OTAKON 2018
A post about Otakon 2018! Instagram was being a huge pain and the posts wouldn't come through, so the pictures are at the bottom Be warned: there are a bunch. I tossed in a few links, too, for anyone who might want to look into things mentioned. This is pretty much a rundown of what we did. I may post more at a later point. Too exhausted and hurting to go into too much right now, but I wanted to get this much out now so I didn't forget anything!
My friend spent the night Thursday, and we arrived for the con at noon on Friday. We spent a good chunk of the weekend meeting up with my D&D guys that were there, and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. They were welcoming to my friend, too, and she seemed to get along with them well, even Jerboa. He can be a lot when you first met him, and the energy of the con only made him more so, but she didn't seem to mind too much.
The first thing we went to was the annual AMV Contest. It was two hours of fan-made music videos, and a surprising amount of them were actuallly really well done! I have a few songs to look up and animes to check out after that. We then headed to the Dealer Room, where I picked up a few small things, including a gorgeous Japanese wall scroll of a landscape, and a graphic novel prequel of the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz. Odd is one of my favorite literary characters, and I was super excited to stumble across the graphic novel! While we were there, my friend got to meet her favorite pro cosplayer Phil Mizuno and got a picture with him. We then waited in line for two and a half hours for Max Mittleman's autograph, but unfortunately did not get it. After that, we swung by the hotel so my friend could changeout of her cosplay and then we went back to peruse the Dealer Room some more. I picked up an adorable dragon pet that I still need to come up with a name for. He looks similar to Toothless, which was why I picked him instead of the other colors. After that, our whole group went out to dinner. My friend went back to the hotel afterward, since it was around 10:30pm, but the rest of us went back to the con. I sat in on a panel about Asian extreme heavy metal, hosted by The Lost Gamers and now I have a giant list of new bands to look up. I killed some time afteward by wandering the Video Game hall and was fascinated by this game called Joust. 5 people holding PlayStation Motion Controllers basically have to hit the other people's controllers. If yours turns red you are out. You can only move as fast as the muisic, too, and if you go too fast you will be out. Bumping your own controller can also get you out, so it is a lot of carefully trying to gracefully smack other people's controllers while protecting your own. I got a few videos and people were really amusing! It was a lot of fun to watch. After that, the guys walked me back to the hotel (it was 1:30am) and I crashed for the night.
On Saturday, we got there at 10am. My friend and I stopped into a Pepakura (Papercraft) workshop and I picked up patterns for three cute pokemon to make. I used to make papercrafts all the time, but with life and all that I haven't made any in a long while. Plus, it was a lot of paper. So I am excited to put these three together! We then waited a few hours for Todd Haberkorn's autograph, but didn't make the cutoff. I did get a picture of his back, though! haha. He came over and did an instagram live video with us standing there, and we were right in the front. I absolutely adore Todd Haberkorn. His voice is so unique and fits his characters perfectly. My two favorite characters of his are Natsu (Fairy Tail) and Italy (Hetalia). Natsu never fails to inspire me and make me smile, and Italy is always my go-to when things get rough and I just want to smile and laugh for a bit. It was really cool even just to see him up close and have him interact with the little group of us waiting. I tweeted the picture of his back and said "Spotted a wild @ToddHaberkorn!" and he liked my tweet~ My friend then waited in line for Max Mittleman again, while I went to the Artist Alley with Draco and Flash. I bought two posters, a necklace with the tattoo from Dishonored, and a Firefly "Keep Flying" necklace for my roommate. We also walked through the art show, which was up for silent auction. Most of them were fairly average, but there were really awesome piece! We weren't able to get pictures, unfortunately, though. Afterward, my friend met back up with us. She said that she had been able to get Robbie Daymond's autograph for me on a poster of Prompto from FFXV. I am so excited, and I need to get it framed! Then, my friend and I saw LAVA's Super Happy Funtime, a panel with Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, and Max Mittleman. It was basically a hilarious improv show. Those three are wonderfully amusing human beings. I managed to get videos of just about the whole thing! From there, we met up with the guys and went to You're Wrong And You Should Feel Bad, hosted by The Manly Battleships, a panel that looks at a popular anime and a popular movie and explains why they are terrible. This time they did Attack On Titan and Star Wars 4-8 and Rogue One. We wanted to end the night with a panel on Metal Gear to Death Stranding: Hideo Kojima's transition, and it turned out to be the worst panel I have ever been to. The guy just fanboyed and did a recap of all of his favorite Metal Gear games, and he couldn't even remember half of the boss's names! It was definitely not worth the hour.
