The first con of 2009! Anime LA was held at the LAX Marriott near the LAX airport (I never understood why they chose a place near an airport and a XXX Live Nude Adult store). I was excited to attend the con because it’s our first one in a couple of months. As we were heading into the parking garage, I noticed that there were several cosplayers walking around the area. YES! This won’t be as bad as PMX. Once we’re in, we register, paid $30 per ticket and picked up our badges, took a total of 10 minutes.
We scope out the place and noticed that the energy was really low. There were plenty of cosplayers inside but the atmosphere just wasn’t there. It could be that it was held in the “conference hall” of the hotel and it was pretty dark. Convention centers are well lit but this damn hotel was pretty dark. We started off by going around the con and taking pictures.
Walked some more and met Betty and Hailey (always see them at different events) again, sweet as usual. Walked some more and checked out the artists’ alley. Pretty small but it was busy. Browsed the exhibitor’s hall and you have the typical dealers: selling figures, swords, Japanese items, imported DVDs and other neat trinkets. The dealer room was a bit small but it was pretty packed. In the other room, Johnny Yong Bosch from Power Rangers fame was entertaining his fans in his panel.
We went out to lunch at Carl’s Jr. When we came back, the energy from the con was a little bit better. Attendees were friendlier and happier. Although I did see a couple of girls crying in the swimming pool area. First time I’ve seen people crying in a convention. We asked some people to join us for a video shoot and everybody agreed (You know who you are, THANKS!). As we were waiting for the elevator, we see Power Rangers dude next to us. Our friend and cameraman Mike notices him and tells us about it. My other friend asked him if he’s down for a short interview. His reply “I can’t, I have to leave right now because I want to rent a video.”
My other friend asked Power Rangers dude and his friends, “Are you guys in a band or something?” That got a good laugh from us but after doing research, Johnny is in a real band. Our friend didn’t really know who he was and asked an honest question.
After that, we took more pictures inside the con. By this time, we must have been to the exhibit hall at least 5 times. Later on the night, we were planning to watch the Masquerade but the line got too long and called it a day.
Overall I was a bit disappointed with the event because I was really looking forward to it, but the vibe was really bad because certain people are too serious and don’t know when to lighten up. $30 for a one day pass is a little bit too much for a small show. I’m still glad I went because I met new people and the costumes didn’t disappoint. For next year’s event, I’m planning to go back but not paying for a badge. Most of the fun stuff that happened took place in the halls where you don’t need a badge.
Want to see more pictures? Click here for the photo gallery.
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Reboot
Jan 9, 2009 -
any convention can be ruined by cos players who take things way to seriously. Ive never heard of Anime LA. Im just looking forward to Comi-con!
You guys going to AX this year?
John Spartan
Jan 9, 2009 -
Of course we’re going this year! We’re hoping to make it big there this year, lol.
Trina
Jan 10, 2009 -
Heeeey!!! I saw you guys in the hall!! I randomly stated that I saw Mr.tentacles on youtube!haha!! see you at Ax!
Bitmaster
Jan 10, 2009 -
fuck! logan had 1 to many beers lol
Qui
Jan 13, 2009 -
oh you crazy tentacle bastards… Unfortunately my group of friends weren’t able to stay that much longer after we bumped into you john.. bastards had to go to work… but hey come time AX we’ll be there all weekend long dude so we’ll get a drink, and you’ll get to see how drunk AMV creators can get 😀
John Spartan
Jan 14, 2009 -
Yeah, work is overrated, lol. But I do want to see drunk AMV creators editing 😉