Forum - View topicPost-Mortem: How Was Anime Expo 2023?
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xxmsxx
 Posts: 601 |
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Getting rid of the premiere badge is the final straw. I don't think I will ever go if I can't do premiere badge for AX. Just feels too unsafe. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2697 |
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Not sure if you intend this, but the article's tone and focus areas make it seem like crowding, lines, hot sun and room capping and clearing or lack thereof were novel or unexpected when they have been the norm pre-COVID for many years. Also, I know ANN staffers have been attending AX from way back, so again none of this should come as a surprise. And the situation with minimum volunteer workers has also been a notorious problem that was getting better just before COVID when they were also clearing rooms as an improvement from the situation of 2008-2012(?). So Welcome to the AX Jungle I guess, from your lips to (SPJA) kami-sama's ears on these longtime problems.
Also surprised no mention of Chibi-AX in regards to SPJA trying to relieve crowding... |
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catandmouse
Posts: 221 |
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I don’t know, but every year I hear about the over crowding, but since coming back after COVID, the badges have been sold out, which I assume means they’re capping the amount of tickets, and I remember the con feeling a lot more crowded previous years. Also, I go to comic-con, and honestly, the crowding feels about the same and I believe the SDCC is a smaller venue than LACC.
Anyway, maybe because I never get there exactly at opening, but since they got rid of the bag checks I haven’t had any issues with lines overall. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3053 Location: Email for assistance only |
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There is a spectrum for crowded. I don't know how useful it is to say "it's always had a lot of people" when we're telling you based on first-hand experience, and showing you with video, that it has reached a point where it's a legitimate safety concern and one wrong noise could incite panic and death. Bamboo has attended AX for years and has not previously written that she was legitimately concerned for her safety. The Fire Marshall has not been shutting down entrances every year since 2008. If there was any kind of emergency, say someone has an immediate medical situation, help isn't getting in there. Chibi-AX, a shopping event in November, isn't going to relieve crowding at AX proper. It obviously didn't work here, so why would that be brought up? It's very easy to not go to the con and then allude were over-reacting because AX has "always been crowded." |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2581 |
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Neat coverage. Still have never actually gone to a 'con, though with COVID finally in a more comfortable place I'm tempted to try one locally in the next year or so. Definitely not one that's reaching Shangai-subway levels of crowding, though..
Seems like there's a typo here, the 'It was such a...' sentence is duplicated: "There was such a strong sense of synergy with the fans from how they responded to the VTuber performers to how they coordinated their light sticks. It was such a surreal but invigorating experience that actually left me wanting more," AJ said. " It was such a surreal but invigorating experience that actually left me wanting more." |
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-Matthew-
Posts: 1583 |
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Thanks! I would like to be there one day... It would be amazing!
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5958 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Not clearing the rooms before each event is a serious problem. Why even get in line. A convention of this size and one which is known for crowded conditions, makes planning ahead of time for what you really want to see important. So you get in line early, but cause they don't clear the rooms you miss your event. That makes me not want to bother.
If they are not getting enough volunteers, either they have to really raise the incentives for volunteering or financially plan for paid staff. Haven't been to Otakon in years, but I always thought they had crowded conditions, but looking at San Diego it sounds like a pure nightmare. I've been to Anime Japan a couple of times, but even with the initial entrance line, once you were in, the lines were not that bad at all for most of the stuff. Can't speak to the concerts or other VIP special events. |
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Multi-Facets
Posts: 261 |
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If it's always this crowded and not getting better, as well as worsening in other ways, then this sounds like one convention I'll never hit even if I could. :-/
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2487 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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I’ve attended about half of the biggest cons in North America(*), and of these, AX is the one I have no desire to return to. The size, crowding, and hassle of the con just aren’t worth it. Like the Hajj to Mecca, going to AX is something the faithful should do once in their lifetimes, but once is surely enough.
