Anime Expo, a personal history

Remembering

Well, with the pandemic days, there is no AX 2020. Who knows if AX 2021 will be on schedule.

And with that, a time to remember how AX was and is.

Anime Expo 2003 / 04

Although I had long known about anime and manga, having been introduced from my Japanese language school classes and a few cousins who owned Robotech / Macross toys, I started to get into anime a bit after the Akira film was screened. (I didn’t get to watch it until university)

During my university years, I was in a campus Christian group, so I never really got into anime as much until junior and senior years. And I didn’t know of a convention that existed solely on anime until a few friends of mine in church and in university told me about a convention (that at the time was held in Anaheim) where you can share your love of anime with others.

In 2003, I went to my first AX, and it was just only a Saturday. AX at the time sold dealer’s hall badges that were cheaper than regular full day and 4 day passes, so I went in with a dealer’s hall badge. The dealer’s hall, though, was too daunting and I wasn’t willing to spend the awfully high prices, so I wound up going home somewhat empty handed (save for a Transformer.)

When AX returned to Anaheim in 2004, I went 4 days, and the rest is history.

History of AX’s I have been

AX’s in 2004-07 were AX’s that I went on either 4 days or one day (I think I went on 4 day badges on each of those AX’s). Most of those AX’s were spent on browsing stuff at the dealer’s hall, or buying manga. There were plenty who spent money on figures or manga books, and I do remember buying the SDF Macross DVD set. (This was the set HG authorized AnimEigo to make and sell, with Japanese audio only and are considered direct transfers from the original episode releases, versus the re-edited versions that made Robotech). I got into the Initial D series as well.

2007 was when AX went to Long Beach Convention Center, and aside from mishaps and crowd control problems, that AX was somewhat memorable. But I eventually stopped going to AX in their first years in LA (2008-11) as I turned my focus to San Diego’s Comic Con.

SDCC, however, started to get extremely congested and badges were very hard to get. SDCC started selling out. As more SDCC years started to sell out, I ran out of patience with SDCC. The only SDCC’s I went to were in 2006, 2009(?), 2011, 2016 and 2018-19 (2020 would have been the first volunteering year, now I will have to re-register for 2021 as a volunteer). I never got to experience SDCC for more than two days.

I returned to AX for 2012, and I only went 1 day. 2013-19 were years I took advantage of AX’s Premier Fan access privileges. At the time AX already got very comfortable with their digs in LA Convention Center.

AX 2013 was the first year I heard about Pac Set Tours, and a year later, took a trip with them to Japan. That is one AX I will remember.

However, AX 2016, to this day, remains the AX that will leave the most memories. Because on that AX, I spent near sleepless hours to wait for an autograph ticket for Shoji Kawamori, to get him to sign his Design Works book (now out of print) that I bought at a Kinokuniya booth in a previous AX from years back. Because Premier Fans at the time did not have any autograph privileges, I had to wait in line with the rest of the attendees to be one of the lucky ones to get an autograph ticket. Most of the people who camped out near the autograph area had hotel reservations, allowing them far easier access while many people like me drove to downtown LA and had to wait at 6 AM for the LACC parking staff to open the structures.

As my tastes for anime changed, so has the culture.

Over time, later AX’s were conventions where I tend to focus more on the experience and less on the anime. Crunchyroll started to get popular, making binge watching anime mainstream - and making it almost unnecessary to go to a convention to do a screening unless it was an exclusive.

When I first got into anime, I was into science fiction anime, so I gravitated toward Gundam or Macross / Robotech stuff. As time passed, I found myself loving anime that’s more action oriented and are not in sci-fi, as well as dramas. I started watching Attack on Titan a few years ago (as of this post I haven’t yet finished the 2nd season so don’t spoil, even though the manga pretty much has advanced past the anime’s story).

If AX 2020 would have been held (it was cancelled), it would have been the first time I would have gone back to a regular 4-day pass as I was not able to fork over another 500+ to stay on Premier Fan status and I barely took advantage of the magic shopping hour in my previous Premier Fan years. The Premier Fans had a lounge to themselves that was stocked with beverages and A/C with sit-down sofas. It will be something I will miss when I return to AX 2021 as a regular 4-day attendee.

Will I look at other anime cons?

I plan to transfer my AX 2020 4 day pass to next year.

Now, my hope is that in 2022, I hope to make art that would somewhat sell, but I don’t know if I will be good enough to a point where I can actually exhibit it in Artist Alley. Artist Alley passes at AX are harder to get compared to a Premier Fan pass. I’ll see what happens.

Artist Alley in any con is not going to be possible until I have some commissions done.

Meantime, there are other anime cons to look at: Anime LA (Ontario Convention Center), Fanime in San Jose, Crunchyroll Expo - also in San Jose. CRX and Fanime are not going to happen this year in 2020, and Anime LA currently has a January 2021 date, but who knows if they will even be able to have a convention at those dates.