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"Finally, I don’t really seem to get the point of going hundreds or thousands of miles to sit in a dark room and watch anime with other people…..in silence."

As assistant department head of Video Programming at Anime Central this year, I can say the experience of watching anime in a group is like the difference between seeing a movie in the theater and watching it on your TV at home--in other words, it's not in silence. The experience is enhanced if everyone else's reaction is feeding yours; the humor is funnier, the action is more exciting, etc. I agree I wouldn't expect anyone to spend the *entire* con in the video rooms, but after a long day it's nice to relax and be passively entertained rather than force your way through the crowds.

Also, a well-done con video room can give you access to seeing amazing things that are otherwise difficult or literally impossible to obtain on your own. Otakon in particular has a video room selection that always leaves me struggling to divide my time, as they're willing to show amazing obscurities like Dai-X. It should be noted that also, the "silence" aspect of a video room is sort of 50/50 in my experience. Especially at smaller cons, you may have the audience reacting vocally to what they're seeing... and a room full of viewers exploding with joy at seeing key bits of Macross or Irresponsible Captain Tyler for the first time is an amazing experience that's totally changed my opinion of certain shows.

Thanks for the link!

I'm also a graduate student (very different field--not connected to manga or anime), but I can certainly relate to your con experiences. For me, the best reason to attend is the networking. I've met dozens of cool bloggers, editors, and artists at NY Comic-Con and NY Anime Fest, many of whom have introduced me to new series and manga-ka. Though I hate the crowds, the chaos, and the expense, I always come away from a convention feeling energized. (Well, and poor... I always buy too many books. And the Javits Center charges what might be charitably called "airport prices" for coffee, soda, etc.)

Looking forward to your write-up!

hi Doug and Lynxara -- thanks for stopping by! Since you two have some experience with this, I was wondering what kind of viewing experience I should attempt to create at Anime Expo -- should I try out a show I've never seen before, should I go for one I have seen before and liked just to experience the show with other fans? What are your suggestions?

I think as a researcher it makes sense to go to something I've seen before and experience the crowd itself in stead of the what is showing on screen, but I was curious what you two thought about this.....

hi Katherine! Well, this anxiety-fueled post is my way of attempting to make blogging contacts ahead of time....at least I hope other bloggers who plan go might stop by here and give me a head's up.

And oh yes, the books! Dear god I love books *sigh* Even with amazon.com making almost everything ever published available I still really enjoy the "shopping experience" and picking out books in person.

I guess it depends on your interests and what your other options are during various timeblocks-- also on how AnimeExpo particularly approaches its viewing room, which I'm not acquainted with personally. If they just show whatever's new on DVD then you're probably looking at a waste of time.

If I were picking out when to enter a viewing room, it would probably be dictated by the rarity of what they were showing, and then the genre. Anything with comedy or humorous elements seems to play really well to a crowd, and anything very tragic or heavy usually doesn't go over well. Finally, given the choice, I prefer watching films to TV episodes, and anything live-action to anything anime (as the former is much rarer than the latter).

Hi Danielle,

Having done some anime fandom research of my own, I'll be sitting on the Anime and Manga in Academia panel, which will be held on Thursday evening at 6PM. It'd be great to have you there.

hi Lawrence --- oh just saw that panel on the schedule! If at all possible I'm going to try to be at that one, thanks for the head's up!

I concur with Lynxara; unfortunately Expo's site lists their programming information as "coming soon" (which I read as either "we're still working on the schedule until the last minute" or "the person in charge of the website hasn't put it up yet") so I can't tell for sure what to expect. There's a fair chance you'd be able to see the premiere of something before it's officially released, if that's of interest to you; smart companies are generous with screening material, since it's free advertising and word-of-mouth for them.

