Anime Expo - Tumblr Posts

Off to Anime Expo 2023!

My ITA backpack is ready!

And in case my favorite anime wasn't obvious enough already, I also put some pins on my badge lanyard!

So yeah, later today I'll be heading to Anime Expo (also known as AX), which is arguably the biggest anime convention in North America. Since I live near Los Angeles, I've been to the expo many times...this will be my thirteenth year attending! I've even saved all of my AX badges over the years ;)

(if you're wondering why I had to blur out parts of the badges, it's because they used to be personalized with every attendee's full name and city/state. They stopped doing that in 2015).

Even though I've been to AX many times, this will be my first convention since the pandemic, so I'm especially looking forward to it.

These are the events I'm planning to attend (emphasis on SxF related events of course):

Day 1, July 1st

-Spy x Family Panel featuring Takuya Eguchi

Start: 5:00PM End: 5:50PM

Day 2, July 2nd

-Production I.G x WIT

Start: 12:00PM End: 12:50PM

Day 3, July 3rd

-Bushiroad Panel

Start: 11:30AM End: 12:20PM

-Crunchyroll Industry Panel

Start: 3:30PM End: 4:50PM

Any time I have in between panels will be spent in the Exhibit Hall, where 100+ vendors will be selling all manner of anime goods, or Artist Alley, where 100+ artists will be selling their works. And when those places close in the evenings, I'll probably hang out in the Tabletop Gaming room playing Weiss Schwarz and Osica.

Obviously the SxF panel on Day 1 is my top priority. That would still be the case even if Eguchi wasn't part of it, but the fact that he will be there makes me even more excited! But anyone who's been to big fan conventions knows how crazy crowds can be, and unless an event has reservation tickets or something (which this one doesn't) it's all first come first serve. I know I'll have to get there at least a few hours early to ensure I can get a seat. This year AX will not be clearing rooms before or after most events, so that could help. Fingers crossed I can get in! The other events I want to attend will be crowded too, but not as bad as this one. I'm hopeful we'll get a sneak peek of SxF season 2...we've already gotten a movie trailer, and the movie comes out months after season 2, so maybe they're saving the season 2 teaser for AX!

Unfortunately I've been dealing with a health issue for the past month that has yet to be resolved. After weeks of pain in my gut and battling ongoing fatigue, I finally got a CT scan today and found out I have inflammation in my colon. I just started taking antibiotics that will hopefully get rid of it, but if not I'll have to get a colonscopy for further inspection. I wish I felt better so I could enjoy myself more, but I know I'll feel at least a little better once the adrenaline and excitement kicks in. Just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get worse during the trip...I've been looking forward to this all year and would be devastated if it was ruined!

Anyway, I definitely plan to blog about my time at AX. Unfortunately most of the big events, especially ones with exclusive content, don't usually allow photos or video. But I'll do the best I can even if I can only recount my experiences in text! I'll try to make posts while I'm actually at the expo, but depending on how things go, I might not be able to do the bulk of my posting until after I return. However, I do plan to make more sporadic, real-time posts on my Twitter, so follow me there if you're interested!

I may have stumbled upon the best Anya cosplayer at Anime Expo 🙃

Off to Anime Expo~

My Ita backpack and badge lanyard are ready 😊 (decided to give Frieren some love in addition to SxF)

In a few hours I'll be heading to Anime Expo, which is the largest anime convention in North America! Since it's local, I go every year that I can - this will be my fourteenth year attending 😃 But only my second year since becoming hyperfixated on SxF, haha.

Takuya Eguchi, the voice of Loid, made an appearance at the expo last year and I was able to attend his panel. Wrote about it here, but yeah, it was fun! There was quite a lot of SxF appreciation all over the expo last year (photos here and here), so I'm hoping we'll see more of it this year too! No SxF guests have been announced this year, however Toho Animation will be having a SxF panel (together with Kaiju No.8) later today.

There are no specifics yet about what will be discussed in that panel, but I have my fingers crossed for season 3 crumbs 🤞 WIT Studio will also be having a group panel with other studios on Saturday, but from what I'm hearing, they may not be involved with season 3. We'll see.

Last year I made a few posts while I was at the expo. I might do that again this year, or just make one big post when I get back. Depends how much time I have while I'm there. Also, since the last day of the expo is on Sunday, my post about the new SxF chapter will be delayed. I might not get to it until later that day, or the next day depending on how tired I am 😅

SxF displays at Anime Expo! So excited to see the "season 3 coming soon" on this one 👀

Also loved these displays at the MangaPlus booth!

There were two panels related to Spy x Family at Anime Expo this year, with the first on Day 1 being Toho Animation's panel featuring both Spy x Family and Kaiju No.8.

The panel started with the SxF portion, with the special guests being the series director, Kazuhiro Furuhashi, and the CODE: White director, Takashi Katagiri. They also had the six SxF ThreeZero figures on the stage with them 😀

The MC asked them some questions, like what their favorite scenes were from their respective works and who their favorite character is. They also showed behind-the-scenes footage of both the Loid/Fiona tennis match in season 1, and Yor's fight scene against Type F in the movie. We got to see both of these scenes in rough animatic sketch form and then in line art form, which was pretty cool (it wasn't clear if photo/video was prohibited at this panel, but I didn't want to risk it by being caught blatantly recording these exclusive clips, lol). Then they showed off some of Anya's unused outfits from the movie.

