After reading all about Mike Tatsugawa's comments regarding Anime Expo and the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation in April of 2003, I became curious and eventually compelled to see the convention for myself.

With some rousing to get Ben up, we went to the Anaheim Convention Center (ACC) at 4:45 pm, where I went in search of my press pass, and a7m4 and Ben stood in the registration line. An hour after initially being given the run-around by AX staff members who didn't know where I should go (Edit: It's déjà vu all over again... - Kain)... this sounds familiar... my press pass was in my possession as well as a bag filled with goodies, or rather, what I presumed to be goodies. Upon closer inspection of the goodies, I found some important material (a press kit, a "pocket" guide and a program guide), but most of it was useless junk (a thirteen-month-old copy of NewType USA, numerous fliers and press releases for anime I didn't care about, a Scion magazine, etc.).

In the following hours, I stood in line with a7m4 and Ben, waiting for them to get their membership badges. This gave me adequate time to talk to numerous otaku, get myself better acquainted with my roommates and even squeeze in a few games of Hearts. Before we left the Registration Hall, I looked around and had to feel sorry for the hundreds of anime otaku who wouldn't make the 10:00 pm deadline; most of them would have to come back the next day, unless the AX staff decided to ignore the deadline and continue processing people.

And thus, July 1st came to an end, but AX had yet to begin.

Day One
For me, the first day of AX 2004 began at 7:58 am on Friday morning with me staring down an alarm clock that was set to go off in two minutes. After shutting it off, I took some time to update my report and then to take a more thorough look at the schedule to find panels and events I'd be interested in.

Afterwards, I went off to the press room while a7m4 and Ben got in line for opening ceremonies. I was to show up at the press room at 9:30 am so they could walk members of the press over to the opening ceremonies as a group, and although I arrived at 9:45 am, it appeared that I'd missed the boat and another wasn't coming. So I decided to find opening ceremonies myself, which wasn't difficult; follow the line of people.

Opening Ceremonies were supposed to begin at 10:00 am, and although I arrived at 10:10 am, it didn't start for another twelve minutes. When things did get kicked off, Master of Ceremonies Stephanie Fernandez introduced Celebrity Master of Ceremonies Yoshimura Reina, and both women spoke about the success of the first Anime Expo Tokyo. Then things were turned over to SPJA chairwoman Jennifer Pon, who gave a short and nervous speech (she even admitted that she wasn't used to public speaking), and then gave the podium back to both Masters of Ceremonies. Next, the J-Pop star MIQ took the stage and sung a song of hers, and I must admit that it was pleasant to listen to. Afterwards, John Taylor from City of Hope, a nonprofit charity and medical research foundation, came and encouraged people to participate in the SPJA Charity Auction on July 5th and to enjoy the Matsuri-themed festivities. What followed was a dabble into what Ishida Yoko's concert would contain; she sung Takaramono, the opening theme song for Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi. I was honestly impressed by her voice because it sounds so much better in person than in an anime.

When the Masters of Ceremonies took the stage once again, they turned things over to Kamiya Akira and several of his students from the Nippon Engineering College, a school that trains animators and seiyuu. By using silent clips from an episode of Galaxy Angel, Akira and his students performed a demonstration of Japanese dubbing. Following that, MIQ and Ishida Yoko both performed Cruel Angel's Thesis, the opening theme song to Neon Genesis Evangelion; there were a lot of otaku that suddenly turned rabid upon hearing the first few seconds of the song. Then the Masters of Ceremonies began introducing the numerous guests of honor, amongst which were Maruyama Masao, Murata Range and Kimura Shinichiro. To my surprise, no American guests were introduced. The Opening Ceremonies ended at 11:38 am, and everyone was quick to disperse throughout the convention center.

I would've attended the Under 17 focus panel at 1:00 pm, but that was canceled. I strolled on over to the Anaheim Marriott to see the showing of the first two episodes of Azumanga Daioh. On the way there, I ran into a7m4 and Ben. However, we turned around as soon as we realized that the voice track was the English dub. Now, I like a good English dub as much as anyone else, but there are some anime that cannot be translated without losing what made it so special in the first place, and Azumanga Daioh is one of them.

Before I realized it, the Voice Acting panel with Kamiya Akira had begun… and I was late! I arrived at 1:15 pm, and although it began at 1:00 pm, I don't feel I missed anything important other than introductions. I expected the panel to be seiyuu talking about the anime industry and their jobs, but instead, it was regular otaku dubbing the clips of Galaxy Angel (the same clips that had been used during Opening Ceremonies) with a romanji script. In a roundabout but entertaining way, Kamiya taught everyone who attended the panel the methods used for good voice acting. It was definitely an interesting panel to attend, but I found it odd that he wasn't included as one of the Japanese Guests of Honor.

