Photos by Angela Cerda

 

While the last couple of conventions have sort of flown under the radar of game sites, Anime Expo 2009 got a bit of attention due to Capcom and Atlus, along with XSEED and NIS America showing off upcoming titles. Anime Expo is the self proclaimed largest Anime and Manga convention in North America, however, by the way it was run, you would be shocked that it has ever lasted as long as it has.

Anime Expo is currently held in the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is also home to E3. Unlike E3 however, Anime Expo is a fan oriented convention that the general public can pay to attend. The cost at the door has jumped over the years to $70, which is used to prompt early bird sales of badges. Also like E3, Anime Expo uses most of the convention center, minus the Kentia Hall downstairs. The real difference is how it is used. Registration and main events occupy the entire West Hall. Which means that after getting your badge, the only time West Hall is used is once a day. This created a funnel of people down the Hallway towards the lobby outside the South Hall, where the exhibitors and artist alley were located. Video Rooms, Panel rooms, workshops, as well as the game room and the arcade were all on the second floor for the most part.

Anime Expo 2009 was mired in a heap of problems this year. One of the first issues was the timing of events. Many of the guests of honor panels were held on Thursday, the hardest day for anyone to get time off for, it is also the first day of the convention. The layout was another problem, Anime Expo was no longer able to afford the use of the Nokia Theater across the street from the Staples Center. This meant that all those events took up the West Hall.This created a problem that if you were not in the front two rows of one of the main events, you were not going to be able to see the stage as the room was nothing more then a flat concrete hanger with chairs. This also created a crowd control problem as now with the convention center basically being used for everything, and half of that was only open once an evening, which resulted in people naturally cramming towards South Hall. It is unclear if this was an accident or a sly move to make the convention appear more crowded then it actually was. Another problem with this is the logistics of it. Anime Expo loves to announce how it is the biggest convention of its type, yet why can smaller fan conventions such as Fanime make use of its classic theater across the street of the San Jose Convention Center and Anime Expo not afford the Nokia Theater anymore?

If you were looking for some good gaming then you were in for a massive disappointment. Capcom's booth was nothing more then six TV's with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and that's it. XSEED was just two TV stations in the corner of the Crunchyroll booth. Atlus and Aksys seemed to try a little harder, but again, almost all of the games on display were either just released, or released in Japan a long time ago. Anime Expo had a game room, located on the second floor between the video rooms. It was simply a meeting room with about 8-10 TVs and that is it. There were about three games to choose from, Brawl, Naruto on Wii, or Street Fighter 4. No check out desk, no huge selection of games to choose from. Just a tiny little room with a few games. This is beyond pathetic. Anime LA, which is held in January had a fantastic game room. Their game room was run by a very skilled individual, that brought with him a plethora of games and systems to choose from. Sakura Con and Fanime both had huge set ups, Sakura Con even went as far as to divide rooms up for different genres and consoles! It is really mind blowing how these conventions which have less then half of the attendance numbers are able to provide such larger and better game rooms. The arcade in Anime Expo did fare a little better. It had a bigger room, and about as many machines as Fanime. But unlike other conventions it was held at almost opposite ends of the convention center. The real kicker about the arcade was that they still required money to play. Sakura Con might not have had as many machines, but they did bring the essentials of DDR, Initial D 4, and Street Fighter 4. Whats more is Sakura Con offered the machines on free play the whole weekend. Again, Anime Expo claims to be the biggest anime convention, how is Sakura Con able to offer an arcade room with less then half the people attending and Anime Expo still requiring extra fees?

