Otakon 2007 report!
Well, another Otakon come and gone :o Despite crowds in various places, at times it seemed rather quiet this year... I wonder how many attended, compared to last year. (It would be ironic if there were less people, given that the attendance cap was removed...) I think I took a record low of like, 10 pictures, haha. T_T (I found a Rose from Legend of Dragoon for treyvadi, though! XD)
Lessee... got there on Friday around noon, and waited for a half hour or so for vvalentine and gaoyellow to arrive from the airport... we had our traditional lunch in the cafeteria, which this year "welcomed" Otakon with balloons on their door and everything, haha. Wandered through the dealers' room a bit, checked into the hotel, went to Artists' Alley a little, then went to see the AMV contest. I felt like there weren't too many "OMG WOW!!!" videos this year, and some things seemed miscategorized. Seeing Loveless and Gankutsuou vids makes me want to see them all the more, though. (I do read Loveless, and the anime seems to have the same sort of atmosphere, while Gankutsuou looks fascinatingly weird.)
Saturday we ended up going to the dealers' room again, and then a doll meetup. It was insanely large... I think there must have been at least 30 people there, maybe more :o I didn't really know anyone there, though ^^; The one doll I recognized for sure was lindsayscorner's Tan Shall, Yoruichi (who was wearing an awesome Yoruichi costume, natch). There were probly a few others there whose owners' names I'd at least recognize, but yeah ^^; (zomg I'm so out of touch XO) Daniel got several compliments, which was nice ^^; I'll post some meet pics soon on jenovan =o
Hmm, after that we popped back to the hotel room then went to Artists' Alley again. (ooh, now that I think about it.. I think it was Friday, we were talking to an artist who had sculpted a Zasalamel [Soul Calibur 3] action figure :o He was originally a Spider-man, but she had totally re-sculpted his body and made him a new head. TOTALLY BADASS and I kinda wish I had taken pics now. He was like 18" tall! o_o) After that, we sorta debated trying to see the masquerade, cos the line was stupid-long, but we popped into the game room a bit, but didn't play anything (hmm, *was* that before or after the masqerade...), just kinda looked around, then came back after the masquerade line was gone and got in anyway XD It was moderately entertaining, probably moreso than the AMVs this year. Speaking of which, I still don't know who won things, maybe I should go check that, haha.
Sunday was the usual pack-it-up, move-it-out day. We went out to breakfast then hustled back to get wedged into the line for the Eminence concert. The concert's guest MC was Piano Squall! =o Apparently he knows the Eminence folks from way back or something, pretty cool XD The concert was nice, even though I probably only knew like 20% of the songs they played ^^; But a string quartet + piano is always nice, and some of the anecdotes were fun to listen to XD Tony had to leave to catch his flight before the end tho, which kinda sucked since a) we couldn't really give him a proper goodbye, and b) he missed the encore, a Super Mario Brothers medley =o Having the concert on Sunday sucks, when a lot of people are leaving and all, but I guess it could be worse, they could have it during the day on Friday ¬_¬ Oy.
Good stuff, good stuff. Like I mentioned to someone, I feel like nothing extraordinary happened, but just hanging about the con with friends was fun X3
HAY LIZ ;D Your pic in your Saber costume is in the Otakon guidebook ;D I've got an extra one to send you if you like :o
OH YEAH, the dates for next year's otakon are August 8-10. No hotel info up yet, tho, and the hotel websites won't let you book that far ahead (more than 1 year, or in Holiday Inn's case, 50 weeks). Hmm. Do we want the Marriott again for sure? Or does something cheaper, if possible, appeal more?
Lessee... got there on Friday around noon, and waited for a half hour or so for vvalentine and gaoyellow to arrive from the airport... we had our traditional lunch in the cafeteria, which this year "welcomed" Otakon with balloons on their door and everything, haha. Wandered through the dealers' room a bit, checked into the hotel, went to Artists' Alley a little, then went to see the AMV contest. I felt like there weren't too many "OMG WOW!!!" videos this year, and some things seemed miscategorized. Seeing Loveless and Gankutsuou vids makes me want to see them all the more, though. (I do read Loveless, and the anime seems to have the same sort of atmosphere, while Gankutsuou looks fascinatingly weird.)
Saturday we ended up going to the dealers' room again, and then a doll meetup. It was insanely large... I think there must have been at least 30 people there, maybe more :o I didn't really know anyone there, though ^^; The one doll I recognized for sure was lindsayscorner's Tan Shall, Yoruichi (who was wearing an awesome Yoruichi costume, natch). There were probly a few others there whose owners' names I'd at least recognize, but yeah ^^; (zomg I'm so out of touch XO) Daniel got several compliments, which was nice ^^; I'll post some meet pics soon on jenovan =o
Hmm, after that we popped back to the hotel room then went to Artists' Alley again. (ooh, now that I think about it.. I think it was Friday, we were talking to an artist who had sculpted a Zasalamel [Soul Calibur 3] action figure :o He was originally a Spider-man, but she had totally re-sculpted his body and made him a new head. TOTALLY BADASS and I kinda wish I had taken pics now. He was like 18" tall! o_o) After that, we sorta debated trying to see the masquerade, cos the line was stupid-long, but we popped into the game room a bit, but didn't play anything (hmm, *was* that before or after the masqerade...), just kinda looked around, then came back after the masquerade line was gone and got in anyway XD It was moderately entertaining, probably moreso than the AMVs this year. Speaking of which, I still don't know who won things, maybe I should go check that, haha.
Sunday was the usual pack-it-up, move-it-out day. We went out to breakfast then hustled back to get wedged into the line for the Eminence concert. The concert's guest MC was Piano Squall! =o Apparently he knows the Eminence folks from way back or something, pretty cool XD The concert was nice, even though I probably only knew like 20% of the songs they played ^^; But a string quartet + piano is always nice, and some of the anecdotes were fun to listen to XD Tony had to leave to catch his flight before the end tho, which kinda sucked since a) we couldn't really give him a proper goodbye, and b) he missed the encore, a Super Mario Brothers medley =o Having the concert on Sunday sucks, when a lot of people are leaving and all, but I guess it could be worse, they could have it during the day on Friday ¬_¬ Oy.
Good stuff, good stuff. Like I mentioned to someone, I feel like nothing extraordinary happened, but just hanging about the con with friends was fun X3
HAY LIZ ;D Your pic in your Saber costume is in the Otakon guidebook ;D I've got an extra one to send you if you like :o
OH YEAH, the dates for next year's otakon are August 8-10. No hotel info up yet, tho, and the hotel websites won't let you book that far ahead (more than 1 year, or in Holiday Inn's case, 50 weeks). Hmm. Do we want the Marriott again for sure? Or does something cheaper, if possible, appeal more?