#outside a fan expo or mega con. behind the building. i ask him for a light. he cups it for me like a gentleman. i try to be cool and

[hanasnx]

i need to share a cigarette with hayden christensen

[a-x-ce]

My Anime Expo Experience

Finally writing this up before I forget because my memory is CRAP.

First con woot woot! This is mega long, probably don’t read it unless you absolutely MUST know about how this went.

The Good

Before I even got to the con I researched and planned and bookmarked and researched some more and came to the conclusion that for me, the highlight of a con, is to do things you can only do at that year. I looked over the panels, the premieres, and decided THAT was what I wanted to prioritize. They did not disappoint. I went to two premieres, the Welcome to the Ballroom premiere and The Ancient Magus' Bride premiere, for the first one we got to watch the first two episodes, and for the latter we saw the first THREE episodes. And they blew me away, especially Magus which by episode 3 already had me crying, I could not be more stoked for that to start airing. I then went to two panels which I HAD to go to, one being the FLCL panel, where we got to see the season 2 and (kind of) season 3 trailer a whole 5 minutes before they dropped that shit everywhere else (kind of lame) but what we got added on was “some” information in regards to the series, which made up for us not really getting to see the trailers before everyone else. And then I went to the Studio TRIGGER panel which was awesome! It started with them shooting fake money at us and if you got a special stamped version it got you access to their signing (didn’t get one but kind of didn’t care) and then followed into them playing a hilarious short video which was this bizarre mix of all kinds of shit and ended on them singing the national anthem?! It was funny as all hell. They pretty much spent the majority talking about Little Witch Academia which, I’ll admit, I kind of put on hold after like episode 5...BUT they spent that time giving us all kinds of back story and information on the various characters which was fascinating. Finally though, the main focus was them releasing information on their upcoming projects (which was why most of us were there) and the first two were kinda okay, nothing too much to get us excited, but boy, the hype they built around the last project got the room in a frenzy of excitement! Promare has the potential to be another classic anime for this studio, working with the people who helped bring Kill la Kill to life, as well as Gurren Lagann! You bet your asses I was stoked for this! 100% worth it. I also got free shit at all of these premieres, posters mainly, but I also got a cool Anime Strike pin when going to see Welcome to the Ballroom.

Another thing I ended up loving was actually doing shit in the exhibit hall. When I was sitting my butt in line for an autograph ticket to meet Miyu Irino I got to talking with my fellow line sitters, and one person I talked to gave me all kinds of tips and tricks to getting even more free stuff! She told me about 2 scavenger hunts going on for two of the booths, one got me a free Sailor Moon scarf, and one got me a free CD and a poster for a new game! They were a pain in the ass to get, but that’ll be talked about more in The Bad.

After having figured out you can just ask cosplayers for a picture I manged to get the coolest picture of a Guts and Casca pair and it’s the highlight of every image I took at the con. I wish I had taken more because there were a lot of cosplayers I wanted pictures of. I missed out on a Euphie and Suzaku and I’m still sad about it :’(

The last thing I’ll say I loved was the actual experience of trying to get Miyu Irino’s autograph. Not the actual getting his autograph, but sitting in line with other fans and con goers in the line to get tickets...to get an autograph...in which I met and talked with quite a few really cool and nice people! 

The Bad

The sheer size of this event is ridiculous. It’s so ridiculous in fact they split events between the Convention Center and the Marriott hotel behind the Staples Center. And whoever ran this event was a dumbass and decided that the doors open at 8 am, but none of the major halls open until 10, soooooo, you had a 2 hour gap where hundreds to thousands of people flooded the main floor creating the most hazardous sight I’ve ever seen. Seriously, this was a fire martial’s worst nightmare if you saw this mess. Luckily I only saw this disaster on day 4 ‘cause I had spent the whole damn night on the street. Otherwise I came later on day’s 2 and 3 because to me coming early was meaningless. 

And I did that because getting into the center on day 1 was absolute bullshit. I came a day early to pick up my badge thinking it would cut out waiting in line even longer. No, it didn’t matter. The mass of people outside waiting to get in, and the chaos of even trying to FIND the line TO GET IN, took hours! It was such a goddamn mess that they released a statement that same day saying they WOULD fix the issue. Luckily they did and getting in on day 2 and 3 literally took minutes. What a joke.

