Anime Los Angeles 2017 Review

Anime Los Angeles

January 25 - 28

Omtario Convention Center

February 5, 2017
by Stephen Carter, Jean Vallesteros
Photos by Stephen Carter and Daniel Craig

Anime Los Angeles (ALA) has come and gone this past weekend. For its thirteenth year, the anime-based convention has been a popular con for many anime fans. ALA started out as a small con in a hotel in Los Angeles. Last year it moved to the Ontario Convention Center, where it was held again this year. Like all conventions, there were food trucks, panels, vendors, and an artist alley. 

Photo by Daniel Craig

One of the strong elements of this con is how dedicated the con-goers are. While there is a vendor’s floor, the cosplayers were one of the main attractions of the convention. Many anime fans brought out fantastic cosplays from a variety of anime. Even designs from video games, such as Final Fantasy and Overwatch were brought to life by the hard work of the fans who wore the cosplays. This convention was lined up with cosplayers and photographers doing cosplay photoshoots all over the convention center. 

Cosplayer: garpstavosauce

Another attraction, that has been making its way into popularity lately, were the Itasha cars. The owners of the cars decorated their cars with car wraps of their favorite anime characters along with different sponsor tags. These car owners are true to their fandoms, and their cars show it. 

Indoors, besides the exhibit floor, were panels. Panels were held in the convention center and in the nearby hotel, The Radisson. There were a variety of panels, ranging from fashion, sewing, foam prop making, interactive panels, and even music panels.

The panel I could attend was with Jason Charles Miller. His panel was appropriately titled: Music and Anime with Jason Charles Miller. Miller, a musician and voice actor, has participated and worked on many projects. He has produced music for games such as BlazBlue and has been a VA for titles such as Hellsing and Ghost in the Shell. He went over his process of how he produced music for various media, from commercials, games, and even anime. Overall, it was interesting to listen to how one thinks about producing music for certain scenes and why.

Overall, ALA was a great event. This year was another success for the ALA team and I look forward to having the opportunity to go again.

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