Anime Expo 2010, part 2a
by V.E. on July 11th, 2010
filed under anime/manga
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.)
Anime Expo at the LACC, South Hall (from Figueroa St.)
As I mentioned above, I attended AX for two days, Friday and Saturday. (It ran for four: Thursday through Sunday.) I live north of Los Angeles proper, so I hopped the Metro around 8 AM on Friday and arrived at Pico Blvd. (the station stop nearest the Los Angeles Convention Center) around 9:30. I was expecting my sister to meet me at the station, but she wasn’t there, so I called her and she told me to head towards the Hotel Figueroa, where she and a friend were staying for the duration. (My sister, Bunny, and her friend, S—, both attended Expo all four days.) When I got to the hotel, Bunny came down and took the stuff I’d brought for her (including a Portal cake she’d made earlier in the week for a friend’s birthday), gave me my badge (it’s a long enough story to warrant an entire separate post, so I won’t go into it here), and I headed off to the convention!
AX attendees on Friday morning, just outside the Exhibit Hall.
I’d gone with her on Wednesday afternoon (called “Day 0″ by some staff and attendees) to pick up our badges and had had the Official Program since that time, so I’d had time to circle everything I wanted to do during my two days. I checked my marked up schedule and my watch and decided I had time before the first panel I wanted to attend, so I mulled around the Exhibit Hall for a couple of hours without buying anything. I made sure to walk up and down every aisle just in case something(s) caught my eye, including the Artist Alley aisles, which were off to the right upon entering.
Two cosplaying violinists who also had a booth in Artists Alley.
Mostly, I was on the look-out for awesome cosplayers, and when I found them, I usually politely asked for a picture, unless they were already posing for someone else. The highlight of my search for great cosplay was Friday morning in the Exhibit Hall just before I headed to my first panel. I saw two children, apparently siblings, three or four booths down who were dressed as Inuyasha and Sesshomaru from the anime Inuyasha (wiki). They were seriously the cutest cosplayers I’ve ever seen ever. I chased them down and asked their mother (I assume she was their mother) if I could please photograph them, a request to which she gracefully agreed. I mean, look at them; OMFG|soCUTE. Gah. I’m obviously a sucker for cute. Just let that be known right now. Anyway, shortly after that, I went to the first panel, Anime Studies 2010, which you can read about in part 3.
Inuyasha (left) and his older brother, Sesshomaru.
I got a lot of “b roll” (if you can even call non-moving images that) with the idea that I’d… use it as background for this entry? I have no idea, but the result is that I have a lot of panned shots and very few up close ones, even ones of groups. Which kind of sucks, but that’s neither here nor there. In any case, I caught the fourth (or fifth?) episode of Soul Eater (wiki) dubbed, and it wasn’t too bad. I made a note of the animes I watched in the video rooms and next to my notes for Soul Eater, I wrote, “check out”. Haha, I barely remember it and even while I was watching it I had no idea what was going on because I hadn’t seen the previous episodes, but it must have been interesting enough—even in the fifth episode—to warrant future attention.
Walking the hallowed AX halls.
After Soul Eater, I stayed to watch the first four episodes of Rental Magica (wiki) subbed, which turned out to be a dud. I wrote in my notes, “nah; magical girl + harem story”. (If you want magical girls, watch Sailor Moon or Tokyo Mew Mew; if you want a harem story, watch Ah! Megumi-sama! Seriously, Rental Magica just didn’t have that tug.) Then, I watched the first four episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (wiki) dubbed, which made me want to go out right then and buy the entire series. I’ve seen the entire original series, but the new version is just as good (maybe better?) and sticks closer to the manga.
I wanted to see Str.A.In., but FMA ended early, so I showed up at the next video room early enough to watch a couple of episodes of Aquarion (wiki) dubbed. It was… laughable. I’m not sure the creators were trying to make it sound like “merging” (with another pilot’s mech) was like having sex, but that’s how it came off. I gave it the benefit of the doubt, though, and thought maybe that was because of bad dubbing. I put it out of my mind as I was shuffled out of the room so IDs could be checked for Str.A.In. (wiki) dubbed since it was noted in the program as “17+ only”. It was kind of funny, in a schadenfreude-esque way, when one of the con-goers wasn’t allowed into the screening room for being “underage” (in this case, being under 17 years old) even though he said he had the entire series on his computer in his backpack at that very moment, so it wasn’t like he hadn’t already seen it. “Str.A.In.” stands for “Strategic Armored Infantry” and while the primary antagonist isn’t exactly the most original villain there is, it was interesting enough to consider watching the rest of the series, especially since it’s only thirteen episodes.
Can you see Anthy and Utena in the lower right?
Bunny and S— caught up with me near the end of Str.A.In. and, though my sister seemed interested in what was going on, the showing was nearly over so it was hardly worth trying to explain to her what was going on. The three of us sat through two episodes of Strike Witches (wiki), which was also “17+ only” and a show I do not recommend unless you’re watching strictly for the fanservice, of which there is a lot in this show. I mean, really; how am I supposed to take anything a military official says seriously if she’s not even wearing pants? I’m not even kidding. It’s like: Strike Witches, pants optional. (Perhaps it’s related to no-pants-o’clock?)
We bailed on the utter fanservice for Darker Than Black (wiki) subbed in another video room. We watched the first four episodes, which reminded me of Witch Hunter Robin in a lot of ways, and then stuck around for Baccano! (wiki). I have absolutely no notes for Baccano! other than having written down the title, but it struck me as a pretty good show (my brother apparently really liked it, for example) but not one I was interested in pursuing. If you like Wild West type shows, though, this could be for you. Also, the music reminded me of Cowboy Bebop.
Bunny, in our hotel room on Friday night.
Bunny, S—, and I headed back to the hotel, then, to get some rest. (It was after midnight by that time!) I guess we could’ve gone to the dance (Villains & Heroes theme) but we were just tired by then and sleeping seemed like a Really Good Idea. There was some nonsense with the hotel (they had given bracelets to everyone who had a room and were checking them upon entry) but all three of us managed to get up to the room with no trouble and after padding down for the night, I was totally out.
CONTINUE in Anime Expo 2010, part 2b.
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