The calm before the storm...

Setup in the dealers room began at 8AM on Friday, with the hauling of boxes and crates, setup of booths, and arranging of merchandise lasting well up to noon. Meanwhile, a long line was beginning to form outside the door, and the dealers' anticipation of the onslaught was quite visible. At 12 o'clock, the Exhibit Hall manager, Stanley Lew, picked up the mike and flatly announced that, yes, it was D-day.

"The Exhibit Hall is now open!"
"Here they come!"
"...can I hide under the table?"

One thing that has to be seen to be believed is the rush of the congoers into the dealers room -- seen from the other end of it! The staffers watched in terror (half feigned, half real) as the attendees rushed through the door, past the TV crew filming the entrance, and made a beeline to the tables. The entire hall was packed in a matter of minutes. No mean feat considering the size of the hall, which was more than twice the size of last year's dealers room.

The companies

The number of companies remained about the same, though, giving the dealers more space for their tables and merchandise. Pioneer returned with their multiscreen setup, while Books Nippan had several tables' worth of space to themselves. And then, of course, there was AD Vision and Manga Entertainment capitalizing on the biggest buzzwords of the past year: EVANGELION and GHOST IN THE SHELL. While perennial favorites such as RANMA 1/2 and TENCHI MUYO did quite well, they more than met their match in the amount of merchandise and fanfare for the two heavy hitters from Gainax and Oshii Mamoru.
The merchandise available was the usual -- which was just about everything one could imagine. California in general has good resources for anime goods, but for those living in other parts of the USA (or overseas) it was a great opportunity to grab what they wanted (and also grab what they didn't know they wanted).
As usual, it paid to shop around; certain items went for varying prices at different tables, and the price difference was often substantial. Take the EVANGELION Collector's Disc series for example, which went for $80/disc at one table. Not unreasonable considering the list price in Japan is ¥7000, but nevertheless quite expensive. Another dealer, however, had managed to get a shipment of discs under list price--passing the savings onto the customers, he sold the discs at $45 a pop, or $120 for all three. (see EX issue 1 for a review of the EVANGELION CD ROMs).

The autograph sessions

Several autograph sessions were held in the dealers room this year. AD Vision held sessions for Hideaki Anno (EVANGELION) and for Kenichi Sonoda (GUNSMITH CATS), Manga Entertainment held one for Mamoru Oshii and Toshihiko Nishikubo (PATLABOR 2, GHOST IN THE SHELL), and US Manga Corps held a signing and sketch session for Koichi Ohata (MD GEIST 2).
I suspect the companies' intention was to draw attention to their booth, but it made for very long lines crowding the already packed aisles, and several staffers and volunteers had to do crowd control.

Conclusion

Aside from the breakdown and cleanup on Sunday, which left me tired and slightly depressed, working the dealers room was a fun experience. That's it for now--start saving up, and see you there next year!

--Keith Rhee