First things first: if you attended either of our workshops (podcasting and photography) and are looking for the notes pages for these, here they are: Photography notes, Podcasting notes.

Day 3 – the final day – of Anime LA was pretty low key. In fact I didn’t even make it to any panels. Most of the morning was spent getting much-needed rest, then frantically packing because we got up late and the hotel wasn’t granting late checkout, despite what one hotel person said to me last night when I asked. Then we waited for an hour or so before someone could come help us with our bags. I gather they had an Xbox Huge flood of people checking out at noon. Next time might I suggest that they do grant some late checkouts to some people; that way they can stagger the checkouts and not put too much load on the hotel staff.

Sunday was the most low-key day of them all, but there were still a fair number of people there. Every year, Anime LA has a special “theme day” on Sunday to try and lure people to the con who might otherwise leave after Saturday. This year’s theme was Japanese New Year. There were a few panels and workshops on various things related to Japanese New Years, which looked pretty cool.

I finally had a chance to make it to the dealer’s room. It was about the same size-wise as last year’s dealer’s room. Perhaps this is one way that the Anime LA staff manage the growth of the con. Lots of tables selling manga (whole walls of the stuff), along with character goods, plushies, a few weapons dealers, and figures (Figma, etc.). Seemed to me that there were more figures (and especially Figma type figures) this year than in years past. Maybe this is a precursor to dolls and doll parts/accessories starting to show up. (We think it’s only a matter of time.) One thing I did note however is that the guy who had a whole wall of DVD’s last year wasn’t there this year (at least I couldn’t find him). In fact I don’t recall seeing any DVDs for sale (if there were people selling DVDs, their displays were so small so as to blend in with the rest of the items for sale). Maybe this is another manifestation of the industry’s trend away from physical media. Which would be sad, because I for one still enjoy buying and watching DVDs and Blu-rays. Don’t get me wrong; streaming still has its place (and I do enjoy my Crunchyroll membership) but physical media shouldn’t be abandoned.

Artist’s Alley looked quite lively. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to do anything other than quickly glance through the door. Pity, as I wanted to meet up with Cosplay in America again.

Overall Sunday as a whole definitely felt like a “relax-a-con.” Lots of people relaxing and socializing. More so than other days I thought. And a nice, relaxing end to yet another really nice Anime LA.

It’s amazing to me that, even at a smaller con like this, there was still way too much to see and do. Gaming, karaoke, fighting/martial arts/weapons demos, panels/workshops, concerts… I am also amazed, and glad, to see that, even in times of economic hardship such as we are in now, people (a lot of people, in fact) are still able to come to events like this and enjoy themselves — and that the organizers are able to successfully put on a large scale event such as this.

Of course we’ll be getting together soon to record our thoughts on Anime LA 2011. Expect that episode to hit the podcast feed within the next week or 2.

Finally, let’s talk winners. (Below the cut)

The AMV winners have been posted.  They are as follows:

Audience Favorite: Running Desperado
Best Produced: Curtain Call
Creators’ Choice: Crimson Rhapsody
Staff’s Pick: A Host’s “Special” Kind of Girl

I’ve updated the day 1 report with these, and I’m continuing to update that post as I find links to where you can view/download all the finalists.

And the Masquerade winners: (now we know why the judges took so long, there were over 9000 awards to give out )

Most Humorous Presentation Open and Props Award Workmanship - S Doki Doki Kawaii Academy Its not like I like you or anything cosplay
Best Song Routine Open and Best Stage Effects Workmanship Open - Sequin Moon
Best Group Performance Novice, Honorable Mention Workmanship Novice - Haru and the Baron
Best in Class Novice - World of Warcraft Alliance
Judges Workmanship Open - Ahza
Excellence Workmanship - A No Life King Cosplay Esther Blanchett
Honorable Mention Workmanship – Lulu
Best Design Interpretation Workmanship Novice - S Pokemon Panic The Sacred Tree
Best Individual Novice Presentation - Socal Host Club Special
Best in Show Overall - Kitties go Meow Broccoli goes Moo XD Cosplay DX
Best Walkon Novice, Most Beautiful Workmanship Novice - Sakura Hime
Most Beautiful Open - Hoshikage Foxy Lady
Judges Choice Performance, Best in Class Workmanship - Prince of Pick Up Lines Were Not Twins Cosplay
Best in Class Presentation Novice, Excellence in Workmanship Novice - Four Tail Kyuubi
Best Characterization Novice - The Deformed Diva
Best Characterization Open, Best in Class Workmanship Open - Jojos Fabulous Masquerade
Excellence Workmanship Novice - Sora and Riku
Excellence in Engineering Workmanship Open - Ultimecia
Best in Class Performance Open - Id Like To Move Your Castle

Related posts:

1. A Winner is You! Behold the Anime LA 2010 AMV and Masquerade Winners
2. Anime Los Angeles Day 2 Report (Updated)
3. Anime Los Angeles Day 1 Report (Updated)

AMV:

Action:

1st Place Judge – Alucard’s Sound of Madness 1st Place Audience – Some Ride it Ruff 2nd Place Judge – Rarity 2nd Place Audience – Dante Makes a Man out of Ryu

