Anime Expo is easily the biggest anime con in the states and has been the subject of both praise and criticism.  The amount of discourse and the fact that it’s so polarizing begs the question of if this event is worth the aspects people critic to enjoy the aspects that have motivated hundreds of thousands of people, including myself to attend.  As someone who attended in 2018, 2019 and 2022 (even if it wasn’t my first choice that year) I’ve become quite knowledgeable of how Anime Expo works and I think I can offer an objective opinion on the matter. 

First and foremost the big question is why does Anime Expo attract so many people? One look at a fully made guest list for the event can answer that rather quickly.  Anime Expo attracts creators behind some of our favorite shows.  Thanks to the event, I’ve personally met the creator of Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon, a show that I hold in high regard as well as an artist behind Fire Emblem the series most dear to me.  In every year that I’ve attended Anime Expo I’ve met people that I have never been able to meet anywhere else and as someone who has attended over 70 cons that is really saying something.

Now if that isn’t convincing enough the event has a ton of exclusives.  Many publishers of manga, video game creators, anime creators and more will promote their upcoming work via merch or panels.  Again speaking from experience I’ve attended the season premiere of My Hero Academia season four back in 2019.  That year also saw the premiere of another popular anime Dr. Stone. Vendors at the convention also offer exclusive merchandise like funko pops, posters, and several promotional items.  Plus various figures and anime merch released by companies like Goodsmile that were either re-released or recently came out and would be hard to get otherwise.  That’s actually where my Cordelia statue from Fire Emblem: Awakening came from.

So all of that sounds wonderful and truth be told it is.  So then with all of that why is Anime Expo the subject of so many complaints, or for that matter why did I opt to not go this year even after the experiences I previously mentioned?  The expense does have a little bit to do with it as it is an expensive trip but the core of the problem lies with how Anime Expo is managed.  Frankly there is only one event that I’ve been to managed worse than this and it’s no longer happening.  The three core issues fall with the staff, crowd and convention policies.

So first I’ll talk about the staff as it seems like they consistently get people that don’t know what they are doing or don’t care.  I have personally tried very hard to not arrive at this conclusion as I understand the difficulty of their jobs; however, I have seen and personally experienced a myriad of failure from their staff.  Again I shall pull from my own experiences.  In 2019 during the pre-show day the security didn’t even know who was supposed to enter the right door and was not letting premiere pass holders or disabled people enter the premiere entrance despite it being on the Anime Expo website in great detail, or for that matter in the name itself.  Nor did they allow panelists to enter early to set up the panel that was to start right at the start of the expo.  That was actually how I met panelist and voice actor Jeff Burns because we both simultaneously had issues getting into the venue solely due to the ignorance of the security.  This did turn into a positive for me as I think Jeff is a pretty cool guy and I enjoyed talking with him. 

I experienced another situation in the autographs where security failed to monitor the lines so much that I was accused of sneaking in line even though I had the required ticket and was backed by the entire rest of the line.  Another member of staff had to come in to stop her from yelling at me for her own mistake.  Another issue was how in 2019 on day one the line to get in was so poorly managed it not only took hours to get in but a friend of mine suffered serious sunburns from the experience that left permanent scars.  My issues are not unique as you can easily go online and see many stories of staff creating needless obstacles for fans to enjoy the expo.  Note: This is not related to each and every one of them as I’ve met some amazing people too but the bad simply far outweighs the good.

Then you have the crowds.  This is an event that attracts well over 100,000 people a year and they are all in the Los Angeles Convention Center.  It’s so crowded that most people have only a couple of inches of space between them and the next person.  Here is a good look at what the crowd looked like just last weekend. 

Now imagine how difficult it would be to walk from one part of the convention center to another in such a crowd.  Now also consider how difficult it would be to get to autograph sessions, vendors, panels or simply find a place to chill in such a crowd.  For many people it was simply impossible.  It was so bad this year that voice actor Daman Mills had to cancel his signing for the first day of the expo because he couldn’t find a parking space to even try to endure the crowd to get in.  The fire marshal has had to prohibit entry to the convention for a little while both this and last year and LAPD had to address the convention back in 2019 due to their line issues bleeding out towards the city of Los Angeles.

Then you have the convention policies.  To get an autograph from a guest requires a ticket.  To get a ticket you have to get one from a booth outside of the venue in a line that starts moving before the convention starts.  That sounds easy enough but tickets are very limited and there is no limit to when you can line up so some people will literally wait all night to get a spot in line to get one of these hard to get tickets.  Then you endure the crowd to get in to get to the autograph line but because of the crowd you could be physically incapable of getting inside in time for the autograph you waited for. 

Then for those exclusive panels most of the time Anime Expo won’t clear the panel rooms so fans will wait in previous panels to ensure a seat at an event they want to go to happening later in the day.  So not only do you have panelists presenting to people who probably have no interest to them but you have fans who are interested waiting outside and not getting a seat because of this. This results in fans waiting, often outside in the heat, for hours to find out the panel room is capped.

So the reality is Anime Expo really does offer more than any other anime convention I’ve ever been to.  The memories I’ve made at this event are some I’ll cherish with me and remain some of the most enjoyable memories I’ve had at conventions.  However,  the effort it takes to make those memories is great and getting even greater as the crowd continues to get bigger and it has become so much harder to be a part of the limited amount of people who can enjoy the highlights of the event that you have to devote an unreasonable amount of time and effort for maybe one or two autographs and panels.  That was why I opted not to go back.  I don’t care who they have I don’t want to stay up all night outside for an autograph ticket nor do I want to endure staff who likely will fail at doing their job to get me inside in a timely manner only to endure the massive crowd which will slow me down considerable to get to where I’m going.  It has a lot to offer but those opportunities to enjoy what they offer are getting more and more fleeting to the point that I feel the odds of spending an incredible amount of time and effort to barely get anything out of your convention is experience is way too high.