The Road to Anime Expo 2025

On April 20th, 2024 we arrived at the deadline to spend some Jet Blue credits from a 2024 trip to the West Indies to visit family, that was cancelled due to hurricane season. On a whim and extremely last minute, we decided to book tickets to Los Angeles for Anime Expo because, for some weird reason, 4 days tickets were not sold out yet. Flights booked and vacation planned, we forgot to buy the AX tickets…. luckily 2 weeks out from con tickets were STILL NOT SOLD OUT?! Bought immediately and bullet dodged. We then booked our AirBnB (did I mention this was all on a whim?) and I finally settled with the fact that this is happening. I’m going back to Anime Expo and I finally get to take Jen with me.

I notified friends that we’d be there during AX week (whim-sical) and a plan started to form.

Will Call Badge Pickup — Smooth.

There were a ton of non-con staff that gave us the runaround when we showed up but we finally found the area for check-in and ticket pickup.

The experience overall was great.

Con staff were organized, helpful, excited, and thorough. They made sure we got our 18+ wristbands after picking up the badges. We shared a few laughs and headed out to explore LA for the rest of the day.

Food!

Little Tokyo for Ice Cream @HoneyMee → Gardena for Yakitori @Shin-Sen-Gumi → Back to the BnB to rest up for Day 1!

Walking the Entire Show Floor — Also Smooth.

It’s crowded but not as crowded as NYCC on Kids Day Sunday. Likely due to it still being a weekday and locals have to work. This was our opportunity to scope out all the booths, look for exclusives, and plan our merch purchases early.

• The Good Smile Booth feels like home regardless of what Con I’m attending.
• Kotobukiya is like visiting an old friend that always has an upcoming Bishoujo Line-up
• Kinokuniya, glad to see you here.
• Always a pleasure, Viz, Mappa, Kodansha.
• Aniplex was massive, but Crunchyroll took first place for interactivity.

It’s as massive as I remember. Every space occupied and tons of area to walk between the rows of exhibitors. And wait…. there’s another building. And the outdoor space that links two of the areas is also completely occupied with exhibitors. And they’re prepping for a small concert it seems.

2nd Building!

• A Konami sighting! Bandai Namco again! Great presence.
• Oh hey a Hoyoverse Booth—Oh my god it’s HUGE! The line! The official cosplayers. Looks like there are experiences to be had!

But I strangely feel no desire to wait on lines. Maybe it’s because all the free merch will be a pain to bring home. Maybe I’m over it?

Anyway. OFF TO ARTIST ALLEY! It’s massive…..Maybe we should take a break and come back tomorrow…..😅

Food! Jen's first trip to In-n-Out Burger & Carls Jr..

To the outdoor LaDS booth for a free bag then Back to tackle Artist Alley!

Here I think I was the most excited. If I’m not mistaken, the entirety of this space was either individuals selling their merch and the 18+ area in the back. This felt different from past cons' artist alleys. There was more room. There was cell signal. There were so many people enjoying. And we spent about $160 on bags and stickers….. sup again LaDS!

This was a point where I felt my con priorities shifting. Normally Artist Alley is a chore to get through. This time, I was an observing bodyguard, enjoying everyone's enjoyment. Seeing artists making sales, interacting with patrons, it was refreshing. Every booth we visited felt like an opportunity to engage and try to get a laugh or give the artist and staff a break. If I could interview a few of them I would really enjoy it.

After walking every aisle of Artist Alley we went back to the show floors for one more round.

So far, the experience was great. There was a 100% shift in how we both viewed this convention this time around.

We’re at the point that we can exercise restraint on the Exhibit Hall floors. We have avenues to obtain our figures when they release. We have access to the exclusive content shortly after, or during live panels. And we enjoyed supporting independent artists in the alley, and watching cosplayers get to show off hard work.

We decided we didn’t need to attend the final 2 days of con.

The shift was abrupt and obvious.

I want to ask questions that allow actors to be free and connect to the work. Maybe get a laugh or two. I want to help the cosplayers show off their skills. I want to support and elevate artists when, where, and if possible. I want to see conventions from a different point of view.

We left.

Dinner in Historic Filipino Town @ Manila Inasal. It was a great point to reflect with good food and a live band.

We did not attend Anime Expo. We did hang out with some of those close amazing friends I'll always talk about, in and around Los Angeles, and ate a lovely meal @ Castaway in Burbank. A supremely lovely cap to the week.

A very personally insightful week at and around Anime Expo.

Preparing to depart and head back home. We swung by the con to grab one last picture in front of the convention center, headed to the airport, and relaxed for our upgraded JetBlue Mint Seats on the way home. Not sure I can go back to economy after that. But it did provide good reflection space for the flight home.

The next convention is Anime NYC in my hometown. I will approach this convention as if I am press and see what that holds for my future of con hopping. I hope it works out, because we opted not to buy tickets to New York Comic Con this year, in hopes to be approved for Official Press Passes to NYCC 25. Manifesting.

Wish me luck!

Check out our Convention History Here!Check out our Anime NYC 2025 Coverage Here!