Anime Expo 2017 Recap

©Photo courtesy of Jellyfish Tears

LOS ANGELES, CA (July 1-4, 2017) - Anime Expo has become one of the biggest anime convention in North America celebrating Japanese and Asian culture to bring people together for their love of anime, cosplay and the Japanese culture. On January 19, 1917, it marked 100 years of anime in Japan and showed how much anime has changed over the years and how much of a global audience it has now. Anime expo as always has many activities or panels that cover different things that caters to their audience and is a family-friendly event for all ages.

©Photo courtesy of Jellyfish Tears

Anime Expo has a massive exhibit hall for those fans who love to shop for the latest goods from Japan or Japanese inspired work. It is available all 4 days and is usually crowded due to the amount of attendees at Anime Expo. Companies like Crunchyroll, Funimation, Toei Animations and Bandai Namco has booths inside the exhibit hall and give previews or sell merchandise for their audience. They also have panels that range from introducing new animes that are going to be released, new announcements regarding series or story arcs and also fan panels that attendees can submit for approval.

In regards to panels, this year, a Fullmetal Alchemist live action film was in the works and fans were about to see a new trailer of the film as well as the trailer they had released earlier this year. During this main events panels, fans were about to see on stage Ryosuke Yamada, who plays Edward Elric and director of the film, Sori Fumihiko. Yamada is well known in Japan and is a member of Hey! Say! JUMP. Fumuhiko started his work as an animator and worked in the film Titanic 20 years ago. After they showed fans the trailer of the film, fans were able to have a Q&A for a few minutes with Ryosuke and Fumihiko.

They talked about the differences in acting for Ryousuke between this film and his other live action film, Assassination Classroom. Fans were also shown a sneak peek into the beginning of the movie and were able to see some of the CGI in the movie.

©Photo courtesy of Jellyfish Tears

Every year Anime Expo has a fashion show to showcase the trendy new fashions that are popular in Japan and this year's show included the brands Galaxxy, Listen Flavor and Babydoll Tokyo.

Galaxxxy ©Photo courtesy of Jellyfish Tears

Galaxxxy showcased outfit that featured the Dragon Ball series. The outfits were very colorful and included combing swirls, tie-dye and fruits. Listen Flavor showcased outfits focused more on causal Lolita style. These looks catered more to the everyday look that used mostly solid colors and simple designs to appeal to the eye more. Babydoll Tokyo showcased extravagant dresses that created a 50's theme