August 7, 2006
Post-Otakon 2006… OR “Convention’s closed due to AIDS”
Good news, everyone! I finally got my hands on a new, more compact camera. Now, if I can only figure out how it works… Oh, there we go. While I upload the pictures, let’s talk about the convention itself.
Looking back on Otakon 2006 this year, the entire convention was pretty meh compared to previous years. Hey, I guess I can’t always win. I really didn’t care much for the removal of the early-bird policy since a discounted membership counts a lot for poor otaku…
… especially considering the gigantic increase in crowds this year. It just seems that there were so many fracking people around this time. I think they upped the attendance cap at least by 7,000 people since the first time I went to Otakon. The pre-registration lines were pretty efficient, thankfully, but it just seemed that all the lines inside the convention were poorly-planned, but perhaps that can just be chalked up to the entire place being packed.
The programming wasn’t nearly as great either. I found most of the panels to be really boring, especially the travesty of the Metal Gear panel. I missed out on the 4chan panel, making me very sad. The AMVs were good, as usual. Too bad I don’t have any place to download them. Fan parodies went a step down too. “Cornell DDR Club” is a classic but the adventures of Master Tek, the Crime Doctor, and that friggin’ annoying Asian guy drove me up the wall. I don’t think I’ve seen a fan parody getting booed by the audience like that before.
I also cry at the lack of Belldandy cosplayers this year. I found two. One was probably a mom as Bell with her daughter tagging along as Skuld. The other cosplayer gal had a great outfit though she really didn’t carry herself like Bell at all.
Hand stamps for 18+ “adult” events also seemed unnecessary and a bit… um, shameful. I mean, who the heck wants to wear around a big hand stamp that basically yells “I WENT TO A YAOI/HENTAI PANEL…” Next time, why not just mark badges somehow? A gigantic mark of shame on your hand is going overboard.
Every vending machine in the Inner Harbor also seemed to have it out for us. Seriously, two soda machines in a row malfunctioning in some way? This elicited a certain female in our group to engage in armed combat with the Pepsi machine.
In a bit of non-anime nerdiness, I also managed to get my copy of Ace Combat Zero autographed by Yuri Lowenthal. Too bad I had to wait in line with Naruto idiots to get to him. It’s not every day that you get to meet the voice actor of a video game. Unfortunately, they decided to cut the line at a certain point so that he could run a panel, forcing me to wait in a non-moving line for an hour. “Hey buddy, you still alive?” Yeah, well, I’m an ace, so I can handle waiting in queue.
Honestly, just hanging out in Baltimore with friends beat out most of the events at the convention. Either I went to all the wrong events or I’m just out of touch with mainstream anime convention culture somehow. In any case, there’s one part of an anime convention where the anime blogger reigns supreme… SHOPPING.
Actually, the selection of uncommon and rare items in the dealer’s room had been rather lacking. Still, it doesn’t stop me from making a lot of purchases. I just feel sad afterwards. Kind of like being mugged but you’re a masochist.
Ranting aside, on to the booty!
Ah, my bedspread covered with the goods of many hours searching through the dealer’s room. It is a pretty sight. Too bad I didn’t get many figurines. On the other hand, my wallet is fairly intact.
Let’s see… here’s some standard Viz manga and an autographed Chugworth book. There’s my assembly of Red vs. Blue DVDs and some random Mini-Goddess stuff. Oh, here’s my Ace Combat Zero case, all nice and autographed now.
Oh boy, here’s that awesome Tachikoma plushie I got. How many mecha can you make into a cute plush without super-deforming it? Well, not that many, I suspect. Above the Zeta Gundam box set are some more Macross pencil sharpeners. And a Ghost in the Shell t-shirt rounds out this batch.
Why the heck did I buy a Final Fantasy potion? That was ridiculously expensive. At least I balanced it out with some cheap, pre-owned AMG figurines. Too bad the one Belldandy had the stand portion broken off and essentially requiring some sort of crazy superglue. Some random Kenshin t-shirt in the mix too…
On the AMG side of things, I finally got a full set of those rare cell phone straps. The funny thing is that while I was shopping around, I felt this strange draw to this table full of odd anime trinkets. It was as if some sort of supernatural force was drawing me towards the cell phone straps. I looked down as I stepped up to the table and I immediately saw Belldandy looking up at me. Isn’t that creepy?
I’m proud of haggling this Gunslinger Girl wallscroll down to only $10. As if there’s some anime shopping karma, I promptly bought a Totoro mechanical pencil for $6. Life as an otaku is like that, I suppose.
Fanart was a big thing with our group this year. Everyone seemed to be picking up prints for framing. Apparently fanart is cheaper than going to the mall and buying a picture of some grapes in a bowl. I didn’t find any really great goddess artwork but I found a great Lunar: SSSC piece and some FFX Yuna goodness.
Yikes, my Gundam SEED Destiny heroines trading figure set came in this week from HLJ. Looks like I get to assemble them along with the School Rumble set I purchased on a whim. Wow, this is a big box. Sweet, time to open up these babies…
Looks like I finally have a full set of these lovely ladies! Too bad I have four extra ones (two unopened) that I’ll probably have to give away or something. Hey, it’s not like having an extra Cagalli around hurts, right? I should have gotten more of the School Rumble gals too… just to say I did, I guess.
Man, I’m bushed. Looks like Otakon took a lot out of me for some reason. Totoro and Tachikoma say “Start planning for Otakon 2007, you idiot!” I really should book hotels as soon as the hotels set up their calendars for July 2007.
Before I forget, there had better be more bloggers going next year. We need our own panel! And they kept taking down my notes on the bulletin board! Meanies! Scott, Ten, Moy, Vinn… everyone had better go next year!
We’ll also have our own religious services… to the religion of moyism. You know, like the way Haruhism is a religion. The only requirement is to buy lots plastic anime stuff every month and weep as you receive your credit card statement each month.
I think a Token Asianism religion would be something like… dunno, Iron Chef, but with Belldandy?
And yes, the title of this post is a reference to the stupid 4chan meme.