AM2 Grows In Anaheim

AM2 is growing. In it's second year as a free anime festival the event has gotten a better hold of how to use the Anaheim convention center for it's purposes.  It's become a better festival every time.

This year saw a wide selection of animes and movies to catch for free. Many of the Japanese films shown have not come to the American market yet, including Ace Attorney which I'll be reviewing later.

There was plenty of merch booths with so many fine wares. If you needed a hard to find Pokemon plush, a key chain from Macross or a DVD for Full Metal Alchemist it was there. Art books, swords, manga, t-shirts with Internet speak on them, it was all there. The layout in my opinion should have been more spread out or at least easier to navigate, maybe next year in a oval, so you might see all the shops.

 The strangest product that was selling well was the Neknomi cat ears that can move based on your emotions. Sounds weird, but looks very fun and not the worse thing for a young lady whose into cosplay to be wearing. If you own a cat, you might be able to communicate better.

 There wasn't just shops there was a storm of growth in the Artist Alley section, which is well beyond the paltry amount of tables from last year. Row after row of artist with some very professional grade work. I saw some artist who attend AX showing off their fine stuff. Not only art, but knitted goods and the kind of stuff you find with esty. From art about Young Justice to Link to all other spectrum of nerdy joys it was a celebration of different art styles.

 If you enjoy My Little Pony, it had its own section called Equestria LA, it was one of the substructures that made up AM2 including a Maid Cafe and console game area. A little bit of everything for everyone. We Love Fine purveyors of all things pop culture were giving away some very large Pony bags though.

There was a carnival game area again this year, though you can win some really great donated prizes the game still aren't that innovative or funny. I don't know why they can't incorporate some anime jokes in or use some good art to promote each game. Like fire your energy blast and knock down enemies could be any type of game.

What I see is room for improvement, but there are some great must go to events every year. The best part is it is free to attend and with so many things to try out and people to meet it's quite cost effective. I hope to see more great things from the event next year as it continues to grow.

more pics after the jump.

 One of the more strange booths had to be Yaoi one, it had a very Nazi like style which just made it that more odd. The tails creeped me out a bit.