Anime Expo 2017

After moving to California almost 2 years ago, I never would have thought that I would find myself at another Anime Convention. (Mostly because I would have no one to go with). Thankfully, I have great friends in Oregon that came all the way down for it and convinced me to buy tickets on Black Friday. Case in point: it was a great decision.

Cosplay Recap

Since I knew my time would be limited that weekend, I knew that I had to make the most of my Cosplay experience. Some ideas that came to mind for me this year were to be Gogo from Big Hero 6, Dragonite (my favorite Pokémon since elementary school), and to reuse my Azumanga Daioh cosplay that I made for Kumoricon.

Day 0 ended up being Gogo. I chose that because I wasn’t going to be dressing up as her most recognizable outfit of the movie. It was subtle enough to wear out and about without drawing too much attention. I was happy for what it was in the end.

Day 1 was the longest day, so I knew I would use that time to do my Dragonite cosplay! It was also a good day to do it because the Pokémon Cosplay meetup was happening that day as well. I’m so happy with the way it looked and turned out!

Day 2 I decided to go with my Azumanga Daioh one. I was worried at first, because I knew the anime was several years old and didn’t think anyone would recognize it. To my surprise a few people did recognize it! I also have to give them props because the outfit was only from 1 episode in the entire series.

Celeb Sightings

My friends and I did not end up doing any additional meet and greets at the convention mainly because you had to pay extra for most of them. That’s one that we can appreciate about a small convention like Kumoricon, where we did get to meet a lot of recognizable voice actors that was included in our badge fees.

Two people that I ended up spotting were actually YouTubers Domics and ProJared! Domics was just sitting by some food trucks, and my friend and I just happened to spot him and decided to approach and ask. I then saw ProJared waiting near an entrance with his cosplaying wife. I managed to grab a selfie with him before entering the exhibit hall.

Overall Impressions

• New Anime Overload
  It did not take me long to realize that I was not familiar with a lot of the new animes out there. Tons of people were dressed up in My Hero Academia cosplay and Re:Zero, and I had no context for most of them. Basically the main way you were going to gain attention is if you cosplayed as the latest and greatest.

• Overwhelming!
  In comparison to Kumoricon, where the crowds were generally manageable, Anime Expo was a whole other level! At one point my friends and I were so thankful that we made it into the hall in a timely manner because apparently people waited for hours to get in at some point.

• Artist Alley was HUGE!
  I think you’re starting to get the overall gist of Anime Expo now, but when I tell you I had to split my time in the artist alley up between two days, I mean it. On the first day I walked in and was immediately so overwhelmed that I didn’t even interact with any of the booths. I just walked though them and took peeks at what I would maybe want. I ended up spending so much money there and in the exhibit hall though. Just so many amazing artists to choose from!

Overall I did have a good time there with my friends. Also glad that since we were in LA that we got to try a lot of the amazing food that is out there including Ramen & Mochi in little Tokyo, and then Korean BBQ. I would make the trip again to Anime Expo if time allowed it, and if I had someone to go with again for sure!