I got ready for day one early, after getting a good rest the night before I was ready for the beginning of a new Anime Expo. Making my way to the press station to get my badge was easy, as it was located in the same place as it was in previous years. My first objective was to take a look at the gaming available at Anime Expo.

The arcade had a good variety of games from fighters to shooters to the fan favorite racer Initial D. Beyond the coin-op games the arcade also featured an air hockey table. There was enough room for everyone and the lines for different machines were not very long. Sadly the video game room was not nearly as well set up. The game room had very few systems set up, several empty tables and very few people signing up for tournaments. After leaving the game rooms I went to the Otaku Parliamentary Debate panel.

The Otaku Parliamentary Debate panel was poorly run and the main discussion did not begin until after the panel hosts ran an impromptu costume contest to buy time for other members of the debate to be ready. The first topic was Evangelion vs. Gundam. The arguments were not enough to maintain attendee interest and many members of the audience left in the middle of the panel.

Anime Expo Symposium Brings Great Minds Together by Jared Griego

After lunch I made my way to the theater for the Anime and Manga Symposium. I arrived for the conclusion of Acting Like A Pro, a panel about the proper behavior in the media industry. While it was nothing new to me, it was nice to see a panel urging those who want to work in the industry to act in the correct manner. The Symposium began with a keynote speech on global culture and media. This was followed up by having several researchers from different universities talking about their work and discussing direction for fans to get into research. It was great to see people trying to combine academia and fandom in a constructive way.

As the Symposium ended I made my way around the convention center in order to meet up with the rest of the team who were at the Anime Expo Idol auditions. After hearing the winners announced we headed down to the dealer hall. Sadly, it was near closing time so we did not have time to shop. Instead we met up with some vendor friends and talked with them about the convention. The dealers we talked with seemed to like the current setup for the dealer hall.

Broken Spirits: Familar Voices by Jared Griego

The Scarlet Rhapsody staff met up at the ESPN Sportszone restaurant in order to discuss the day and regroup before the busy evening. After dinner we rushed back to the convention center in order to go to the Broken Spirits panel. Broken Spirits is an independent movie featuring several recognizable American voice actors including: Richard Epcar, Vic Mignogna, Cristina Vee, and Spike Spencer. The actors talked about the production and showed off the trailer which can be found on the Internet. After the panel everyone wanted to ask their favorite voice actor different questions, it made things a little crazy.

Hentai Worth Watching by Jared Griego

With the evening events just warming up the staff once again split up. A couple of our members went to the Hentai Worth Watching panel for a laugh. The panel featured clips and screen captures of different hentai series. The panel was done to show off the silly side of hentai rather than showing off the usual weird or creepy side. The audience enjoyed themselves and the hosts were very entertaining. It was surprising to see the convention center still be lively at night as the Anime Expo nightlife has been lackluster in previous years.

Karaoke Time by Victoria Erica

While waiting for the next panel, I visisted the karaoke room on the second floor. While I have not been to a karaoke room at Anime Expo since 2005, I really did like the set up. For the first time, there was a karaoke machine that had a database of anime songs and screens that had Japanese lyrics in roman letters. I visisted when the karaoke top ten finalists were performing. From what I heard and saw, I was quite dissapointed. I remember back in 2001 when the karaoke contest was one of the happenin' events at Anime Expo. It always drew a huge crowd and there was a huge talent pool. Walking right in, it felt like any other karaoke room.

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