Staff for the most part was utterly clueless when it came to finding anything and I fucking hated it. When trying to find the line for Miyu’s panel I got run around the whole damn building, which in the end paled in fucking comparison to the run around I got put on trying to find the autograph booths which were different from the general ticket booths which in the end had ANYONE known fucking anything was a whole lot easier to find if they explained it better...

Lines for larger events were a NIGHTMARE. The Marriott is NOT designed for the sheer number of people lining up for the events held there. I thought it was bad for Magus, oh no, oh no no no, even the Lupin the III game premiere line was not remotely as horrible as what I caught just a glimpse of for the Tokyo Ghoul live-action premiere. That was capped off practically THREE hours before it even played, that’s how crazy popular this event was. I missed it because of that and ended up kind of disappointed. 

Crowding. Holy fuck was this bad. Not even splitting the con between two buildings reduces the sheer number of people in EVERY given space. The artist Alley, crowded, the Exhibit Hall, FUCKING MEGA CROWDED! Moving in the Exhibit Hall was the worst. Add on terrible cell service, add on the fact that the ATM’s were few and far between (and sometimes not fucking working), add on the fact that some sellers use onsite conversion so if your card doesn’t automatically accept you making a purchase in like, Canada, you’re gonna have a bad time...the crowding even makes the fun things not all that fun.

The Disappointing

Cosplay gatherings. Oh boy were these underwhelming. I think the only one I ended up kind of enjoying was the Osomatsu-san gathering I went to on day 1, but aside from that the bigger they got the more chaotic they got, the ruder people become, and just overall super frustrating. What was even more kind of a bummer was that for most of the gatherings I saw the cosplayers walking around the convention at various points and could have MUCH EASIER asked them for a picture rather than deal with the crowding of gatherings. Not to mention when smaller gatherings were made up of people who had gone before and knew each other, as a newcomer you definitely feel left out. It gave off that click vibe and that was really disheartening. Some of these gatherings were definitely not “newbie” friendly which made them even less interesting and makes me not want to go to them again.

Miyu Irino. I have gone back and forth on this one, but after this much time I realize between his panel and the actual autograph this was one of the more disappointing experiences I had. First off, his panel. It lasted one hour, if it was not already bad enough that they split the line where premiere fans got to be inside the building, the rest of us had to figure out where the fuck the OUTSIDE line was. This was a pain in the ass, really, I was run around the whole fucking building to find this line, and by the time I did I was fortunate the line wasn’t too long, but I knew the reason for that was ONLY because no one else could find this fucking line.

So after getting let in late, we sit and we’re told right away we can’t take pictures or video. And originally I thought that was fine, maybe we’d hear some new content they didn’t want getting out. No. No we spent an hour talking about old roles and getting information that I’m sure we could have gotten through any magazine or interview in probably ANY Japanese source. We learned literally nothing about any new work, there was honesty no reason why we shouldn’t have been able to take at least 1 or 2 pictures. It was also incredibly frustrating seeing someone in the row next to us break that rule anyway and got warned THREE times and STILL got to stay and see the panel. Like why make a rule of no pictures to the point where you threaten to remove anyone breaking that rule only to not enforce it? Pointless. 

But anyway, so we spend our hour listening to him talk about various roles, pretty much skipping the one series I was even there for (Osomatsu-san, he voices Todomatsu) and essentially we run out of time for the Q&A where only 3 questions were asked. And no one could even bother to answer one of Miyu’s questions on why Americans like Osomatsu-san, since the ONE person he did try and ask didn’t even watch the show! It was so disappointing.

So I was not all that disappointed at the time but reflecting on it, it was kind of a bust. But I did not realize just how much worse it could get. Because Miyu was one of the most popular guests for AX this year a LOT of people wanted to see him. So many in fact that while I heard lines could start for autographs anywhere from 2 am to 4 am, people got in these lines starting on day 2 (for his session on day 3) at 8 fucking pm. And it was the exact same way on day 3 (for his session on day 4) in which as soon as I go turned away from the Tokyo Ghoul premiere I had really nothing else I wanted to do so since I saw someone on twitter already experience night 2 I went ahead and got in line at like, fucking 7 pm! I was 5th in line...

