There are a lot of expos and conventions that hit Las Vegas and each have their own special niche, sometimes more than one. But if you want anime and a whole lot of cosplay the LVL Up Expo is the place to be! There you will also find amateur wrestling matches, video game tournaments, air soft target practice, and panels with anime voice over artists like Sean Schemmel (Dragon Ball Z), Christopher Sabat with a whole bunch of voices also including some Dragon Ball Z, and Jennifer Hale (Mass Effect and Star Wars: Clone Wars). Hale’s work alone is staggering and could take a whole day to cover. There were more panels filling the three days lining corridors with every manner of character in every way, shape and form. There was plenty of understanding and no shaming for those who wanted to be a character that wasn’t their size, there were no issues about male or female characters, as a matter of fact the most popular Spider-Man cosplayer was a woman.
The LVL Up Expo in Las Vegas was a great event whether you were or were not into anime and comics. My photographer didn’t understand many of the costumes she saw but loved them all and I even managed to win a hat at CrossFire… maybe next year I will do better in the tournament or take on one of the wrestlers. Time will tell!
