Anime Expo 2019 marked Azur Lane’s first appearance at a western convention. English-language publisher Yostar had a booth featuring the shipgirls, complete with cosplayers portraying Cleveland, San Diego, Bismarck, and others, along with a painstakingly handcrafted model of the German-style Iron Blood leader’s rigging. Yostar created a promotional video about the production of the full-sized model:
The selection of con-exclusive merchandise on offer at the Azur Lane booth was a disappointment, and I personally didn’t buy any of it. A collection of t-shirts featuring pixel art of several popular characters, some pins, and a towel featuring San Diego and her catchphrase featured, but none of it spoke to me.
Much more interesting than the goings on at the booth on the exhibition floor was the Azur Lane: Behind the Scenes panel.
Anime Expo clearly underestimated the popularity of the Azur Lane panel, which was relegated to a smaller programming room that seats just over 200. Despite the AX app showing more than 1500 people had planned to attend. Ultimately, the room was filled by Anime Expo premier badge holders alone, who stood in a priority line, and none of the general admission attendees waiting in an outdoor line were able to get into the panel.
The panel itself was entertaining, centering on the two voice actresses: Asuka Itou, known for playing San Diego, and Saya Horigome, who plays Cleveland, among others. The panel was supposed to be attended by Hao, an illustrator and character designer, but he was unable to attend. Yostar did not give a reason for his absence, but he was replaced by a Yostar manager who goes by the moniker Intern-kun.
The panel was largely fanservice, with the voice actresses reading popular lines from their characters, Intern-kun spouting memes, and then a very long Q&A session. Despite all the questions about upcoming content and character releases, there was little Intern-kun could say. The biggest announcement at the panel was Enterprise’s character song, of which they previewed about 30 seconds.
The event was hosted by cosplayer Nyaomaruu, who dressed as Atago for the occasion. She was personable and anchored the event well. She hosted a competition to win three of Hao’s signed, original shipgirl drawings in a game identifying Azur Lane characters from only small portions of their CGs. Some of them were harder than you’d think. I didn’t win.
While Yostar put most of their convention resources into Azur Lane, they were also promoting two other games: mobile mahjong gacha game Mahjong Soul, which I watch with interest to see if Yostar can actually convince western audiences to take up the impenetrable tile game for the sake of anime catgirls. And Nekoparaiten!, another catgirl-related game and spinoff of the American-made visual novel Nekopara!
But Azur Lane fan that I am and as popular as the game is in the US, the shipgirls were the reason for the season. Yostar seemed pleased with their first convention appearance, their packed panel presentation, and their sold-out merchandise. But I hope they bring more varied merch next time, and more exciting announcements.
