Anime Los Angeles 19: Starting the Year Right

For those that attended Anime Los Angeles 19 in Long Beach last week, it was a great start to the new year. A weekend bursting to the brim with cosplay, humor, events, panels, and merchandise. So much merchandise….

Anime Los Angeles (a.k.a ALA) is the convention that I recommend to any person even remotely interested in anime. For a large convention, it boasts one of the most positive and welcoming community to both beginners and veterans of the anime fandom. Interest in anime is always encouraged. Which is a good thing because there is so much to see and discover that the question “what anime is that from?” will be uttered at least once. It is an absolute honor to be allowed to cover this even and encourage the growth of the convention for many, many years.

Wheel of Voices - Morning of Cartoon voices and laughs

It is a very large convention that can overstimulate the senses in mere hours. There is always an enthusiastic crowd ready to pounce through the exhibit doors when it opens, so it’s tempting to wait along the masses and be consumed by the energy. Instead, ease into the convention by peeking open the program book and check out the early panels first. This year, ALA had moved all of their information such as programming, signings, cosplay meetups, and more to an app called GUIDEBOOK. Physical books were available upon check-in but the app allows attendees to peruse through beforehand and schedule panels of interest.

For this years preparation for the day, it was the “Wheel of Voices” panel that had me veering away from the crowd and into the very icy panel room. On this note, always bring a sweater. The exhibit hall may be warm but the panels are usually on the opposite side of the temperature gauge.

The “Wheel of Voices Panalist”(From Bottom Left to Right, Counter clockwise): Mark Allen Jr., Edward Bosco, Austin Lee Matthews, and Alex Weitzman. Don’t worry, they’re just acting!

The “Wheel of Voices” was an absolutely fun way to start the day. Hosted by Austin Lee Matthews, he and his fellow voice actors would play a voice acting game. Each of the actors would read a script as a character (drawn by the first wheel) as a different characters voice (drawn by the second wheel) . One reading was from the Dark Knight, a well known and very serious source material. Now imagine this bleak story with Mark Allen Jr playing Commissioner Gordon/Narrator voicing as T'Challa (Black Panther), Edward Bosco playing the Joker voicing as Bugs Bunny, and Alex Weitzman playing Batman voiced as Wallace Shawn. It was as hilarious and chaotic as expected. It was also a really memorable way to get to know unfamiliar voice actors and see them flex those vocal skills they have worked so hard on.

The voice-acting game also provided some note-worthy follow-up projects that the panelists have or are currently involved in. For audio drama enthusiasts, there is Megaton Girl (written by Austin Lee Matthews) involving superheroes and building a positive community. For Twitch users, many of the panelists and more are involved in online D&D campaigns and other one-shots. Look for The Unexpectables on Twitch.

Audio Drama written by Austin Lee Matthews featuring

Exhibition Hall: Beating Heart of Merch and Bleeding Wallets

Like any typical convention, the exhibition hall hosted both the artist alley and dealer booths. The difference between the two is that artist alley are rows of small businesses and artists featuring items that will guarantee at least a gasp of delight. Dealer booths are also small businesses that have larger booths with more commercial merchandises. Either way, the bank account will surely be damaged.

These Pokemon terraniums were definitely a show stopper and gives more power to “gotta collect ‘em all”! (shop: Yuemi Custom Shop - Instagram: @yuemi.customshop)

There are way too many vendors to try to attempt to cover them all. What can be noticed is that there are certain trends that inhabit the artist alley every year. A consistent continued as almost every table featured a gashapon machine paired with cute custom tokens. The most common type of items offered for sale were acrylic keychains, peeker decals, and holographic stickers. There were still tons of a variety of items that seemed to be popular such as mousepads and lanyards. But the most surprising item to see on many of the tables were air fresheners! A very random but useful item to see at conventions. There is so much being represented in anime and beyond that there is a chance that there will be an item in the fandom of your choice.

The memory of losing my breath upon seeing this spectacular print of WWE’s Rhea Ripley still brings a wide smile to the face. You just never know what you will find! (Artist can be found on X @E1GNA_

The Ribbon Game : An ALA Special

One of the activities that ALA is known for is the collection of ribbons to attach it to the badge. The tradition originated with science fiction conventions but ALA attendees adopted it with a feverish glee. Many of the vendors will have special tasks or code words to obtain ribbons. Even cosplayers or guests will have special missions to obtain ribbons. There is a special segment in the program book dedicated to ribbon collecting. Ribbon collecting is taken seriously and with absolute focused dedication. The end of the convention is usually marked with attendees hanging their badge and long tail of ribbons from several floors up! A quick scroll of #ALA on social media will have multiple posts and reels showing the super long ribbon tails.

