Event

Anime Expo 2019

July 31, 2019 /

Anime Expo 2019 is done and over with but I still have a few things to say about the event. The event was a hot mess. If you heard it was bad in 2017, well, 2019 definitely outdid Anime Expo 2017 in the crap department. I think it’s safe to say that many attendees thought AX2019 would at least be like AX2018 or better. 2018 was the year AX decided to implement a new badge system where you “clock in” and “clock out” of AX related buildings. Bag checks existed and yes, the lines were long but there were multiple lines so it wasn’t too bad. If I managed to visit the JW Marriot AND the LA Convention Center, it really wasn’t all that bad when you think how this year, I couldn’t even imagine to visit a non-LA Convention Center building simply out of fear that I’d have to get in a ginormous line yet again only to get into another line to attend a panel or whatever it is that I want to attend. This year sucked and I knew beforehand based on people’s rants on social media on how they had to wait at least 3 hours before they could get inside the LA Convention Center. Others waited 4-5 hours on Day 1 and all I can say is that is insanity.

I feel the event has just become another money hungry event for people that don’t know any better. I suppose I knew better than to support such an event that was overselling tickets but I decided, at the last minute to go for a day anyway. *rolls eyes* Yes, my ticket was at it’s peak price and yes, I was an idiot but I kind of wanted to go and so, I did.

Would I go next year? Y’know, this is a funny question because last year, I mentioned something about how I’m getting too old for this. I know for a fact that I mentioned how I was too old for cybird’s booth and their kabe-don event so I didn’t participate in it this time around. One, I’ve done it already. Two, I had other things to accomplish. Three, I’m too old for it. (I could do without being a cringey lady that Hiroto has to kabe-don because it’s his job, y’know… I know non-Asians would be like wtf is she talking about, but Asians, especially those born and raised abroad would know and probably hint that I’m too old to be doing crap like this. Oh, the judgements. Well, at least I’m not old enough to be his Mom or something. LOL Okay, not funny…)

So, we’ll find out next year if I decide to go or not. (I’m leaning more towards not attending, though.)

Anyway, this year, I found Anime Expo to be quite stressful. Part of it probably had to do with me deciding to attend for a day quite last minute. I had to plan when I’d go pick up my badge and where and at what time I’d have to attend various events at AX2019. The worst part of it all was that despite my wonderful planning, I didn’t get to do all that I had planned. And this was something I realized and came to terms with upon getting into line some time in the morning on day 3. I realized that I’d be better off attending events that were strictly inside the LA Convention Center.

As a result, I missed out on a voice acting audition that I really wanted to see. I also missed out on an ita bag cosplay meet up. Sure, my ita bag may not have been anything major itself when compared to others’ itabags, but I still wanted to attend the meetup and look at others’ itabags as well as show off mine’s. (lol)

I hated having to wait in a line just to attend whatever I wanted to attend. It was just insanity, really.

My first time waiting in a crazy line was last year to attend a premier that brought over two Japanese voice actors and I hated waiting in that damned line because despite arriving early, the event ended up starting before I even managed to get inside the room that was hosting the premier. (I need to also mention that it was at least 100 degrees or something while I and other attendees were waiting in this ridiculous line.)

Ryo Kitamura

This year, the longest line I waited in was for Ryo Kitamura. I decided I’d go and see a celebrity. Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of him because Jungle Anime said no photography or videography, which I think sucks big time but I was able to respect that. (The fan girls on the other hand, I’m not sure how they were able to digest that rule so well.)

With this so called rule of no photography or videography, I couldn’t help but to wonder if it’s because Ryo Kitamura is a major introvert or if it’s something else. Who knows but when he did make an appearance, he definitely did not come across as a stereotypical introvert. (An attendee had asked for advice on which restaurant in Tokyo he’d recommend her to eat at and he had difficulty answering it. That kind of makes me think he’s a home body. Either that or his work keeps him way too busy to have enough energy and time to visit restaurants. Heh…me and my assumptions. Of course, there’s also that very real possibility that people might bother him if he went out to eat, undisguised and crap.)

I am going to say that Ryo Kitamura has a certain cool vibe. It’s like the moment he walks into the panel, you can sense the coolness. (I don’t know if I’m making much sense but yeah.) Even the way he talked sounded cool. I can definitely see how the fangirls were all over him.

