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Registration: AX '07 didn't start off very good at all. The line to register and get your badge holder was outrageous – the line zigzagged through the parking lot, up the street, in front of the convention center, and finally through the registration area; thousands of people! After getting sunburned and sore feet while waiting in that line for 3 and a half hours, they finally let those who pre-registered get a little headway. I got in line at 10am and didn't get my badge holder until 1:30pm! Seriously, what's the point in pre-registering if you're going to have to stand in a killer line anyway?! >_< And if that wasn't enough, I later heard from my friend that there was another place you could get your badge holder that only took a few minutes! Why didn't the AX staff tell the poor people waiting in that crazily long line about getting their badge holders at the other place?! The disorganization of this con was already apparent in the first few hours; I got worn out, sunburned, and wasted the whole day in that line XP But luckily I had enough time afterwards to attend a couple of first-day events.
Inuyasha Appreciation Party: This was mostly for people who play the Inuyasha Trading Card game, which I don't, but it is my favorite anime/manga series so I was really curious about this party. They had tables set up and experts there teaching people how to play the card game as well as a little theater area where people could watch episodes of the anime. They even gave everyone who attended free Pocky and two rare promo Inuyasha trading cards! =D But the main highlight of this gathering was all the free Inuyasha products they were raffling off. I already owned many of the products so I was hoping to win something I didn't already have. I ended up winning a copy of the Inuyasha DS game "Secret of the Divine Jewel," which I already have, but luckily I was able to trade it with someone for a box of 12 trading card game booster packs (I got some rare cards in them too XD)
SOS Brigade Focus Panel: It took my friend and I forever to find where this panel was being held. Every AX staff member we asked either didn't know or told us a different way than the person before, more evidence of the disorganization of the con XP But luckily we finally managed to find it in time to get good seats. The focus panel itself was great. It was awesome seeing the talented singers/voice actresses from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, and Yuko Goto, in person. They were all really cute and funny, just like their characters ^^ Anyway, after talking for a little bit, they had a Question & Answer session where people from the audience could come up and individually ask them a question. LOL, the random (and sometimes personal) questions some of the fans asked were quite amusing XD I also found it hilarious how nearly the entire audience were (fan) boys who cheered and hollered at everything the actresses said! XD
Everyone who attended the focus panel was given a ticket and at the end of the panel they announced that the girls will be having an autograph session the next day (June 30th) at 10am, and everyone who has a ticket can get an autograph. Obviously everyone was really excited about this and many went and bought TMoHS products just for the purpose of the autograph session. Unfortunately the autograph session wasn't all it was cracked up to be (as I'll explain later).
SOS Brigade autograph session postponed: So I get to the autograph session fairly early and there's already a line of people, at least a couple hundred. As sick as I was of waiting in line, I really wanted an autograph too so I decided to wait. And after waiting a good hour or so in the hot sun again, we get an announcement that the autograph session has been postponed until the next day (July 1st) at 11am. More hours wasted! >_< I sacrificed going to the ANN panel, which was also at 10am, for nothing! Well, I was hopeful that the next day I would finally get those autographs but unfortunately things weren't going to be that smooth...
JET Program Panel: For a few years now I've been interested in learning Japanese and perhaps living/working in Japan. I've already taken four semesters of Japanese at my college, studied for a month in Japan at a university in Kyoto, and I'm planning to major in Japanese for my BA. The JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program is a program for young people to have jobs in Japan, either as a teacher assistant, coordinator for international relationships, or sports exchange advisor. I've had my eye on the teacher assistant position for a while but you need a BA first in order to become a JET. I still have a couple more years to go before I'll qualify for the program but it was really interesting learning more about it at this panel and hearing first-hand stories from past JETs. Hopefully one day I'll be able to become part of it ^_^
SOS Invasion Tour concert: Probably the most popular and hyped-up event of the entire con, it was unfortunately also one of the most delayed and disorganized. Seating was supposed to begin at 3pm, and the concert was supposed to start at 4:30pm and end at 5:30pm. Instead of being seated at 3pm, we were still standing in line outside the convention center in the hot sun and didn't actually go inside (still not in the concert hall yet) until around 4:30pm. Another annoyance was that they didn't want anyone bringing cameras so they had to check everyone's bag before they went inside. While we were standing in line, AX staff was telling everyone to put their cameras back in their car or hotel room, but they didn't specify that they would actually search our bags and wouldn't even allow us inside with a camera. I assumed that like in the focus panel, as long as we weren't caught using our cameras we would be okay. But once it comes time for my bag to be checked and the AX staff member saw my camera, she told me to leave! I didn't have a car and I wasn't about to give up my place in line and walk all the way back to my hotel in the blazing sun just to drop my camera off! >_< It's so ridiculous that they punish people with cameras when everyone has cameras on their cell phones anyway. Well, luckily I was able to sneak back in with the crowd when no one was looking so I just kept my camera hidden the whole time.
