Anime Expo is the largest anime convention in the United States and is located in Los Angeles, California. They are still calculating how many people attended Anime Expo 2012 but in 2011, there were 47,000 attendees. And the Los Angeles Convention Center is equipped to handle all of them. The convention center there is the largest convention center we have ever seen. It is larger than the Baltimore Convention Center where Otakon is. However, is AX a better convention than Otakon? That question cannot be answered. It's like wondering if Goku can beat Superman in a fight, everyone will choose a side but nobody will ever know. But anime fans think they know Goku will win. I guess it's more like saying is one kind of apple better than another kind of apple. Or if dogs are better than cats... Well you get the idea...
Where to begin?
There's no better place than the "Lounge 21". Since Anime Expo has been going for 21 years, they opened a lounge within the convention center for people over 21 to listen to music and drink. It was a pretty cool place, though I think most of the people there were way over 21. Also, the drinks were very expensive. They served mixed drinks, all of which used Tentacle Grape (that link is not for kids) as the mixer. And I have to say Tentacle Grape mixes well with alcohol. I got Tentacle Graped ^.0
The biggest events to go to at Anime Expo were the concerts. The performers this year were LiSa and Yuki Kajiura and Fiction Junction. LiSa's anime claims to fame are Angel Beats and Fate Zero. Fiction Junction created a lot of anime music but most notably music for .Hack and Fate Zero. There are no youtube videos though of these openings probably due to tough copyrights.
But I did find Fiction Junction's PV of Silly-go-Round
This one is the anime version!
Needless to say the concerts were awesome. It was like an experience! Was it better than the Chemistry concert at Otakon?? Who knows??? I sure love Chemistry though.
The dealer's room at Anime Expo was the biggest dealer's room I've ever seen also. Here are some pictures of it:
Let's continue shall we! There were all sorts of different vendors at Anime Expo. What I liked most was that there was cheap manga there! Usually manga is around $6-8 a volume. But at Anime Expo some manga was selling for $3 with the average cost of a manga being $5 dollars. The dealer's room is always the best part of any convention and the Anime Expo dealer's room is by far the best dealer's room out of all American conventions.
One negative aspect of Anime Expo is it's location. Los Angeles is a beautiful city in some places but there are many drawbacks. The hotels were all far from the convention center, which meant that one would either have to drive or take the convention shuttle to get there. The convention shuttle takes about an hour's wait, if you just missed the last bus which could get pretty bad for going back after the rave around 2am. The only thing worse than the wait for the shuttle is that if you rent a car, parking fees are going to be high and everywhere. We even got a parking ticket! (T.T)
One negative aspect of Anime Expo is it's location. Los Angeles is a beautiful city in some places but there are many drawbacks. The hotels were all far from the convention center, which meant that one would either have to drive or take the convention shuttle to get there. The convention shuttle takes about an hour's wait, if you just missed the last bus which could get pretty bad for going back after the rave around 2am. The only thing worse than the wait for the shuttle is that if you rent a car, parking fees are going to be high and everywhere. We even got a parking ticket! (T.T)
One of the highlights of Anime Expo was the rave. Imagine going to a club, and when you got there there were otaku and anime fans everywhere. Well that's the rave at Anime Expo. The atmosphere was just like any other dance club, there were professional dancers and a lot of people were getting hot and heavy in the groove. I though, thought the Otakon 2011 rave was better because it was much bigger and just more fun in general. Also, at Anime Expo they sometimes played American pop music, which is a part that I didn't like but some would find cool.
