Four days of gaming, all night anime screening, and geeky schmoozing are finally over, and PopCultureShock has our fairly comprehensive photo journal to prove that, yes, Anime Expo is truly the Shangri La it’s cracked up to be. Although it is impossible to get every single fan sporting a costume on tape, we sure as hell tried. We’ve got screenshots – and we do mean a LOT of screenshots – of everything from Sailor Moon to Solid Snake (or some facsimile thereof), and since you couldn’t attend Long Beach’s gorgeous 2002 Anime Expo, we took enough pictures to make you feel like you did. Minus the foot corns.

While we’re on the subject of comfort, a great deal of thanks goes to the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Animation (SPJA) and all of those toiling volunteers for making the event go as smoothly as it did. As opposed to last year’s disaster in Anaheim (Disney layeth down the law), registration was efficient and quick, the hotels were first class, and although the spacing of the hotels was bit wider than expected (the expo spanned three buildings), we needed the exercise so who’s complaining?

To the Fans: Anime Expo is eternally about camaraderie with your fellow geeks. As a longtime comic book fan, video gaming, and sci-fi geek, I can say without doubt that Anime Expo (and sister event Katsucon) is the friendliest, most entertaining, and wholly fulfilling convention of the geek trio (E3, Anime Expo, and ComiCon). Laughing with friends and poking fun at chubby boys in tight costumes is fun, but watching fresh anime in all-night anime screening rooms is better. And hell, anime girls are naughty man, let me tell you…