At the end, they showed this original illustration by Kyoji Asano, made specifically for this event 😁

And that was it for the SxF part of the panel before they moved on to Kaiju No.8...and to be honest, it kinda overshadowed the SxF part, mostly because it featured two of the main Kaiju No.8 voice actors, one of which was extremely hilarious and charismatic. Plus there were a lot more segments compared to the SxF part. The interview with the guests seemed longer, they did three live voice overs, showed a pre-recorded special message from the band that performs the Kaiju No.8 opening, and then they took a group photo with the audience (and maybe something else that I'm forgetting). It seemed like the SxF part took up about 35% of the panel's time while Kaiju No.8 took up 65%. Not sure why it felt so unbalanced, but it was still fun.

Next was the panel on Day 3 for Production IG and their related studios WIT and Signal MD. Heads of each studio were there, including George Wada from WIT. Photo/video wasn't allowed once the panel started, but it basically consisted of an interview with the different guests, then trailers/teasers for their upcoming projects, then a Q&A session.

WIT is the studio that makes SxF, so I was hoping for any news about season 3, specifically if WIT would be more involved with it than they were with season 2. For those who don't know, season 1 of SxF was made by both WIT Studio and Cloverworks. But when they decided to make both season 2 and the movie in 2023, they split up the work, with WIT focusing on the movie while Cloverworks did pretty much all the work on season 2 (which is why the animation in season 1 and season 2 looks a bit different). According to this tweet, the official staff listing for season 3 is the same as season 2, meaning WIT will once again have little involvement. But despite this, they had a slide during the presentation with the season 3 promo image (preceded by the CODE: White teaser trailer, which made the crowd go wild - glad there were lots of SxF fans in the audience!) George Wada also said in regards to season 3 that they're "working hard on it."

I wanted to confirm during the Q&A if WIT would again take a backseat during season 3's production as well, but unfortunately the panel only had a few minutes left when it was close to my turn, and then they opted to pick a few random people in line for their last questions (which I thought was kind of unfair). Guess we'll just have to wait and see if anything changes with that staff listing once we get closer to season 3's release.

Overall, while Takuya Eguchi's appearance at last year's AX was more fun, it was still cool to attend this year's SxF-related panels as well. Hopefully season 3 will either be airing or close to being released at next year's AX, so we'll have even more SxF events!

For my last Anime Expo '24 post, I wanted to share some of the SxF merch I found around the con!

Firstly is Animate's selection, including some exclusive CODE: White merch that they only sold at the expo.

Below are the lovely ThreeZero figures on display (pardon my reflection in the glass).

New Anya figures~

Some other merch, including T-shirts.

Loved seeing the season 2 illustrations on display ❤️

I got the below pin from the MangaPlus booth for downloading their app. There were different manga featured on the pins and they were giving them out at random, but when I showed the lady all the SxF stuff on my Ita bag, she gave me the Anya one 😄

In the end, the only SxF stuff I bought at the expo were the playmat and acrylic board from the aforementioned CODE: White merch at Animate. Guess that's one advantage of being such a proactive SxF collector...since I'm so familiar with all the SxF merch that exists and I'm always ordering the stuff I want when it releases, I don't need to buy much at physical shops 😅

not an art post BUT!!!! oomfie @akkiveee spotted as kuko at anime expo day one :3

Join special guests including Takashi Iizuka, Kirk Thornton, and Stephanie Sheh at our Anime Expo panel all about Shadow and our upcoming animation Sonic x Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings!

This Deku cosplayer MADE THE ENTIRE NOTEBOOK 😭

Anime expo

First time going to and so far it’s been great

I like it

If we wait a ONE day, NEW TristaMp pAnels will CoME oUt!!!!!!!!

Plz come out. ... plz plz plzzzzzz

하루+<#₩'-×@=만 기다ㄹ¥~♤~}○¡|면 스탬피드 신+¡▪︎》•♤◇~정보가 나와요!!!!!!!!

제발 나와라...

제발제발ㅈㅔ발제발ㄹㄹㄹㄹㄹㄹ

Devil will cry 'bout this post....

Those who watched trigun anime(98.ver) can't laugh about this pic

사탄도 울고 갈 듯

98년판 본 사람은 이걸 보고 웃을 수 없다....

Most normal anime expo experience

we’re on hot trand at Tumblr!!!

AX livestream airs at 2.a.m. in my country time so I can't watch tristamp panels 'cause I have to go to sleep... 8_8

나중에 텀블러에 사람들이 올려준 정보글이나 아님 클립이나 봐야겠다... ㅠㅠ

새로운 피규어!

LET'S GOOOOOOOO

trigun fans now :

A little sprout boi for yesterday.

This was my brother's doggo's "cosplay" at Anime Expo back in 2016. XD

I made a lumpy catmancer head for Anime Expo. : ]

Definitely planning on improving on it for Anime Expo Chibi in November. I wore the jacket and everything, but it was a tad too warm for that at ax this past weekend, so I changed into normal clothes after a few hours hahaha. : ]