Some conventions I’ll just show up for with a shoestring of a plan, but Otakon has gotten big enough to need some decent preparation for. I had reserved my room half a year ago, and pre-registered not long after. Am I ready? Let’s find out!
Ok!
Overslept my alarms greatly. Cleaned out some assorted junk from Ai-chan, then picked up Eric and Rusty. Stopped at Cracker Barrel, and while they serve great food, it only put us further behind schedule. Such as it were, we press on in the rain, and arrive at the Hyatt and find all that’s left for parking is valet. Oh well, better than nothing. We check in, and scope out the room. Once again, a lovely view of the harbor. I can see Katsucon 8’s hotel from here. There’s just a queen bed, but I brought an air mattress if needed.
Behold!
Got our registrations, then went our separate ways. The dealers room was certainly bigger this year, but it felt more open, like there was the same amount of tables in a bigger room. I could have driven my car between the tables. They also opened it earlier in the day, so there wasn’t a crazy line waiting to get in. Found Tanuki hustling doujinshi; talked with him for a bit then continued on my way. Didn’t buy much, just another Otakon shirt. Signed up for the Newtype mailing list to get a free magazine. Somehow I’m not surprised it’s come to this, having an English version of Newtype. Took a few years, but it finally happened.
“This sucks. Let’s go to Otakon.”
Back in the room, Eric and I take a quick look at the hotel’s tv channel selection and being resoundly unimpressed, decide to move on. In the artist’s alley, I pick up a couple fanzines and meet up with Aeris in her requisite bunny-girl outfit. I tease her with a $100 bill from my wallet, (no, not like that! Echi!) but I make up for it. We end up wandering around the dealers room, blurting out many lines of commentary on what we see.
Me: “Look, it’s a Radical Edward, sitting all alone and looking
sad.”
Aeris: “Aw, I wanna go and kick her or give her a hug or something.”
We’re going to see MAT3K, but instead of sitting in line, we’re relaxing in one of the lounge areas, and we’ll get in line later. After a doodle in my notebook, she’s tired enough for a nap, and I’m grateful to be off my feet as well.
Truly from the bottom of the PAIN barrel.
For MAT3K, they skewered a truly wretched and pitiful anime, an early monstrosity of a combination of puppets and animation. I’ve seen something like this before, but it wasn’t as painful as this. Aeris says she’s been scarred for life because of that movie. Truthfully, I have no idea where they found it. In the past, they’ve always used more mainstream material, but this came out of nowhere.
The Otakon we all know and love.
After that was over, Aeris goes back to her room and after a break,
I proceed to dive into some fan parodies, Eva: Re-Death and Hamstah.
Re-Death was fun, but Hamstah’s inner city gangster jokes didn’t really
cut it for me. It was funny, but not in the comedic genius kind of
funny. After that’s over, I decide to call it a night.
A good way to start the day is with food.
Woke up to find the room deserted. Grabbed a shower, then a “free-breakfast-for-two” coupon that I got when checking in. AAA rules. Whoever I find first, gets some free food. And that person happened to be... Aeris! We scarf down breakfasty foods from the buffet, and wander around the dealers room for an hour. Picked up a cd off an unfamiliar anime, and some Kubrick Eva figures. After that, she went back to her room to put on a costume, and I went back to mine to dump my stuff.
Why can’t we make music videos like this anymore?
Later on, I found Eric who had been wandering in the video game room, and he was asked to be on staff for next year. Right now I’m watching some Jpop videos, which is mostly Jrock and Eurobeat. I wanna see some Miyamuu! A lot of these videos are quite interesting, really. Eh, not gonna see the cosplay tonight. Heavily leaning towards checking out One Piece.
Teeheehee.
Further meandering through the con turns up finding Eric and going on a trip to a liquor store, where I find some badly needed fruit juice at prices that actually resemble reasonable. Thought about getting something slosh-worthy, but declined. After that, I dive back into the con, finding Rusty. Also started to really buy stuff. Found some DVDs and another Mahoro CD! Now I’m watching Pita Ten, which is very... ah, what’s the word I’m looking for... it’s kinda silly, cute, funny... Teeheehee. Damn, Misha’s giggle is addictive.
No cosplay for me. Yay!
Took a breather from the video room, gonna watch One Piece next, hopefully. Hm, cosplay will start in 15 minutes, and I won’t be there for it. I’m free! Feels like I gave 5 hours of con time back to myself. I know what’s going to happen; any cosplay you miss is going to be described as the greatest cosplay ever by friends that go to it. Which means, if I go see it, there’s a much higher chance that it’ll suck.
If I’m gonna go to hell, I might as well start going today.
