On Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 the Anaheim Convention Center in Orange County saw anime fans and weebs from all walks of life come together for a two-day event.
Anime stans were in for a treat when Anime Impulse held not only one festival for them, but four conventions going on simultaneously including: Anime Impulse, K-Play Fest!, Sneaker Expo, and Collector’s Expo.
Notable attractions included the “Voice Actor’s Alley,” where artists and vendors alike lined Artist’s alley to sell their prints, Funko Pop vinyl statues and other merchandise.
K-pop choreographer Arkade, taught the crowd at one of three side stages, a K-pop routine on day one of the convention.
A few other highlights included a full size basketball court for influencers to have shooting competitions at the Sneaker Expo.
The Collector’s Expo is where TCG card collectors, players and vendors sold and traded their Trading Card Game cards.
An Anime fan favorite of the convention was the Foreign Import Anime Car show brought to the 2 day event by Deko Automotive Events and hosting Import enthusiast groups such as Automotive Senpai Squad.
At the Import Car show was 25-year-old enthusiast Enrique Escalante who talked all things Anime, Import Vehicles, Anime Import Wraps, and Video Games.
Import Wraps specializes in having your car wrapped (not painted) in a glossy, matte and/or sometimes florescent design with an anime character, anime project or video game as the centerpiece of the design.
“I got into souping up cars about 14 years ago. I started designing wraps for my own vehicles about four years ago, I don’t design wraps professionally but the wraps I designed and currently have on all my cars is Touhou Project, which is a PC racing game that got it’s start with the PC97 build.” says Escalante.
An art form in the Japanese car culture known as Itasha, allows for the designer or owner of the car to go even further in terms of aesthetic additives like stickers and decking the windshields up with anime decals.
The owners of these vehicles go to extremes with using decals or stickers to make their cars the most extravagant, artful spectacles.
Escalante went further into what gateway anime introduced him to “I got into anime really young, and my gateway anime was Eva.”
“Eva” is Neon Genesis Evangelion, a property from Gainax Studios based in Tokyo, Japan.
It’s a production company who also created fan favorite FLCL which went under about a decade ago for tax evasion and who’s key people went on to create modern Anime production company, Studio Trigger.
Enrique went onto elaborate the make and model of his 2 import show cars; “My two cars I currently have on display here at this convention are a 2005 Mazda RX8, and a 1998 Honda Prelude.”
Escalante’s enthusiasm mirrored the highly positive energy at the convention.
Another highlight at the convention was Dante Basco at the Voice Actor’s Alley, the actor who played Rufio for the film “Hook” starring opposite Robin Williams.
There were tons of cosplayers who relished in taking photos with fans.
The energy on the main floor was palpable, the two day event was capped by a free performance on the main stage by video game and anime score JPop DJ & Rapper Lotus Juice, an up and coming triple threat who came in hot with the all too dope beats and rhymes to end the two day event.
Anime Impulse was a fun filled two day event for all fans of anime that attended.
