For me, this is the first time I’ve ever attended an anime convention here in the Los Angeles (LA) area other than Anime Expo. There was one time a couple years ago where we were about to go, but because lack of enthusiasm and bad experiences, we wound up doing other things. Nothing could be worse that could affect later decisions than that. But because of one bad experience doesn’t mean it will keep happening every time. I’m glad I don’t subscribe or easily swayed to such trains of thought, other wise I wouldn’t go anywhere. I’m a firm believer that past experiences could be learned from to make things better. So after the sixth iteration of Anime LA, it became one of the best winter conventions in the Fall/Winter season in Southern California.

This time around, it was just Lawrence, Samantha and I that went to Anime LA. We arrived at the LAX Marriot about 8:30. It was good that parking was very easy, albeit the $13 parking fee. But that’s to be expected because parking is a premium in LA. Again, it’s good we arrived early in the morning. Registration was a breeze. Then again, it could be because it was Saturday. Just fill out a short form and get in line. This time, Samantha was the “main” attendee while I was the “Parent in Tow.” After I paid her $30 registration fee, I attended for free. The cashier, Heidi, told me of some specific “parent” panels and parent-only areas. I was interested.

We still had about an hour and half before anything starts. We went to the lobby level to find a Starbucks. We had a little breakfast and to plan out our day. By the time 10 hit, we went to the first panel about “what to watch after watching anime.” The turnout was really small but it was interesting. The speaker introduced a few asian films that could or might be available. At least I got to see how the current Yamato CG movie was like. This is in anticipation for the live action movie coming out this December. Movies coming from asia have come a long way from before.

When the panel ended, we went to the dealers room. Argh! From the map of the hotel floor that I was looking at the other day, I thought it was large. Wrong. The dealers room was small. It didn’t take even 10 minutes to look through all the vendors. There was nothing much to see. Nothing exciting. Even though the dealers room was about the same size as the one at AniMagic that we attended a few years before, AniMagic had better merchandise.

I realized that there was an 11:00 panel that we wanted to attend on “how to run a convention.” I called Lawrence to tell him where we were. Even though we were 10 minutes late, the discussion was very valuable and informative. For a couple years, we have jokingly talked about starting a small con (convention) here in the Inland Empire, RiverCon. But after all the things I learned from this panel, we didn’t stand a chance. Even with me being the wisest (relatively) and oldest in the group, we didn’t even hit up on the other many intricate details of running a convention. If we did do such a venture, it would’ve failed in the planning stage...a fool’s errand.

It was already after we had lunch that we went to our next panel that I, myself, wanted to attend. The panel was about “parents concerns about anime and the conventions” or something like that. This panel was for parents whose kids are anime fans. It really didn’t pertain to me, being a fan myself, but I was interested to hear what other non-fan parents had to say. A lot of the discussion was mainly about parents’ trust in their child attending anime conventions and how parents could deal with it. Other topics were discussed like terminology, convention budgeting, child security and so on. I wished more parents could attend this panel. By having this panel, it showed that the people running this con cared for its young fans and took it seriously. I was truly touched myself. Too bad that other anime conventions couldn’t be like this. It’s one-of-a-kind. Being the kind of parent I am, I would let Samantha wander off by herself at this con without worrying.



By this time in the afternoon, we were killing time for the next panel that I wanted to attend about “how to make going to a con, better.” But while killing time at Artist Alley and the dealers room, I got a text from my old friend, Bill, who was on his way to meet up with us. I didn’t know how much longer, but we waited outside for him for a while. Man, it’s been too long since I last saw him. We walked around the convention area talking pictures and checking stuff out. Bill was amazed, trying to soak in everything that was going on. Yeah it’s been a while. The last anime con he went to was back in 97. We wanted to eat now, but the hotel restaurant was closed. So went to sports bar instead.

After having our late afternoon snack, we chilled for a while catching up. I think Lawrence went off to check out some other stuff. By coincidence, most of the con kind of shut down by 4 in preparation for the masquerade. There were maybe one or two panels going on, other than artist alley and the dealers room and people getting in line already. The masquerade didn’t start until 7 so we had a couple hours to kill. We weren’t in such a hurry to see the masquerade. So in that time, from time to time, we walked around the con taking pictures, hanging out at different places, checking out the sights and other things, to make it short. Luckily it was stillwarm after getting dark outside the hotel because that’s where we were most of the time, the hotel patio.

By 8, Bill had to go so we sent him off. We hung around for a bit and decided to catch the rest of the masquerade. It was a full house. And because of fire ordinances, they wouldn’t let us in. It wasn’t a total loss since we had no real interest to watch it. It was only to kill time since everything else shut down. There was the Rockband contest, but you know.... Anyway, there were some “other” panels later on that evening, but we could go to them because they were “blue.” So after talking the last set of pictures, we called it the day and headed home...after stopping by Frys Electronics along the way.

All in all, I had a really great impression of the con, albeit the experiences that people shared to me about this con. It was how Anime Expo used to be more than a decade ago, but better. I surely hope it doesn’t get any bigger. I would go to this con next year, this time for a couple days or all three. It’s nice since it’s close to home (relatively), inexpensive, family friendly and its still a small con. Sorry AniMagic, see you next year Anime LA.