Next, I found myself at the Chibi Masquerade, a mini masquerade for younger children and other people who didn't feel like performing in front of a few thousand people. Although scheduled for 2:00 pm, it began at 2:21 pm. However, the great host, named Daryl, made those twenty-one minutes fly buy with plenty of laughs, but made sure that there were plenty for the rest of the show. I'll be honest: the performances were a mix of good and bad cosplaying, but everyone did their best and had fun, and that's what counts the most. Features included San from Princess Mononoke, Mario and Luigi from Super Mario Brothers and Yoko from The Twelve Kingdoms. Although it was slated for two hours, the Chibi Masquerade ended more than an hour earlier than scheduled; I left the room at 2:58 pm and it was barely forty minutes long.

I wandered about for a bit and came back to the Dealers Room at 3:07 pm. I did a more thorough look-see of many booths, including the ones for Tokyopop, Bandai, Viz, Geneon and ADV. There were many deals to be found, but there were many better ones at the independent retailer booths, amongst which I found Berserk volume 2 for a great price. I briefly considered playing at the Ragnarok Online booth, but the pre-made character builds weren't the best and, more importantly, I was late for the Ishiguro Noburo panel!

I got to the Ishiguro Noburo panel at 4:17 pm. When I got seated, the well-known director of Legends of the Galactic Heroes and Macross: Do You Remember Love? was giving an interesting overview of his past year since AX 2003 and then proceeded to invite a coworker of his up to the stage where he showed off concept art for an upcoming anime based upon a book series called "Titania". Then they spoke at length about the difficulties of producing anime in a profit-driven industry and their success regarding past and famous works. And twice in the same day, I had met an important member of the anime industry who was not listed as a Japanese Guest of Honor. The panel ended at 5:06 pm, but I stayed for the next panel.

The FUNimation Presents: How Anime Comes to the U.S. panel was a behind-the-scenes look, led by FUNimation representative Lance Heiskell, at how anime makes the trip across the Pacific, eventually to the VHS or DVD that you buy at a store. There was no Q&A session because he answered just about any and every question imaginable with his comprehensive outlining. The panel finished at 6:01 pm, but I stayed afterwards to exchange a few words with Lance. It's panels like these that make you wish you'd brought along a camcorder just to get everything!

My next stop became Anime Singled Out at 7:32 pm. The show was worth a few hearty laughs, but it was as cheesy as the show that inspired it; the same concept was used but with anime-related questions. I made the wise move of leaving at 7:50 pm, attending the Anime Music Video Contest at 7:58 pm. Normally, I would skip an AMV contest, but these AMVs were already cut down to a top seven in four categories, and there wasn't anything else worth attending for the rest of the evening. Actually getting into the main auditorium was a challenge all on its own, and I'm surprised I actually got in, even with a press pass.

Although the contest itself started at 8:50 pm, the time between my arrival and the beginning was filled with some good AMVs from past AX contests, the best of which was clips of RahXephon set to Must Be Dreaming by Frou Frou; very high quality. Over the next several hours, there were twenty-seven AMVs shown, and despite the fact that the wheat was separated from the chaff, they were still a mixed bag as far as quality is concerned, but I do believe that the good outweighed the bad. However, one was disqualified because the AX staff couldn't properly play it. My favorite was from a Rock Lee versus Gaara fight from Naruto set to Next by Nexus. The contest itself ended at 11:22 pm and I left the ACC to return to my hotel room.

I made a quick getaway to the AnimeNation Entertainment panel, led by Gene Field and John Oppliger. As I arrived at 11:05 am, they began by showing trailers for both of their current acquisitions, Risky Safety and Miami Guns. They then proceeded to show two more trailers for their recently acquired anime, Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu and Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu Deluxe!, but they'll be released in the United States under the name Haré + Guu. They expect to eventually license the third series, Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu Final, but these two title acquisitions are already a big boost for this up-and-coming company in the anime industry. After their title announcements, they spoke about how they plan on opening an online anime DVD rental store in the coming weeks, and then they opened the panel for Q&A. Although many AnimeNation forum-goers were in the audience and were asking many interesting questions and being given equally interesting answers, I had to bail at 11:28 am lest I not make it to the Murata Range panel. Regardless, the panelists and the company definitely had a strong by-fans-for-fans feel, and I hope they don't lose that ever.

As it was, there was a lengthy line for Murata Range's panel, and I got in the room a few minutes after the panel began. He's well known for his character designs in Last Exile and Blue Submarine No. 6, and he provided a lot of insight into the creation process for his characters. He then spoke quite a bit about how his clothing designs have practical uses in anime and real life, how his designs contribute to an anime's world and atmosphere and just how it feels to see people cosplaying as characters he made. He also spoke about his books, "Futurhythm" and "Re Futurhythm", and the visual references from history that he uses in his designs. The panel ended at 12:34 pm, and there was a raffle afterwards for Range's autograph even though he was scheduled the next day to do autographs in the Dealers Room.

I left the panel and arrived at the Dealers Room at 12:44 pm for a quick look through a few booths before I came back for the Murata Toshiharu. He's known primarily for being the character designer for Hellsing, Blue Submarine No. 6 and Burn-up Scramble, but he's also done mechanical designs for GetBackers and Gad Guard. The panel began at 1:05 pm, and Toshiharu spoke about how character design work for anime can be difficult even if there's a preexisting manga and how mechanical designs are far easier for him than characters. However, Toshiharu was a deviation from the normal Japanese Guest of Honor; he was very serious and brutally honest about everything. He didn't sugar coat his thoughts and feelings when asked some questions. For example, he said that anime fans shouldn't get into the industry unless they want anime to become a job and not merely a hobby. He also said that people within the anime industry don't feel that they're very special even though they are celebrated and given red carpet treatment at conventions, and he even went off about how the anime industry is shorthanded and uses poor animators. The panel ended at 2:05 pm after a quick raffle.

