Anime Expo 2018: 110K Attendee Strong!

Anime Expo this year was too insane. It happened to fall on July 5th-8th, but if you happened to snag some tickets to Preview Night, it was 5 days strong.

What comes with Preview Night allows you to adventure around the convention center, see some limited panels, and check out some of the earlier cosplayers.

Anyways, this convention was too insane. It had about 110K attendees, industry, and members, so it was sorts of packed.

Alright guys, LET’S JUST GET INTO THIS CRAZY BLOG!

Photo by: Marvin K. Sola (www.mksolaphotography.com)

EXHIBIT HALL

Other than meeting up with all your homies and checking out all of the great cosplays out there, you know you’re there to visit the Exhibit Hall. C’mon, let’s be real! You know you want to blow your money! Why don’t you think a lot of people wait in the hall to bum rush into the hall.

Once you climb those infinite stairs up into the exhibit hall aka the South Hall, you are welcomed by the bright lights and all sorts of monuments showcasing all sorts of anime created by these companies. In addition, there are even more brands and stores showing off their products and demoing.

There were tons to check out, but here is a taste (or a late of taste) of what is inside the convetion.

ARTIST ALLEY

Besides the exhibit hall, you would go straight downstairs to the garage where they hosted the Artist Alley. Don’t worry, it’s not like a small garage or anything. It’s just as big, filled with all sorts of artist and brands. Here’s another snippet of what you can see at the artist alley. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take too many photos down there, since a lot of the artists didn’t allow for their artwork to get photographed. It’s all good though. Check it out!

With all these artists being around, it was very difficult to see which ones were eyecatching. Everyone did a hell of a job, but there were some that stood out for me. If you know me by now, I go for a certain style, and here are some of the artists that I enjoyed.

PANEL ATTACK

There were tons of panels to check out this year! Other than the anime that was featured in the JW Marriot, there were a bunch to check out through the convention. They had panels from Preview Night all the way through to the last day, so there was something to check out. They even had 18+/21+ panels to satisfy your comedic side or “hentai” side. HAHA

ENTERTAINMENT HALL

After you feeling a break from all these panels and walking around the convention center, you can check out the Entertainment Hall in the West Hall. In the E.H., there are a ton to check out. Since this was the area with all the cosplay sets, there were a bunch of of cosplayers that were there trying to model out their stuff!

Right beside it, there were more gaming stuff to demo out and of course, Blizzard Entertainment, was there selling a bunch of their merch for their famous games, such as Overwatch, Diablo, and Starcraft.

In the back area, they had an open stage where they had some people have their open viewings, such as Corps Dance Crew.

They had had a bunch of art displays, the Chalk Twins, and the Anime Expo Archive.

BEER GARDEN

When you were feeling all sorts of tired and wanted to chill out, there was a Beer Garden available for the 21+ attendees. This was their first year having this, which was great, but unfortunately, it was held outside of the convention hall. If you happened to be at Neon District last year, it was in the area where they had all the alcohol served, but this year, they made it look lovely with all the stringed lights and lanterns.

AX DANCE and 21+ Lounge

Every year around the night time is when they open up the AX Dance and the 21+ Lounge. These were the places where you would like to get your groove on with your friends and other attendees, or just to kick back, get your drink on, and listen to some live music.

For AX Dance, there were a bunch of good DJs that were playing some of their original music as well as your favorite anime music. Here are some of the DJs that played that weekend.

If that’s not your thing with the EDM music, you can check out the 21+ Lounge (if you’re old enough). They had signature drinks this year, which included AXtraveganza and some nice cocktails.

ANISONG MATSURI

Anime Expo was the home to another year of Anisong World Matsuri. If you are unfamiliar with A.W.M., it is a 3 day concert that was held at LA Live where they had multiple Japanese artists play. This was the lineup for this years event.

COSPLAYERS

Alright, for the one thing you guys are all waiting for, the cosplayers!

There were tons of great cosplays that were done this year, and even your boi did a cosplay himself (for once xD). I cosplayed as Manga, the side character from My Hero Academia.