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Anime Expo Detox
So last week I went to Anime Expo. I didn't get to go to all the panels I wanted to, mostly because a lot of them overlapped and the lines to get into everything were obscene, but I still had a good time. And a lot of it boiled down to the fact that I lucked out with the events I did get into, and I didn't put too much pressure on myself to do anything specific.
I attended the screening of Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution, the shot-for-shot remake of the first Pokemon movie in 3D. I ended up being a lot more impressed with the visuals and the film itself than I thought I'd be, but the whole experience was tarnished by the fact that an AX Staff member was standing up and obscuring a chunk of the screen for a large portion of the movie, despite my pleading with staff to have him moved. I was especially impressed with how the backgrounds looked in the Castle set, it almost feeling like something out of a Tim Burton movie. That said, I would've preferred if they had done and original story instead of a remake (maybe in the new timeline established in I Choose You! and The Power of Us?). The Q&A after ended up going better than I thought it would, and I consider the whole event extremely worth it even though it swallowed up the entirety of my Thursday.
I also went to the Bisco Hatori panel, though I was disappointed that I missed the first ten minutes of it because AX handed the line extremely poorly. It made me want to go back and finish Millennium Snow and read Behind the Scenes!, and it reminded me of how much I loved reading all of the Ouran High School Host Club manga (the longest manga I've actually finished!). I was especially touched by Hatori's supportive message regarding LGBTQ inclusion in her work, which she was visibly nervous about due to the tenuous relationship figures in the industry seem to have with being able to express that sentiment publicly (see: Yuri on Ice).
The only other panel I managed to attend was the Fakku one because friends were going. Somehow this ended up being the most shameless I've been at con since I ended up spending close to $300 on pornography in between doujinshi and official products at the Fakku booth and R-18 section of the dealers room. (Though I did buy a body pillow at Anime Boston this year). This feels like it should be a phase I should've gone through in college, but I'm honestly just so happy that I'm comfortable enough to buy gay/hot dude content at events in front of other people and not really care what the people around me think.
I also really loved just being out and about in LA outside the con. Last year I did a tour of the Warner Brothers Studio lot, but this year I felt like I got a better sense of the city itself by actually going to bars and eating from food trucks. I honestly wish I had stayed longer so I could've done more. I honestly could say that I think I'd enjoy living out there, except for the fact that I was at the top of the tallest building in LA when the earthquake hit and I thought I was gonna die. Definitely couldn't live peacefully knowing that could happen at any moment.
As of right now I don't know if I'll be going to AX next year, as my whole con schedule for 2020 is much more up in the air than it usually is. If I don't, I wonder if it would be worth it to plan something on my own. If nothing else, I'm glad I'm able to have this much fun after the low that was this past winter, and I'm really looking forward to what this summer and fall will bring!
I attended the screening of Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution, the shot-for-shot remake of the first Pokemon movie in 3D. I ended up being a lot more impressed with the visuals and the film itself than I thought I'd be, but the whole experience was tarnished by the fact that an AX Staff member was standing up and obscuring a chunk of the screen for a large portion of the movie, despite my pleading with staff to have him moved. I was especially impressed with how the backgrounds looked in the Castle set, it almost feeling like something out of a Tim Burton movie. That said, I would've preferred if they had done and original story instead of a remake (maybe in the new timeline established in I Choose You! and The Power of Us?). The Q&A after ended up going better than I thought it would, and I consider the whole event extremely worth it even though it swallowed up the entirety of my Thursday.
I also went to the Bisco Hatori panel, though I was disappointed that I missed the first ten minutes of it because AX handed the line extremely poorly. It made me want to go back and finish Millennium Snow and read Behind the Scenes!, and it reminded me of how much I loved reading all of the Ouran High School Host Club manga (the longest manga I've actually finished!). I was especially touched by Hatori's supportive message regarding LGBTQ inclusion in her work, which she was visibly nervous about due to the tenuous relationship figures in the industry seem to have with being able to express that sentiment publicly (see: Yuri on Ice).
The only other panel I managed to attend was the Fakku one because friends were going. Somehow this ended up being the most shameless I've been at con since I ended up spending close to $300 on pornography in between doujinshi and official products at the Fakku booth and R-18 section of the dealers room. (Though I did buy a body pillow at Anime Boston this year). This feels like it should be a phase I should've gone through in college, but I'm honestly just so happy that I'm comfortable enough to buy gay/hot dude content at events in front of other people and not really care what the people around me think.
I also really loved just being out and about in LA outside the con. Last year I did a tour of the Warner Brothers Studio lot, but this year I felt like I got a better sense of the city itself by actually going to bars and eating from food trucks. I honestly wish I had stayed longer so I could've done more. I honestly could say that I think I'd enjoy living out there, except for the fact that I was at the top of the tallest building in LA when the earthquake hit and I thought I was gonna die. Definitely couldn't live peacefully knowing that could happen at any moment.
As of right now I don't know if I'll be going to AX next year, as my whole con schedule for 2020 is much more up in the air than it usually is. If I don't, I wonder if it would be worth it to plan something on my own. If nothing else, I'm glad I'm able to have this much fun after the low that was this past winter, and I'm really looking forward to what this summer and fall will bring!