Thursday
The Anime Expo is held at the Anaheim Convention Center, a block or two from Disneyland. Our hotel was also about a block away. The expo didn't actually start until Friday, but Thursday evening was early registration. (We had prepaid online, but still had to stand in line to get our badges.) We pretty much went straight from the airport, to the hotel, to registration.
The doors opened at 5:00; we got there about forty minutes later, and stood in line for about two and a half hours. It was long and tedious, but nothing compared to what people had to suffer registering on Friday. It was later announced that they had expected under 20,000 attendees, and wound up with over 25,000. So they were understaffed, and midway through Friday reg they ran out of badge holders. Needless to say, we were thrilled not to have to eat up half of Friday standing in line. But that came later.
Thursday night, we were standing on the concrete floor of a bare exhibit hall, in one of several secondary lines waiting to join the main line. Despite the tedium, this was a nice way to kick things off, because we were surrounded by cosplayers. I was surprised at how many people came to early registration in costume. But if you've worked hard on a costume, or if it can transport you into another identity, you don't miss a chance to wear it. Being in costume, they each acted the part. Nearby, a frog, a fairy, and a lab-coated girl played a childish game of clapping hands and clomping cups on the floor. If three typically impish female characters from different anime universes met, that's exactly the kind of thing they'd do. Actually I was reminded of the characters in Nintendo games (which tend to resemble anime, in a crude way). Several people had costumes consisting of fuzzy animal ears and a fuzzy animal tail, which to me looked like Mario's flying fox get-up. (Yes, it's true: not only do I not know my anime, I'm also about 10 years behind when it comes to Nintendo.) One guy in particular sported not only the ears and tail, but the kind of face you see in a video game; one or two expressions, abbreviated animation, no dialog. Whatever world this character came from, his modus operandi seemed to be hugging. A prankster taped a note on the back of his trenchcoat (nothing so simple as "Kick Me," but some inside gag I didn't get); ear-and-tail guy retaliated with a silent attack hug. He appeared to recognize the cup-clomping frog as from the same world, which he indicated by pointing at her and then at his ears. Then he hugged all the cup-clompers, flashed a double victory sign and disappeared.
Just ahead of us in line was another motley group sitting on the floor, playing a game that looked a lot like Uno, but with galaxies and wasps and comets on the cards. Two of them were just regular guys without costumes. A girl wore coveralls, ears and a tail. When the line moved, she did not get up, but slid across the floor, pushing with her legs. A move straight out of Street Fighter! Waiting in this stupid line turned out to be quite immersive, like being in a live-action anime crossover world.
