![]() ![]() Coupled with the increasing accessibility of manga, this means the medium's popularity will only continue to grow in the coming years as more people can access titles that appeal to their tastes - especially as they can be enjoyed shortly after their initial Japanese release. It also leads to manga stories becoming much more popular as they have a united international fan base, rather than the American audience getting hold of a series years after it's finished in Japan.Īnime Expo 2022 was a fantastic event for manga fans, proving that we're in the middle of a renaissance with varied and new titles being localized at a breakneck pace. This is fantastic as it allows American readers to share Japanese fans' hype and excitement. RELATED: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Shows Off Their Jolyne Cosplayīecause to this, many series are getting localized and released about a year after their initial tankobon volumes arrive on Japanese shelves. Also announced were adaptions of period dramas like The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom and Raven of the Inner Palace, and these come alongside loads of more traditional action manga series, including the extremely popular Tomb Raider King. The reveals encompassed a staggering amount of genres and sub-genres as there really was something on offer for every palette, from fantastical romance stories like Why Don't You Eat Me, My Dear Wolf? to more grounded takes on the genre like the music-themed SCRAMBLUES. More obscure series like Do Not Say Mystery, a beloved mystery series in Japan that is currently unknown to most Americans, were also announced - and this was on top of reveals about cutting-edge titles like The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife, which is quickly gaining a large and dedicated audience. Several web novels have localizations coming, including the popular Villains Are Destined to Die. As someone who has to travel to California to attend these cons, I’m wondering if I show eschew Anime Expo for Crunchyroll Expo next year.However, Anime Expo 2022's announcements included more than just major series with existing anime adaptations. No matter how you feel about Crunchyroll’s increasingly large foothold over anime streaming, if Crunchyroll Expo slowly begins to take from traffic away from Anime Expo, that’s probably a good thing. Crunchyroll ran many of the AX’s biggest panels - Mob Psycho 100, Chainsaw Man - and teased more, arguably bigger announcements for their own expo. I did notice the specter of Crunchyroll Expo - which takes place next month in San Jose - looming quite heavily over Anime Expo. (But at least I can tell you the new OP is fire.) I felt guilty as I was ushered into the room with my press pass. The fiasco of the Mob Psycho panel was especially heart-breaking, as fans who had been waiting in line for possibly hours were turned away because so few people attending the previous panel left. Fans were left disappointed as multiple big-name panels - most notably for Demon Slayer and Mob Psycho 100 - ran out of room and had to turn people away. What started as a small gathering in the basement of a hotel in the early 90s now requires the LA Fire Marshal to come and beg organizers to open up more sections of America’s biggest city’s biggest venues. Indeed, I found myself wondering whether Anime Expo is getting too big. I kept wondering: how do you make something as huge as Anime Expo not a shit show? Everyone was doing the best they could, because everything was a lot. The Wifi at one of the entrances was spotty, so I had to run back and forth around the expansive outside of the LACC just to entrance that it wasn’t my badge which was malfunctioning (and I wasn’t the only one this happened to). The first day especially, it was evident that everyone was confused and malfunctions were everywhere. These volunteers are literally not paid enough to police people on mask-wearing to the extent that the convention organizers should have been preparing for. ![]() To be fair, Anime Expo relies mostly on volunteer labor. It was not uncommon to see a vendor in the artist alley post a sign to their shop which said, “No Mask, No Service.” As has become disappointingly typical, this left mask enforcement to individual vendors. Every new day of the con, it felt like less people wore masks. Anime Expo reversed their disastrous decision to not require vaccination or negative tests, but the enforcement of their masking policy was disappointingly lax. Considering the super-sized crowd, I’m very much hoping I did not get COVID. ![]()
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