Right before One Piece, I find Aeris, who promptly snatched my bag of loot and starts rummaging through it. The look on her face indicates that she found the live-action Ogenki Clinic DVD, the Anime Pin-up Beauties CD-ROM, and the La Blue Girl Screensaver. The one dollar each I paid for the CD-ROM and the screensaver was well worth this moment. Oh, such a priceless expression. I felt obliged to at least give her a dollar for that. I like Aeris, because I don’t have to behave around her. ^_^
Classic stuff.
Anyway, One Piece was fun, but Aeris and her dad wanted to see Akira. Saw part of that after One Piece was over, jumped out when the credits started rolling.
Ah, I remember watching Akira so many years ago. Back when I was but a wee fanboy, unaware of the vast universe that I was about to tap into. Back then, I was only vaguely aware of a tiny convention coming up in several months in State College and nowhere else. An event called: Otakon. Was it all a dream? No, it was real. It was real, because a mere dream wouldn’t have set me on this path. It was something more, an experience that turned into a vision.
So here I am now, at a con with thousands upon thousands of fellow fans. Many new faces, and many I’d seen before. This the 8th Otakon I’ve been to, missing only the first, and hopefully not my last. Friday afternoon, I thought I wasn’t going to get anything out of this weekend, material or otherwise. I’m glad to say now that I was wrong. Feels like I have more now than when I started. While I can’t say that this is the best convention ever, it is one that I’m glad I came to. There’s a lot to be said about what anime conventions can do for me, if only I can pick the right words.
Hm, sitting in line or sleeping... Duh.
It’s getting late, and there’s an unwieldy line for the Trigun/Cowboy
Bebop fan parody. Methinks I’ll call it a night. (Saw Mandichan
as Ecoko! Hi Mandichan! That costume looked familiar, which
is why I asked. Just wanted to make sure.)
The end is coming! The end is coming!
Sunday is here, and with it, comes the end of the con. Eric and I start the day with some breakfast from the hotel, and now we’re wrestling with all the luggage. Fortunately for us, Rusty appears at the room during checkout, so Eric and I don’t have to lug his oversized sack. Jeez, what did he put in there, a fangirl? Speaking of fangirls (heh, couldn’t resist), found Aeris one last time in the art show, she and her dad were about to leave for home immediately after. Gave her some of the excess badges that were being passed out after the close of the convention, of which half were sold out. I decided to spend the next hour in the dealers room, at times pushing myself to buy stuff, and teasing friends with $100 bills in the last 15 minutes the dealers room was open. But buy stuff I did, until the room closed. Still a good chunk of money left. Plenty left for dinner, paying some bills. Stuff like that. Talked with Christian for a bit about how the AnimeUSA table did, despite not doing any direct help for them. Now hanging out with the York crew until con feedback starts.
Saddle up, men, and let’s get these tired bodies of ours home.
Sometime during con feedback, I round up Eric and Rusty and we head home, off into the sunset in a slightly overloaded Ai-chan. Ai-chan has taken me to 20 of the conventions I’ve ever been to, and I think maybe it’s time to pass the mantle onto Yamiko-chan. Stopped for dinner, and after that dropped off my friends.
Eric found what he was looking for; a Belldandy figurine. That’s
all he wanted from the dealers room, and that’s all he got from the dealers
room. Rusty just plain bought a ton of stuff. And me?
I found a few things here and there, but most importantly, I found what
I usually look for at a convention: Myself. Of course, within
days, myself will just wander off and disappear for awhile, but it comes
around, like it almost always does. At Otakon this year, I just found
myself a little sooner than usual.
Attendance: Early estimates say around 12500 to 12800. Sounds about right.
Highs: Eep, where do I begin? This con put me in a kind of a glow from Friday to Sunday. Things went smoothly for me. Hung around a lot with Aeris, and around friends most of the time anyway, free breakfast buffet each morning, saw some new anime that I had wanted to see, nice room in a nice hotel, and came away from the weekend with a feeling of looking upwards into space and saying, “Yes! I understand now!”, and the assorted freebies that were being given out by the larger anime companies.
Lows: I’d rather have chosen regular parking, but at the time we arrived, that wasn’t an option. Wish they had given the fan-creations track a bigger video room. Mostly nit-picking stuff, really.
Food: Ran the weekend on a lot of breakfasty foods, except on Sunday evening, when we got some Chinese food. Good eating all around.
Cost overview: For this con, my total expenditures were roughly $740, most of which was spent on operational costs such as registration, hotel, food, that sort of thing. The rest was all toys, videos, and cds. Nothing more than what I could stuff in my suitcase while checking out of the hotel. Still less than what I’m plunking down a month on Yamiko-chan. -_-;;;
As for next year? Well... I thought Otakon was going to be a real chore this year, but I stand corrected. Maybe they were doing something different. Maybe I was doing something different. Maybe it was that the city streets weren’t coming apart at the seams this year. Maybe a combination of everything. But at this rate, I’d have to say next year looks highly likely.
Up next: AnimeUSA 4!