The exhibit hall was packed with the booths of major anime and manga companies.

Bandai was not the only company that sent agents through the exhibit hall checking on the small fan-run shops' stock. In addition to dealers identified as consciously selling illegal merchandise, there were several innocently doing so. The main offender in this case was Hong Kong DVDs of anime titles not yet released in the U.S., whose exporters had assured the anime specialty shops that they were perfectly legal for sale in America. They lied. Most of the anime shops selling Hong Kong DVDs had only limited quantities, and agreed to withdraw them from sale after an anime company representative explained the legal technicalities of international licensing.

Most AX attendees did not notice any of this. The exhibit hall was set up rather like Las Vegas' casinos: right inside the entrance was the largest and most spectacular trade-show displays of the major anime and manga production/distribution companies: TOKYOPOP, Bandai Ent., Geneon Ent., VIZ and ADV Films. Behind them were the booths of several smaller companies. At the back were the dozens if not hundreds of tables of anime/manga retail shops, anime costumers and dealers in imported kimonos, J-pop music CD shops, shops specializing in “how to draw in the anime/manga style” art books and Japanese art supplies, travel agencies offering group tours to Tokyo-area anime/manga specialty shops, the 500,000-attendee “comic markets” and much more.

Anime conventions such as Fanimecon and SakuraCon had their own tables. Tokyo's Gallery of Fantastic Art (GoFa) was back, this year with a display of serigraphs of character designer Range Murata's Last Exile art plus one or two prints each of a half-dozen other artists. It was easy for a fan to spend all four days of AX in the exhibit hall alone.

Cosplay was an organized, scheduled affair this year. Fans mobbed the designated cosplay areas where they could pose for photographers.

Upstairs in the convention center's meeting halls were the gaming rooms (separate rooms for console/video or electronic games and for tabletop/board or card games), and the industry panels where each anime specialty company announced what it would be releasing during the coming months. The huge theater on the top floor was the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, and the main evening events such as the anime music video contest, the idol singing contest, and the masquerade. The Marriott Hotel “across the street” was the location for the five anime video theaters, the voice acting and art workshops, a tutorial on how to play the ancient game of Go (due to the current popularity of the Hikaru no Go manga and anime), and other activities.

Last year there was such a chaos of cosplayers and photographers milling about that AX tried to formalize it this year. Several photo-op areas were designated and an “Official Cosplay Gatherings Schedule” was handed out: “Friday 1:00 pm. Sakura Taisen/Sakura Wars (Inbetween Convention Center and Hilton). 2:00 pm. Shaman King (Hilton Lobby-Near Fountain). 3:00 pm. Hellsing (Inbetween Convention Center and Hilton). Saturday's 3:00 pm. Naruto (Convention Center Lobby Staircase)” created a massive traffic jam. There were reportedly 45 cosplayers of Naruto alone, not to mention Sasuke, Sakura and other characters from the Naruto series. Three individual cosplay favorites this year were Robin from Witch Hunter Robin, Alucard from Hellsing and Nicholas Wolfwood from Trigun.

Naruto was by far the most popular anime title among those that have not officially been released in America yet. Everyone knows that unauthorized free fan-subtitled Naruto DVDs have been screening at anime clubs for the past year. Practically every company's presentation got a question from the audience, “Are you going to be releasing Naruto soon?” Bandai's Jerry Chu gave the most blunt answer: “You fans have really shot yourself in the foot by making it so obvious how much you want Naruto! Now the Japanese licensor is saying, `So, so; if you want Naruto, you pay whatever we say you pay!' You don't wanna know how much they're demanding!”