So 4:30pm, 5pm, 5:30pm passes, we're all STILL waiting in front of the concert hall to get to our seats. Finally the doors opened about 6pm and I was able to take my premier seat fairly close to the stage. They played episodes of AnimeTV to give time for everyone to find their seats until finally the concert started at about 6:30pm, two hours late! XP
The concert itself had its good points and bad points. Good points were obviously seeing Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, and Yuko Goto perform live on stage. All three of them are extremely talented and have very energetic, captivating voices that helped make up for the incredibly long wait. In between songs, they also had some of the English VAs come out and do a voice dubbing with the Japanese VAs which was kind of interesting to watch. And at the end they brought everyone together to do the Hare Hare Yukai dance, including winners of the dance contest, which was quite hilarious XD As for bad points, besides starting two hours late, in between songs and voice dubbings, the script was a mess. It seemed like no one knew the order of things and what was going on half the time and Johnny Young Bosch and Patricia Lee had to literally ad-lib many of the things they said and did. Because of all the confusion and ad-libbing, the translator failed to translate many things that were said. So although I enjoyed most of the concert, because of the disorganization I can't say it lived up to all the hype it was given.
Pokemon D&P tournament: The concert ended about 7:30pm, two hours later than I had planned so I barely made it in time for the Pokemon D&P tournament which started at 8pm. The tournament was "unofficial" so it wasn't listed on the AX schedule but it was more organized than the AX events so far, LOL! XD I already knew the rules and had my team planned in advance for the tournament. But unfortunately it was a LV50 tournament with no auto-leveling and all of my strongest pokemon that I would've liked to use were above LV50. So I had to go with a mediocre LV50 team I threw together instead of my veteran, well-trained team so I wasn't planning on getting very far in the tournament. The winning prize was a free $50 purchase of anything in the Exhibit Hall which was quite nice. Unfortunately my first opponent ended up being one of the guys who organized the whole tournament so of course he was good and I lost against him with my mediocre LV50 team XD Ah well, it was still fun being in a Pokemon tournament even if it was short-lived. I wish I could find more Pokemon tournaments for the video games but the trading card game gets all the attention XP
SOS Brigade autograph session denied: So I got up early again for the second attempt at getting the SOS Brigade girls' autographs which was supposed to start at 11am. By the time I got there at 8am there was already a long line of people, over a hundred. But I managed to get a better spot in line than I had before and was planning to just wait it out for as long as it took. Around 9:30am, AX staff comes around telling people that unless you have a ticket from the focus panel you probably won't get an autograph. No problem, I still had mine. Then around 10am they said they would cut off the line at 10:30am and not let anyone else in. Fine, I didn't have to leave. But then the real shocker came – around 11am, they suddenly tell everyone that the voice actresses have to leave at 12pm so they'll only have time to give autographs to the first 50 to 100 people! 0_o They're just telling us this now after I'd been waiting in line for 3+ hours, 4+ if you count the day before?! I know they said the autograph session would be from 11am to 12pm, but why didn't they make it clear the day before that there would be absolutely no time extension and that only the first 50 people would get autographs so everyone else wouldn't waste their time waiting in vain? XP I also heard that many AX staff members were telling people that if you had a ticket from the focus panel you were GUARUNTEED an autograph! >_< More evidence of the poor planning and incompetent staff at this con!
