Anime Los Angeles has started off this convention year, and a lot of things went down on January 10-13. As usual, I went down there to see whats up. As the convention continues to grow, changes start to come. This includes expanding to four days. So let’s see how Anime Los Angeles has blossomed so far.
Just like 2018, Anime Los Angeles continues to have security at entry points. But this time around it was slightly less strict when passing through. Instead of full on metal detectors, attendees simply had their badges checked and any bags passing through being searched.
Walking around to the entry points on the other hand added a bit more walking. The outside area where the food trucks were parked had fences erected around. Making attendees walk in a big circle in order to enter through the front of back.
On the panels area though (moved to the Hilton Doubletree), security points were absent. This area had a more relaxed feel and didn’t seem as crowded as the convention center hallways (at times it felt like it was a different convention all together). This opened up more space for programming, as more events opened up for the convention center and Gateway hotel activity rooms (such as the addition of Escape room games and a bigger gaming room). The panel rooms were quite active with diverse programming, and had of elbow room. Although like with previous years since the move to the Ontario convention center, the larger panel room has yet to be completely filled on a consistent basis. Most likely because the attendee numbers have yet to catch up with room sizes (which includes even the main events room sometimes). Anime Los Angeles grows by each year, but still has some length to go before the attendee number fills the panel venue (such as FanimeCon and Anime Expo).
Back tracking to the food trucks, this year we had the usual trucks with some new ones. The food was still of decent quality, but the prices were still a tad too high (most single food items being around $8). Interesting thing with the food trucks this year was the unique going ons with the Okamoto Kitchen truck. They actually had two trucks out on Friday, official merchandise in the dealers room, and a kickstarter for trying to start an anime based on their mascot character (yes, crazy isn’t?). I even gave in and bought one of their shirts.
To my minor surprise,former AV star Kaho Shibuya attended the convention. Unlike hentaiCon, I was unable to cross paths with her(she was kind of vague at what booth she was supposed to be at). Maybe at FanimeCon? You never know(assuming she’s going there).
Image: twitter @Shibukaho
So that was the rundown for Anime Los Angeles 2019. Let’s not forget the wonderful cosplayers (as I scattered throughout).Until Anime Los Angeles 2020.
About the author: Glitch is a digital demon from planet Fanboy, and is here to teach us humans a thing or two. You can find more of his reviews(and nonsense) over at digitaldemonglitch.com