Anime Expo is the largest anime convention to take place outside of Japan and it draws attendees from all over the world, with registration going as high as 8,000 as it did last year. This year's Anime Expo was held from July 16-18, 1999 at the Anaheim Hilton and Convention Center. Even spanning over the course of three days, it's still impossible to see every panel or go to every anime viewing. However, with luck and good planning, one can see/do almost everything s/he wishes. The expo hosted 14 guest of honors, including Yoko Kanno (composer - Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop), Mika Akitaka (mecha designer - Gundam 0083, Gundam 0080, Martian Successor Nadesico) and Mari Iijima (actress - Lynn Minmay)...just to name a few.
For a large number of attendees, the con began with preregistration on Thursday. Like-minded individuals came early and stood in lines and waited...and waited. People appeared to take the waiting in stride and having friends around them made the waiting the tiniest easier to bear (although the A/C should have been turned up or windows should've been opened a lot sooner). Once hitting the reg desk, the process was fairly smooth and quick, the only glitch being no badge holders were available until the next day. For once, there was at-the-door registration for those who didn't get their prereg in on time but their wait was even longer and not everyone knew where that line was.
And so it begins...
The next three days were a wonderful frenzy of meet the guests, panels, dealers' room, anime viewings, dealers' room, meet up with old (and new) friends, masquerade, dealers' room, karoake, gaming and more dealers' room. There were opportunities to ask questions of the guests of honors, hear Yoko Kanno's piano recital, and get autographs. U.S. companies (Pioneer, Viz, A.D. Vision, AnimeVillage.com) were there to answer questions about current and upcoming releases. There were panels on voice acting, fanfics, cel collecting as well as specific anime like Escaflowne and Legend of Galactic Heroes. In addition, there were five video rooms showing dubbed, subtitled (commercial and fan) anime as well as Hong Kong action movies. There was also a film room where Tenchi Forever and Nadesico: Prince of Darkness were shown. Even a gaming room was available.
Fushigi Yuugi still has a strong presence among the con-goers as evidenced by the cosplayers and dealers' room. Several were dressed as Miaka or Yui (in their school uniforms) as well as the mikos in their regalia. Suzaku seishi were represented by several Chichiri's, Tasuki's and Nuriko's. Even the Seiryuu seishi were around, represented by Nakago, Soi and Tomo. The Seiryuu group were the only entrants in the masquerade and they certainly weren't shy as Soi and Tomo dueled in a duet over Nakago. Stalemate, I'd say.
The dealers' room was in the convention center this year (compared to last year's ballroom) and had much more room for all the attendees to move around in and not feel packed in. There were over 60 dealers, including a roomful of commercial companies like AnimeVillage/Bandai, Pioneer, Suncoast and Central Park Media. Among the dealers, FY merchandise were readily snatched up by eager fans: LDs and videos, CDs (both music and drama), posters, wall scrolls, trading cards stickers, pens, pencils, rulers and erasers.
The masquerade, for the first time, was broadcast over the hotel's channel; my roommates and I took advantage of this and watched from the comfort of our hotel room. However, with the delays and small problems, masquerade began almost two hours after its scheduled start time. Once begun, the costumes and skits had everyone enjoying themselves. From groups cosplaying the dragons of heaven and earth (CLAMPs' X), deciding the fate of the world by pillow-fight, to Eagle Vision (Magic Knights Rayearth) singing, to the Violinist of Hameln group to Soi and Tomo fighting over Nakago to a group of "pro-" cosplayers from Japan (in characters from Sailor Moon and Five Star Stories) showing the gaijin how costuming was done to Pen-Pen dancing to "I'm Too Sexy"...the masquerade was a showcase of talent, hilarity and wonderful costuming.
During the break deciding the winners, a group of student voice-actors from one of Japan's engineering schools demonstrated to the audience how dubbing is done. The anime was first shown without sound, then with the students speaking their part (in Japanese) then with volunteers from the audience (in English). It was a wonderful session and showed how difficult and fun it can be dubbing an anime...timing is everything. Oh and what were they showing? It's a new anime currently in production and from the styles and designs, it's by the same group who made Detective Conan...in fact, I believe the main character is Detective George...and more, we will all have to wait. And first place? Pen-Pen!
With the masquerade running late, open karoake was also pushed back but quite a number of otakus stayed up for this. From Pokeman to KareKano to Fushigi Yuugi to Weiß kreuz and more, there were quite a variety sung by brave people. One wished the audio equipment was set up better...it was way too loud and more often than not, the volume drowned out the singer's voice. All in all, it was fun and how long it continued, I'm not sure...I gave up around 3a.m.
Definitely, thanks and kudos are due the staff and volunteers who worked the con but saw very little of it themselves. I've been to various local anime or sci-fi cons and a few international ones (and worked at a few) and know how hard it is to make sure a convention this size runs as smooth as it did. Congrats to a hard job well done! I certainly enjoyed myself.
And next year? I'm certainly returning...can't miss AX as the millenium ends...a herd of banthas and a droid army certainly can't keep me away. See you there next year!
Visit Nellie at: mysterious.icestorm
Comments go to: nchiang@prodigy.net
Article copyrighted 1999 Nellie Chiang
