This is my review of ALA 2010. This was my second year attending this small convention in the LAX Marriott. The first year I attended, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had. This year, while I still had fun, there was less… surprise. Let me explain bit by bit

Overall Mood:

Anime Los Angeles is a much smaller con compared to something HUGE like AX. Like my last review of ALA, this has it’s downsides and upsides. Since I already covered that, I will skip to the reviewing. (You can read my first review here). The mood of this con is very friendly. People like to make friends at this con. I really am still in love with the ribbon idea. It gives you something to talk about. I love that almost all of the staff/volunteers are polite and nice. (This is never the case with AX). In fact, there is only one incident that I can think of where someone was a bit rude.

Location:

While the hotel is not the largest ever, it does serve this con very well. It was in the same location as last year. The floor the con was on was more than large enough to serve as the space. I like how the pool area, once again, was set up for photos. It’s nice because there are some trees and a little fake stream, so it can make for some cool pictures if you are creative. I can’t say much about the hotel staff this year because I did not stay at the hotel.

Cosplay:

I was a bit disappointed on cosplay. Not only did I only wear two costumes this weekend, which is very little for me, but I also did not see that many cosplayers. It seems a lot of people just wore normal clothes for the most part. It was a bit of a let down, considering I was all ready with my camera, and really could not find too many people to photograph.

Panels:

There were certainly more panels this year, which was good, but a lot of them were covering the same topic as another panel, or the same as last year. There were still some interesting ones. I will cover the panels by day.

Friday:

We went to opening ceremonies, which started very late, and went by very quickly. Not much to say about it.

Next, I signed up for the masquerade, which was a very easy process. This isn’t really a panel, but I thought I would mention it for those other first timers out there. I will talk more about the masquerade at the end.

Then at 2pm, we had our Kimono Dressing Panel. I didn’t say anything, and let KawaiiClare run the show because she knows about kimonos. The room was much fuller than I had expected, which was good. I think the history portion bored people, but this is exactly why people don’t dress correctly in the first place. They want to jump into the dressing part, and don’t do the research. Same reason why people who want to dress as “pirates” and such look a bit silly. Anyways, I think the panel went well, I just wish someone would let us know. It was our first panel, so I hope all went well.

We stepped into Japanese Ghosts and Demons, but quickly left because we could not hear the speaker.

After that, we went to Real World Otaku Wrangling, but again, quickly left as soon as the speaker tried to tell us what a community was. Which, I hope everyone there knew enough basic English to know that.

Later that evening, Loren and I watched the AMV contest. This was a first for me. It was actually not as boring as I had anticipated. In fact, a lot of them were pretty good. Unfortunately, the bad ones were the longest it seemed. Funny how that always seems to be the case. Again, this also started late and had many technical problems throughout.

The very last thing we tried to do that evening was the Rum Party. I was very excited because this was my favorite thing last year. Sadly, it was too crowded for us to be able to play even a single game. There were lines at every table, and it was so crowded you could barely move. We hung around for a bit to see if it died down, it did not, so we left.

I had a lot planned for Friday, but sadly did not attend most of what I wanted to do.

Saturday:

Saturday was mostly filled with masquerade events, since Loren and I entered with our Le Chevalier D’eon costumes. We did fit in the Egg Samurai panel, which actually started on time! A first for ALA! It was very fun

Later that evening, we went to the Masquerade. Sadly, we did not win anything. But, considering it was my first attempt, and we messed up on our skit, thanks to me being tired and my bf not paying attention, I expected so.  I felt like some of the entries in the Novice division, were not really novices… But hey, what can you do? It was still a great learning experience.

Sunday:

Sunday we did pretty much no panels. There weren’t too many to attend actually. We did go to the Steampunk on a Budget one, but we didn’t really learn anything. The panelists put in a good effort, but it was all mostly common sense, like go to a thrift store.

As far as panels overall, it was lacking considering the cost of a con badge.

Overall Ratings:

Staff/volunteers: 9.5/10 Mostly polite and nice.

Cosplay: 6/10 Not much there.

Location: 8.5/10 Pretty good for the size of the con. Great women’s bathrooms (there’s a changing area perfect for cosplay).

Panels: 6.5/10 There were interesting things, but a lot of it started late, so you might miss something else. There were also a lot of repeat panels like voice acting.

Price: 5/10 Compared to what you get, and to other cons of the same price, it is way over priced. $35 without the early bird would be a better price for this con. But hey, like any organization will lower their prices?

Overall: 7/10 This year was just missing something. I would still go back, but only if I can order my badge for the early special, if not, I might be skipping this con next year. I would advise you do the same.  It makes me sad to say this because after last year, I was really hoping for a great experience. (Especially since it was my birthday weekend. Kind of a let down for a b-day).

<3FancyIndia

If you have any comments regarding our panel, or questions regarding my post, you can comment here or email me at fancyindia@cosplaycute.com

For pictures, check the main site: www.cosplaycute.com