Pacific Media Expo (PMX) is similar event to Anime Expo (AX): experiencing Japanese pop culture, especially Anime. Both events have cosplayers. But this is where the similarities end. While Anime Expo has become a huge event every July 4th weekend, Pacific Media Expo is on its last legs. But just because PMX is on its deathbed, didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.

After driving aimlessly outside the LAX Hilton Hotel looking for cheap parking, we finally decided to park in the hotel for the cheap price of $17. The even looked pretty dead from outside the hotel. But once we were in the parking lot, we saw a lot of babes. So I thought, “Maybe you can’t judge a book by the cover”. We decide to check out the place before paying the $20 admission fee. We go to the lobby and see about 20 cosplayers. We walk around the small conferences room and notice about 5 or 6 people in each room. We come to the conclusion that the event is officially dead and it’s not worth $20.

But since we were already at the event, we decided to take pictures. I thought it was going to be boring just taking pictures but I enjoyed it. Since I wasn’t in a hurry to cover other programs, I had more time to appreciate the costumes and talk to the cosplayers. There were some neat costumes, the Kingdom Hearts Vampire jumped out, as well as some lady in a masquerade gown.

Lady in masquerade outfit.

We went to a “theme” room where pocky was being featured and another room where sexy maids were serving coffees. The pocky room featured different type of pocky’s. Highlight in the room was the calligraphist, who wrote my name in Japanese. Very nice guy and truely enjoyed his art. The maid room was different. If girls in sexy maid outfits weren’t interesting enough, you also had two dudes in skirts. They were serving biscuits and coffees. It was kind of weird seeing some guys being served by sexy waitresses in a small room. It was a bit awkward but everyone was friendly. I loved the waitress that was sticking her tongue out at me. Once I’d point the camera at her, she would stop sticking her tongue out. Damn tease!!

The tease on the far right next to the sexy dude!

We walk around some more and see a former writer for the site, Anela. She was there with her friends and I think they were all dressing up as Guilty Gears characters. She informed us that there was another convention in the hotel: porn. We decide to check it out the porn convention, but they wouldn’t let us in with the videocam. So we also decided not to go in. No wonder we see so many babes in the parking lot, it wasn’t for PMX.

One of the girls from the other convention.

Walked around some more and took a pic of a lolita lady sitting by the stairs. My friend sits next to her and makes a funny pose. As I was about to take the picture, one of the photographers became serious and told my friend “EXCUSE ME!”. As if to tell my friend, “get the fuck out of the picture so I can take a picture of the girl by herself”. My friend heard it and intentionally took his time sitting down next to the girl. I also took my time taking the picture just to piss of the loser photographer. So with that in mind, let me give an announcement to SERIOUS photographers: Have fun, it’s not serious business =).

This is when it became serious business.

Met one guy who we interviewed at Anime Expo. I also noticed several of the cosplayers at AX. So the event is defiinitely trying to cater to the AX crowd. Talked to a company that is seriously building a mech type machine, used for construction and emergencies. It reminded me of Exo Squad and the yellow loader from Aliens. It’d be awesome to see their final product.

Twins dressed up as Lolitas.

Overall, I think it was just bad promotion and logistics that sank PMX. I attended PMX about 3 years ago at the Long Beach Convention Center and it was dead. If they just rented out a small venue first, the event wouldn’t have looked like a total failure and the buzz would have been good. They went big too fast.

I enjoyed this year’s PMX because I was able to interact with the crowd. Even though not many people showed up, everyone was friendly (except for the serious photographer). Add to the fact that I saw some unique things and I would call the this event: enjoyable.

If you want to see more pics from the event, visit the PMX photo gallery.

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