July 6, 2008

  • Me and my wife recently did our annual one day visit to the Anime Expo. For the first time ever, my wife decides to go in costume for the occasion as your everyday stereotypical dime a dozen anime character that is a Japanese school girl in a sailor uniform. I thought she looked cute in it, so yay for her. This was also the first time the Anime Expo was at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and I think that due to the larger space compared to past years' locations, they really should make huge attempts to continually use this place every year.

    Like I mentioned in a previous blog post, I don't really watch a lot of anime like I used to, so we once again opted for the "exhibit hall only" pass, which suits me just fine since we're only there for the dealer's room and taking photos of the cosplayers. Unfortunately, I later learn that AX08 was premierring "Evangelion : 1.0 You Are (not) Alone," which is the first movie of the "rebuild of Evangelion" project, which is pretty much the newest iteration of my most favorite anime of all time! Since I did not get a standard member pass for Anime Expo, I couldn't have seen it anyway, so I'm hoping they also show it at the San Diego Comic-Con in a couple of weeks from now, because I really want to see it.

    Besides the new area and size of the Anime Expo, the dealer's room was more or less the same as it is every year. There was an increase of vendors selling real or fake swords though, which I thought was kind of an odd thing for it to be more popular than ever. I did not really buy anything this time around, which I guess is good since I'm saving money? As far as taking pictures of the cosplayers, I honestly have to say that this year was not up to par to the past couple of years. There were some good costumes there, but a majority of them look like stuff you can buy off a store. There were some spectacular self-made costumes, but since I was only there for a couple of hours, I know that I was not able to see all of them. Still nice to see a lot of cosplayers though, and that's something I can rely on Anime Expo for.

    Anime Expo was fine as it goes, and one of the things that puts a smile to my face is how the geeks get to finally "let loose" at a place like this. You have people in costumes doing inpromptu dances, or acting in character to their costume, and in Anime Expo that's all okay. Some notable random occurances that I experienced was what can only be described as a parade of cosplayers marching along to what I will later learn to be something called the "Caramell dansen." Another moment I witnessed was what looked like a group or club of performers doing kung fu gymnastics. These are all part of celebrating this wonderful medium that is Japanese Animation folks. The geeks will rule the world.

    - Photos I took at Anime Expo 2008 (pix)
    - that "Caramelldansen" parade (video)
    - more photos taken by "openhappy" (pix)
    - even lots more photos taken by "conpix" (pix)
    - Anime Music Videos from AX2008 (video)

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