Category: Conventions

Formally known as Nerdbot-Con, Nerd Expo being on its fourth year was held on September 21st at the Pasadena Convention Center. It was an amazing turn out and experience. Nerd Expo is the alternative to your average, expensive anime convention. This year there are more vendors, more music, more activities, more guests including the cast of the Invader Zim movie! Another guest is Peter Cullen, whom is the most well known voicing for the original Optimus Prime and Eeyore. He is one guest that does not do many appearances.

Invader Zim has been one of my favorite cartoons as a child. With the release of the movie, all the voice actors are gathered in one place. Richard Horvitz as Zim, Rikki Simons as Gir and Melissa Fahn as Gaz.

Now, the cosplayers make up a big portion of the Nerd Expo. The cosplayers, as usual, were all amazing.

The Nerd Expo was an amazing turnout just like all the other events hosted by Nerd-bot. See you in 2020.

Long Beach Comic Con was held at the Long Beach Convention Center on August 31 and September 1st. Hosting the convention on Labor Day weekend is always preferred. The bold move is having it the same day as Crunchyroll Expo, Dragon-Con, San-Japan, and a notable cosplayers wedding. Did this move pay off?

First, I noticed the expansion of the artist alley but not a lot “big names” as previous years. However, there were a lot of independent artist and comic creators. This gives them a chance to be seen and not be overshadowed by the bigger names even though you need a bigger name to entice fans.

What makes this convention always different from the others is the exhibits in Science and pro wresting. The Space Expo Pavillion has booths dedication to the sciences and sci-fi inspired machinery. The wrestling annex is run by KnoxPro Wrestling. There is a full wrestling wrong with a steel cage and run entertaining matches every hour in cosplay. There is an additional table with WWE hall of gamer Rikishi whom I had the pleasure of meeting my first attendance at the Long Beach Comic Con.

I did have conversations with some of the attendees and they agree that the dealers hall and artist alley was smaller this year. However, it is always a decent experience and still a decent amount of goo cosplayers.

Anime California Con was a very decent convention held on August 23-25 at the Burbank Marriot Hotel. This was the kind of convention to really chill and relax with friends. It is a convention where you can take a break if you are an avid cosplayer. Anime California Con is definitely a “come-as-you-are-and-chill” type of convention. Of course, I was only able to go if it was for my good friend Denetra. Who so happens to be a guest at this convention with a panel on fitness and cosplay.

There were a few highlights including some guest including Lauren Landa (Sailor Neptune) and Sandy Fox (Sailor Mini Moon). Both are the voice actors of the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars English Dub.

Cosplay was still ongoing from popular mainstream characters in anime to comics. All aspects of pop culture were cosplayed, including video game characters.

Overall, as a returning convention, it still provided a good turn out.