Coming hard on the heels of my absence from Anime Weekend Atlanta this
year, I still felt a little burnt out from convention-going this year.
Nevertheless, I still felt incllined to go to Neko-con this year.
Last year proved to be quite fun, and in anticipation of bigger crowds,
Neko moved to a hotel with bigger facilities.
Long hard road
It wasn't so much a long strange journey to the con, it was a long rough one. My timing for travel leaves me to face the unbridled wrath of Friday rush hour DC traffic. Dear God... What have I gotten myself into!? Those of you that complain about Atlanta traffic, you need to pay a visit to DC around this time of day. While sitting in traffic, I develop a new philosophy about traffic jams: If you're in one, you should not complain, for you are contributing to it. Translated as, get off the road for awhile. Shortly after I finish dinner, the traffic is still thick, but not for much longer. Six p.m.: stop and go. At 6:30: steady moving, but still thick. At 7: got the whole damn road to myself. Six and a half hours for a five hour trip, not including my stops. Eh, I think I left my enthusiasm at home.
A late landing, but better than none
Sometime around nine in the evening, Ai-chan and I finally reach the hotel. Ooh, parking spaces. Getting my pre-reg stuff is quick and painless. Looking over the video schedule: It's kinda limited. I didn't miss much, if anything. Two different buildings for the convention, but with reasonable proximity to each other and no roads to contend with, just a parking lot. No big deal after Otakon. Now to work on the room situation, with clear memories of Acen earlier this year.
Say, this is nice...
Got a room! It's at one of the backup hotels, but as long as it's within walking distance of the con, it's ok. For $54 a night, I get a room with a microwave oven, a fridge, an alarm clock that I'm familiar with, free breakfast, and if I brought my laptop, I could make use of the cable modem here. I believe the correct term for this is "a big freaking stroke of luck".
Time to watch a classic.
Watched about a dozen of the music videos, and left. As I write this, a small group of girls run by shouting something for no apparent reason. A staffer looks on concernedly, remarking that a con-goer shouldn't freak out the normals. A couple costumers here and there, but mostly people wearing anime-ish clothes. Mmm, ice. The coolers are out of water, leaving everyone to scooping out the remaining ice instead. Cool and crunchy and refreshing. It's midnight now, and while the video rooms go all night long, the crowds dwindle rapidly. A couple cans of Dew, then some Campus Guardress, then I'll call it a night.
Anime showcase: Bakuen Campus Guardress
This anime, made back in '94, has it all. Action, romance, comedy... well, no mecha. There's plenty of mecha shows out there anyway. Runs four episodes, good for the short attention span. I could describe what it's about, but that would add substantial length to this report and detract from the original purpose. Dammit, this series needs to be comercially released here. Oddly, most of the times that this is played at cons, it's usually late at night. This makes for a tough battle to stay awake, the most memorable one being at Katsucon 2, where I stumbled out of the video room at 5 in the morning after it was over. Rough. To this day, I have yet to watch the entire thing without nodding off despite the kick-ass nature of the show.
At 2AM, things have wound down, and I'm pooped. I can't make much judgement on this con yet, as I really haven't been here long enough. Tomorrow will reveal more.
Food!
Breakfast is good. Free breakfast is even better. Gorged on muffins, doughnuts, Froot Loops, and juice. For free. After eating, I get a shower and head out. Nothing in the video rooms grab my interest, so I check out the art show, then the dealers room. Picked up a couple of goodies, then stop at the room to drop them off. Weather's thankfully nice. Bah, they cancelled Love Hina. I wanted to see that, too.
Gotta eat sometime...
In favor of missing Jubei-chan, I sit down for some instant ramen acquired in a food run. Yep, I learned from Acen. Currently, I'm debating with myself the reasons I'm at this convention. Most of the stuff I bought could be had online or at the myriad of stores in the DC area. The video rooms aren't anything to phone home about. Eh, I'll see what I can find anyway. So I go to prepare for the cosplay.
Hey! Where'd this line come from?
The line for the cosplay has gotten too long for me to justify sitting in line, so I hang out in the lobby talking with a bunch of people I don't even know. They have no intention of going to the cosplay, instead they plan to go eat. Meanwhile, staffers are telling everyone that there are still seats for those interested in the cosplay, and that includes me.
Cosplay surprise!
This is weird. The cosplay is only half full. I thought it would be packed. What that means is I get a reasonable seat without the wait. Up goes my tripod, and on goes the camcorder. Now, the "chair" thing at previous cons was funny for about say, several minutes, but something tells me that it's going too far when someone actually cosplays as a chair. Nothing against the guy for the costume itself, as I do honestly believe that a lot of effort was put into the project, and with impressive results, but perhaps it's time to put the "chair" gag to rest. While I'm not much of a fan of Guyver, there's a costume of it that impresses me to no end. Such detail. Painstaking detail. Deservedly, the man got awards for it.
Anime in the oddest places.
A bit over two hours later, it's over. After wandering about, I see in the lobby someone has an iBook setup playing FLCL on DVD. I sit down to watch. Somehow I can never turn away from FLCL. When that's over, time for bed.
Oh yeah... there's a convention going on.
Woke up, and wanted to see how the official version of the cosplay turned out. Standing at the door, waiting for it to start... Odd, it's 9 in the morning, and it's supposed to start, and nothing's happening... Ah yes, Daylight Savings time thingy. That means an extra hour to go eat a FREE breakfast. Looking over the schedule, it looks kinda bland now. Videos 1 and 2 are showing stuff that doesn't interest me, and Video 3 is effectively done for the weekend. One last mosey through the dealers room yields a doujinshi. Running personal operations out of my car now, I contemplate leaving, but I am inclined to look in the main convention area once more.
Still some goodies to be found, and lessons by the metric buttload.
Eh, I was wrong about Video 3. Another repeat of the music videos, then the Bozak movie. I had to stick around for that. Q & A and closing ceremonies revealed much. Mistakes had been made, but not unnoticed by staff. The official word is that yes, they will be returning to their old location, due to the fact that attendance didn't change much. Personally, I've never seen that happen before.
Off into the sunset
Well, it's about 5 in the evening and everything has slowed down.
Neko Con 3 is over, and after a couple food/toilet stops, the trip home
was much faster compared to what it was like on the way down.
On the other hand, there was the problem with the anemic video schedule. Most of it I had already seen, and most of the rest I didn't care to see. There was also the matter of putting the same amount of people last year and putting them in a bigger location. While it resulted in a con with plenty of elbow room, it also made for a con that felt a little too empty and dull, making many people think that there were probably better things to do. In the video rooms, the screens... they looked like someone just took some white sheets and tossed them over an elevated pole and called it a screen. Um, that just looks like crap. Really. At least use the wall. It's flat, and it's there.
While it wasn't the worst convention ever, it wasn't the best either. Did I have a good time? Yeah. Do I have any regrets about going? That answer, is thankfully no. Will I return next year? That shall be answered when it gets closer to the convention time itself. I've never made plans to go to a convention a year in advance, simply because there's always the chance that something else may come up. As it stands, if I can go next year, I probably will because if the staff learned from this, then all the better.
Up next, Katsucon 7!