Conventions / Miscellaneous

「Anime Los Angeles 2015」

Anime Los Angeles 2014

Seeing how this is my second time to this convention, let me just jump straight into some general impressions since not much has changed in a year — and that’s a good thing!

Overall Impressions

Being somewhat experienced at the art of attending Anime Conventions, hands down Anime Los Angeles or ALA is still one of my favorite conventions to attend. With the focus on keeping things down to earth, both the attendees and staff do a great job at making the convention as a whole just plain fun — for the most part.

I tend to talk about this point a lot but I think ALA strikes a nice balance between being a big or small convention. Taking the route of being a medium sized con, it’s a nice feeling to know that the venue is large enough to accommodate everyone (probably in part since you couldn’t purchase badges on site) without having too much empty space that it feels empty. Toss in the fact that there are tons of places to relax and/or take photos of your favorite cosplays and the place just feels perfect. Then again, we are talking about a true Marriott hotel here so I guess it’d be strange if the place wasn’t fancy enough to live up to its name.

Compared to last year though, it was kind of strange seeing all of the landscaping blocked by fences. If you’ve read my post about last year’s con, one of the best things of the venue was the Pool Deck and Patio that offered fabulous spots to take photos. Specifically the Pool Deck, there were literally five to six places that all had their own feel to it! This year though, you could definitely feel a change in the atmosphere with construction-esque fencing covering everything. That said, this year’s con was the last to be held at this venue so I doubt it’ll be a recurring problem.

Besides that, not much has changed in the past year. The general setup of the con was the same (everything con related it downstairs and the lobby was basically a general gathering place) and I still had some slight disappointment with how small the Artist Alley and Dealer’s Hall was — but I’m not crazy enough to think that’s what you come to this kind of con for.

That said, I would usually start this final paragraph with “While it isn’t Anime-Expo..” but honestly I’ve become super fond of this kind of tight knit convention. While it might be partly because I’ve attended so many of these now, there’s no arguing that the atmosphere at ALA is a lot more pleasant than other conventions. There’s less stress and feeling like you “need” to do things and instead you’re able to go with the flow and do whatever happens to be available.

P.S. For anyone who was there, wasn’t that surprise rainstorm crazy? I expected the weather to be nice and sunny =__=

 

 

Convention Info

  • Date: January 9 thru 11
  • Location: LAX Marriott /
    Los Angeles, CA
  • Website: animelosangeles.org/ala/

    •  

    “… but honestly I’ve become super fond of this kind of tight knit convention.”

     

    “That said, this year’s con was the last to be held at this venue so I doubt it’ll be a recurring problem.”

     

    “one of the best things of the venue was the Pool Deck and Patio”

     

    “Besides that, not much has changed in the past year.”

19 Comments

  1. Someone cosplayed as vella from vindictus! Oh my gah, that is super awesome. Did not expect to see a cosplay from the game, and she pulled it off well.

    Looks fun, I’ve been to anime expo last year but I never got the chance to go to ALA. I’ve been to several smaller cons, and I actually like smaller ones sometimes too because people there are more relaxed and chill since there isn’t much to do, and I get to take cool pictures with fellow cosplayers. Hopefully I get a chance to go to ALA next year.

    chromenova
    Reply

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