Otakon 2016
I hadn't mentioned it previously, but, yes, I attended Otakon 2016! It was the final year in Baltimore, and I was sad that I didn't get a last visit down to the Inner Harbor proper. But, with temperatures in the mid to upper 90's and a heat index over 100, it was simply too hot to spend more than the minimum amount of time outside. Still, it was a good year. I got to visit my favorite sandwich place, Macado's twice on the drive to and from Baltimore (and try their giant cinnamon bun... mmm...) and, while we were in Baltimore, we hit Pappa's Restaurant one last time for the fantastic crabcakes.
As has become the norm, we kicked off Thursday with a movie. This year, it was Star Trek Beyond, which I much enjoyed. The plot was straightforward but fun, the character interactions great, and the whole movie a fun ride I suspect I'll enjoy watching again and again once it's out on DVD. And, as a bonus, Mom, the biggest Star Trek fan in our group, finally got to see one of the new movies in the theater.
Then, of course, it was Otakon time on Friday.
The Con: There weren't any big premieres or once-in-a-lifetime guests this year. Instead, this was the craftsman and mecha year. We started off with Man at Arms: Reforged and ended on Takaotacraft. In-between, we attended several fan panels, mostly mecha-centric, and watched anime, also mecha-centric. From which we learned: 1) Mecha-jacking is a time-honored, ancient tradition. 2) You should never give Char Aznable a giant rock.
The Guests: Voice actor-wise, we caught Michael Sinterniklass and Sonny Strait, English voice of Maes Hughes from FMA and, more recently, Koro-sensei in "Assassination Classroom". Sadly, we missed Aaron Dismuke, the first English voice of Al in FMA, as his solo panel was scheduled on Sunday well after we had to leave to head home.
The Panels: This year's standout panel was a toss-up between Man at Arms and the hilarious "When Gundam Goes Bad" panel. With a runner-up in Mike Toole's "Worst Anime of All Time". The Man at Arms crew was really interesting. Obviously, the various anime and videogame-based weapons they've made were the main topics, and they went into some detail as to how many of them were difficult to realize in the real world. Besides having to employ weight-lifters to wield even scaled down versions, they noted that some fictional swords would literally break under their own weight if recreated exactly as depicted. And, other, more reasonable, swords were actually trickier than they appeared due to various design and structural issues. Fascinating stuff. They had an additional panel on historical weapons I wanted to attend, but, it was, like Aaron Dismuke, sadly scheduled on Sunday. *sigh*
Then, by chance, we happened to wander into the Pony Canyon panel and their showing of the first two episodes of the mecha anime Kuromukuro. After the showing, we were surprised to see both Takaotacraft and Man at Arms brought in to the panel. Takaotacraft had been commissioned to make an amazing bronze bust of the title mecha, and Man at Arms had actually been supplied with real Japanese steel to create a replica of the hero's katana. Very, very cool.
The Anime: As mentioned above, Seek and I got to see the first two episodes of "Kuromukuro" at the convention, and I definitely mean to seek out the rest on Netflix. Back at the hotel, we watched through about half of Ushio & Tora, a series I'd been meaning to get back to. It's well worth the watch being the sort of action-packed, supernatural shounen goodness that I love.
The Random Quotes:
"It's like a rite of passage in the Federation, right? 'Son, you're thirteen. Time to steal your first Gundam'." -- From the "When Gundam Goes Bad" panel
"Yes. I was a Pokemon. *beat* If you throw balls at me, I'm out of here." -- Michael Sinterniklass
"Well, I was in Houston, and they were in Atlantis. Atlanta. Yes, they were in a mythical city at the bottom of the ocean. Can you imagine how hard it was to get a signal?!" -- Sonny Strait
The Stuff: I didn't get anything particularly exciting this year. I'd been meaning to get more of the Kekkaishi manga for a while, so I got a few volumes of that and bought the official Otakon T-shirt for the first time since this was a memorable year. I also got a really nice clear file image as a freebie at the "Kuromukuro" premiere. In the end, this was my haul for the year. (I used both mine and Seek's "Kuromukuro" clear files so you can see both sides.)
As has become the norm, we kicked off Thursday with a movie. This year, it was Star Trek Beyond, which I much enjoyed. The plot was straightforward but fun, the character interactions great, and the whole movie a fun ride I suspect I'll enjoy watching again and again once it's out on DVD. And, as a bonus, Mom, the biggest Star Trek fan in our group, finally got to see one of the new movies in the theater.
Then, of course, it was Otakon time on Friday.
The Con: There weren't any big premieres or once-in-a-lifetime guests this year. Instead, this was the craftsman and mecha year. We started off with Man at Arms: Reforged and ended on Takaotacraft. In-between, we attended several fan panels, mostly mecha-centric, and watched anime, also mecha-centric. From which we learned: 1) Mecha-jacking is a time-honored, ancient tradition. 2) You should never give Char Aznable a giant rock.
The Guests: Voice actor-wise, we caught Michael Sinterniklass and Sonny Strait, English voice of Maes Hughes from FMA and, more recently, Koro-sensei in "Assassination Classroom". Sadly, we missed Aaron Dismuke, the first English voice of Al in FMA, as his solo panel was scheduled on Sunday well after we had to leave to head home.
The Panels: This year's standout panel was a toss-up between Man at Arms and the hilarious "When Gundam Goes Bad" panel. With a runner-up in Mike Toole's "Worst Anime of All Time". The Man at Arms crew was really interesting. Obviously, the various anime and videogame-based weapons they've made were the main topics, and they went into some detail as to how many of them were difficult to realize in the real world. Besides having to employ weight-lifters to wield even scaled down versions, they noted that some fictional swords would literally break under their own weight if recreated exactly as depicted. And, other, more reasonable, swords were actually trickier than they appeared due to various design and structural issues. Fascinating stuff. They had an additional panel on historical weapons I wanted to attend, but, it was, like Aaron Dismuke, sadly scheduled on Sunday. *sigh*
Then, by chance, we happened to wander into the Pony Canyon panel and their showing of the first two episodes of the mecha anime Kuromukuro. After the showing, we were surprised to see both Takaotacraft and Man at Arms brought in to the panel. Takaotacraft had been commissioned to make an amazing bronze bust of the title mecha, and Man at Arms had actually been supplied with real Japanese steel to create a replica of the hero's katana. Very, very cool.
The Anime: As mentioned above, Seek and I got to see the first two episodes of "Kuromukuro" at the convention, and I definitely mean to seek out the rest on Netflix. Back at the hotel, we watched through about half of Ushio & Tora, a series I'd been meaning to get back to. It's well worth the watch being the sort of action-packed, supernatural shounen goodness that I love.
The Random Quotes:
"It's like a rite of passage in the Federation, right? 'Son, you're thirteen. Time to steal your first Gundam'." -- From the "When Gundam Goes Bad" panel
"Yes. I was a Pokemon. *beat* If you throw balls at me, I'm out of here." -- Michael Sinterniklass
"Well, I was in Houston, and they were in Atlantis. Atlanta. Yes, they were in a mythical city at the bottom of the ocean. Can you imagine how hard it was to get a signal?!" -- Sonny Strait
The Stuff: I didn't get anything particularly exciting this year. I'd been meaning to get more of the Kekkaishi manga for a while, so I got a few volumes of that and bought the official Otakon T-shirt for the first time since this was a memorable year. I also got a really nice clear file image as a freebie at the "Kuromukuro" premiere. In the end, this was my haul for the year. (I used both mine and Seek's "Kuromukuro" clear files so you can see both sides.)
