In the middle of fires, there is Anime Los Angeles 2025
Current Affairs
Two weeks into 2025 and Los Angeles was (and still is) grappling with a major crisis. Last week, the seasonal Santa Ana winds were predicted to be unusually strong, even warned to be “life threatening and devasting” by the Weather Reports. It was indeed not an exaggeration as the wildfires erupted all throughout the city, the most prominent ones being the Palisades Fand the Eaton fire. Millions have evacuated and dealing with the shock. Social media has videos of wildlife fleeing the fires through neighborhoods, raw moments of devastation, and updates on evacuation orders from the encroaching fires.
Matching the energy of the devastation, communities within and around the city have shown up in tidal wives of support with donation centers, pet rescues, and resources to help navigate through it all. Small businesses have been extending their already limited resources to offer food and assistance to first responders and displaced members.
To say it has been mental strain on everyone in the city is underwhelming. Anxiety and fear is a rolling constant. To think about anything else is unheard of. So how could anyone think of going to an anime convention during all of this?
Attendees may have had their own unconventional reason to attend but whatever it was, it was understandable. Some were vendors who had to weigh the choice of losing possible sales or losing their deposit. Maybe some of the attendees had family in the area that could house them during the fires. Maybe some just needed the support of the community. For this correspondent, there was definite debate on attending to cover the event. After a few days of anxiety and power shut off though, it was time to flee for fresher air.
Anime Los Angeles 20
RONOVA
Featured gown from RONOVA fashion. RONOVA was one of the featured designers during the ALA Fashion Show
Anime Los Angeles 20 (ALA) continued their run at Long Beach Convention center this past weekend. The first day was on Wednesday, the start of all of wildfire chaos. With growing concern over the air quality from the constant smoke, it was actually the best timing for those able to attend ALA. Long Beach is roughly about 50 miles south of Los Angeles, well past the smoke. With attendees heading South, that also meant less people on the streets, helping to clear the roads for emergency vehicles.
Conventions have and always will be a community of it’s own design. ALA provided another space for attendees to provide support to one another. It was no surprise that the main topic on everyone’s mind were the fires and evacuations. Whether a vendor or an attendee, everyone was kept up to date on the fires. One vendor even shared a video of the artist alley of a collective silence before might cheer when everyone read the false alarm on the widespread city evacuation alert. Even though people were still enjoying themselves on the convention, there was not one person oblivious to the dangers around them.
Sunday of a convention are usually known to be quieter, “family-friendly’ days of a long convention. Most attendees have already left or in the process of leaving. So this leaves the convention floor more open to perusal and possible discounts. It’s also a day for the more outliers of panel topics. These are usually the most entertaining and unique.
An advice that I usually give to new attendees to the convention is not to hit the artist alley right away. Instead, peruse the programming and find a panel that sounds interesting to start the day. That way, there is no stress from waiting in the long line to enter the exhibit hall and it helps to take that panel time to re-orient the mind from the outside world to convention mode.
Panels of Art and Music
For this years Sunday adventure, the chosen panel was a live drawing panel with Tomonori Kogawa. Kogawa is a Director, Key Animator, and Character Designer. His animation debut was Star Of the Giants (Kyojin No Hoshi) in 1970, an anime that was even discussed by Trash Taste. Under the alias of “Hanabatake Mau”, he was the animation director for Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1995. None of that was known to me. Instead, it was a panel getting to know a charismatic and entertaining artist as he took in questions and drawing requests. Through his translator, the attendees were treated to Japanese dad-style jokes about Tazo tea, technique tips about drawing hands, and humbling advice. For fans and those interested in the animation or art industry, this was a once in a lifetime moment. For the rest of us like myself, it was a way to learn and be entertained. Many of the works during Kogawa’s time were not readily available to the United States then. Thanks to the popularity of the genre providing more streaming availability, there was definitely more anime titles to add to the watchlist. Particularly The Southern Cross anime.
Kogawa Tomonori
Kogawa Tomonori fulfilling a request to draw a capybara…his own way
A unique programming style for Anime Los Angeles is their detailed organization of panels. With their app, panels can be selected by author talks, tutorials, or lectures. After a visit to the exhibit hall to increase dopamine levels and ignore bank account limits, it was off to another panel
For this chosen panel, it was a lecture on RADWIMPS- Music from the Films of Makoto Shinkai. It was a lecture led by Professor Jones and Professor Marr of Santa Ana College of Music. In complete transparency, this lecture was personally anticipated as a fan of both RADWIMPS and Makoto Shinkai.
Makoto Shinkai is the filmmaker behind the anime movies, Your Name and Suzume. Most of Shinkai’s film has had a strong collaboration with the Japanese group RADWIMPS. Both filmmaker and music group have worked together to bring stunning pieces of visual work accompanied with music that adds epic levels of sweeping sounds.
The professors began with an interesting history of Shinkai’s influence from Wong Kar Wei. Wong Kar Wei is not as well known to western audiences since there was limited access and exposure to Hong Kong movies during their initial release. After sharing comparisons of Wong Kar Wei films such as Chungking Express and 2046 to Shinkai’s anime movies, the influences were obvious and fascinating. It has definitely stirred up some curiosity to explore Wong Kar Wei films.
From there, the professors linked the rise of RADWIMPS and to their connection with Shinkai. Their story just shows that being a fan can sometimes open some life changing doors. Their collaboration on anime films has yielded some of the most unique and outstanding works. On their own, the films and soundtracks are amazing. Combined, it’s just phenomenal.
As music professors, they even encouraged the room to “sing” along as best they could to the chorus in Sky Over Tokyo. Not only was it for pure entertainment, they also pointed out the music elements that only an academic of music would pay attention to. Much of the terminology flew over the head but there was no disguising the absolute joy and appreciation that the Professors had for the music. These kinds of lectures that look at the fandom from another viewpoint are gems and should be encouraged.
Professor Jones and Professor Marr
The professors from Santa Ana College brought their academic lens to explore the RADWIMP music of Shinkai films
The Ribbon Culture
Attending on a Sunday meant a small schedule of attending panels and squeezing time in the exhibit hall in between. There was a steady crown of people surrounding the tables and even more people frantically squirreling around to complete ribbon tasks.
ALA20 is one of the conventions where ribbon collection are highly focused activity and is a culture deeply rooted within the convention culture. These ribbons can contain fandom quotes, jokes, anything,. The collected ribbons are attached to the edge of the badge or to the previous ribbon attached to it. Sundays are a great way to see the extremely long ribbon tails that people have amazingly accumulated over the weekend. The ribbons are such a great convention dynamic because anyone can hand out ribbons. Vendors can hand them out after a completed stamp relay or by purchasing a minimum amount. Cosplayers may hand out ribbons. Other fans will hand out ribbons. The convention itself has their own ribbon games. It’s an activity that everyone can join and took own a special significance this year. Seeing everyone happily connecting with others collecting ribbons, giving themselves a burst of joy was something sweet to behold.
Ribbon Station
Ribbons are a major event at Anime Los Angeles.
Anime Los Angeles 20 was a much needed respite from the fiery chaos awaiting many of us heading back home. It was a relief to see many acquaintances and share stories from the week alone. Aside from the usual fun had at an anime convention, it definitely solidified the community within conventions.
For more information and to look forward to the next Anime Los Angeles, go to https://animelosangeles.org/