I went to the Voice Acting panel at 4:02 pm, a full hour-and-a-half after it began. It ended at 4:16 pm, and I wish I had been there for the whole time because the American voice actors were all quite funny and had plenty of interesting stories and good advice to tell.

Everyone got kicked out of the room and I got back in at 4:34 pm for the Okochi Ichiro panel. He's known primarily for being the screenplay writer for RahXephon, Azumanga Daioh and Angelic Layer, as well as the script writer for Planetes and Stellvia of the Universe. He started by giving a short story about his life and the range of jobs he's held within the anime industry, and then the AX staff moderator turned the panel over to Q&A. During the session, Ichiro hinted at the potential for a sequel for Stellvia of the Universe, mentioned numerous gripes he had about previous anime that he's worked on and speculated about why and how there are similarities between Neon Genesis Evangelion and RahXephon. Perhaps the most interesting part was when he told all about how he took Azumanga Daioh manga frames out of order so he could produce some semblance of a story for its conversion to anime.

So I walked over to the Production IG panel and got in line outside of the room. Unbeknownst to me, the panel was actually a combination of Starchild Records and Production IG. A representative from Starchild kicked off the panel by showing opening animations from anime that they owned the music soundtrack rights to. Then Production IG took over and began speaking at length about Ghost in the Shell II: Innocence and showed a trailer for the movie. When the Q&A session began, the one answer that stood out the most was that the Production IG representative said that there were creators that wanted to make a prequel and sequel to both Kill Bill movies. The only other pieces of information that seemed worth mentioning were details regarding the Innocence R2 DVD and theatrical release in the United States. However, it seemed like the Production IG representative was more interested in trying to get everyone at the panel to buy a $500.00 USD package that included everything regarding Innocence. I wasn't particularly jived when she tried selling this to the audience, but the panel ended soon afterwards at 7:05 pm, so I didn't have enough time to be annoyed.

a7m4 and I went to the Magnitude 8 Post: The Art of Adaptation panel at 7:09 pm and met up with Ben at the door. The panelists wasted no time in going into great detail about how dubbing anime in English isn't very easy at all. In order to translate Japanese into English as well as possible, it's necessary to understand all of the references in the script, but like a puzzle, you have to try to fit all of the pieces together to make it sound like someone is talking rather than just reading words off of a piece of paper.

I tried going to the Dealers Room at 8:27 pm, but it was closed down for the day. Instead, I made my way up to the "No Need for Cosplay" panel so I could be early for the Anime News Network panel. I walked into the room at 8:40 pm and wished I had come earlier. It adjourned until 8:47 pm, but from the little time I was in the room, I understood that the panel was about an independent documentary on cosplaying and the reasons why people love it. Basically, it sounded like Otaku no Video without the intended comedy; that definitely caught my interest.

The ANN panel began promptly at 9:00 pm. Sitting left to right, the panelists were Liann Cooper, Bamboo Dong, Mikhail Koulikov, Christopher MacDonald and Johnathan May; quite the collection of ANN staffers. Chris began by making a few announcements, namely that ANN contests are on hold indefinitely until it can be guaranteed that prizes will be received properly by winners and that there will be a new industry section of the ANN forum so people can ask questions and get answers from people who are directly involved. John then announced that ANN will be starting Project New Future, an effort to get otaku to donate time to children with cancer and then receive prizes from anime companies as a reward. There was a heavy mix of Q&A and lots of prize giveaways. After correctly answering two questions, I won a Texhnolyze notepad and Hand Maid May first DVD with boxset, but I gave the latter to a couple sitting across the aisle. The panel ended at 10:08 pm, and it made my night complete. Overall, I got a favorable impression of ANN despite some of my disagreements. Chris has hopes of making ANN a professional business with a paid staff, and although I don't agree with the path, I do wish the ANN staff the best of luck in their endeavor.

Afterwards, I spoke to the ANN staff about how I believe their panel was very good regardless of the numerous prizes they gave away. I learned that they were planning on attending Otakon 2004, and I made mention of the Anime Academy panel in hopes that they might come. While speaking to John, I expressed that I don't want to be paid for a job regarding anime because then it becomes a job. He said that I shouldn't turn down the money, and perhaps it was when he gave me his business card ("very leet", I told him), but I think now that I'd consider a paying job in the anime industry were one ever to come my way, but my work with Anime Academy is entirely a volunteer position and will stay that way.

I got into my hotel room at 10:38 pm, and I took some time to read the second volume of Berserk that I had bought. I fell asleep sometime around 11:00 pm. My third day in Anaheim ended, and I had yet to find the bacon-wrapped hot dogs that Keitaro had raved about.

Continue to Anime Expo 2004: Part II...