Well, it's that time of year one more.  Anime Expo badge sales.

Tickets for 2023 will go on sale 1/24/23 at 12PM.  They have raised the price to $145 for the full weekend (up from $120). Single day badges are $80 for Day 1/Saturday and Day 2/Sunday (up from $65), $70 for Day 3/Monday (also up from $65), and $50 for Day 4/Tuesday (up from $45). Obviously, this means that if you're going to go to two days or more, buying the full weekend badge is the thing to do. Sadly, it seems like deep discounts for registering early are a thing of the past. I've always said Anime Expo is a few years behind Comic Con and it still holds true. SDCC's badges are now $300 for the whole weekend. When I first started going, it was a whopping $50 for those who pre-registered.

For anyone who attended ax chibi this past fall, you will receive a $10 discount code, so keep an eye on your emails.

AX also announced that they would be discontinuing the somewhat-controversial Premiere Badge. As of their latest version, those badges were $500 but gave you immense privileges, including line skip, early entry into the exhibit hall on day one, and first entry on the other days. It also included first dibs on hotel reservations, a credit towards ticketed event purchases, and an opportunity to buy event tickets before normal attendees. That last benefit came in very handy for the Love Live concerts, especially if you were trying to get VIP.

Line skip was an amazing benefit and meant that you could get the most out of your Anime Expo day, which, as anyone who has gone has noticed, involves a lot of waiting in line. Line skip allowed you to get a lot more out of your day for anyone interested in going to panels and premieres.

It's possible they might add some of the above perks in a different way in the months to come, so we'll keep you posted.

The next part of the puzzle for any AX congoer are the hotels, and that block will open at 1PM, just an hour after tickets go on sale on 1/24/23. Supposedly, you will need a valid badge purchase in order to then register for a room. With the removal of premiere badges, this does mean that everyone will be on even ground when it comes to rooms, including the coveted JW/Ritz Carlton and Marriott Courtyard rooms. As one of the hotels in walking distance to the convention, they will be in very hot demand. If you've never stayed in a walking distance hotel, they allow you to arrive early, leave late, party, take a break, drop off your stuff, nap, and anything else you can think of. They might cost a little more than the farther hotels but the convenience is well worth it, especially if you're splitting it with a few friends.

Anime Expo 2023 takes place on July 1-4. It's a bit of a weird schedule where the show starts on a Saturday and runs through Tuesday. Sadly, this ensures that I won't be staying for the whole thing myself, as work pays me quite a lot to work on the holiday. Enough to pay for a premiere badge and then some, haha.

For those of you in press and industry, those tickets are yet to come.  This does mean that hotels may be a little problematic, but if you have a friend that will let you borrow their order number, that could do the trick.  Exhibitors and artist alley are open to applications but that won't happen in time for hotels.

General information about AX can be found here: https://www.anime-expo.org/ax/

Hotel block information is here: https://www.anime-expo.org/ax/plan/accommodations/