So after a couple trips to AX in sunny California since 2005, I decided to give Otakon a shot. Last year's absolute train-wreck of a con that was AX at Long Beach really left a bad taste in my mouth, even though I did have fun at the con hanging out with Sid and Seril and Helm, doing, you know, con-y things and helping out at the Asylum Anime booth in the dealer hall. But since most of RI was gonna hit Otakon up this year I decided that heading out to see them would be more fun than skipping AX and staying at home. And I was right :]

Annotated Picture Gallery of the trip is here.

Recap

Got to Baltimore on Thursday evening with no travel problems (which was a big relief after last year!). Pin and Dre were having navigation issues so I just got on the lightrail at the airport which took me to a stop a few blocks from the hotel in under 30 minutes and for only $1.60. Got a kick out of listening to some Baltimore natives mocking cosplayers. Cheap and fast transportation with entertainment, good deal! Wandered around in the concrete jungle and the light rain, totally out of my element, for a bit before I found the hotel. Checked in then met up with RI folks at a pub by the convention center and watched them eat (I was still feeling queasy from the flight) before going across the street to pick up my badge. I tell ya what, Otakon knows how to handle registration. AX could stand to learn a thing or two from them. Anyway, I chatted with Mith in the line which looked kind of long but moved very fast. I picked the Lucky Star badge just to be me and to induce facepalming among RIers. Seril and Helm got a bit of a flight delay so they got in later, hungry, and ordered some pizza at the hotel. I went to sleep after that.

On Friday I got started on the daunting task of familiarizing myself with the con center. Met up with Dune and co. at the Asylum Anime booth, got my dealer badge, and scoured the dealer hall for an hour before they opened it to the public. I found the Haibane Renmei soundtrack for only $7 so I snagged that and the ADV booth had plenty of copies of Five Centimeters Per Second for the reasonable price of $20, so I picked one up since it's hard to find even online. I now regret not buying a few more to resell on Amazon or something, but whatever--flying across the country doesn't leave me with enough bag space to buy the stuff I want and be mercenary.

Friday and Saturday kinda blurred together; I spent most of my time wandering around the dealer hall, helping at the AA booth (including delivering food), and looking at cosplayers. I did swing by the Tales of... panel, which was pretty lame but at least I got to see some good cosplay (EPIC DIST) and hear a room full of nerds singing along with the Japanese version of the TotA intro so it was worth the trip. The gaming room was jam packed the few times I went there so I only got to play one round of MELTY BLOOD (Pin won of course, but I gave him a run for his money considering I haven't played in months).

After paying almost $7 for a simple cheeseburger at a food court near the convention center (that took 25 minutes for them to make!) on Friday afternoon I said screw that and went and bought fruit and sammich stuff at the grocery store right next door to the hotel for $20 and didn't have to buy any more breakfasts or lunches.

I almost went to the Touhou panel to see if it would be good for the lulz but I think that night was one of our epic Munchkin nights, so I missed it, which is fine since epic Munchkin was epic and awesome and, besides, the staff apparently messed up scheduling in that room and ended up canceling the panel that was in there at the time, thereby aborting the Touhou panel. Munchkin also kept me from going to the Masquerade...but oh well.

On Saturday afternoon I wanted to go watch The Girl Who Leapt Through Time at the HD theatre that they had set up at the con so I went and got in line and after a few minutes some staff came by and said no one could bring a bag or backpack in. I wasn't gonna walk all the way back to the hotel to put my bag up and I wasn't the only one; about 50 people got up and left and I think half the people who stayed stayed because they didn't notice the staff. Well, you know what this means...I'll just have to torrent it if they won't let me watch it at the con!

More dealer hall shenanigans on Sunday, including some more purchasing, before helping AA tear down their booth and pack up just in time to run back to the hotel and shower before heading over to Edo Sushi, which was epic. Had my first taste of sake (of any alcohol, at that) and didn't like it but the rest of the meal was excellent. We had a balcony table looking out on the water and the weather was great that evening (it was great the whole time other than Thursday afternoon). Best dinner I've had since 2005 (also most expensive meal ticket I've ever seen!).

