Anime Expo 2010, part 1
by V.E. on June 30th, 2010
filed under anime/manga
Some preliminary thoughts:
I love anime. I’ve loved anime since the time I surfed past an episode of Sailor Moon (the first season) on Toonami and then went back because I just couldn’t believe a guy (with long, wavy dark brown hair) would go to an (apparently abandoned) church and talk to the… galaxy/universe… which was represented by stars and solar systems inside the church. (I’m not even joking, either.) Yeeeeah. I flipped past it thinking, “Uh, what? Weeeeeird.” And then I went back anyway because it was just too strange not to watch.
I’ve watched hours and hours of anime. I was the Anime Club president for two years at my alma mater and helped found Diplocon, an anime and gaming convention in the city where my undergrad is located. In high school, I went to Anime Expo religiously since the year I found out about it. I’ve cosplayed and written fanfiction based on anime and certainly read a ton of anime-based fanfiction.
I’ve had long, drawn-out conversations about the benefits and weaknesses of one character’s powers against another character’s, which anime is best suited for a new watcher, where someone can get the best yaoi, and the complete mindfuck that is End of Eva. I follow numerous episodic blogs, ANN, and other anime-related websites… I have an anime/manga category on this site for a reason, after all.
Right, so all this is to say: I love anime, and I have a history that proves this. Now to get to the point of this post.
And that is: I’m not super-enthused about going to Anime Expo 2010. I’m just admitting it right now so as to get past the “OMG are you really a diehard fan if you don’t want to attend AX?” Well, the answer is: if you think that attending all four days of Anime Expo does a diehard make, then no, I’m not one. But if you think a diehard is someone who loves anime and never gets tired of it and annoys other people with her obsession with it, then yes, I definitely am one.
That said, I’m still going for Friday and Saturday (admittedly, the two most popular days to attend). Expo has the Exhibit Hall, the mecca of all the anime/manga crap you could possibly want, old or new, original or fan-made, DVD or keychain. It has screening rooms, a manga library, panels, workshops, Cosplay Chess for crying out loud; what anime fan, in all honesty, wouldn’t want to go to at least some of that? (If there is one, I don’t know about him or her, that’s for sure.) It’s anime 24 hours a day for 4 days straight. It’s like the ultimate, giant All-Night Anime.
I’m going to take pictures (and post a few here, in part 2, after the con), buy stuff (if I can find my debit card), and bask in the anime geek glory that is AX.
Gotta get my nerd on.
[...] I’ve been trying to figure out how to write about AX this year without having a tl;dr situation, so it’s come to this. I have 18 decent pictures I’m including along with commentary in two three posts. I was going to split the entries by day (one for Friday, July 2, and one for Saturday, July 3), but I ended up going with: one post about the panels I attended (there were three) and one post two posts about everything else, one for each day. I’m writing about “everything else” first because I want to give my basic impressions of the convention overall and give a lead-in to the entry about the panels, which you can read about in Anime Expo 2010, part 3. (You can also read about my thoughts before attending AX this year in part 1.) [...]
[...] I attended three panels over the course of two days at AX this year. (You can read about my general impressions of the convention and see more pictures in Anime Expo 2010, part 2a and part 2b and why I only attended for two days in part 1.) [...]
[...] first learned of Soukou no Str.A.In. (wiki) from Anime Expo 2010, which I attended for two days this year. Sara Werec stars as the series protagonist; her mission [...]