UlasanAnime.com – It appears that approaching conventions with a grounded perspective is the norm, to the point of sometimes avoiding air travel to attend them.
As the planning period for Anime Expo 2012 approached, the inclination was to skip it for the entire year, until recently. The primary motivation stemmed from hope, specifically two kinds. Firstly, the hope for compelling guests at Anime Expo. While all types of guests are appreciated, attending AX involves significant effort, time, and money, resources that could be better allocated elsewhere. Regrettably, seeing Yuki Kajiura a few years prior didn’t generate as much excitement, and the prospect of seeing most guests this year is even less thrilling. Despite enjoying Fate/Zero and Kara no Kyoukai, the excitement level remains surprisingly low. Tatsuo Sato is more appealing, but he has been met and conversed with before.
This creates a peculiar situation: on one hand, there’s a willingness to spend three months’ worth of lunch money on merchandise, yet on the other, there’s a lack of enthusiasm for questioning the creators of those very items. Perhaps Aoki and Koyama are engaging individuals to speak with, but assurance on this front is lacking. The questions themselves are not the issue; it’s the anticipation of asking them that feels muted.
The second type of hope lies in experiencing Anime Expo as a vacation, a chance to socialize with like-minded enthusiasts and friends, and enjoy the local surroundings, whether it’s what Los Angeles offers or what the convention itself presents. However, the X-Games are scheduled to coincide with AX, potentially monopolizing a significant portion of the LACC/Staples Center/Nokia Theater complex facilities. This overlap might slightly dampen this particular hope.
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Ultimately, the experience is largely shaped by individual effort. If committed to attending AX, the goal should be to make the most of it. There’s little concern about not enjoying Los Angeles, as enjoyable experiences can be found even without venturing out. However, for a convention, it reflects poorly when it struggles to satisfy even its more easily pleased attendees. Technically, if one hasn’t paid for entry, they aren’t a customer, are they?
The issue might not be that the guests are unexciting—though more exciting options are always welcome—but rather that the overall cost of the trip can diminish the experience if there are no “OMG-tier” guests this year. While individuals like Kuribayashi Minami and LiSA might be considered in that category, a personal fan connection is not particularly strong.
What Anime Expo does offer in terms of guests is a substantial number of attendees. A compilation of these guests has been previously documented. There’s some uncertainty regarding GoFa: are they bringing Toume and Range Murata to Los Angeles, or merely showcasing their work? And who is the “director” for Yuki Usagi? The Vocaloid team has yet to finalize their guest announcements, but have already confirmed Dixie Flatline and two others, which, in this context, ranks similarly to LiSA. This is somewhat concerning. Questions linger about who Kajiura will perform with, the scale of Bushiroad’s booth, NISA’s plans, and whether MangaGamer has confirmed their AX crew for this year. Information about Kurinoko’s planned showcase for MuvLov, beyond the “Eclips[sic]” shows mentioned on the tentative schedule, is also scarce. A multitude of questions remain unanswered with less than a month until the event.
Anime Expo can be a decidedly mixed experience. With the current circumstances not particularly favoring a strong lineup, adopting a more reserved outlook for this convention seems prudent. Perhaps these concerns are simply jitters, but it’s important to be aware and adjust expectations accordingly.
On a more positive note, this might lead to fewer scheduling conflicts. The NISA panel being scheduled as the very last panel of the con is a convenient arrangement, especially for someone who typically takes a red-eye flight out.
