Anime Expo 2013: LA Fights

The Live Action Shorts Competition from the Japan Film Society better known as LA Fights brought together fans of violence and film. Ten special films were selected from around the world and screened at the awards ceremony. We saw an epic martial arts fight between Mario and Waluigi and then one against Luigi, an out of place DBZ battle between Mitt Romeny and Obama that got a lot of laughs and a very long and painful to watch short on Modaka Magica, that really didn't go anywhere.

The event started with a thrilling live stunt show fight with many a cosplayer throwing down by Team Lift XMA. It cost one Link cosplayer much of his shield as it broke off defening him from kicks and punches. The stage fight was a great way to start off the event.

Danny Choo somewhat hosted the event. He must have been tired that day, because all he did was repeat lovely, lovely, lovely and awesome out of his mouth . The judges included Christopher C. Cowan  and Brendon Huor from Thousand Pounds Production Company, Ultimo Dragon, a Japanese wrestler in a mask, Kon Gonzales from the Toshiba Rugby Team,and Sean Thordsen from Anime Expo.

The winners start with third place contestant Super Smash Bros EMC Mario Vs Luigi. Second place was Harry Kirby's “DragonBall Z - Saiyan Saga". The 1st place winner was Micah Moore's “Mario VS Waluigi ”


3rd Place



 

2nd Place

1st Place

Not all the winners were present at the event so the judges accepted them on their behalf.

Many great films were shown and the idea is rather catchy, who doesn't want to see live action fights.  Seeing some massive Mario beat downs as well as some amazing choreographed fight scenes by fans using anime and Mario characters was a treat. Hell, I loved a French one making fun of Naruto, Sexy She-Male Jitsu! Some of the films were silly, other tried way too hard and others like Modaka should have not been shown.

One of the judges brought up a different categories idea, one for comedy and one for drama next time. It may need to be changed if it happens next year in that all videos need to be new or unseen. Some of them were out of date.

As any new event that's fun at AX, I hope it grows and if it becomes as good as Eiga Fest, which the Japan Film Society has made amazing in it's short run here in LA. I can only see AX meddling causing the event to a be a little unplanned on time. When Danny Choo got up to buy time it was just outright hilarious.

Some problems


As I wrote about earlier in the guides for what to do at AX this year, the event was labeled "Japan Film Society Film Fest Awards!" which was misleading to many attendees and even the event staff. I talked to an event staff member at the entrance for the event and they were unsure what to tell attendees what the ceremony was about. As I waited near him before going in people kept questioning what it was. The other problem, as written earlier, was there was now a program guide online and the one included in the guide book at this AX didn't have any info on the event.This was Anime Expo's fault, but Japan Film Society might have wanted to update their site on what the event exactly was and what was going to happen.

Ultimo Dragon or Ultimate Dragon was also a bit perplexing being there as I believe we all though he was a Mexican luchadore wrestler until he talked. The plug for his new comic was a bit unnerving

Danny Choo not doing a good job.