Not a bad collection for unintentionally collecting ribbons. Can you recognize where the ribbons came from?

All the Spontaneous Fun

Intermingled among every section of the convention, there will be fascinating cosplayers. Many will catch the eye but many will just drift on by. That is until the excited squeals and chatters spotlights the cosplayer.

One such cosplayer was Salt Queen Cosplay. A handful of attendees had begun forming an excited circle around this Jigglypuff Cosplayer. Here’s the fantastic part of ALA, everyone is more than happy to share about their fandom. So without any hesitation, I asked the person close by what was all the excitement about.

“Ask her to show you the microphone,” the attendee answered with a grin..

Once there was a pause in the photo-taking, I asked the cosplayer to show the microphone. With a proud flourish, she plucked off the foam off to reveal the giant marker underneath. Which garnered a loud cheer from everyone including myself. For context, Jigglypuff is a Pokemon creature who loves to sing. Only her singing is so soothing that the audience is put right to sleep. This will cause Jigglypuff to lose her temper and draw on the audience faces with a marker. A charming detail that Pokemon fans will delight in!

Jigglypuff Cosplay demonstrating the cutest prop: microphone into marker! (Cosplayer: Salt Queen Cosplay)

Sometimes it takes just one question to bring strangers together in friendly debate. This guy was dedicated to carrying around the sign the whole day to interact with attendees and allow them to vote by flipping a number over. There was even a roll of “I voted” stickers for people to peel off. Blurting out your answer loudly was guaranteed to bring cheers or dismay noises. There were clusters of attendees arguing their point as they juggled to hold on to their ribbon tails. It was a very funny and random encounter.

What would you have voted for? (I voted No!) - Cosplater/Attendee: @thevoteguy

There were times where the spontaneous interaction did not come from attendees. A particular artwork of a fairy riding a monster hamburger caught my eye. The vendor/artist was Rachel Fritz Wilson and she happily explained the artwork. It was a play on Guy Fieri’s journey to Flavortown but it w as “gal fairy” instead of “Guy Fieri”! The artwork was really a great gateway to learning more about her art and her current project. She and her friend are developing a top down pixel game similar to Stardew Valley but with more expansive options for character customization. That game is in development but could be followed by checking out Knight Folk Game Studio.

A clever play on words that develops a strong craving for a good burger. Artist: Rachel Fritz Wilson

Last Panels of the Day: The Inspiring Ones

Before one knows it, it’s the last couple of hours in the convention. The feet are aching and the stomach is grumbling in anticipation of dinner but there is still a couple of more panels to enjoy before the end of the day. The ones that I chose to attend definitely left a mark at the end of the day.

There was no prior knowledge of who Evil Ted was before walking into the foam armor workshop. In less than forty minutes of watching Evil Ted construct a helmet out of foam sheets, I became an instant fan. In between the gluing and cutting and molding of the shapes, Evil Ted shared advice about constructing foam armor and answered all of the attendees questions. He also shared his history of working as a prop master in the industry for the past few decades and some very interesting stories. He was fascinating to watch and listen to. Many of the advice that he provided to cosplayers stemmed from his experience in the industry and it was all invaluably practical! One common sense advice was that the item itself doesn’t have to be the real material, the camera doesn’t care if it’s metal or foam. So cosplayers could find alternate ways to create a costume that would be much easier to create and handle.

Evil Ted offers an amazing collection of patterns for various types of armor and pieces on his website. He also a robust Youtube channel full of tutorials. He is an absolute gem of a resource for cosplayers. I truly believe every single attendee left that room feeling more confident to work on their cosplay!

Already brimming with confidence, attending the “Women in The Industry” panel afterwards matched that with pure inspirational power. The panel was hosted by Emma Fyffe with guests Tara Sands, Kari Wahlgren, Caitlin Glass, Lizzie Freeman, and Kayleigh McKee. Each of the women shared their years of experience in the voice acting industry and struggling with social media. There were personal stories shared amongst the laughter. These kind of panels give attendees a brief glimpse into the people that bring their anime to life. It also shows that these actors are human and have to deal with so much of real life even when they’re the voice of a 2D character.