(* - we can debate whether there’s a definitive list of top cons by attendance, given that animecons.com gave up on maintaining their own list in light of Anime Matsuri’s reckless misrepresentations of their attendance. The big ones I’ve been to are AX, Otakon, Anime Central, Anime Weekend Atlanta, and Youmacon. I’ve also been to FanimeCon and while it seems big, I never see it on these lists, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.) It bothers me that there seem to be so many vendors and guests who are willing to do one con a year, and have decided that AX has to be it. On its face maybe that makes sense: its attendance is triple the next biggest. But that tends to mean you just get buried under everyone and everything else. I’ve seen guests who couldn’t get a panel or a table at AX who’d probably be Guests of Honor at a 30,000-person con. I don’t get why so many folks aren’t interested in being the big fish in a slightly smaller pond. For example, it seems like the Kinema Citrus folks have found a nice niche at Anime Central, debuting new Made in Abyss and Revue Starlight stuff there in recent years. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
Posts: 2697 |
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I don't know why you want to restate my intent as a slam for over-reacting, my intent is pointing out this has happened before and that these things are being allowed to happen all over again despite having a history and agreeing they desperately need to change. I am backing up your point, the problem is not me. As for Chibi-AX, one of it's original stated purposes was to provide a similar venue for fans to attend instead of only at the LACC with the hope of alleviating the rising tide they were seeing. Obviously not working as intended, but that doesn't negate that it is relevant to your point that SPJA needs to do something as what has been done ain't working. How and what is the thorny issue. Moving to Vegas perhaps?? Or bite the monetary bullet and cap the attendance to 80k and actually employ a small army rather than rely on low/no-pay volunteers? Now there is a story... |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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The Los Angeles Convention Center has 720,000 square feet of exhibition space and 147,000 of meeting room space.
https://www.google.com/search?q=square+footage+of+los+angeles+convention+center&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS766US766&oq=square+footage+of+los+angeles+convention+center&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160i395j33i299i395l2.1323700049j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 The Anaheim Convention Center has 1.8 million square feet of exhibition space. https://www.visitanaheim.org/meetings/anaheim-convention-center/#:~:text=Originally%20opened%20in%201967%2C%20the,space%20and%20many%20dynamic%20features. So why would you reduce the amount of space convention goers/vendors/etc. could use? What did LACC offer opposed to what Anaheim could offer? I've been to AX when it was at Anaheim and at Long Beach (which is even smaller than LACC btw). Haven't gone in several years. And after reading articles from other sources where people were seriously terrified that there would be a crowd surge like what happened in South Korea - Halloween 2022, I'm not sure I will go. Went to Anime Riverside. Did they have all of the things that AX has. No. But I wasn't crushed or slammed into walls. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10468 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Having been to AX every year since 2001, I will agree with you at this problem has existed for years, but the issue evolves and changes every year. AX has done a lot to improve how long it takes to register on day 1, but by solving the day-1 registration line problem, it's ironically morphed into a "too many people trying to get into the convention center and exhibit hall on day 1" problem. The crowds inside the convention center are definitely worse than in 2019, despite relatively similar attendance numbers. I really don't think it's worth dismissing these issues because they are "nothing new," or "none of this should be surprising." |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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The premiere badge only makes it safer for the small percentage who have it. So what this really means is that the con has become too crowded and/or too disorganized.
Subsidies, discounts, or something along those lines, probably. Or maybe that theater they use for concerts (which gets bought by a new corporation and renamed so often that I can't remember what it's called currently). They book the convention center and surrounding area years in advance, seemingly without thinking about increasing crowd sizes. I don't know if I'll return to AX anytime soon, mostly for unrelated reasons, but my message to anyone who does go is to just be prepared to skip out on things if it seems dangerously crowded. In particular, don't try to get into the exhibit hall as early as possible. Just go a few hours after it opens, when the masses have spread out enough that you can move around. No matter what rare anime merch you're looking for, it's not worth possibly getting crushed or trampled. Or catching Covid, for that matter. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
Posts: 2697 |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10468 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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It's quite possible that we haven't mentioned this in our ANN coverage in recent years, so from that point of view, as it's the first time we're really writing about it, it might seem like we're implying it's something new (but the article itself makes it very clear that this problem has been growing for years). There are two primary reasons we haven't written about the lines in previous years. 1) We haven't been doing convention epilogue articles like this one for quite a while (although last year we did report on the Artist Alley issue), and 2) there was an impression among our staff / freelancers at the event that the lines inside the convention center reached a tipping point this year. We actually had to tell our social team to chill out with the "another day more lines," social media posts. |
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