Generalizing from my ACen experiences, you'll generally see the largest audiences in later afternoon and early evening; if there's a popular action or comedy show then (especially a premiere or a fairly recent released) that should be the best time to experience a large group. (The last day of the con after hotel closing also brings in people, but they're often just looking for a place to kill time.) If you're watching for your own pleasure, it's probably worth checking out something you haven't seen before; if you want to put your researcher hat on, I agree that something you're familiar with is probably the way to go. (That also gives you the ability to compare the viewing experience between the viewing room and your living room, or wherever you first saw it. For example, I was amazed by how much more I enjoyed the first episode of "Afro Samurai" in the viewing room than I had on my DVR, although the fact that it was the uncut version was probably a factor as well.)

hi Doug, I was able to download the schedule in pdf format (which I'm sure they will have changes in the next week or so here):
http://www.anime-expo.org/convention-info/programming/schedule/

There is so much anime programming it is almost hard to know where to begin...although the showing of Evangelion 1.0: You Are Not Alone caught my eye (Sat night). However, I imagine this would be heavily attended considering Eva's popularity amongst fans (I suppose I'll just have to show up and hope for the best). I think it might be a good idea to try to see a few different genres as well -- the difference between "shonen" and "shojo" or between "otaku oriented" and more mainstream fare.

Meanwhile, does "closed to the public" panels mean only industry and /or press people get to attend those? 'cause those look so gosh darn juicy from the outside.....

If there was a significant amount of actual shoujo I would be surprised (as opposed to, say, shows about cute girls for lonely guys). I usually see a major bias toward shounen/action/otaku-oriented programming on most con viewing room lists.

I'm not shocked Anime Expo is going to be running Evangelion 1.0, but anything Evangelion is high on the list of things that, in my experience, makes for a really lousy watch with a crowd. It seems anyone who doesn't have a good time or like what s/he sees decides everyone else needs to be miserable, too.

Yeah, it's always much harder to fill the schedule for the shoujo room than the shounen room; so much more stuff comes out each year that's shounen-or-at-least-action-y than shoujo-or-at-least-relationship-y. (I know full well that Ah My Goddess! is technically seinen, but the American demographic it appeals to overlaps more with Marmalade Boy than with Naruto, and when you have 50 hours of programming to fill it doesn't pay to be overly fussy.)

I'm curious whether Eva 1.0 is the official translation (an English translation was commissioned for the film circuit; I happen to know the translator). There are cons that show fansubs, but I would think that AX would be too high-profile for that to be a good idea (especially for a new and popular series). The fact that it's showing on 35mm greatly increases the chance that it's official, since not too many fansubbers distribute in that format. (At least it appears to be in a large function space; I once had to run crowd control on a showing of Howl's Moving Castle in a room that was far too small for it. Having to turn away parents and children because the room was full to capacity was pretty unpleasant.)

One showing that did catch my eye is that they appear to be premiering Emma on Friday at 4. There's also a showing of Trigun on Friday at 9; depending on how you feel about the series, that strikes me as one that would benefit from the group experience, being both action and comedic in the early episodes.

hi Doug,

thanks for your insight on the workings of showing anime at a con! And, ouch, on the whole Howl's Moving Castle thing....I'm really curious if there are a LOT of very young people / families at a large con like Expo. To me it seems the smaller the con, the more kid-friendly it can be (I only can compare ACEN to AnimeIowa but there were huge differences in the "feel" of each). But this one is so large it may just be able to accommodate many, many different tastes.

And great suggestions about Emma and Trigun .....Emma is showing against an ADV panel and I'm kinda curius if they explode into nothingness that day against fan-rage (of if they are going to rage back, which seems to be their status-quo these days). Too many decisions!!!!!

[...] Danielle Leigh is getting ready to head off to the summer cons at Manga Before Flowers. [...]

Hi Danielle,

Thanks for being on the panel (Anime and Manga in Academia) with us yesterday. It was really great to have you, and I hope we can do more of these panels together in the future. I didn't get your contact info, unfortunately. Could you send me an email?