Introduction
My brother Erik was visiting from Colorado last year, and suggested we meet up in Anaheim for the 2004 Anime Expo. Neither of us had ever been to one, and it sounded fun.
Erik collects anime cels. (Click here to see his online gallery.) I'm a bit more of a casual fan. There are certain anime films and TV series that I love watching, but Japan produces a ton of animated shows, and I simply haven't seen many of them. Buying videos is just about the only way to see most anime, but if you know nothing more than what you see on the box, it's a gamble. Anime varies widely in tone, style, and subject matter. True, alien invasions and giant robots are common themes. So are samurai, ninja, vampires, etc. But there are plenty of comedies, romances, fairy stories, and soap operas as well. Several themes are often combined in one show.
Animation in Japan is intimately connected with comics; sometimes you can get an idea about an anime title by reading its manga counterpart. But not always. Even when the same individual writes/draws the manga and directs the video, the two can be vastly different. Sitting down and watching a lot of anime is really the only way to find the good stuff. There was plenty to see at the expo.
As with the Comic Con, I will try to be informative for people who have little to no knowledge of anime (like me).
AX In a Nutshell
Like the Comic Con, the Anime Expo featured a large exhibit hall, or as we called it, the Stuff Room. This was a huge space on the main floor of the convention center, filled with booths for dealers, manga publishers, and anime studios. Every video and manga in print was probably available somewhere in the Stuff Room, as well as toys, t-shirts, and posters. There were also some cel dealers. Erik took advantage of being there on day one to find some good stuff.
A funny thing on the exhibit floor was the Dreamworks booth. You could just see the people at Dreamworks saying, "Anime Expo! Animation fans! Let's promote our upcoming Finding Nemo knockoff!" But the booth was absolutely ignored. I never saw a single person approach it. Note to Dreamworks (and Pixar and Disney): anime tends to use complex and subtle storytelling, totally unlike the obvious and belabored musical children's theater we have in America. Why should anime fans care about A Shark's Tale? And why should animation always be directed at kids? And why should the kids always be talked down to? If you think they won't respond to subtlety and complexity, watch My Neighbor Totoro with your kids and see what they say.
Unlike the Comic Con, the Anime Expo also featured half a dozen screening rooms, where various anime videos played from 8:00 am to 5:00 am. These rooms were mostly in a hotel next door to the convention center. The first thing we saw was Last Exile, which was still my favorite when we left on Monday. Some other video highlights were Trigun, Noir, Read or Die, Wolf's Rain, and Ghost in the Shell. (See An Anime Autobiography for all video commentary.) The screening rooms were mostly in one of the hotels next to the convention center.
The area in front of the convention center became Cosplay Central. Cosplay is a term I later picked up from the expo literature. Short for costume-play, it means dressing up like a character and acting like that character. Why do those goofy anime fans need their own word for dressing up in costume, you ask? Well, the term cosplay does carry some particular connotations. It's used sort of like the term role-play, as in role-playing games. But cosplay is not tied to character sheets and rulebooks; the costume is the vehicle for getting into character. In a sense, for cosplayers the whole convention becomes a live-action role playing game, where characters from different anime universes can meet and interact. Usually these interactions are brief; they may consist only of posing dramatically for photographs. Cosplyers and photographers were always gathered in front of the convention center. Groups of people got together to form whole casts of various shows. Two of the most popular costumes were from Trigun; Vash the Stampede in his trademark red trenchcoat, and Wolfwood carrying his huge cloth-wrapped crucifix. There were also lots of people wearing the metal-plated headbands from Naruto. And endless schoolgirl uniforms, sailor suits, lacey skirts, and frilly ribbons. (More on cosplayers in Thursday.) Because we were staying in one of the official expo hotels, we got free tickets to one of the main events. These events included the Masquerade, Anime Idol, and AMV contest. The Masquerade, of course, is a costume contest. Anime Idol contestants try their hands at voice-acting, filling in the voices for anime scenes and songs. There are also a variety of karaoke events. We went to the AMV contest. For an exhaustive account, see Friday.
