Otakon Day 2 of 4 Part 1 of 2
I got up early on Friday. Normally this would be for the sake of getting through prereg, but that was already taken care of...I really just wanted to get to the convention early to get the lay of the land. If they were drawing straws on what happened when, I had a dread feeling that they shuffled rooms around as well. We get there and there is almost nothing running save for the first of six, count em, six AMV overflow tapes, and karaoke was in full swing as well. It was sort of fun just walking around the convention center for a little bit with nothing to do. The dealer room line formed almost immediately at the convention's opening. By 10 it was already to where we got in line 25 minutes before it opened last year...noon opening, folks.
As it turned out, unless there were a couple of cosmetic name changes for rooms, everything was where it was last year. They didn't press the issue of having the whole convention center this year, so I could only assume that they didn't get it all. Now, I was starting to get worried somewhere in there...video games and the artist alley weren't opening until 3. More video rooms roared to life, the first panels began, and Otakon had trully begun. Ran into John, played some Four Swords, we beat Vaati(this was the second time for me), then Anne and I got in line for the dealer room, which at that point was out the door heading towards the Inner Harbor. Made some pretty cool single serving friends, found the only other people within 250 miles that liked Xenosaga and Xenogears as much as I do, got to talk about Azumanga Daiou with someone(which is fucking rare for me), and the line started to move.
The dealer room was laid out pretty much the same as it was last year. Anime Jungle(which was sorely missed by me and the R2 crowd) as well as a couple of the known bootleggers sat the con out this year. Cartoon Passion made their Otakon debut, winning the award for most inaccessible booth(most overpriced merchandise went to Pandora's Cube for the 76th year in a row). Bandai resurrected their booth from two years ago and gets my Best Company Booth award. Between screening their new shows on several gorgeous flatpanel monitors, display cases full of their merchandise and limited edition goodies, 25 foot tall banners of their shows(with one of s-CRY-ed I would have bought if they were selling it), playable demos of their current and upcoming games(Lupin for the PS2 was a big hit), in booth karaoke of their shows' theme songs, a demo of their new collector game(Jagun Fighters), and to top it all off getting to play with their new toys as well as nice discounts on their DVDs, I couldn't help but love them. First runner up, hands down goes to FUNimation, which I believe was their first booth at Otakon, least since I've been going. A much tamer version of Bandai's booth, no games or karaoke, but they showed a lot of their stuff on a projection screen with a $2000 RGB projector...mostly Blue Gender. Props to them for free promo cards for the Yu Yu Hakusho CCG. ADV was giving away a car as part of their Anime Channel promotion, cramped as hell booth, partnered with Suncoast again, in other words, I hope you liked paying full list. Pioneer, two years conspicuous by their absense, had a similar booth to Bandai, only carpetted, no games, no karaoke, and everything was full list. Free promos out the wazoo though-free decks of cards, Haibane Renmei and Heat Guy J fans, Trigun volume 5 chromium inserts, Black Heaven cards, Lupin posters, and catalog DVDs. Media Blasters, once again with it's "fuck showmanship" approach, just sold their DVDs...Samurai Deeper Kyo box: $35. "Sold." First purchase of the day. They had a bunch of $5 DVDs of their obscure OVAs...wish I would have moved on them. Viz was almost entirely free stuff, mostly Shonen Jump totebags(which fucking rule). All of the other corporate booths were little more than normal dealers. The least AnimeNation could have done was sell more than Risky Safety.
There was a lot, I mean, A LOT of Chobits, Fruits Basket, and Angel Sanctuary merch. Pocky finally got sold officially, at all food kiosks and some dealer tables. Wizzywig pretty much went from toy dealer to fad plushie and Megatokyo dealer. Kinda sad...they did a lot of toy crack but I learned the hard way two years ago about what happens when you buy anything with bonus parts from them. Red Octane had a fairly useless booth save for their dance pads...their used games were nothing you couldn't get at Gamestop over in the Gallery for cheaper.
That's all for this update.
See you next time.
As it turned out, unless there were a couple of cosmetic name changes for rooms, everything was where it was last year. They didn't press the issue of having the whole convention center this year, so I could only assume that they didn't get it all. Now, I was starting to get worried somewhere in there...video games and the artist alley weren't opening until 3. More video rooms roared to life, the first panels began, and Otakon had trully begun. Ran into John, played some Four Swords, we beat Vaati(this was the second time for me), then Anne and I got in line for the dealer room, which at that point was out the door heading towards the Inner Harbor. Made some pretty cool single serving friends, found the only other people within 250 miles that liked Xenosaga and Xenogears as much as I do, got to talk about Azumanga Daiou with someone(which is fucking rare for me), and the line started to move.
The dealer room was laid out pretty much the same as it was last year. Anime Jungle(which was sorely missed by me and the R2 crowd) as well as a couple of the known bootleggers sat the con out this year. Cartoon Passion made their Otakon debut, winning the award for most inaccessible booth(most overpriced merchandise went to Pandora's Cube for the 76th year in a row). Bandai resurrected their booth from two years ago and gets my Best Company Booth award. Between screening their new shows on several gorgeous flatpanel monitors, display cases full of their merchandise and limited edition goodies, 25 foot tall banners of their shows(with one of s-CRY-ed I would have bought if they were selling it), playable demos of their current and upcoming games(Lupin for the PS2 was a big hit), in booth karaoke of their shows' theme songs, a demo of their new collector game(Jagun Fighters), and to top it all off getting to play with their new toys as well as nice discounts on their DVDs, I couldn't help but love them. First runner up, hands down goes to FUNimation, which I believe was their first booth at Otakon, least since I've been going. A much tamer version of Bandai's booth, no games or karaoke, but they showed a lot of their stuff on a projection screen with a $2000 RGB projector...mostly Blue Gender. Props to them for free promo cards for the Yu Yu Hakusho CCG. ADV was giving away a car as part of their Anime Channel promotion, cramped as hell booth, partnered with Suncoast again, in other words, I hope you liked paying full list. Pioneer, two years conspicuous by their absense, had a similar booth to Bandai, only carpetted, no games, no karaoke, and everything was full list. Free promos out the wazoo though-free decks of cards, Haibane Renmei and Heat Guy J fans, Trigun volume 5 chromium inserts, Black Heaven cards, Lupin posters, and catalog DVDs. Media Blasters, once again with it's "fuck showmanship" approach, just sold their DVDs...Samurai Deeper Kyo box: $35. "Sold." First purchase of the day. They had a bunch of $5 DVDs of their obscure OVAs...wish I would have moved on them. Viz was almost entirely free stuff, mostly Shonen Jump totebags(which fucking rule). All of the other corporate booths were little more than normal dealers. The least AnimeNation could have done was sell more than Risky Safety.
There was a lot, I mean, A LOT of Chobits, Fruits Basket, and Angel Sanctuary merch. Pocky finally got sold officially, at all food kiosks and some dealer tables. Wizzywig pretty much went from toy dealer to fad plushie and Megatokyo dealer. Kinda sad...they did a lot of toy crack but I learned the hard way two years ago about what happens when you buy anything with bonus parts from them. Red Octane had a fairly useless booth save for their dance pads...their used games were nothing you couldn't get at Gamestop over in the Gallery for cheaper.
That's all for this update.
See you next time.