The second day boasted a large crowd, but short lines for registration and events. There was plenty to do and the lobby of the Hilton was filled with cosplayers of every genre.

Capoeira Workshop
One of the workshop rooms was mostly dedicated to the martial arts. The first workshop was Capoeira. There were several students dressed in loose clothing to practice this fast moving fighting style. The instructor cut down moves into very simple actions. They practiced each stage and slowly combined them into the full action, very similar to how some types of dances are taught. It was fun to watch the students get paired off and practice fight movements. It requires some agility to do this workshop and may not work for all people.

Learn How to Sew Your Own Cosplay
Our friend Ginger from Chocolate Covered Cosplay hosted a cosplay basics panel on Saturday. Ginger began by talking about where to get different types of sewing equipment and tutorials. This expanded into discussing where to get materials and what to look for when choosing fabric. There was also discussion about body paint and prop creation. It was a great 101 type panel and had great information that could help cosplayers of varying levels. This a great panel for anyone interested in improving cosplay creations skills.

Anime 3.0: The Anime Industry In The Age Of Streaming
One of the most interesting panels on Saturday was Anime 3.0, a look at the future of home anime will be distributed. The panel began by talking about the first two stages of anime tape trading and retail distribution. The current stage of anime is the shift into online distribution and streaming, something that has been a difficult transition for some companies. This new methodology of distribution has also brought in bigger companies into the mix such as Disney, Warner Brothers, and Apple. This was one of the most informative panels about the anime industry and hopefully more panels like this will be done in later years.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Workshop
Back in the martial arts room the second workshop featured Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The instructor seemed a little more rushed in showing techniques to the students and some were keeping up and others appeared to have some trouble following. However, to deal with this there were others there to help guide those who did not pick up on things fast enough. On the good side there were plenty of techniques that were taught to deal with various situations from real life to tournaments. On the bad side things felt rushed and there did not seem to be enough time to adequately teach the techniques.

The Gaming Area
Hidden in the lowest part of the hotel was the gaming area. It featured several stations set up with popular video games with small lines so everyone could have a chance to play. We did not see any old school gaming systems, but there was a good selection of popular shooters and fighting games. In addition, there was a large area set aside for card games. The area also could have worked for d20 games, however we did not see any of those games running. Perhaps next year Scarlet Rhapsody will sponsor a d20 session in the game room.

Blue Rose Academy Dance Workshop
The second workshop room had a very different variety of entertainment than learning martial arts. One of the standout workshops was run by the Blue Rose Academy , who has put on some interesting events in the past. This was a dance workshop that focused on everyone’s (current) favorite dance-craze Gungan Style. This workshop brought in a good amount of people and even Jared was asked to join while attempting to cover the workshop. Everything was handled with in a fun and light hearted way. If you are looking to learn how to do the dance it is difficult to think of better instructors. We do recommend checking out anything done by Blue Rose Academy be it workshop or game show, they always make it fun.

Filipino Kickboxing Yaw-Yan Ardigma Workshop
One of the last martial arts workshops for the day focused on Filipino kickboxing which seemed to have a more MMA feel to it than the previous workshops. The class was run by having the students practice simple combinations then attempting the moves against other students who use blocking maneuvers. This felt the most like a “regular” martial arts class with the pace of the teaching. It was so well done that even those in the audience could learn something about self defense.

20-Years of Anime Expo
As some may know several key staff members from PMX are formally Anime Expo staff members. This panel takes a look back to 1992 and what happened that year with the development of Anime Expo. This is a follow up from last year’s panel that looked at 1991, the beginning of Anime Expo. It was great seeing the old adverts and learning how they chanced their sponsorship system to avoid causing anime and manga companies from fighting each other over convention ownership. This was a great panel followed up by a short Q&A segment where people asked questions and talked about some of their memories from that year. This is a great panel series and if you are at all interested in the history of anime conventions we highly recommend attending this panel next year.

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