Just a Lark

I’ve had about a week to stew on this year’s Anime Expo so I think it’s about time to write a little bit about it. The tl;dr version is that it was by far the worst AX I’ve been to in six years, but if you do care to read on, I’ll explain.

This is written from the perspective of a casual attendee. I do not cosplay, I’m not a huge J-rock fan so I didn’t bother with the S.K.I.N. concert, and I pretty much do my best to stay away from “the crazy,” which in my opinion is basically everything that goes on there outside of the new guests of honor I wanted to see. To be quite honest I haven’t really even watched anime in the last two or three years. Really, I go to AX just to stay connected with friends I wouldn’t otherwise get to see. I do enjoy to observe the madness, though I don’t necessarily participate in it.

This year the con was back in Long Beach, and it was terrible. Area hotels were harder to book and cost more than in Anaheim, the con was spread out so much that it was literally a half-mile to get most anywhere from most anywhere else, the guests weren’t all that spectacular, and some of the events were disasters (AMV’s canceled and rescheduled two days later because they lost the discs, the S.O.S. Brigade concert was two hours late because the guests were being divas, etc.). The con board of directors publicly acknowledged that they were doing a terrible job with the leadership, yet refuse to resign, and the interim CEO essentially said that he was unable to perform his duties for the con.

I did get to see some people though, which made it better. I got to see Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who has, among other things, sang all the lyrical songs from Silent Hill, though I missed out on her signing session. I saw Chiaki Ishikawa, the vocal half of See-Saw, perform live, which was great. I got dinner at Outback with some friends and had a hilarious adventure with mixed-up orders there. As is usual, I ran into Carl–I saw him at E3 a couple years back randomly, when there was some 60,000 people, and this year I saw him twice at AX with 40,000 around. It kinda freaks me out how that happens.

One of the best parts was that I got to see Pam, but she was pretty much having the worst week of her life. I did my best to help her through it, but if there’s one thing that I know definitively now, it’s that I’m terrible at comforting someone. Watching someone you care about cry and knowing there’s nothing you can really do about it is depressing, especially when you know that they had helped you through a particularly tough time in the past.

Next year they’re taking it to the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is a venue I know pretty well having been to several E3’s there. I really don’t know what to think of this–sure it’s a larger venue, but it’s also a bit more out of the way to get to, the hotels are a lot more expensive, and I’m not so sure how the crowd in that part of town will handle a bunch of crazy people dressing up in crazy outfits.

I’m not sure if I’ll be attending next year. Then again I wasn’t sure this year, or even last year to some extent. It depends on the guest list and events, but really, all I care is about the people I get to see there and so if they’re going I’ll probably go. I can only hope that things will turn out better, for everyone involved.