What conventions are there in California?

[l337squerrel]

I'm moving to California for college soon. I was wondering what conventions would be nearby that could replace Kawaiikon?

[LunarisSkye]

Two words: Anime Expo >>;;

[l337squerrel]

Two words: Anime Expo >>;;

Just that? XD

[LunarisSkye]

There's also Sac-Anime and FanimeCon (had to look it up). The only other one in Cali is Yaoi-con lol. If you want to go to a convention, go to AX. It'll make KKon look like a Halloween party, it's a big one, most people know about AX more than the other two.

[fyyhr]

Don't forget San Diego Comic-con or the LA wizard world comic con. And E3.

[LunarisSkye]

E3 is invitation only, not open to the public. Only people who have some sort of connection to the gaming industry are allowed to go. Forgot about Comic-Con, that's another big one.

[l337squerrel]

Mmmmk! Ill pass on Yaoi-kon, but Ill look into AX!

[satomihidee]

AX is July 4th weekend. Are you staying in CA all year long? My advice would be to go to an anime/game club meeting on campus and get the inside scoop on the CA situation. There may be stuff closer or at your campus that you can participate in.

[l337squerrel]

AX is July 4th weekend. Are you staying in CA all year long? My advice would be to go to an anime/game club meeting on campus and get the inside scoop on the CA situation. There may be stuff closer or at your campus that you can participate in.

Nice idea, but I dont think Ill fly to CA during that week :T

[VTanimefan]

You can also check http://www.animecons.com/ for a listing of upcoming conventions.

[User]

I live in cali and when its con season there's qutie a few. off the top of my head and the one's I've been too are:

Anime LA in January - probably one of the best cali cons imo
Anime Conji down in san diego in March - kind of a ?{_& tier con, at least it was this year. dramallama everywhere. but it has nice locales for shoots
Long Beach Comiccon in April - pretty good but damn that convention center. gets super ghetto a couple blocks from there. don't walk alone.
Anahiem Wizard Con in April - gotta love the convention center here, and disneyland's across the street if you're bored.
Fanime in May up in Norcal[San Jose] - good con, some people swear by it being the best one in cali not sure about that though.
Anime Expo of course in july, it'll always be 4th of july weekend they just like it that way. - well its big, a little too big sometimes though but its still fun and you'll probably find many if not all of the cali cosplay community here.
AM2 aka Spite-con. same weekend as AX but in Anahiem. - personally I call this a2m con and think its utter ?{_& tier started up by spiteful ex-AX employees [which is why its the same weekend as AX] but hey /shrug/. this con managed to poach quite a few con goers from AX though cos of the ?{_& AX has pulled the last couple years.
San Diego Comic-con obliviously can't forget that, its about 2-3 weeks after AX usually in July. Big, way fucking too big. and expensive to go, but its nice to experience it. And its where the crazy swag usually shows up
D23 Expo in Anahiem, its the Disney Con basically and its in August
Blizzcon in October. basically a huge pretty friendly nerdfest.
Oh in October there's a halloween party thing at disneyland. I know a lot of people that go in cosplay for candy, rides and pictures. great way to meet people to since its all month-long too
PMX in November usually - this is kinda a ?{_& tier con not gonna lie, we were barely ever doing anything at the actual con itself but doing shoots outside and around the city. it tends to change but it was in Pasadena last year. Its also the con where a lot of people just fucked. cos that con was that boring.

And I think that's it from me.

[ClearlyPixelated]

You can also check http://www.animecons.com/ for a listing of upcoming conventions.

He's right! Here is just a copy pasta of all their 2011 cons in California. I put all the urls in there too for easy access.

AM2
July 1-3, 2011 Anaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, CA

Anime Destiny
October 1, 2011 University of California Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

Yaoi-Con
October 21-23, 2011 San Francisco Airport Marriott
Burlingame, CA

Ani-Jam
August 20-21, 2011 Radisson Hotel & Conference Center
Fresno, CA

Kin-Yoobi Con
August 5-6, 2011 Chabot College
Hayward, CA

Animé Los Angeles
January 6-8, 2012 Los Angeles Airport Marriott
Los Angeles, CA

Anime Expo
July 1-4, 2011 Los Angeles Convention Center
Los Angeles, CA

Pacific Media Expo
November 11-13, 2011 Hilton Los Angeles Airport
Los Angeles, CA

AnimeiCon
July 22-24, 2011 Monterey County Fairgrounds
Monterey, CA

BotCon
June 2-5, 2011 Pasadena Convention Center
Pasadena, CA

Kintoki-Con
June 18-19, 2011 Hyatt Regency Sacramento
Sacramento, CA

Sac-Anime
September 2-4, 2011 Radisson Hotel Sacramento
Sacramento, CA

Sac-Con
June 5, 2011 Scottish Rite Center
Sacramento, CA

Comic-Con International: San Diego
July 21-24, 2011 San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Wondercon
April 1-3, 2011 Moscone Center South
San Fransisco, CA

FanimeCon
May 27-30, 2011 San Jose McEnery Convention Center
San Jose, CA

Anime Five Cities
June 18, 2011 Ludwick Community Center
San Luis Obispo, CA

Hyper-Con
August 6-7, 2011 San Mateo County Event Center
San Mateo, CA

There are also a couple that just don't have dates yet: Asahicon, Bak-Anime, Ani-vent, Anime Conji, Anime on Display, Chibicon, and RT25 the Celebration.

[Chugoku-jinko]

I wish i could go to anime expo this year. they're having the vocaloid concert in L.A. like they did in Japan last year in march. >:

[senritsu]

they do vocaloid concerts all over california
if you like to cosplay, there's also the cherry blossom festival in april
if you win the costume contest (its rigged i tells ya) you get you ride the float in the parade and a bunch of free junk
(in any case san francisco japan town is pretty awesome and the cances of finding a congregation of con types there is pretty good)
san jose japan town has better food though
but so far as i can think, there's some sort of anime/ cosplay gathering type thing just about every month
they usually post them on the fanime forums if you're going to school in norcal this or the bay area conventions facebook group will be invaluable to you
(heh you're leaving hawaii to go to california for school and i'm doing the exact opposite... pack warm)

[satomihidee]

Hey Archer: I'm heading to PMX this year. Just came back from AM2, which had really good bands, but could have used more cosplayers...although I kept seeing a TYL Lambo walking around...Might try Fanime next year since it's not excessively big, but still really cosplay oriented.

Conji I believe is scheduled the same weekend as Kawaii Kon, that's in San Diego...

If you need connections to otaku, you may want to put in an application for the Animaid cafe host club. It's basically a bunch of otaku who run a maid and host club and go to different events and cons.

[Koichi_Saito]

If you really want to get a good experience of conventioning in Cali, go to Anime Expo next year. I went this past year and it was AWESOME! I guarantee you will enjoy yourself.