Drama:

1st Place Judge – Veni Vidi Vici 1st Place Audience – Tsubasa Falling 4th Place Audience – Ameno Tiara Creator’s Choice – Guide Me

Comedy:

1st Place Audience & Judge – GoldenPants 2nd Place Audience – Ode to Cross Dressers 3rd Place Audience & Judge – Mean Woman Blues Judge’s Favorite – It’s Tough to Be a Host

Pro:

1st Place Audience and Judge – Lord of the Anime 2nd Place Judge – Valhalla 2nd Place Audience – Standing Still 3rd Place Judge – You Know My Name 4th Place Audience – CityScape Staff Pick – Diorama

Masquerade:

Best in Show: Workmanship This is What You Give Me to Work With Whitney Brown & Kiyoko Wakabayashi

Best in Show: Presentation The Prince’s Tale We’re Not Twins Cosplay

Workmanship Awards – Novice Division:

Technical Ingenuity Award Evil Black Bunny Productions Jeffrey Gerard

Excellence in Design Romeo and Juliet’s Night at the Rose Ball Laura Linnala

Honorable Mention for Detail Dark Cloud 2 Robot Penguin

Honorable Mention for Armor & Leather Work ia shake-zula of Anime Souffle iakurosaki and DingSha

Best in Class Soldier “A” Cosplay Matt Wiseman & Amanda Avila

Workmanship Awards – Open Division:

Honorable Mention for Details Wesley, Illyria, Gunn, and Spike from Angel Li, Dawn, EJ, & Phil

Honorable Mention for Fabric Painting Ahza Miracle Cinthya Jeanneth Rmz

Armor and Wings and Jewelry, Oh My! Do You Want to Date My Avatar? Beth Hodgson & Jacob Hodgson

Perfection in Sewing Good Enough Cosplay Caistarrin T. Mystical

Obsession with Detail Award Death by Sparkles Garnet Runestar and Tenshi

Best in Class The Prince’s Tale Julia & Caitlin Doolittle

Presentation Awards – Novice Division:

Audience Favorite Mangafreak 150 and Erin Chu Mangafreak150 and Erin Chu

Honorable Mention for Performance Fushigi Yuugi, The Mysterious Play dot, Michi-chan, Melanie, Rin, Katie, & Britnay

Best Individual Performance ia shake-zula of Anime Souffle iakurosaki

Best Group Performance Romeo and Juliet’s Night at the Rose Ball Two and a Half Space Pirates

Presentation Awards – Open Division:

Audience Favorite Ninja Stand-up Comedy Mister Inu

Most Dramatic Death by Sparkles Garnet Runestar and Tenshi

Most Humorous Do You Want to Date My Avatar? Team Kaolinite

Best Individual Presentation Good Enough Cosplay Caistarrin T. Mystical

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

Related posts:

1. Anime Los Angeles Day 3 Report
2. Back from Anime LA
3. Episode #0013 – Anime Expo 2010

I”ll try and schedule a recording session with The Gang soon to record our A-LA recap podcast. Look for that in the next week or two. In the meantime, here are my initial impressions and thoughts. Anime LA, and the staff that runs it, continues to amaze me year after year. According to Chaz (the A-LA head honcho) this year’s attendance was just shy of 3,200, which, in this tough economic climate, is pretty amazing. I hear that some attendees came from places far outside of California, even. The Spoony Bards, this year’s musical guests of honor, came all the way from Indiana – Anime Los Angeles was their first appearance west of Chicago. Even more amazing is the fact that one of the Bards, who recently quit the band when she got married, rejoined the band especially for this appearance – and traveled here all the way from London, UK! One attendee even came from New Zealand! Anime LA is truly becoming a global phenomenon!

I definitely noticed the increased attendance, especially on Saturday (traditionally the busiest day). There was a certain buzz in the air; it had a certain energy to it that I normally only associate with much larger conventions. Even with the extra attendees, it didn’t feel crowded at all (except for Masquerade, which always feels crowded). It looks like A-LA will be able to stay at the LAX Airport Marriott for a while to come, which is good, because the hotel and facilities are really quite nice. Decent convention room rate, easily accessible from most modes of transportation, and a reasonable selection of nearby food.

Anime LA bills itself as one of the friendliest fan-run conventions out there, and I believe them. Every time I interacted with their staff (or saw others interacting with them), they were kind, courteous, and truly helpful. I didn’t detect a hint of the “attitude” that can often be found at larger conventions, or those that take themselves too seriously. The events (or at least the ones I attended) were well-staffed and it looked like they had enough people.

There were, I felt, a decent selection of events, including some that go beyond typical anime-related topics. (I don’t have a schedule handy, but the ones that come to mind are the Japanese calligraphy workshops, martial arts demos, handicrafts, Japanese ghosts and demons, and Tadao-san’s Japanese sword demo, which, sadly, I was unable to attend.) I’m always in favor of having events at conventions that go beyond typical anime fandom and explore other aspects of Japanese life and culture. One of my favorites were the food workshops (Sushi, fried foods, etc.) that Anime Expo featured several years ago.

