Official Website, Official Twitter, Official Facebook Page

When: September 13 - 15, 2013

Where: Washington DC Marriott Wardman Park

What Is It: In 1999 Anime USA began as a northern Virginia convention started by fans, and in 2004 become a non-profit educational organization. Our mission is to educate the public about and promote Japanese arts and popular culture. As in the beginning, we remain a convention of fans, by fans, and for fans.

Review: by Anthony and Lee

After going to Otakon year after year to get our anime convention fix, we finally decided to take things up a notch and go to Anime USA in Washington DC and check things out.

What We Liked:

The Panels

Unlike Otakon, which is packed beyond belief with con-goers, Anime USA had a smaller attendance, but that was a good thing.  It meant that there was more of a likelihood that you would get into the panels that you were hoping to attend, and the panels were really great.

Troy Baker Q&A

Troy Baker first began working in video games by voicing Sgt. Matt Baker in the Brothers in Arms franchise and in anime as Frank Archer in Full Metal Alchemist and Greed in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.  Most recently fans will have heard Troy as Vincent Brooks in Catherine, Harvey Dent (Two-Face) in Batman: Arkham City, Yamato in Naruto Shippuden, Mitsunari Ishida in Sengoku Basara, Booker DeWitt in Bioshock Infinite, and Joel in The Last of Us.

His panel was amazing.  He was animated, funny, quick-witted, and downright affable.  He made things interesting right from the start, welcoming the attendees with a big “let’s get this party started!”  He may not have answered many questions, but that was because of the depth with which he responded to each questioner and the non-stop string of jokes, references, and stories with which he filled the time.  There was a good mix of give and take with the audience as he answered questions, granted requests, and gave surprisingly adept mini lessons about why video games cost what they do and why big name actors and directors do not sell games.  The highlights of the panel came when he sang the notorious theme song of his Soul Eater character Excalibur and made an impromptu wake up alarm for an extremely grateful fan.

Christopher Corey Smith Q&A

Christopher Corey Smith has been in numerous popular animes and video games, at times lending his voice to multiple characters in series.  He’s known in the anime world for his roles as Spandam in One Piece, Raizer Phoenix in High School DxD, Major Peter Soyuz in Fullmetal Alchemist: Sacred Star of Milos, Headmaster Kaien Cross in Vampire Knight, Kittan in Gurren Lagann, Ishidate, Ibiki, and Akaboshi in Naruto, Matoko Kibune, Rose, and Wonderweiss in Bleach, and Kinnosuke in Durarara!! Chris is also a high-profile presence in video games, voicing the Joker in Lego Batman 2 and Lego Batman: The Movie, Molag Bal and Foresworn Briarheart in Skyrim, Captain Curnow in Dishonored, Agent Smith in Matrix: Path of Neo, Superman in Mortal Kombat vs DC, Rufus in the Street Fighter games, Tenebrae in Tales of Symphonia 2, and much more.

Chris’s panel was one of those more intimate settings that would never be possible at Otakon.  Out of sheer volume, the panel of 12 audience members could never have happened.  Those in attendance were extremely lucky to have Chris’s full attention and personal interaction.  Chris went as far as to pull a chair off stage so he could sit close to the audience and asked each of our names, remembering us when we saw him later on.  Without even being prompted, Chris slid into and out of his characters voices very fluidly, entertaining and wowing us with his immense talent.  We were excited to find out from him about Voice-A-Palooza, an event that would take place later in which all of the voice actors would participate in performing a play that he had written.

The Events

The Dealer’s Room and Artist Alley were much like those at Otakon and Baltimore Comic-Con, but the smaller numbers made them much less of a hassle to navigate.

The Game Room was really nice.  It was not super huge, but there were plenty of games to be played.  While there, we played a few songs on Taiko no Tatsujin, a japanese taiko drum arcade game, which we really enjoyed.

The AMV contest was like any other AMV contest, as interesting as the entries.

The Iron Editor competition was more interactive, and we were pleased to find that our good friend Erika Thompson was the winner.  This was her 4th consecutive win in the Iron Editor Competition at Anime USA.  The record is 5 consecutive wins, which she hopes to meet next year.  You can check out the winning video here!

We shared lunch at the maid café, something that was new to the both of us.  It was a great experience and something that would be completely unfeasible to attempt at Otakon.  The Baltimore Convention Center just would not be the right venue for that type of event.  We were unable to visit the host club later, but the maid café was more than enough.

We weren’t in the masquerade long, but we were there long enough to see that it was at least on the same level as Otakon.  If that’s what you like, it was great.

We poked our heads into the cosplay dance-off just in time to witness an epic battle between Dark Link and the Joker to a dubstep remix of the Tetris theme.

Our final event for the night was the Voice-A-Palooza, and we were very happy that Chris directed us to it.  Chris proved his worth as a talented writer as well as voice actor.  The daring tale of the Crimson Ferret was extremely funny, and the experience of witnessing a cartoon reading being done was something that we will not soon forget.  All of the voice actors were fantastic, and watching them do their thing was almost as great as the quality of their acting.

The cast of Voice-A-Palooza: from L to R Kari Wahlgren, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Troy Baker, Mike McFarland, Stephanie Young Brehm, the ever-talented Christopher Corey Smith, and the skillful sound technician.

The Cosplay

While sheer numbers allows Otakon to trample Anime USA in the amount of cosplayers, Anime USA made up for it in quality.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What We Didn’t Like:

There wasn’t any part of Anime USA that we did not enjoy.  We had a really great time.