Anime Expo 2010

  This was my wife and I's 11th year in a row attending Anime Expo. To be honest there were more than just a few years when I begged my wife to agree with me to spend our summer 4-day weekend some place else... I'm always glad she drags me there once I am actually there though... The lines have always been long, it has always been hot and most assuredly... disorganized. In spite of all the bad that I seem to associate with it ever year, I always seem to be looking forward to a few things that will happen while I am there. The rewards I reap always out-weigh the heat, lines, miles and miles on the pedometer and drama... Speaking of drama, there has been a ton of drama behind the scenes at AX for several years now and I beg you if you are privy to any of it that you leave your thoughts on it out of the comments section. :)

John Hwang did another outstanding job of capturing this years Anime Expo. Please give his Youtube channel a shout-out and a thanks if you enjoyed it. His Youtube channel id is: vegiwrap. His documentary highlighted many things I didn't have time to get to this year, and I even spotted a few peeps I know in his video! Are you in there?!?

My personal AX 2010 highlights:

  Meeting Masakazu Morita. Masakazu Morita is the famous voice actor for Ichigo Kurosaki in one of my favorite animes... The Bleach anime of course. Coincidence that I was wearing my Ichigo Kurosaki otaku t-shirt when I bumped into him? Me thinks not... He was super cool and even extended his hand to greet me. Next to him is Nabeshin Shinichi Watanabe. Sorry the images aren't better, they were from a cellphone camera...

I think the cosplayer I liked the best was the Kamina Jack Cosplay:

I've worked with Danny Choo a tad through email in the past and have been one of 8 billion of his contacts across the social whoring platforms for many years now. So naturally, at one of his meet and greets I had to say hello... He's a very down to earth comrade in person (just like on LCD!) and has a genuine love for what he does. It's admirable that he offers his advice in honesty and hopes chaps will listen... In the image below you can see how some of his fellow hobbyists joined a few of their 'daughters' together for this nice photo-opp:

One of the most embarrassing things that happened to me was an autograph rejection from Megumi Nakajima (If you are wondering who the heck this is, keep in mind that this article was written in July 2010 - I suppose this won't be funny to me until I read this again in August 2010). 
Megumi Nakajima and May'n ticket stub:

The best surprise was an introduction to something I've never heard of before, but now have one more reason to visit Japan and Akihabara... AKB48. Don't judge, my wife dug it too:


Updated 07/23/10: You can now pick-up the AKB48 CD from your preferred online anime store.
 

Every year it's something new to focus on. For a few years all we could do is watch anime online from our cell phones while waiting for concerts and main events or watching new anime titles in the video rooms, another couple of years we tried the cosplay thing, another year we supported Clem's Gundam model building workshop by heckling him to death from the back, another year spent focusing on the dealer room and spending way too much cash. And still another year exploring dojin-soft and other Japanese video games. Speaking of the dealers room, this year the Gundam model shop and the copic marker store were huge and front and center. They really scored on real-estate this year. The Bandai booth was VERY well done:

 Image originally found at DannyChoo.com

Will I kick and scream to not go next year? Probably not, as I really wanted to make it over to the artist alley and show some support to the copics, doujinshi, modelers and crafting communities... But alas never made it due to time constraints. There is a lot of doujinshi that I want to explore, and until I can get over to a full-meal-deal convention like Comiket in Japan, I think the artist alley at AX will have to do. I don't mean to say that their work is less impressive or anything... It's just the number of those following it here are lacking. And without the support the volume is just much lower in the US. All and all, I guess you could wrap this article up with I'm still looking forward to next year, due to the tingling I'm still experiencing from this year.