One of the most thrilling aspects of anime conventions tend to be their night life. Apparently the Los Angeles Convention Center was not going to allow a 24 hour convention this year. Anime Expo decided to host the dance, Masquerade Ball, karaoke, and nightly video rooms in the Westin Hotel. This was by all accounts a huge disaster. The first problem was getting there. Unlike any other convention center, Los Angeles Convention Center does not have adjoining hotels. To make up for this, Anime Expo was forced to create a shuttle system, this time downsized to yellow school buses. If that wasn't enough, to add injury to insult Anime Expo charges any attendee not officially registered in the hotel room block 20 more dollars to ride their buses. This is nothing more then an outright scam on their attendees. At any convention, including their own in the past, 24 hour video rooms and karaoke, as well as the Masquerade Ball and nightly dances are included in the cost of the badge. By charging for the shuttle system, Anime Expo is in effect charging extra fees onto the attendees who are not part of a select block of rooms. The alternative is to walk anywhere from half a mile to a full mile. This resulted in some attendees getting mugged on the way back to their hotel. Of course this shouldn't be anything unexpected for Downtown LA, but the fact is, Anime Expo should not be holding its convention in an area that is going to put its own attendees at risk just for walking back to their hotel. The dance itself was overly crowded and was even shut down on the last night following a violent display of public drunks being evicted from the Westin. Comic Con has had a shuttle bus system for years, however Comic Con offers top of the line buses, has more then three bus routes, more stops, and shorter wait times between them. One could argue that Comic Con is a bigger convention, but the prices of the badge are between $70 for Anime Expo and $75 for Comic Con. Don't expect to save any money on food either. The food stands inside the convention center charge 8 dollars for a personal pizza, and the new eateries at LA Live are very upscale restaurants far outside the normal anime convention attendee budget.

Helping to host a panel was also a huge difference between Fanime and Anime Expo. At Fanime, we were told to go to a panel office 30 min. before each panel. There was a dedicated staff there to make sure all our equipment needs were set up and that everything worked properly. At Anime Expo it was a strain to even find an informed staff member. Almost all of them knew next to nothing other then the predesignated line they were told to spout. Finally reaching Convention Operations, we were met with an apathetic reply to just show up ten minutes before our panel. At one point I even went to the info desk in the lobby outside South Hall, and not only could they not answer any questions, they wouldn't even bother to radio in someone who could. The panel luckily was a success and completely packed forcing some guests away. However, without ever saying one word to us, the people running the video projector in the back would yell out when the panel was over and forcibly shout at people to leave. Despite this, we were told by the guests that our panel was great and one of the best things to happen at the convention.

There was a large feeling of the convention being scaled back during the weekend. There was a significant lack of panels, let alone ones that seemed interesting. The hallways and walls lining the exhibitors hall were packed with people sitting or sleeping, even in the middle of the day. Perhaps they were just trying to fit in with the local homeless, or maybe the reality was sinking in that there was very little to do during the convention. The exhibitors hall was smaller this year, and even shared its space this time with the artist alley tables. Viz, Tokyopop, and now Namco-Bandai were completely absent from the show floor. All three of them will have a booth at comic con. This begs the question of how such a self proclaimed large scale convention looses them. Viz and Tokyopop in particular are entirely based in the anime and mange business. The fact that they are blatantly ignoring a convention that is solely based upon those industries for a competitor convention that is multi-media shows how little respect for Anime Expo distributors have.

Cosplay is a main spectacle of most anime conventions but there was a surprising low number of them in attendance this year. There was maybe only 40% of people in cosplay at any given moment during the convention, unlike Sakura Con which was easily 80% cosplayers. The reason for this is likely due to a number of factors. There is a space limit on the shuttle buses, as well as a rule against large props. This limits the cosplayers to light and small cosplays. There is one close hotel which is still a bit of a walk and as anyone whose cosplayed can tell you, walking through downtown LA in the middle of summer in a costume is not a viable option.

If your a gamer, an anime or manga fan, or just looking for something to do on the 4th of July weekend do yourself a favor and stay as far away from Anime Expo as you can. The location is dangerous and poorly set up, the staff is ill informed, rude, and in some cases witnessed, hostile to attendees. The con is split at night, charging you extra fees that are not only free anywhere else, but conveniently located anywhere else. As a paying attendee you have far better options, not only on the west coast, but even in Southern California. As a paying guest you deserve far better then this poorly run convention that seems intent to drive itself into the ground faster then the industry it claims to support. Stay away from Anime Expo.

Convention Report:  F