The day began right as the sun rose over downtown Los Angeles. After a good night sleep at the JW Marriott, I donned on my Innocent World dress (with a few off brand accessories) and headed forth to the Los Angeles Convention Center. Luckily, the JW Marriott was within walking distance to the convention center. As we were walking, we could already feel the Southern California sun rays on our backs. We were in for a scorcher this weekend. Finally, we picked up our press badges without any haste.

AX Idol: Dozens of Fans Sign Up for a Chance of a Lifetime by Victoria Erica

For most of the day, I was committed with Anime Expo Idol. AX Idol began in 2003. As a participant of the first, it was a total disaster. It was made during the height of Simon Cowell and it was made for the judges to poke fun at every act on the main stage. Given that there was a adult film star on the judges panel, it would be no surprise that the first year competition was seen as a joke. However, I am very happy to report that AX Idol in the present time is nothing like the first year at all. To make things legit, Bang Zoom backed the competition.

Sign ups began early in the day. The line for constestants was already swirling around the second floor of the convention center. AX Idol made of two competitions; singing and voice acting. Singers went up first. The contest was hosted by Jonathan Meza (Anime TV) and judged by Mario Bueno , Jason C. Miller, and Mela Lee. The contest already was already kicked into high gear when a Brief crossplayer sang, "Fallen Angel" from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. Most of the singers performed songs in Japanese. Macross Frontier and Full Metal Alchemist were popular selections of the 2011 competition. The top five were shortly announced after about two hours of audition time.

What was nice about AX Idol is that any attendee can watch the auditions. I was under the impression that auditions were closed to the general public. However, it was fun to see other people's performances. Because the singing round went into overtime, the voice acting round was delayed by half an hour. At the last second, the actors were told to keep their one minute monologues at 30 seconds. This caught many of us off guard because we all prepared one minute. However, this rule was relaxed during the competition.

AX Idol's voice acting round began around 3:00PM. Jonathan Meza hosted the round. The judges were Erik Scott Kimerer, Kaeko Sakamoto, and Kristi Reed. The judges critiqued each contestant's monologue. Most of the monologues came from anime and video game sources. Fruits Basket, Hellsing Ultimate, Persona, BlazBlue, and Death Note were popular sources. About 30 or so aspiring professional voice artists participated in the auditions round. I performed a monologue from the NIS video game, Rule of Rose. I did Amanda's diary entries. The video can be seen here.

At around 4:50PM, the judges deliberated and made their choices for the top 5. In an amazing twist of events, one of the participants was hand picked by Kaeko Sakamoto to bypass the finals and recieve a contract. Karen performed a monologue from Howl's Moving Castle. Jeff and I agreed that she was the Susan Boyle of the competition.

G Force, winner of Anime Expo Last Comic Standing in 2009, made it to the finals. This is what he had to say.

Overall, the competition was a very friendly one. There was no sense of tension. Everyone in the audience cheered each other on. Even when contestants forgot their lines, the audience encouraged the participants to keep on going and finishing the monologue. While it is uncertain winning AX Idol guarantees a career in voice acting (stranger things have happened), this is a great exerience for anyone who would like feedback from professionals in the industry.

Congrats to everyone who entered. You are all super stars!

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