So once again I wasted the morning standing in line for autographs I didn't get when I could've gone to other AX events. In the end, only the first 50 people got autographs while many people (including me) hung around until 12pm with the hope that things might come through until finally they had to physically break up the line and send people away so they could start the next event there. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was pissed and disappointed about that autograph fiasco so I decided to drown my depression in hardcore Exhibit Hall shopping!
Exhibit Hall: I spent the rest of the day shopping, literally visiting every single booth at the Exhibit Hall and bought over $200 worth of anime goodies! ^^ That made me feel better and I also had one little stroke of luck. When I went to the Bandai booth I saw a bunch of people lined up for autographs from the English VAs of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I was hoping to get one too but then the guy told me it was almost over...so I gave him my sob story about how I spent 3 hours of my time that morning trying to get autographs and why didn't they tell everyone there about this autograph session. He felt sorry for me so he let me cut in line and I was able to get a huge TMoHS poster with autographs from Johnny Young Bosch, Crispin Freeman, Wendee Lee, and Stephanie Sheh. It wasn't the coveted Japanese VA autographs but hey, it was certainly something! =)
Console gaming: After shopping, I spent the evening with my friends in the console gaming room. I played one of my favorite Wii games, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. I had never played with more than two people so it was a lot of fun playing with 6+ people ^^ I wasn't used to the sensor bar being at the bottom of the TV instead of the top like on my Wii at home so I didn't perform as well as I usually do with that game, but I had a blast anyway =D
Halko Momoi concert: I arrived almost two hours early for this concert because I assumed it would be crowded just like the others. But it wasn't and it actually started on time! The official Halko Momoi fan club from Japan was there too and they were giving out glow sticks to everyone to use at the concert. They also gave everyone a pamphlet with lyrics to all the songs Momoi will sing and the right way to wave the glow sticks during each song. I never knew glow sticks could be such a big thing for a concert so I was really curious to see how it would turn out =)
I had never heard about Halko Momoi before this concert. The main reason I went is because one of my friends is a fan of hers and wanted me to go with him. I figured, what the heck, I'm sure she's a good singer. And she definitely was! She was amazing; her talent, charisma, and interaction with the audience during the whole concert was fantastic. Not only did she have a great voice and style to her songs but you could tell she loved what she was doing! =) So much in fact, she even cried during one of the last songs because she was so happy we liked her so much. It was quite touching ^^a She also threw many souvenirs into the audience including glow sticks, her glove, and some rubber balls with her autograph on them (unfortunately I wasn't able to get anything). After the disorganization of the SOS Brigade concert, I'm glad I don't have anything to complain about Halko Momoi's concert ^_^ I heard that Momoi totally bashed AX on her blog the day before, saying how poorly they treated her and how disorganized they were. So I'm glad her fans were able to make up for that by showing her a good time at the concert! =)
More Exhibit Hall: After the concert, I stayed in the Exhibit Hall until it closed early at 3pm. The last day of AX is a good time to go because nearly all the booths are marking down their prices and giving things away for free. One booth was even auctioning off some of its merchandise. I bought a few more things and then my friends and I finally headed home ^^
I've heard many people say that this was one of the worst Anime Expos ever. Since this is only my second AX, I can't really compare it to the others. But as I mentioned above, even I could tell that there was really poor planning and disorganization going on. I'm sure the transition from Anaheim to Long Beach is partially to blame, but still, after 15 years of having Anime Expos, they should've been more together than they were. My list of complaints could go on – the SOS and S.K.I.N. concerts starting two hours late, having an inadequate number of places for everyone to register resulting in insanely long lines, the incredibly poor planning with the autograph session, the incompetence of the staff, the design of the convention center itself making everything far away from each other and forcing everyone to do excess walking in the heat, the placement of the Artist Alley right in the convention center lobby instead of in their own room resulting in ridiculous crowding…but in spite of all these things, I was still able to have a good time. When I wasn't stuck in line or being disappointed by the con's disorganization, I had a lot of fun at the events and concerts I attended. I'm very satisfied with all the stuff I purchased at the Exhibit Hall and I was able to meet up with a lot of old friends and acquaintances there. These things definitely made my time there worth it ^_^ Of course I'll still say there's room for improvement as far as planning, organization, and staff training are concerned so hopefully AX '08 at the Los Angeles Convention Center will be better! =)