Crunchyroll Expo Returns to the Bay Area
Crunchyroll Expo is coming back to the Bay Area with a new venue and date.
An Insight for Bay Area Gamers
Crunchyroll Expo is coming back to the Bay Area with a new venue and date.
Following the success of the first Crunchyroll Expo, it was announced that it will return in 2018. After months of silence, they have now unveiled some of the details regarding the 2018 event.
Crunchyroll Expo 2018 will take place during the weekend of September 1 until September 3rd (Labor Day Weekend) at the San Jose Convention Center. Fans will be quick to realize this is a departure from last year, which took place in late August at the Santa Clara Convention Center.
This new date and venue dose have advantage along with disadvantages for Bay Area fans. Hence lets check it out:
The San Jose Convention Center is much larger than the Santa Clara Convention Center, which will allow for more to do. The expo floor can be expanded to include more industry booths, fan organizations and local merchants. This could also allow them to approve more panels that are more fan focused along with events that are staples of the Bay Area anime conventions.
Being located in Downtown San Jose, the convention could also try to incorporate the Civic Theater across the street. Fan groups could also take advantage of the Cesar Chavez Plaza for unofficial events or gatherings. There are also plenty of bars, coffee shops and restaurants in the area that fans could check out (unlike the baron wasteland of the Santa Clara Convention Center). Fans could also end the day by meeting up at AFKgg (located only a few blocks away from the Convention Center).
The new date will mean that Crunchyroll Expo will be in competition with SacAnime Summer, another well establish anime conventions that take place during the Labor Day Weekend. Anyone who missed out on SacAnime Winter could be at a disadvantage since it might be a hard choice.
Also parking might be a problem since there is limited space and every parking garage is a totally rip-off (most will charge $25 for the entire day). However; the VTA Lightrail runs by the Convention Center and there is always Uber or Lyft.
Overall the new location dose allow Crunchyroll to do more for the fans while its competition with SacAnime will be based on a fans preference. Many enjoyed the first CRX while many also have a tradition of going to SacAnime during the Labor Day weekend.
No guest announcements were made for Crunchyroll Expo 2018 and tickets are not on sale yet. More information will be made available in the months leading up to the event but you could read our coverage of Crunchyroll Expo 2017.