Move Over Mickey, Make Way For The Anime Generation
Event: Anime Expo

By Bobby Okinaka

The hotel tram carrying guests back from Disneyland braked for a curious creature with cat ears, pink hair and a tail. Suddenly the out-of-towners were surrounded by dozens of faeries, demon fighters, cyborg bounty hunters and gothic princesses.

The unsuspecting tourists found themselves in the middle of the Anime Expo held at the Anaheim Convention Center. This year's extravaganza of Japanese animation ran from July 3-6 and marked the 10th year of the event. The bizarre crowd encountered by the tourists was actually hardcore anime fans who dress up in elaborate homemade costumes as their favorite characters.

Most of the scheduled events over the four days were anime screenings of old classics and new releases. Fans had the option to take part in workshops to learn how to draw their own characters or even sound like them. The expo was also a rare opportunity for fans to meet anime creators and voice actors from Japan.

In an Anime Expo exclusive, composer Yuki Kajuira premiered her CD soundtrack, "Fiction" by performing with her band in front of a crowd of over 2,000 anime fans. Kajiura, who composed the music for popular anime titles like "Noir" and ".hack//Sign," shared with the audience how she tried to understand the character before writing a theme song. As a sign of the growing international appeal of anime, all the songs on the CD were performed in English.

Inside the exhibition hall expo-goers rummaged around booths by anime vendors for videos, DVDs, plush toys, models and posters to add to their collections. Major anime distributors like Bandai, Pioneer and Tokyo Pop set up elaborate displays projecting trailers of their latest releases on wide screens for the fans to gawk at.

Anh Trinh, a marketing associate at Bandai Entertainment, told Asia Pacific Arts that people who love anime don't see them as just cartoons. "Anime is a medium instead of a genre, with stories about comedy, horror, fantasy and action. And they are not just for kids, many themes are written for adults."

Trinh continued by pointing out how anime is becoming more mainstream now that cable channels like Cartoon Network and TechTV have programmed exclusive blocks of anime and major chain stores carry anime titles across the country. Coming soon is a channel devoted just to anime called, what else but the Anime Network.

All this is good news for Bandai. "If the fans like one title, they will buy everything they can to get that franchise," said Trinh. In addition to distributing home videos, Bandai sells anime-related video games, trading cards and models. Currently their most popular titles are the .hack and Gundam series.

After watching anime and exploring the exhibition hall all day you would think the fans would go home to rest their tired eyes and feet. But no, the real action took place at night. The main events included a karaoke contest, a show of fan directed anime music videos, the Yuki Kajiura music concert and a Masquerade performance featuring the homemade anime costumes.

Even with all the fancy shows and contests, the fantastic anime costumes were the true highlights of the expo. Dressing up as your favorite character is called "cosplay," short for costume play. Cosplay, like anime, originated in Japan and has been picked up by American fans like Sarah Beattie. Sarah, a college student, dressed up as Lum, a sexy demoness, in the long-running TV series, "Urusei Yatsura."

The favorite place for Sarah and the other cosplayers to gather was in front of the convention center where they gladly posed for pictures for anyone with a digital camera.

Sarah's first taste of anime was the series for girls called "Sailormoon" that briefly aired on American television almost ten years ago. Her love for anime led to an appreciation of Japanese culture and she now studies Japanese language and literature in college.

"I love anime so much I'm running around in a fur bikini!" Lum, er Sarah exclaimed.

The next Anime Expo event will take anime back to its roots as the first American anime convention to be held in Japan. The expo will take place on January 16-18, 2004 in Tokyo. For more information go to www.anime-expo.org/tokyo2004.

July 18, 2003