The (always excellent) program guide and pocket schedule did a pretty good job of laying out the schedule of events and describing what they were all about. However there were a few that were described in vague terms, or even not described at all — for example, “Egg Samurai” — I’m still not quite sure what that was about… Also I was very pleased that A-LA posted a draft event schedule before the convention – for those of us obsessive types, it really helps us begin to plan out our convention time. However it might have been nice to have that up at least a week, maybe even two, before the convention – the extra time would really help those who are traveling from out of area and may not necessarily be traveling with a computer and Internet connection. I realize that sometimes it’s hard to nail things down until the bitter end, but even a rough preliminary schedule is better than nothing.

They did a pretty good job of communicating event and schedule changes. Changes were indicated on signboards outside each room, plus they also published a daily newsletter (the Shinbunshi) with scheduling changes as well as other items of note. These were fairly liberally scattered around the convention area, and were hard to miss. One thing I’d like to see for the future is for them to start using social media such as Twitter and Facebook. We are living in the age of social media, and almost any cell phone these days can access it ubiquitously, making it an excellent way of staying in touch wherever you are. FanimeCon stands in my mind as the “gold standard” in this department. Their Twitter account was extremely active both before and during con, with frequent updates when schedules changed, and they also sent out reminders of when certain “big ticket” events (concerts, Masquerade, etc.) were to start. With FanimeCon’s Twitter loaded on my phone, I almost never had to consult their pocket program guide. They also used it to remind people before con of certain important dates (pre-reg closing date, hotel reservation, etc.).

The guest list was pretty impressive for a small/fan-run convention. (unfortunately for a convention of this type it’s difficult to get those “big draw” guests, Japanese guests of honor, etc.) They had a pretty good musical selection. I got to see some of the Spoony Bards’ Sunday concert and they were pretty awesome; they played a nice selection of anime and video game music that had me nodding and thinking to myself “Oh yeah, I remember that one…” They also entertained the crowd lined up for Masquerade during the long interminable wait to get seated. I was also surprised to see the beginnings of industry support for A-LA; for example this year FUNimation chose Anime LA for an advance screening of their latest title, RIN ~ Daughters of Mnemosyne. (Unfortunately I was unable to attend)

I really hate to overuse it, but Masquerade can only be described as “awesome.” There were 29 entries consisting of a total of 76 people, and the costumes and routines continue to amaze. There are truly some talented people out there! As I recall it didn’t start too late, and there were only a few minor technical glitches (which are pretty much par for the course in an event such as this).

AMV, on the other hand, was, I hate to say, made of fail. I wrote about this previously so go read that post if you haven’t seen it already. However, none of the problems (I think) were the fault of the staff – they were all technical issues which, perhaps in hindsight, could have been avoided, but may not have been easily anticipated. My recommendations that I wrote about still stand, and hopefully they will take steps similar to the ones I outlined to make next year’s AMV contest a success. (They did replay all AMVs the next day, without a hitch, and the audience was invited to cast ballots for the Pro category that was skipped during the actual AMV contest.)

(I’ll post a list of AMV and masquerade winners shortly. Unfortunately not all of the AMVs have made it online yet.)

The dealers’ room and artists’ alley were impressive, and definitely felt bigger than last year, and most of the traditional vendors you see at dealers rooms were well represented. For one thing, they actually had some decent DVD vendors. Yay! I picked up some good deals on some stuff I was looking for. Of course, I’ll be reviewing my purchases for Otaku no Podcast. They also had several cosplay-related sellers, weapons sellers, character goods, etc. And it looked like artists’ alley was doing some good business – every time I looked in on it it was always pretty packed.

The video screening rooms had a decent selection of titles and genres. Support came from FUNimation, Nozomi Entertainment/The Right Stuf International, Bandai Entertainment, AnimEigo, Central Park Media (apparently this support came from beyond the grave — creepy!), Section 23 Films, Sentai Filmworks, Viz Media and Media Blasters. They also featured certain “Dealer’s Choice” titles, which, presumably, were whatever the dealers in the dealers’ room wanted to promote sales of. One thing I really liked was that they had big bright LCD screens outside of each viewing room showing the name of the title being played and what looked like example scenes from the various anime that they were showing. Really nice touch there. They also split the titles fairly equally between dub and sub, which prevented the holy war to end all holy wars from occurring.

I am once again thoroughly impressed with Anime LA. It’s the little con that could, and is showing no signs of letting up on its growth. It serves as proof that, even in these times of economic hardship, anime conventions are still needed, and are still viable. My congratulations to the staff and volunteers for yet another enjoyable year of Anime LA.

I’ve got about 1500 photos to go through, edit/retouch, and post; I’ll try and get to that by this weekend. I’ve also got about half an hour of video that I’ll edit down into a highlights reel and post soon.

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Related posts:

1. A Winner is You! Behold the Anime LA 2010 AMV and Masquerade Winners
2. Anime Los Angeles Day 3 Report
3. Anime Los Angeles Day 2 Report (Updated)

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

No related posts.