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Friday, April 17, 2020

Anime Expo 2020 Is Cancelled

Update: Shortly after writing this post the SPJA, the organization behind AX officially announced it was cancelled for this year. Here's there full post on it. If you purchased a badge you can be refunded or be rolled over into having one for next year. Give the SPJA time to manage this though.

Some have suggested online that the Governor or Governor's office ordered the LA Convention Center shut down for the rest of the year, thus letting AX and the SPJA off the hook for insurance purposes. But, we haven't seen anything online saying that.

Original article:
We don't want it to be that way, but there's just no way in this climate it's going to happen. Here's why:

1. Comic-Con just cancelled. They're bigger than Anime Expo and the top con in the country. If they're out, here in the state of California, there's no chance AX is gonna try.

2. California Governor Newsom said no to big group gatherings. Essentially, the Governor isn't letting sporting events, concerts and you guessed it, conventions, happen anytime soon and that looks like it might last into the Summer, when AX is planned.

3. The LA Convention Center is a makeshift hospital right now.  It's really not explained, but let's say a hospital is filled up by Covid-19 patients. You would be sent to the LA Convention Center instead. No idea, how it works through your healthcare provider or what not. Really, there's not a lot of info readily avaible online about it other than it was turned into a hospital at the end of March.

There's no info when the hospital goes away and the Convention Center will be re-opened. So it could be taking over the Convention Center well into July.

The Major Reasoning Online: Insurance Money

So, why then has AX not cancelled? Online guesses are for insurance purposes. As of right now, the state of California or the city of LA have not officially stated how long we have to be in lock-down and keep separated. As soon as the Governor or Mayor say big group events can't happen, AX will be off the hook of cancellation and insurance policies will come to pass, is the guess online. Until either officially say, "July is out," or something like, "No large gatherings are allowed this Summer," AX can't say anything because of weird insurance policies.

We have very little hope that AX is still taking place this Summer. So plan accordingly,  have Plan B and C ready on what to do instead.

Though, online people are planning on CrunchyRoll Expo in September and even further date out. But, it's just not the same as AX.