. FOUR DAYS. I originally planned to skip Thursday because I had work. I'm off Fridays so that wasn't a problem. But I didn't want to waste a day so I pulled a half-day at work and started my Anime Expo experience. The line to get the badges was non-existent and the push of the Thursday crowd wasn't so bad... yet.

And it definitely was the right choice. It was more overwhelming than any convention, concert, event that I've been to in the past. It's not the volume of people or the cosplayers, it's the vastness of what was there to see. Toys, artwork, videos, random stuff, shiny things, freebies. And of course, the very many people in and out of costume. Let me just say this again, cosplayers rock. It was 80 something degrees all four days and people were walking around in coats, wigs, full body cardboard costumes, wings, headpieces, masks, full face makeup, robes, tentacles, tails, onesies, leather, toting around weapons, shields, stuffed toys, and all the swag that they bought. I can't imagine being under the sun with a heavy wig on your head while waiting for your food at the food trucks. Hats off to you guys. Hopefully, I can join you in your pain next year.

We got there at around 2pm-ish on Thursday. It was 2-3 hours before closing, I believe. We got food and then decided to check out the exhibit floor. Closing time came and we were still just about halfway done. We had one more half and the rest of Artist Alley AND the whole other wing to explore. Towards the last 30 minutes, we just hit the specific places we wanted that were located in the other side, specifically the Capcom and Rice Digital booths.

If you're looking for cosplayers, the lobby is where it's at. But I did find a cosplayer on the exhibit floor so good, I just had to take a photo with him. I'm a huge fan of Fullmetal Alchemist and I flipped when I saw this awesome Major Alex Louis Armstrong cosplay! ∩(︶▽︶)∩

I don't take pictures with people a lot nor do I care for autographs. But when I see something that impresses me, I want to be in the photo and I will ask for your autograph. (More on that later.) There was another Alex Louis Armstrong cosplayer who was equally impressive but he was shirtless so I felt a wee bit awkward. ;-)

It was surprising that on day one, we already blew through our budget. The only merch that I buy at conventions are art books. And Funko toys if I see something rare and interesting. But art books, always.

We managed to check out one panel on Day One. And yes, it's the academic panel, Anime & Manga in the Classroom. Apparently, that's a new thing here in the States. I don't know about you but growing up in Asia, I had some awesome teachers and professors who knew about anime as much or more than I did. I would get anime character names in my word problems or photos of them in presentations. I once submitted a project about anime in my grade school years. I would LOVE to have a program dedicated to anime and manga. It's amusing to see Westerners talking about it and trying to pronounce Japanese as best as they could. There were some parts of the panel that I disagreed on but then again, I come from a native Asian perspective and she does not. Overall, it was an interesting panel and it made me want to go back to school just so I can check out manga and anime and getting graded for it.


I was so ready for Day Two. Our first full-ish day at the Expo. We didn't have anything planned except for the Voice Actors panel. There was one every day, I think. And boy, we struck gold attending this particular panel. I'll get to that in a bit.

DAY TWO

So we went through the rest of the exhibit floor the morning of day two. By the time we got done, it was lunchtime. Food trucks are one of the reasons why I love these events. They are expensive and not always worth it but I just love food trucks. And whenever White Rabbit is in town, their tocino rice bowl is a must have. For my brother, it's Jogasaki.

Like I said, I don't go all out on cosplay but to go with the flow, I make an effort. In every con that I go to, I wear my Disney tights from Hot Topic. I'm surprised that I've yet to see somebody else wear them. Every time I wear mine, I get no less than 5 people come up to me asking if they're stockings or "did you really do that to yourself?" Meaning, are they tattoos? (=^▽^=)


I pulled out Alice this time. Snow White was getting a lot of appearances. I love these things. I plan to get backups of them. I've had people take pictures, touch them, applaud. Those things make me feel great. I can only imagine how it feels for cosplayers, being recognized for their effort.

Our one panel of the day, like I mentioned above, was Inside the Voice Actor Studio. I freakin' LOVE voice actors. It gives me a kick when I start to recognize voices from different shows and games. We were so lucky that we picked this day for this panel because they had Todd Haberkorn on the panel. My goodness... Death the Kid from Souleater, Ling Yao from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Firo from Baccano!... and I'm sure many more if I watched more dubbed anime. It was so trippy hearing him talk, seeing a face with a name but when I close my eyes, I picture Ling Yao instead. (′ʘ⌄ʘ‵)


This was the most fascinating panel ever. To see how voice acting works out... they did a demo using people from the audience. It was so awesome to watch. And I love how serious and professional Todd was even though it was just a demo. He coached the participants and it brought out the best in them. It was a beautiful thing.

(Also, I saw some... things... that made me think that I'm not so bad after all. My fangirling might be over the top for some but there are definitely worse people that me. It's a good feeling yet incredibly sad at the same time. Hehehe, peace!)


Day 2 was also the day when I saw the most awkward thing in the world. So... the exhibit hall was closed so we moved to the grounds. We decided to just hangout and look at cosplayers. Then we happened to come across these bunch of Chinese ladies in idol/maid costume and it looked like they were filming a music video. I never actually found out what was going on but like fools, we stayed until they were done filming. Some of them were rehearsing, eating, chatting... then dancing to a song that we could barely hear. None of them could dance well and it was just so awkward to watch each of them. We planned to head home after they were done but our ride wouldn't be until hours later. What to do?

That was when I discovered the joy of the Open Mic rooms. Ooooh, it's so good and so bad at the same time. But you'll definitely feel so much better after just one song in that room! XD I applaud all those brave enough to go up there and sing in a language that they don't speak, singing a song they don't 100% know and can't even follow. Such brave souls. I'm not one of them lol. I might, if it's K-pop. One chick did an SNSD song after all. And I can actually sing. ;-)  Or I could've done Fushigi Purupuru Pururin Rin! song from Welcome to the NHK. If you decide to listen to it, you're welcome.


See. Even No Face was in line to sing. The queue was 2 hours long. Some of them are just overeager people who go up and sing over and over again. Not the same songs but I mean, with a wait that is 2 hours long, you'd think it's a lot more people but really, there was a number of people who frequented the Open Mic rooms. Both rooms.

After three days just hanging out there, these were the most popular songs:

• unravel from Tokyo Ghoul. No, just... no. 
• again from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood aka the "final boss" song. You must have some big balls if you're singing this and you don't have any kind of fluency in Japanese. Lovely song though.
• I'll Make A Man Out of You from Mulan. Even the hallway was singing along.
• "some Bleach song". Yep, that was how it appeared on screen.
• Let It Go from Frozen. You just can't get away. I actually have a full video of the whole room, including myself, singing along. Just click the song title. ;-)