Well, another Anime Expo has come and gone, and as usual, J-List had a ton of fun at our booth, meeting and greeting thousands of customers and selling more visual novels, ecchi manga and wonderful J18 licensed manga, T-shirts and panties than we imaged possible. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, and thanks to Kaho Shibuya, who provided one more reason to love Anime Expo.
Anime Expo began in 1992, making this the 27th anniversary of the show, but it really dates back to a year earlier, when it was called Anime Con ‘91. (The name change came about due to a schism between two groups of fans vied for control of the show, which has been a hallmark of the event over the years.) At the time, no one was sure if anime was popular enough to support its own convention, but happily fans were very supportive from the beginning. Anime Expo wasn’t the first anime convention, but the early focus on inviting major guests from Japan plus it’s convenient location in California caused Anime Expo to quickly take the lead over other early shows, and caused Japan to view AX as the primary focal point for anime fandom outside of Japan. I remember the joy my friends and I had, renting a huge minivan and making the road trip up to the Red Lion Inn in San Jose to attend the first show. Though this was a few years before I would found J-List, I was an anime dealer from the start, selling products I’d secured in Japan with my friends.
It can be interesting when worlds collide. As we were leaving the con to take in some dinner after working the show, we walked past a line of extremely fashionable girls who were clearly not part of the convention. I asked what event they were there for, and they answered the Shawn Mendes concert, who Google-sensei informed me was some kind of popular heartthrob singer or something. The gap between the super elegant girls about to attend the concert and the happy cosplaying anime fans reminded me of Anime Expo from 1999, when the show was held in the Anaheim Hilton. There were three conventions sharing the hotel that weekend: Anime Expo, a large number of conservative Christians from the Midwest, and a collection of flamboyant gay square-dancing enthusiasts. Having these three groups sharing a hotel at the same time was an eye-experience, to say the least.
While we were eating, the big earthquake hit, shaking the LA Live area and causing lots of concern by Japanese guests, who had never experienced a quake in the U.S. While earthquakes are common in Japan — we feel one or two a week on average — they’re a bit rarer in California, and everyone was nervous about whether “the big one” was about to hit. The earthquake created some lively discussion during our dinner, but happily didn’t affect the convention negatively.
Have you attended the show? If so, why do you love Anime Expo? We certainly hope to see you there next year! (Or at the San Diego Comic-Con, our next show…)
Do you love gorgeous anime figures? Of course you do, and we’ve got lots of amazing new figures on the site, from Ram and Rem to Hatsune Miku to Kizuna Ai. Remember, you get 10% off instantly when you make a preorder!
