2018 marks 27 years for Anime Expo! We are taking a look at some of the highlights that makes Anime so successful. Anime Expo is the largest celebration of Japanese pop culture in North America. Their first event took place in 1991 at the San Jose Red Lion Hotel. Anime Expo moved to Los Angeles in 2008 and in 2016 Anime Expo began to host crowds of over 100,000 attendees. Bringing in over $99 Million dollars in revenue for the city of Los Angeles. Anime Expo kicked off their long weekend with a preview night on the 4th of July. The 4-day event ran from Thursday to Sunday. It was jammed packed with over 900 hours of programming that included panels, screenings, workshops and more. Boasting 4 nights of concerts, Interactive events, seven world premiere’s, a masquerade and the World Cosplay Summit US finals, it is easy to see why Anime Expo has had such a successful 27 year run.
Exhibit Hall & The Annex
The Exhibit hall boasted over 400 vendors in a 137,600sf space! It was impossible to see it all in one day! New this year was the Annex at Kentia Hall. The Annex is a new concept space. It hosted all of Artist Alley and worked as an area where creators could display original art and designs. Also found in the Annex was live art and a portfolio review area.
Gaming
Table Top and E-Gaming made up most of the Entertainment Hall. The Entertainment Hall featured an area with 70+ current and past generation consoles available from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. And even new titles including the highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts 3. Table Top featured tournaments, learn-to-play, and free-play sessions, there was something for everyone at all skill levels. Tournaments were scheduled daily, both casual, small-scale ones, as well as larger scale ones hosted by industry partners such as Konami, Bushiroad, and Force of Will.
The Crowds
It is easy to see why Anime Expo has such a huge appeal. With seven world premiere’s including Attack on Titan Season 3, 3 Flavors of Youth, Kengan Ashura, My Hero Academia and more. There were over 900 hours of panels, events, screenings and workshops. Over 150 guest appearances and nightly concerts. The only downside of the convention was the large crowds. If you didn’t arrive an hour or two before the convention started you were forced to wait 1-3 hours just to find a parking spot. It feels like Anime Expo has outgrown the Los Angeles Convention Center. The photos of these crows were taken on Saturday of the convention which is also the busiest day for the convention. Wednesday’s preview night was the only day that had a significantly smaller crowd size.
#AnimeExpo Corridor between the South Hall and West Hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Beyond Capacity. pic.twitter.com/tt8tBwN6vX
— Mon @WonderCon 2019 (@paparazzimon) July 7, 2018
Cosplay
Cosplay reigned king at Anime Expo! A huge win for the convention was the amount of cosplay sets available! This in our opinion is what many other pop culture conventions are missing. A dedicated cosplay experience area with sets, volunteers and cosplay repair area.
Anime Expo played host to the finals for the World Cosplay Summit US Preliminary! The “World Cosplay Summit (WCS)” was created to promote international exchange through the Japanese youth culture of manga and anime. It has grown to include 30 countries and regions from around the world. The winner of the World Cosplay Summit US Finals at Anime Expo will then travel to Nagoya as representatives of the USA in the Cosplay Championship at World Cosplay Summit.
Cosplayers at Anime Expo
You can see more Cosplay galleries from Anime Expo Here:
Anime Expo Cosplay Gallery Day 1
Anime Expo Cosplay Gallery Day 2
Anime Expo Cosplay Gallery Day 3
Anime Expo Cosplay Gallery Day 4
Cosplay Experience at Anime Expo
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