Well, Con season is over and we ended it on a pretty good note in Pasadena, CA at the Pacific Media Expo. We reflect on this past year and discuss what really makes and breaks conventions! Join  newcomers Edward and Norman, old-jerky Tyler, and host Kevin in this conned-out episode of ShuKai! Tyler also gives his additional thoughts below!

 

(Image from PMX website)

About PMX:

Pacific Media Expo is a new generation of convention for a new generation of fans! PMX brings the cutting edge of Asian entertainment to America, whether it is the newest anime from Japan, the hottest bands from the Pacific Rim, the latest street fashion from Harajuku, or the most disturbing horror films from Asia. PMX seeks to create an entertainment community for artists, industry, and their fans.

America’s first major trade show dedicated to Asian-Pacific popular culture and entertainment media, Pacific Media Expo (PMX) is an industry event sponsored by the Pacific Media Association. Pacific Media Expo is showcased annually. The show will feature honored guests, live performances, panel discussions, autograph sessions, Asian cinema and animation video rooms, art exhibitions and one of the country’s only exhibit halls dedicated to Asian media and pop culture.

(Via PMX website)

We recorded our episode on the second day of the convention, and we have some additional thoughts on the convention. We do have video footage that may or may not be turned into a video on YouTube.

These opinions are purely Tyler’s and not the other three staff who attended. First off, Saturday was fun I do want to make sure that was said and the stance from the episode. However, the things I do want to point out from this weekend:

The convention was very, very low attended, especially Sunday. The only 2 places we saw a relatively good amount of people were the Filipino Martial Arts Tournament and the Fashion Show. After talking to exhibitors and some of the (actually pleasant) volunteers, the biggest issue was moving the convention from near LAX to Pasadena. Which takes me to number 2.

They had one TINY Exhibit Hall and a smaller artist alley. There were around 18-20 booths in the Exhibit Hall and Artist Alley didn’t have many artists there. It was mostly products like pillows, wallets, and collectibles. I don’t want to rag on the amount of exhibitors, but the expo put them in separate rooms which made the convention look small and boring. The smarter thing to do would be to put them in the same room to make it look more exciting and worth people’s time. The two tiny rooms made it feel useless to walk through more than 2 times.

The voice acting guests there wasn’t a bad selection, like our good and talented friend, Joe Ochman was there and Ezra Weisz, Bob Klein, Corina Boettger, Valerie Arem, and a few more. You can see the full list here. Now, it’s actually nice when small cons have guests at all, but the guests were put in front of the exhibit hall, which was awkward, and gave more reason to not go back into that tiny room after one or two walkthroughs because they rotated the voice actors and you wanted to stick around to see who was next. Also, most of them were only there one day (unless they wanted to come back the next day as attendees).

The Anime Guest of Honor guests were really cool. Norman and Edward (pictures below) were able to get autographs from both Masashi Kudo<...