Otakon has come and gone, and it was one excellent convention. I departed Wednesday night to meet up with the Anime Punch crew and pack up the van for our trip to Baltimore. We arrived Thursday night and got our badges out of the pre-reg line in a short 20 minutes, which impressed me quite a bit.

In fact, registration in general was handled very speedily. The pre-reg line was in constant motion, since all that was needed was a swift ID check and then your badge was given to you. The regular registration still moved at a good clip, I believe the longest wait time was about 3 hours. There was a literal barricade of registration booths, at least 20 in total. It ran so much smoother than Acen’s impossibly broken setup.

Friday morning I got up to start snagging cosplay pictures. The convention center had a very nice lobby area on the far side where people naturally gathered at, and the majority of the photoshoots occurred here as well. After I was satisfied, I went to check out the game room. This place is BIG. 108 televisions setup, with every fighting and rhythm game you might possibly want, and a few racers and shooters thrown in for good measure. Even so, I still think there needs to be some more setups, there’s plenty of room and the more popular games had long wait times. Still, it blew everything I had seen out of the water.

Next I went to the Dealer’s Room, which also blew away all previous conventions. It took me two hours just to walk through the place, and I didn’t stop at very many booths along the way. The only thing lacking from this room was a good music selection from what I saw; only two booths were carrying it. If anything else existed and you wanted it, though, you could probably find it in here. My only purchase was a little figure though, I try not to spend too much at conventions. ^_^;

Then it was time for the Tokyo on a Budget panel. Sorry people, no recording was allowed. It ran very well and was fairly informative, and gave me a good idea of stuff to do should I ever make my way over there. The one that interested me most is that the Sony Building is free to the public. I’m a bit of a techno-geek. I’d also be interested in touring Fuji Television. There was also information on eating cheap and the nightlife in Tokyo.

After this was a bit of wandering while waiting for the Tales of… fan panel. This will eventually motivate me to write a rant on running a panel. It was an absolute train wreck; there was hardly a focus in sight. There’s nothing especially wrong with running a Q&A style panel, but you still have to maintain control of your audience and keep up some level of professionalism. If this panel gets revived next year, hopefully there will be a more suitable host.

From here, I ran over to the JAM Project concert. This right here pretty well justified my $200 price tag for going. The band was so happy to be performing for their first time in the US at Otakon. They had lots of energy and really got the crowd involved in the performance. The sound during the GaoGaiGar opening theme was absolutely deafening. Hopefully I’ll be able to see another performance some time.

Then I just spent the rest of the night hanging out. I found Rachel and the rest of the Cleveland crowd and we chilled on the second floor, overhanging the lobby. I only actually knew two of them before the convention, but they were a really fun group to hang with. Eventually the convention center closed down and I went back to the hotel for some sleep before Saturday.

Saturday I made it over to Artist’s Alley, which, like everything else, was impressive. There was a nice variety of artist and artwork, and all of it was fairly high quality. I actually would have bought more here, but unfortunately, I had no way to transport anything larger than a bookmark back home safely. So I just grabbed a few little things and looked around quite a bit.

I managed to walk right in on the Brawl photoshoot, which managed to keep me occupied for an hour. People just kept showing up so we kept rolling along. Someone brought a smashball that Marth eventually popped. A Game and Watch cosplayer even brought a trophy stand for single character poses. We also had amazing DDD and Fox cosplayers show up.

In the afternoon there was the Rakugo Performance by Kaishi Katsura. And my costs for the convention were justified again. I enjoy observational comedy, and it was out in force here. My only complaint is that, because of the room, a lot of people missed out on it. Maybe next year there’ll be a bigger room and another performer. Why another performer? Because Kaishi said he was banning himself from the states after his tour ends in New York. XD

After a bit more milling about, it was time for the Masquerade, which will likely provoke another rant from me. I found a lot of the skits to be lackluster, but the good skits were absolutely fantastic. The one that stood out most to me was a Link playing a Zelda medley on the flute, which the audience responded with a standing ovation, the only one of the night. Some other good premises were two Hare Hare Yukais, the first one was a parody of the Evolution of Dance, while the second one had a serial killer slowly assassinating all the characters. There was also Video Game Purgatory performed by Stripper Vash and Voltz. Best of show was an Eternal Sonada skit performed by a group from Ohio (yeah!). From here there was some more hanging out with the Clevelanders, then bed again.

Sunday went pretty uneventfully like most other conventions. I made another trip to look around the Dealer’s Room and Artist’s Alley. My final task of the weekend was the Amateur Voice Acting panel. This panel also went very well; the panelists were skilled and knowledgeable and also gave the audience an opportunity to participate in a few readings. Probably the best volunteer was a guy who played a mad scientist; he had that voice nailed to the wall. Unfortunately, we had to head out for the 11 hour drive back home.

One other thing I have to point out. The staff work throughout the weekend was excellent; the only convention I think that exceeds it is Anime Punch. All the members were very helpful in answering questions, and they allowed things to happen as long as it wasn’t horribly disruptive (I’m looking at you again Acen). They also weren’t super visible while wandering the halls, so you didn’t really feel like you were being watched. The staff kept everything running smoothly and safely, and they deserve a round of applause for all their hard work.

Final verdict: Otakon is an amazing convention that was well worth the drive and money. I’d really like to go again next year, hopefully with Faye, Ryzen, and the rest of my friends from Chicago.

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