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 Anime Expo 2010 in Los Angeles, California was AWESOME! The Japa Staff went to see what's hot in the world of Anime these days, and we were not disappointed with the love there was for this part of Japanese culture. The most surprising part was the demographics of the attendees: young, old, men, women, children, Asian, black, white, purple hair, green hair, plastic, metal, and cardboard. It was our first expo, but Japa Staff plan on visiting the Anime Expo again, as this is only the beginning of a great experience!
On the opening day, we were overly excited at the traffic lights right outside of the convention center where Gundam Wing was just crossing the street. Amazing. As we approached the Convention Center, there was a Anime Coach bus to greet the visitors. Inside, we saw classic game icons Mario and Luigi in tights. It was a bit like Halloween at that point (my favorite time of year), but wonderful to see, of course.
Including myself, Japa Staff are huge Gundam fans.This line up of 3 very different types of Gundam were incredible to see. The large figure found at the Bandai booth was incredible, great cosplayer wore his home made mobile suit, and a fan got hers made by the balloon man inside. But enough Gundam talk, there were tons, TONS of great cosplayers in Anime characters, Lolita outfits, freaky cardboard outfits, other movie and cartoon characters and everyone having fun in the courtyard and foyer. One whold day would be required to just sit and enjoy all the costumes.
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Inside the convention center, we enjoyed looking at hats and cat ears that looked hand made, replica weapons, beautiful leather work and vinyl and silk corsets, Gundam models (of course), Hi-Chew candy, other Anime figures, posters, and the most impressive to us was the mass of translated manga!
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Having only shopped in Japanese store for Japanese items for the most part, these translated manga opened our eyes a little bit. We are aware of manga on the Internet by scanlators, but to see that so many are already legally translated! Well, the Japa Staff may think there's a lot out there, but I'm sure die hard manga fans who can't find their favorites oin their language probably doing think it's enough.
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However, on far end of the convention center were young American mangaka, working hard to show their talents in the world of Anime. Will we see them published in the future? We wish them all luck, and hope to see more of their amazing work and passion for Anime at the next Expo!
Speaking of passion, other than the Anime Otaku, there were Idol
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Otaku as well! So much passion and a lot of energy they demonstrated at the base of the small stage where guests from Japan sang and danced for their fans. We were able to catch a clip of a song where the audience was going crazy!
The fans we saw knew how to do the specific dance, and knew when to jump and shout, and wave their glow sticks all in unison. THAT, my friends, was SUGOI! It reminded me of the idol craze in Japan back in the 80's. The only thing missing was the synced call of the idol's name. That would have been superb.
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