Animé Los Angeles 3
Convention Report
by DGHS Staff
Brown Gaijin's Rant
A little over a week ago there was a local anime convention right near my hometown called Animé Los Angeles. Calling itself the "Friendliest little convention in town" this year's attendance is just a few hundred under two thousand, a fraction compared to the goliath conventions like Anime Expo or Otakon. So as I sat here thinking about how to approach this rant, I started thinking about the overall morale of the attendees, namely on Saturday.
The first panel on day two was rather amusing: Anime Trivia for Chocolate. The premise was simple; shout out the right answer, and the hostess would toss out Hershey's Kisses in your direction; should multiple people answer, then she would toss out a multiple number of Hershey's Kisses until everyone that answered got one. At one point she did begin to run out of questions (and chocolate), but the audience accommodated by stepping up to the microphone, and shelling out trivia themselves.
Yes boys and girls, good times were had.
A big event that drew in a lot of people, was the ad-lib troupe called "Whose Line is it Anime". Using a formula inspired by the British and American show, "Whose Line is it Anyways?" the group was forced to think on their feet as they created humorous situations. All of their ideas either came from the hostess, who had a very large stack of index cards, or from the audience. Based on this reviewers observations, one of their most popular skits dealt with the Final Fantasy victory song, or in this case, the worst possible times to hear it.
Masquerade was fun if not eventful. While everything was ready to go backstage, it did take some time to get everyone inside the triple expanded ballroom, including yours truly. Once the room was officially packed, the Toastmaster came out and started things off with a large black fan and a flashy pose. There were various themes throughout the night, and the acts ranged from a simple pose, to musical numbers. One recurring theme that night was Legend of Zelda. The first act starred three people cosplaying as Link, Zelda and a Gamer (and I tell you that gamer outfit was soooo well made ^_^). Using the technology of the Wiimote, the gamer started out by having Link get his groove on. Then when Zelda appeared, hilarity ensued as the gamer tried to get both Link and Zelda to make out. This was not taken lightly by the two video game characters, and eventually they turn on the gamer (hilarity is now up by two). Another LoZ entry that I'm sure will stay fresh in the audience minds is when someone took the traditional green outfit and gave it a goth-loli theme. To paraphrase Mr. Shake Hands Man, that is the second time that I will never be able to look at the game the same way again. The event hit a snafu near the end. While waiting for the final results, the certificates were taking longer to arrive than the staff was expecting. If that wasn't bad enough, someone forgot to bring music for the entertainment planned in the mean time. Still, the morale that night was high, thanks to a good helping of anime music videos (and an interlude of "Mana Mana").
Like any convention big or small, the biggest challenge Animé Los Angeles faced was making the most of out its limited resources. It didn't take a sharp eye to see that the con sometimes fell short of helping hands, new viewing material, or reliable technology, but even with all the limited resources, the mood throughout the convention was high. As for next year, ALA will be moving to the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel & Convention Center in the east end of the valley. The staff hopes that change of address will be more accommodating to the ever growing attendees. The size of the hotel is not the only thing that was taken into consideration; the convention layout and surrounding area have also been looked over to make next year even more comfortable. Hopefully the anime fans from the area will also offer their talents to the con.
>> To Tokenflipguy's rant
Sub-Articles and Galleries
Svetlana Chmakova Interview | Meet the GOH Panel | Lessons Learned
General Gallery | Cosplay Gallery | Masquerade Gallery
To my readers...
Well I'm sure some of you were looking forward to waking up this morning with more pics from ALA. As you can see, I was not able to meet my 1 a.m. deadline. I could give you my reasons, but there's no excuse. At this point my day job is beckoning me, so I'll have to update everything as soon as I get home tonight. And finally I just want to say I'm sorry for anyone I let down.
Thank you for understanding
-Pedro