The thing with his fangirls is quite strange actually. I know I shouldn’t judge but I encountered at least two fangirls that had nasty attitudes. They had that entitled thing going on and seem to think way too highly of themselves. One particular fangirl had to make snide remarks at every thing the host said that rubbed her the wrong way for whatever reason. I thought the host (interviewer) was cool and while it got quite old with her saying how she was happy to breath him, it wasn’t that big of a deal. To this particular fangirl, ask yourself if you can do a better job than the host because you ain’t all that and your youth is not going to last forever either. Ugh is all I can say. Then, there’s the fangirl that has to show off her Japanese speaking skills. Great, I’m proud that you can speak conversational Japanese and it must be a dream to directly communicate with Ryo Kitamura without Risa (a pretty interpreter that doesn’t seem completely fluent in interpreting but hot nonetheless). But the issue here is that many attendees, while they may have some form of interest in the Japanese culture, many don’t understand conversational Japanese so why show off? Please don’t. (There’s always this type of attendee. If you’re so desperate to communicate in Japanese, please move to Japan or something. At least when you say something “wrong”, the people there will give you the stank eye and maybe correct your Japanese IF you don’t look gaijin enough. Here, people will just feed into your ego because just wow. On the serious side, though it is an accomplishment, but can you tone it down a bit? Hot damn.)

As mentioned earlier, I don’t have any photos from the panel. But Anime Jungle and Ryo Kitamura do have visuals from the panels. Here’s one I’ve taken from Anime Jungle’s twitter. And if you want to see a video that Ryo Kitamura took, you can click here.

The Food

There were times I got hungry at AX2019. I had packed store bought orzo and Taco Bell leftovers (threw away the Taco Bell leftovers before lining up to go inside the Convention Center) but didn’t get around to eating much since I was on a pretty tight schedule of getting things done. Eventually, I did get to eat my orzo which was great but also bad because orzo leaves you with stinky breath. (I had gum on me but even gum is no match for orzo. Thank goodness for my face mask then? Heh.)

I eventually tossed my leftover orzo and when I got hungry again, I decided to splurge. If you don’t already know, everything at AX is expensive. There were food trucks that I looked at, but they all were somewhat packed with lines. I thus decided to eat whatever was offered through the LA Convention Center. Got an overpriced vegan burger that left me disatisfied. It’s one thing to be expensive, fresh and yummy. But it’s another thing when the food is expensive, not fresh and subpar. I admit that the vegan patty was unique and yummy, though. Everything else was dry, stale and gross. Allow me to explain. If you ordered a vegan burger, the patty will be cooked fresh along with cheese (if you’re vegetarian) but everything else for that burger of yours isn’t fresh. The fries have been precooked at I don’t know what time and have been sitting inside a box along with soggy shredded lettuce and tomatoes. Can I say gross? To make matters worse, the bread for your burger is cold. Think refrigerated cold bread. Who wants to eat a burger that’s cold?

If anything, I think I feel bad for those that ordered a regular burger because those were pre-cooked at who knows what time, wrapped in foil and sitting around to be given away to the next customer ordering a regular burger. The employee was nice but I wasn’t buying a smile; I was trying to buy a hot meal for goodness sakes. (I had a pitiful experience here with their pizza before and didn’t learn my lesson, I guess. Ugh.)

The AX bag

So, every returning attendee knows that they’ll receive a bag and a lanyard for their badge. A good amount of attendees also know that bags and lanyards aren’t the same for everyone. And I didn’t understand this so well until last year. Last year, I happened to end up with this humongous bag simply because I had gone to pick up my badge from the AX grounds rather early. So, the early birds ended up with this humongous bag that would have been helpful for those that enjoy purchasing a gazillion things at AX. I ended up not bringing this bag to AX2018 but kind of thought about it when I ended up making a good amount of purchases, mainly from Idea Factory, if you must know. Anyway, during my time at AX2018, I overheard an attendee questioning about the ginormous bag from an attendee sporting it and learned that she hadn’t received this bag. Apparently, she was trying to find out which vendor was distributing these bags for free or how to go about getting one. (It’s kind of funny because I use this bag for my laundry these days and I think my mom wants one. I only have one, so no, I will not be giving it away…)

So, I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing occurred this year but I feel that everyone probably got the same bag this year. And I actually liked this year’s bag a lot. I really liked the designs on the bag. It was basically a combination of summer vibes + So Cal vibes + Japanese vibes. Okay, that was quite a long description there. But I think I’ve made my point that I really like the design of the tote bag and I can totally see myself using it and showing off the bag when I go shop for groceries or something except I probably won’t be doing that since I want to keep the bag in good condition since I only have one of it…

As for lanyards, I read on social media that there was more than one lanyard design this year. I ended up getting whatever was left this year and honestly, I don’t care. However, last year, I got a lanyard that I think was given only to those that came to pick up their badge in advance.

Random photos from AX2019

LOL at this “yandere” photo because I’m not “yandere” however I leave that up to you to believe me or not. I didn’t have time to check out what this booth was all about but to those that noticed the booth, it gained a good amount of attention mainly for the photo opportunities. Just like how they had a “yandere” label area, they also had the ever so popular “tsundere” label and more. I kind of wanted to take a photo with every label but just didn’t have the time to do so, unfortunately.

Well, I suppose this sums up my Anime Expo 2019 experience. If you want the more nitty gritty details of particular things I did at Anime Expo 2019, they’ve already been blogged and are ready for your viewing pleasure at:

Happy reading and stay cool under this wretched hot weather.