At the previous convention covered on this page, Project A-Kon 9, the hall used for the costume contest held 320 (the author counted the seats). Anime Expo's cosplay hall seated 1,300. The video rooms at the Anaheim Hilton and the Anaheim Convention Center were the size of ballrooms, much larger than any room used for any other anime convention seen by this author. Those rooms - along with the huge dealer room - swallowed the big Anime Expo crowds. Walk into the hotel and you might have wondered what the fuss was all about, with a couple of hundred people in the halls. But then a movie would end in a video room, and the fans would flood outside. 

Yu Watase received the biggest fan reactions at Anime Expo. The guests of honor all received applause and some  got cheers, but Watase's name drew screams! Her creation, Fushigi Yuugi, is beloved among Anime Expo fans, and they loved having the manga's creator on hand to see in person. Outside of the costumers, no one caused more shutter buttons to be squeezed and more film to be exposed than Watase (who is pleasantly tall, by the way). 

The combination of the hotel and convention center across the street made for the best setting yet for an anime con. The hotel room rate of $120 a night (after taxes) was the highest this author has seen, but the rooms were decent. 

As usual, the author spent a minimum amount of time in the video rooms, but one brief visit left him impressed. Viewing the English-language dub of Bastard, the author noted six loudspeakers arrayed around the room. Their purpose became evident when a battle scene erupted and sound effects bounced around the room: Anime Expo had installed a six-channel surround-sound system! Very impressive. 

As for the dealer room: you could have played a couple of basketball games in there. The merchandise looked good, and Bandai used the occasion to unveil their new AnimeVillage.com booth. 

That Bandai move toward an upgraded web site - and the announcement that they would release the Gundam TV series and the first three movies - was the big news of Anime Expo. Gundam fans, frustrated by having to depend on fansubs, imports and bootlegs for their mecha fix, were overjoyed. Industry insiders were intrigued that Bandai had decided to take their 20-year-old project (older than many of Gundam's American fans) and release it themselves. There were open doubts from some in the U.S. anime industry that Bandai would succeed at their  strategy of selling Gundam only through their web site, by mail order. However, one person in the industry had to acknowledge that online sales could produce more profit with less volume than going through stores. 

Even with the Gundam announcement, the industry panel seen by the author with the most fan enthusiasm was the Pioneer Entertainment panel. Fans peppered the Pioneer reps with an unending litany of queries about Pioneer anime series and the formats the series will be sold in. The fans were not shy in questioning Pioneer's motives in moving away from the laser disk format the company started to the newer DVD format. The fans even tried to tell Pioneer officials exactly how to release Fushigi Yuugi: - they made it clear they wouldn't accept even the slightest edits in Pioneer's tapes. 

It was good to see that Nov. Takahashi of Studio Hard brought a delegation of Japanese fans to Anime Expo. Takahashi had a contest in his AX magazine, and the seven winners were treated like royalty in Anaheim, getting up-front seating at the major events and interview sessions with the guests of honor. It must have been an amazing irony that the young Japanese fans had to cross the Pacific Ocean to meet artists from their own country. 

And, we'll learn the power of Anime Expo fans if Trigun and Alexander become hits. Madhouse pushed the Trigun late-night anime in their Anime Expo panel, and Yasuhiro Naito, Trigun's manga creator, got plenty of attention during the convention. Also, the preview of the Alexander anime, with Peter Chung's character designs, looked strong. Word of mouth could drive that upcoming title to the sort of underground fame that pressed U.S. companies to release titles such as Fushigi Yuugi. Might Madhouse have launched a new strategy of pushing their new titles at Anime Expo? 

Anime Expo Day Two

Anime Expo Day Three