Spotted at this weekends MCM Expo in London, much to my astonishment, an actual, In Real Life Mikan Box. Yes, such things actually exist in the physical, 3D space. I was almost tempted to ask them if they’d sell me the thing, but aside from the fact that I’d have to lug it half-way back across the country, they’d ruined it by taping notices onto it by the time I passed the stand again.

As for MCM Expo, well, it was certainly a MCM Expo. I guess the main things this year were the video game content (both Nintendo and Microsoft had a fair presence, alongside the more nerdy companies which usually show) and the fact that the BBC also showed for pretty much the first time with a big Doctor Who presence (indeed, Matt Smith was there Friday, though I was not). Of course, this just meant that, combined with the cold outside weather pushing those who usually lurk around the front of the ExCel into the main hall, horrific, traffic halting queues broke out in all directions. It was exasperated by some bad, or at least confusing, floor planning which resulted in people who thought they were heading towards an exit were walking towards a wall. Crowded as heck, basically, despite the fact that they had the biggest overall floorspace I can remember.

Generally speaking, though, if you don’t know a bunch of people heading to Expo, aren’t going with a specific shopping agenda (and hopefully know how to spot bootlegs!) or aren’t London-local enough to write the entry off against what you’ll be saving in shipping/product costs, it’s really kind of hard to justify the expense of hitting Expo for the anime crowd. There isn’t really enough anime-related programming going on, and it’s kind of exasperated with annoying scheduling like putting the anime industry panel opposite Hiroshi Maruyama from CyberConnect2 demonstrating the new Naruto game.

Yet I’ll probably be back again in May. Ho-hum!