After a two year hiatus, Anime Expo is back at the L.A. Convention Center, and it seems as if there was no significant change in the number of attendees from past years.
As part of the health & safety protocol, attendees were required to show proof of vaccination (or a negative test), and given verification wristbands to wear during the event. I came the day before the event to get a wristband and avoid the crowds, but a lot of other people had the same idea. Luckily, it only took a couple of minutes to get the wristband because the majority of people formed lines at the health check station facing the east end of the street, while ignoring the much shorter lines at the station facing the west end of the street.
It has been over three years since I've attended a convention, but my workload kept me so busy that I hadn't given a thought about preparing for AX. Less than a week before the con, I thought about going for the easy gas mask look, but I didn't even have time to manage that.
In the end, I went with a traditional black uniform, but plenty of people still seemed to recognize me despite my atypical attire.
Didn't see much Touhou cosplay this year...
Somehow I misjudged the length of my skirt so I didn't adjust the height of my stockings to achieve the proper zettai ryouiki. I am deeply ashamed of my slovenly appearance, and apologize profusely（＿ ＿；；
An extraordinarily well kitted photographer voiced some concern that I might stab him, but I didn't even have any knives with me. And besides, he never even mentioned the "P" word.
Zero Serenity Photography
What was funny is that I was stopped on two occasions at security stations earlier in the day because I was flagged by their sensors. The first time they let me through after searching my bag, but the second time, the guard was more vigilant and wanted to know about the "metal" they detected under my clothes ┐(´-｀)┌
I visited the exhibit hall Friday morning, and it was the most crowded I have ever experienced. Later in the day the numbers tapered off to normal levels of crowding.
Bandai Namco, miHoYo, and Yostar had particularly elaborate booths with sets for pictures and professional cosplayers to take pictures with.
A lot more vendors seemed to be using technology in their marketing, whether they were asking you to scan a QR code to complete a survey, follow them on social media, or swipe your badge so they could get your contact info in exchange for promotional swag.
There was also a large presence for vtubers, with hololive, VShojo, Phase-Connect, and Tacitly among the represented groups/agencies.
Tacitly Unit81 clear file
There was also a booth for the Dreamland Maid Café I saw opening shop on a visit to Little Tokyo Mall last month.
Little Tokyo Mall location
I talked to some of the staff, and it seems they're a travelling pop-up café that is in town to coincide with AX, and will be moving locations again at the end month.
I ended up only buying one trading figure after going through the entire hall, but I should have picked up a couple of other cheap items that I was interested in, since the booths that were selilng them were already gone when I went back to the exhibit hall on Monday.
As I mentioned, I did not plan ahead very well, so I only attended a couple of panels (Big West and pixiv). The lines were not too bad even when arriving 15–20 minutes before the start of the panel.
Macross pin and pixiv clear file
On Saturday, I went to the artist alley, which was an impenetrable sea of people. I made one pass through, and it was exhausting.
I also took a couple of hours to take the convention shuttle and visit the Broad Museum, which you can read about here.
Otherwise, I spent most of my time in the South Lobby taking pictures of cosplayers. Some of the most popular series' that I saw represented included Spy x Family, Genshin Impact, FGO, Kimetsu no Yaiba, and Sono Bisque Doll.
One of the things that I noticed is that many cosplayers and photographers are exchanging information using social media instead of traditional cards (thought there were still plenty of those as well). I don't really have much of a social media presence, but I took some pictures of contact info at the insistance of various cosplayers. I guess I can't ignore social media forever if I want to stay current.
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