A Sunday At Anime Washington

Scott

February 10

A Start to a New Convention

If you are a Washington resident and haven't heard of Anime Washington before, that makes sense. It is a brand new convention that has been advertised on social media pretty heavily for the past year, but that doesn't mean you've seen advertisements of it. This is brought together by the people who do Summer Con at the Washington State fair grounds each year and that is another one I discovered recently. I was pretty curious about it, especially considering how it takes place in Tacoma instead of Seattle, so it takes place at the Tacoma Convention Center. That means it is a bit closer to home for me and a bit smaller.

I did my usual thing before a convention of making sure I got a decent amount of sleep the night before and then watched anime and ate breakfast, then set out for the light rail station going south instead of North. So many differences hit me already because the Pierce County light rail system is a lot smaller and much cleaner than King County's system. That and Pierce County's Sunday light rail starts at 9:40 am in which this convention opens at 10 am and I arrived at the station at 9:00 am. So I spent half an hour watching the latest Fire Hunter episode in my car before going to the station.

Entering the convention is also so much different because they didn't allow any outside food and beverage (boo to me who made a sandwich and got some chips together). Also, you were allowed access by showing your qr code at the door and they handed you a badge. There is no name on it or anything, you just buy one and you are in. Then there are plenty of lanyards laid out right in front of you and you just grab it. After that, you wait for the smallish line to clear up around the convention center and you go up. That's about it and it feels like such a more modern way to go about it than waiting in line to check in and get a badge, but there is some danger of letting anyone in here though I guess security is there. Hmmm.

Around the Convention Center

Walking around the Tacoma Convention Center was what all conventions should be like. As in, not too filled up or congested, but walls of people in cosplay eating and just talking to each other. There was also a crew of people that just bought another set of D20 dice and tested them out on the floor right in front of the Exhibition hall. The atmosphere was very calm and energetic as one would expect it to be with people just happy to be around like minded people who enjoy anime of all different sizes and stripes from all eras. I mean, there was retro anime stuff in the exhibition hall and I was far from being one of the oldest (and youngest) person there.

That being said, I wish that there was more stuff to do at this con. I think the size of the convention center really limited the options of what the convention can do. IF you don't want to get an autograph, buy something from the exhibition hall, eat, do cosplay shots, or go to a small amount of panels, then you are out of luck. Especially since most of those are things that can be accomplished in a short amount of time. There are no video rooms where you can watch newer or older anime with other people or play any games from Japan. I do think that going to Sakuracon and Emerald City Comic-con has affected me and this is a newer con, but I think that some of this should be looked into for next year because this one seems like a major success.

Exhibition Hall/Artist Alley

Since the Tacoma Convention Center is smaller than the multiple building convention center, the artist alley and exhibition hall are basically intertwined together. It is strange to see people selling what they created themselves and then products (toys, model kits, etc) being sold around each other but I don't think this convention has completely figured that out yet. Same with the celebrities having no panels at all and just being on the different side of the exhibition hall.

You can just walk up to a line to get something signed, pay for it, and then leave. It really is that easy and I wonder how these voice actors feel about just sitting at one small table for a while instead of being able to share some advice at a panel or just have a lot of fun with a n audience that is there to see you. I suppose it makes their job easier and supposedly they are paid to do this, but that still brings a lot of questions to mind about this situation. Perhaps we shall see what happens next year and see if any of the large list of voice actors returns next year to do this again.

I didn't bring a lot of money with me to buy things at this convention. Considering how I had to toss lunch into a trash can before going inside, that means I have even less money to spend on random things for this convention. There are a lot of dangerous and expensive items at one shop that I can't help being drawn to because I love the mecha in them. I just bought a Master Grade God Gundam gunpla kit and a piece of street art for the RX-78-2. When I move out, I plan on building a Gundam room or wall of some kind, so this is just one more step to making that a reality. Especially since this convention has people, but it is pretty easy to walk around in without feeling too congested.

There was also a small bit of a food court in the Exhibition area too. As in, one area just sold food that would fit a concession stand at a ball game and there were some standing tables to eat at. I suppose that there was food outside the convention center, but $10 for a large bowl of chili, some chips, and a bottle of water isn't too bad. It was the cheap kind of chili that stayed hot in a crockpot, but it was very filling. Writing this six hours after I came home, I'm still full. There were more expensive meal options there to be sure, but I don't think the prices are that far off of where they would be outside of the convention. A convention is its own ecosystem after all.

Panels

What annoys me about this convention, which kind of connects to the whole needs a cell phone thing of walking around and finding a schedule, is how lazy the panel rooms are. Outside of the panels are just "schedule of the convention" on QR codes and the doors are never opened. You have to do a lot of leg work yourself, which is readily available to be sure, in order to know where something is and whether or not it's actually going. No one is standing outside the door telling people to line up or that there is a panel going on. Panelists also have to plug in everything themselves which can be a problem because not everyone is immediately tech savvy. Each panel was also about 45 minutes in length so the next presenter can set themselves up.

The panels themselves are ok. There are no official panels for Crunchyroll, Sentai/Hi-Dive, or any manga publishers because it's still a new convention. The panels are from individuals who put in their own efforts so the quality varied. I did enjoy the Lupin III movie panel because I have a lot of struggle with knowing which films to check out. The next panel was run by people who don't know how to connect a laptop to a tv through an hdmi cable, but they did show some classic anime that I've never seen before including a boy named Santi who goes on adventures with his whale at night before going to bed.

The next panel after that was based around 80's anime and why that zone was so different from everything before and after it was interesting but it was a bit too general for me. But I did learn a few things and fixture out some shows to watch to look into in the future. If there was something that bothered me from some of these older anime panels, it's people talking about the lack of commercialization in older anime compared to what came out now. I mean, a lot of anime back in the day were commercials for toys. Or how a lot of older anime was how everything had to be based on a manga back then which is also true now. I do love a lot of older anime and continue to dive into older anime. The bubble economy anime still had to sell to people because they couldn't just make it without their investment coming back for the next project.

Summing up my Thoughts on Anime Washington 2024

For a new anime convention, this one was pretty good. I had a good time, but there were a lot of flaws I noticed like the lack of staff/volunteers inside each room to open the door for people going into panels and supporting panels. Same with there needing to be at least a few more things to do at the convention because the whole thing was on two floors. I also wonder about the celebrity voice actors and wondering if they are happy just sitting at their tables all day signing their names. Especially compared to other conventions where they can have panels that they can express themselves in. But in general, it was a good start for this con. Anime Washington has the possibility to really become something special.

Some Notes: After looking at the response the team behind the convention said on social media, they kind of agreed with me. They noticed that the convention center was already full and didn't provide a lot of opportunities for activities and events. They know that moving somewhere else, wherever it is, will help them and there is about to be an Anime Washington 2025. I'm keeping an eye out for the announcement because I want to document this con as it grows. I've never done that before. For now, Emerald City Comic-Con is at the end of this month.