Pacific Media Expo (PMX) 2010 was held on November 12-14 at the Pasadena Hilton. This was the 7th PMX. This was also a new location for this convention after being held at the LAX Hilton for the past four years. Guests of Honor for this year included animator and director, Hiromi Kato, and actress Amy Okuda of the web series, The Guild. Representing Japanese fashion were Miki Nohmoto from Alice and the Pirates, which is a sub brand of Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, and Yumi Fujiwara from Innocent World. The Nom Nom Truck became the first food truck to be a Guest of Honor for this convention.   Also, for the first time, PMX had Korean Guests of Honor with actor, Jang Dong-gun and director, Sngmoo Lee.
One of Friday’s featured events was the Asian Food Challenge. There was a slight change in format for this year’s contest. Instead of rounds in which contestants ate various exotic dishes from Asia, there was simply one round to see which contestant could eat this year’s mystery food in the shortest amount of time. The food turned out to be balut, a boiled duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly developed embryo inside. Contestants had to eat six of them. The prize for winning was a $100 cash prize.
Friday was also capped off with a concert. Concerts are a staple for PMX. In the past, major acts from Japan have performed at this convention. In the past few years, there were concerts on every day of the convention. This year, there was only one concert and it featured three local bands. New to PMX this year was Tanuki Suit Riot, which played covers of anime and video game music. Also returning to PMX were local rock bands, Lemon Drop Kick and Dig Jelly. While it wasn’t the biggest concert that PMX has ever hosted, these local bands still managed to fill the room with enthusiastic fans.
Saturday was filled with a wide variety of events. For the second year in a row, PMX included a martial arts tournament devoted specifically to Filipino martial arts. This event started early in the morning and lasted throughout the day. New for this year was the Starlight Fashion Festival, which was basically an EGL carnival. Attendees paid an extra fee to enter this event that included various games and activities for prizes. Saturday also featured CosFest, PMX’s Cosplay Competition. The top prize for CosFest is $300, which tends to bring out some high-quality costumes. It’s still one of the shorter cosplay competitions. This year, there were about 20 entries. It’s one of those contests where the halftime entertainment lasts just as long as the actual competition. CosFest is also different since entries aren’t limited to Japanese animation, manga, or video games. Other genres such as Asian music, film, and EGL are accepted. This year’s Best of Show winners were a group doing a musical number from the Korean group, SNSD.
Sunday is usually a slow day at conventions, but at PMX, some major events still remained for the final day. For the second consecutive year, PMX featured a fashion show showcasing the designs from the fashion Guests of Honor. It is one of the more popular events of the convention. One of the the final events of the convention was The Warrior’s Way panel, featuring Jang Dong-gun, Sngmoo Lee, and producer, Barrie Osborne (Lord of the Rings, The Matrix). A short clip from The Warrior’s Way was shown followed by a Q & A session using pre-selected questions submitted by fans. Surprisingly, a panel featuring a Korean guest was extremely popular and every seat in the auditorium was full. Some attendees and media came to PMX specifically for these guests.
PMX 2010 showed a slight improvement in overall attendance from the previous year. That’s quite interesting when you take into account that there was no major musical act performing this year. The new venue showed it’s weaknesses as it was apparent that its space was not adequate for an event of this size. It was much smaller than the LAX Hilton, which resulted in smaller rooms for just about everything. The main floor was basically a series of very narrow hallways. A few attendees said that it made them feel claustrophobic. Elbow room was hard to find at this particular location and that seemed to be one of the major complaints for this year. Cosplayers didn’t like it because there could be no location to hold large group gatherings and photo opportunities. On the bright side, the neighborhood was nice for photos as long one was willing to go off-site. There are some beautiful buildings within walking distance of the hotel. The location was also better for after-hours activities and dining than the LAX location. Another success was the expansion of the food truck program. Over the weekend, five local gourmet food trucks were a part of PMX. All of them did very well and some of them completely sold out of food. Lines were long, but attendees seemed to be willing to wait. It will be interesting to see what this convention does next year. If more growth is expected, who knows where this event will be in 2011?