So I stayed awake for over 30+ hours to get a ticket, which I wasn’t even all that crazy about, I’m not a fangirl so this wasn’t some life changing thing for me, I just wanted the experience. I enjoyed the hell out of the actual staying awake and getting to know people though. So at 8 am they opened the booths, and everyone with a handicap got to go before anyone so while I was 5th in line I got the 12th ticket (kind of bullshit but whatever, given how the rest of us literally had to sleep on the sidewalk seeing people just walk up last minute and get tickets was frustrating). But once we had those tickets it was another 2 and a half hours until the signing, which was in the Artist Alley hall, which didn’t even open until freakin’ 10 anyway. So again there was nothing to do but wait.

So finally 10 roles around and we can get inside, I have my ticket and I go to find the line for Miyu, and as I get in line and waiting we’re eventually told that he will not be signing anything that isn’t related to his anime work. 

Now, this is where I’ll deviate to tell you why this pissed me right the fuck off. Because I live in NV I had to leave unbelievably early to get to L.A. within a reasonable time to check into my hotel. There really wan’t much time earlier in my week to make a run to wal-mart or somewhere to get my pre-chosen images printed for his autograph. So, we had to run around parts of L.A. which is a shit hole for traffic because Californians CANNOT DRIVE (seriously, that’s not a joke, California drivers are THE biggest morons on the West coast) and getting anywhere was a headache. Then the actual process of getting these pictures printed was also a nightmare, because the printing station cropped the images so badly they ended up looking like shit, until finally, after about 40 minutes I got ONE (1) good image of him. It was a picture of HIM.

And he was only signing material that was anime related...yeah. So, now that the picture I had a nightmare printing was not an option, the only other one available to most was that they gave you a pre-signed poster from Akito the Exiled. Which was shitty, it was pre-signed so you wouldn’t even be able to get it autographed and talk to him even a bit! Why the fuck would anyone be happy about that when people stayed awake for HOURS specifically to get an autograph FROM HIM???? Luckily for me I invested time and money into making my Kara and Totty ita bag and had at least ONE official Todomatsu item which I ripped right out of my bag. I was ushered through the line by multiple people and spent a total of maybe 15 seconds in his presence. I said hello, he said hello, he signed my badge, I said thank you, he said thank you, and the experience was over. That was it. 

And as I was leaving the line I was then asked by others in the line what the hell was happening because other people were also being screwed over by not knowing what he would or would not sign (this was literally something they needed to tell us BEFORE actually getting in line for the autograph for fucks sake). I spent some time answering them and leaving. Where I proceeded to notice quite a few girls crying as they were the ones who were denied an autograph being ‘standby’ ticket holders. Miyu did NOT take ANY standby ticket holders on either day. So for anyone who sat up all night and managed to get their hands on one of the extra tickets, it did not matter. Which really, was kind of shitty seeing he really didn’t even do much while there. He had 2 panels, and two autograph sessions, one on each day. One of his panels wasn’t even a focus on him, he was included in the Akito the Exiled panel since he was a VA on it, but he was with others who worked on the show. And since our hour and a half Miyu exclusive panel was cut short to being only an hour since it started late!!! he spent even less time doing things he was signed up to do.

I decided that as a result unless it’s Tanaka-san or anyone else from One Piece I am never sitting in line for an autograph again.

Lastly, I learned that while it’s fun to meet up with people to hang out and try and do things together, you cannot let them try and control your experience. I missed absolutely everything I wanted to do on day 1 because I allowed myself to be guided around by another person. Which initially I was grateful for, as a first-timer I had no clue where things were, but that’s where my day 1 was fucked. There were things and ways to go about this that I planned that didn’t work out, and as a result I missed things I wanted to do. And I told myself at the time it wasn’t a big deal, but since I ended up so goddamn exhausted on day 4 I left early and missed even more stuff I wanted to do...so essentially of my 4 days I only truly enjoyed 2 of them to the fullest. Because on days 2 and 3 I put my foot down and decided no matter what I would do the things I fucking came to do regardless of anyone else and I ended up having a blast. It wasn’t even lonely doing those things by myself, because I had fun! And that’s what mattered.

So yeah, in the end I learned some valuable lessons for my first con, especially at one as big as Anime Expo! I know what I want to do next year, I now know what I don’t really care about, and I know what I absolutely will not be doing again. I hope from these lessons next year I can have even more fun and thoroughly enjoy my 4 days! Also there’s probably some stuff I missed in this post so not sure if I’ll do another part, most likely not since this got hella fucking long...