Pacific Media Expo

I’ve attended this con for the last six years and each time I’ve attended, I’ve usually enjoyed myself for the most part, but it seems like the quality of programming the last couple years just gets weaker and weaker in my opinion (just my opinion as I’m sure plenty of others feel differently). Last year’s PMX sort of took the cake as far as weak programming was concerned as the one day that I went, I found little on the schedule that interested me so I basically spent most of the time hanging out with friends in various spots just idling time by chatting. Maybe it’s just me, but if most of your time spent at a con is just hanging out and talking with friends there’s something wrong. While I do enjoy hanging out with friends at a con and catching up, that’s not the main reason I go to any convention… I go to attend a couple panels, get pictures of cosplayers and the like. There were plenty of good cosplayers to take in, but really little else. I will be skipping this year’s convention as I already had prior Labor Day weekend plans, but I’m not 100% sure about attending this con in the future as I don’t feel like I get my money’s worth from the cost of the badge

This was my first year attending PMX and, for a small convention, I was very pleased.
This year, PMX occurred at the LAX Hilton. Its proximity near LAX was ideal for those who flew in to attend the con as the hotel offers free shuttle service. For those who live far away from the convention, I highly recommend going this route. Not only is it very convenient, it’ll save you the $ 12/​day that the Hilton charges for patrons to park there.
There are a lot of advantages to attending a small con. There are no registration lines. I waited less than a minute to register on Friday afternoon. I’ve never had a wait of under 30 minutes at any convention I’ve ever attended. Staff wasn’t always the most observant (I bought the VIP package but no one said anything upon registration), but if you asked them questions about items and locations, they knew their stuff. Redeeming the VIP package was very easy as well — Just a short trip to the Dealer’s Hall one floor below.
If you’ve been to larger animé conventions like AX, you may be shocked to find that the Artist Alley and Dealer’s Hall are very, very small. The selections in both locations can easily be seen in 5 – 10 minutes. There were a lot of talented artists in the Artist Alley this time around, featuring a wide variety of items including My Little Pony and Adventure Time fan-​art. The Dealer’s Hall, on the other hand, was selling a lot of junk. From what I overheard, many dealers use PMX as a way of getting dumping their junk stock. Many of these places sell damaged goods, such as Figmas with broken, chipped or missing parts. If you’re looking for a deal on a particular, and sometimes rare figure and do not mind a broken sword or a paint chip or two, hitting up the Dealer’s Hall would be ideal for you.
As I’ve mentioned on several of my other convention reviews on Unilocal,I attend conventions solely for whatever Japanese artists they bring in. That being said, with only two artists and a couple of events allotted to each of them, there were times during the convention where I had nothing I wanted to do. I ended up going to the concert on both Friday and Saturday evenings featuring the Japanese visual kei musical group, Moon Stream. While their performance was very good, I can’t say the same about the musical acts that preceded them. Friday’s groups featured Stephanie Yanez & Psychobando. Yanez was absolutely horrible and is in desperate need of some singing lessons (Mic control please). Psychobando’s guitarists couldn’t synchronize themselves properly and overpowered the singer. After listening to both of these performances for an hour and a half, I was seriously wishing I were deaf. There are high school bands out there that could wipe the floor with these groups. Saturday’s performance was headed by Lolita Dark. Their performance was quite good, and even the woman who flew in from Japan just to see Moon Stream stopped texting on her phone (which she did during the previous night’s performances) to rock out. Moon Stream’s performances were both really good, and I was highly amused by the amount of 20 – 40 something year old women fighting each other over plastic roses, used water bottles and worn shirts that the group threw out. Good times, good times.
PMX also has a Maid Café, Asian movie features, a late night dance and martial art displays. I did not attend any of these events, but they seem to have quite a following. There are lots of cosplayers around, especially Lolita cospas, so if you enjoy taking pictures of people wearing costumes, this place would be ideal. The Swap Meet was very small, but there were several older items, especially animé art books and doujinshi, to be had.
Obviously, I would love to see PMX bring in some more Japanese animation artists, but considering the size of their convention and what their budget probably is, that’s not realistic. For the small convention that it is, PMX is an ideal place to go.

Every time I’ve gone to this con it’s been held in a different place, be it at the Anaheim Convention Center in 2004, the Long Beach Convention Center in 2005, the LAX Hilton in 2009, and the Pasadena Hilton in 2010.
This convention just keeps getting smaller.
Now, that’s not to say that I haven’t found it fun each time for one reason or another. PMX also offers little cosplay and animé-​related gatherings throughout the year, which is more than most cons can say.
As I recall, PMX was started as a direct competitor with Animé Expo, being held Memorial Day weekend in 2004 in Anaheim (in the same venue AX was held annually).
Unlike AX, which of course focuses on Asian animation (though they’ve been known to host their share of video game and J-​rock/​J-​pop industry folks), PMX opened it up to all Asian and Pacific Islander arts and entertainment. It’s the only convention I’ve ever attended that opened the floor to the independent Asian-​American film circuit, and that’s definitely something special. They frequently bring in animé creators and voice actors. Nabeshin has definitely been a fan favorite.
For the last few years they hosted a Filipino fighting competition that gets rather exciting to watch. They hold many concerts, panels, fashion shows, and other events. This past year they were excited to announce attracting Korean entertainers and movie exclusives (gave a REALLY long preview of «The Warrior’s Way»).
PMX, despite its shrinking, still attracts a good number of cosplayers and artists. It has a MASSIVE lolita following.
Their dealer hall is definitely much, much smaller than it used to be. What once took up the space of an airplane hangar is now housed in a tiny ballroom that seems smaller than that which was available in the LAX Hilton.
PMX is a decent con to attend if you’re not interested in the crowds you might find at AX. With how much smaller its gotten its more on par with Animé Los Angeles, held in hotels in the LAX vicinity.
It’s going in reverse of your typical con it seems. It started out in the convention center with the crowds curious about the big con feel, and now it’s taking up hotel ballrooms, building a fanbase of tight-​knit groups of otaku and fan organizations. In a way, it’s nice. It’s well-​established, and yet personable at the same time — small con feel with bigger names coming to visit.