Anime Los Angeles is celebrated at the Ontario Convention Center out in Ontario, CA from January 26-29. It is the home to the anime community of cosplayers, attendees, and more. It was filled with many panels, vendors, waaaayyy more artists, and plenty of events going on. Since it was held for 4 days, you had plenty to do and plenty of people to meet! There were a tons of guests in both the community and industry that you were able to meet and get signatures from. HOW AWESOME!
Here goes our story of how our experience went!
Ontario Convention Center is a great size for this con. It has enough space for all the panels, it was dope to have all of the vendors take up the exhibit hall and have the artists in a completely separate area (even though it was a bit hot), and it was still able to hold all of those attendees there.
But first, let’s talk about the vendors and artist halls…yes, that’s the first thing I always check (other than where the restrooms are… xD)
VENDORS AND ARTISTS
There were plenty of vendors to check out the exhibit hall from Anime Coast and Yay 4 Anime to the clothing brands in the community. It’s really dope because you get to check out these clothing brands all from California, such as Kinfold, Wooji, and Toshiki Girl. They all have their own flare, giving them their individuality, so make sure to keep an eye out for these brands in the future.
In the artist alley, they put them into a separate tent outside this year! Definitely a smart move on their part! There were sooo many artists out there this year, such as YuumeiArt, Memorille, and Battlerobots. It expanded my artist search and the different styles that everyone has.
*Click their names above to check out our blog post with each of them.
Afterwards, I would always head outside to check out the food and the cars. What’s great here is that they invite out the car scene and Itasha Alliance is there to showcase their beautiful cars. Who doesn’t like having anime-decked out cars!
Itasha Alliance
There were a bunch of different cars, all sorts of models from race cars to pick up tracks. A bunch of people took some photos next to cars and I got to admire some new ones I haven’t seen before. They are featured below:
Afterwords, you can check out the different panels and events that were going on. They had different industry panels and cosplay panels, but what got me the most were the events!
Main Events
They had the Fashion Show, Masquerades, and can’t forget Ani-Net! It was an event that was held on that Thursday and Friday that was pretty much where they showcased different DJs in the community, such as Syntho, W.T. Snacks, and Yuna Yuna. That’s were the party was at! It was tooo fun! They played all sorts of music from Japanese music, to Future Funk, DDR-ish kind of music, and even that hard stuff that would get you going. If you are able to keep up this late, I would highly suggest checking it out next year. Make sure to check out these artists next time you found out they’re playing at an event.
For this convention, the one thing that you definitely would find here is TONS OF COSPLAYS.
Cosplayers in Cosplay
This year had plenty of cosplays to look out for. Tons related to anime, and even more that are related to movies, tv shows and video games! Here was some of the photos that I got of the weekend!
This weekend was full of excitement and good times with plenty of new friends and tons of old friends! I can’t wait for the next convention to come!
But before I forget, let’s talk about the ribbons!
RIBBON CON!
What Anime Los Angeles is known for isn’t the cosplayers or the panels, but the ribbons! This con has plenty of ribbons that you would attach to your badge. You can get them from different panels, vendors and artists, but what makes this great is that it gets the attendees involved. A lot of them created their own ribbons (exclusive or not) that people are allowed to get through trading or certain tasks. I had to dance for someone and answer some trivia. Even I got in on the action and created my own ribbon too!
This was the result of my new addiction.
Hope you guys enjoyed this blog on ALA. Catch you guys at the next one! I’m going to have even more ribbons to trade. xD
SOCIAL MEDIA
To check out further information, check out their website and their social media below:
Website: www.animelosangeles.org
Facebook page: facebook.com/AnimeLosAngelesCon
Twitter: @animelosangeles