Despite being completely worn out by the trip and then getting sick when I got home, I had a blast! It was fun to get to see some faces behind the aliases and see some familiar ones again.

Other Stuff
Hobbylink Japan had a booth there with some great prices and I got to talking with Jim O'Neil, the HLJ Systems Admin while I was debating the purchase of the Caren Hortensia figure. Chatted about geek stuff for a min (since we're both SQL DBAs, sort of) then I got his opinion about AX when I mentioned I'd decided to skip AX for Otakon this year, due to various reasons. He said HLJ hadn't been to AX for a couple years because AX treated its dealers like crap which somehow doesn't surprise me at all. Eventually he gave me his card, I bought the Caren, and he gave me a 10% off card to use for an order on hlj.com, which is cool but I'm not sure I'll use it.

Otakon staff was very well organized it seemed. They were helpful and vocal and given the con center's shape, I thought the crowd control was done well (I swear this opinion has nothing to do with the fact that my dealer badge let me go in which ever dealer hall door I wanted to go through XD). Got a real kick out of watching Mith argue with them on Thursday. XD The AX staff last year was like a muddy traffic cone that everyone ignores in comparison. Badge pickup was painless and quick. I wasn't happy about the no backpacks at the theatre deal but whatever. At least they told us in advance instead of after we sat there for an hour.

This year, I did end up sleeping in the closet one night, but it was Onyx who slept with the pizza crusts! And if you think that's a lot of trash in that picture, you should have seen the mountain we left for them once we cleaned up on Monday morning, haha...at least we put it all in one place for them.

Con funk. Wow, it was bad. I guess east cost thinks they're too good for soap and deodorant cuz it was pretty bad. Both AXs combined had nothing on Otakon 2008 for con funk. Hygine 101, people. Don't make us anime fans look worse than we already do!

Cosplay!
Good amount of good cosplay. Too many girls cosplaying guys. In general, I mean, not talking about Mith & Puel. Saw some cosplay I'd never seen before, including Wanderer, Aria, and Midna from Twilight Princess. Very disappointing lack of thigh-highs at the con! I think I noticed maybe five at most :[ Also too many fatties cosplaying in...unflattering costumes. D: At least I found epic Dist. (b'_')b

Dealer's Hall
I was actually kind of disapointed in the selection this year. It wasn't terrible and I did managed to find a couple things I went looking for, but it seemed like everything was Bleach stuff, Final Fantasy figures, or tables upon tables of manga and DVDs that I can buy for less elsewhere. Figure selection was mediocre, too. However, the artbook selection and soundtrack selection was good, and Sasuga Books had a nice selection of Japanese manga to peruse.

The biggest bummer for me though was that there was practically NO Hayate no Gotoku stuff! I scoured that dealers' hall for hours over the course of the con and I only found two Hayate things: a pair of small, flimsy, partially transparent pencilboards/artcards that were overpriced and had "NOT FOR SALE" printed on them, anyway, and a set of cellphone strap doodads. I talked to the AA owner about Hayate and he said that from what he'd seen from his trips to Japan to stock his store there wasn't that much merchandise from Hayate to begin with, which I was kinda aware of already, but it was still a bit of a disappointment.

I also noticed a surprising lack of Lucky Star merchandise. Not that I mind; I wasn't planning to buy any LS stuff, but I figured there'd be more than there was.

Loot
Alter's Caren Hortensia figure for $35 from HLJ.
Alter's Wind Walker figure for $15 from HLJ (last day, 50% off sale).
Kino no Tabi pencilboard for "free" from Asylum Anime.
Ito Noizi's Shana/Misc artbook for "free" from Asylum Anime.
Haruhi artbook/fanbook thing for $13 from Asylum Anime.
Five Centimeters Per Second DVD for $20 from the ADV booth.
Haibane Renmei OST for $7 (forgot what booth).
Yotsubato! volumes 1-7 for $8.50 each from Sasuga Books.
Hayate no Gotoku cellphone straps (Hina and Nagi) for $12 (forgot what booth).

Lessons Learned
Hoping to get any sleep in the RI room = lol :[
Tremont lies about reservation price quotes
IGNORE ME

Tags: anime, consumerism, life
Current Mood: happy