Sunday, we checked out of the hotel and had them hold out bags while we were at the con. My friend wanted to try one more time for Todd Haberkorn's autograph, but I had a few things that I wanted to see Plus, waiting in line the day before had been super disheartening and I felt like I was missing the whole con. My friend, though, is awesome. She managed to get my plushie of Natsu signed for me! I was so excited!!! I have him hanging from a thumbtack next to my door and white board, so I can start each day with inspiration and a smile~ While she was there, I picked up a couple last things from the Dealer Room (2 Fairy Tail movies, 2 Mr. CreepyPasta books, Myst III for PS2, and Taeyang's third album), then went to the East Coast Kpop Outlet Dance Competition. The competition made me feel old, to be honest (about ten years ago, my two best friends and I used to do that kind of stuff, and now fans these days consider the groups we danced to "old" T.T), but it was still fun to watch. The dancers were all pretty talented, a few especially so, and it was high energy and fun. Then I sat in on the end of a panel by Josh Grelle about voice acting and directing in anime. The last panel was one by MrCreepyPasta on writing horror. I really enjoyed that one and it was interesting to hear about writing from someone who didn't necessarily ever intend to become a legitimate writer and kind of accidentally fell into internet fame for his stories.
Below the cut are some pictures from the weekend!
It says:
"To Victoria, Ever at your side. Robbie Daymond -Prompto-"
Pardon me while I hug my copy of FFXV and go tear up in the corner <3
My signed Natsu! He says "Keep the fire alive!"
Other merch I picked up
Cool things to see
My friend's cosplays. Friday - Chat Noir (Miraculous Ladybug) posing wih Phil Mizuno. Saturday - Lady Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler). Sunday - Shego (Kim Possible)
Other cosplays
Hope you all had a nice weekend!
My friend spent the night Thursday, and we arrived for the con at noon on Friday. We spent a good chunk of the weekend meeting up with my D&D guys that were there, and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. They were welcoming to my friend, too, and she seemed to get along with them well, even Jerboa. He can be a lot when you first met him, and the energy of the con only made him more so, but she didn't seem to mind too much.
The first thing we went to was the annual AMV Contest. It was two hours of fan-made music videos, and a surprising amount of them were actuallly really well done! I have a few songs to look up and animes to check out after that. We then headed to the Dealer Room, where I picked up a few small things, including a gorgeous Japanese wall scroll of a landscape, and a graphic novel prequel of the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz. Odd is one of my favorite literary characters, and I was super excited to stumble across the graphic novel! While we were there, my friend got to meet her favorite pro cosplayer Phil Mizuno and got a picture with him. We then waited in line for two and a half hours for Max Mittleman's autograph, but unfortunately did not get it. After that, we swung by the hotel so my friend could changeout of her cosplay and then we went back to peruse the Dealer Room some more. I picked up an adorable dragon pet that I still need to come up with a name for. He looks similar to Toothless, which was why I picked him instead of the other colors. After that, our whole group went out to dinner. My friend went back to the hotel afterward, since it was around 10:30pm, but the rest of us went back to the con. I sat in on a panel about Asian extreme heavy metal, hosted by The Lost Gamers and now I have a giant list of new bands to look up. I killed some time afteward by wandering the Video Game hall and was fascinated by this game called Joust. 5 people holding PlayStation Motion Controllers basically have to hit the other people's controllers. If yours turns red you are out. You can only move as fast as the muisic, too, and if you go too fast you will be out. Bumping your own controller can also get you out, so it is a lot of carefully trying to gracefully smack other people's controllers while protecting your own. I got a few videos and people were really amusing! It was a lot of fun to watch. After that, the guys walked me back to the hotel (it was 1:30am) and I crashed for the night.
On Saturday, we got there at 10am. My friend and I stopped into a Pepakura (Papercraft) workshop and I picked up patterns for three cute pokemon to make. I used to make papercrafts all the time, but with life and all that I haven't made any in a long while. Plus, it was a lot of paper. So I am excited to put these three together! We then waited a few hours for Todd Haberkorn's autograph, but didn't make the cutoff. I did get a picture of his back, though! haha. He came over and did an instagram live video with us standing there, and we were right in the front. I absolutely adore Todd Haberkorn. His voice is so unique and fits his characters perfectly. My two favorite characters of his are Natsu (Fairy Tail) and Italy (Hetalia). Natsu never fails to inspire me and make me smile, and Italy is always my go-to when things get rough and I just want to smile and laugh for a bit. It was really cool even just to see him up close and have him interact with the little group of us waiting. I tweeted the picture of his back and said "Spotted a wild @ToddHaberkorn!" and he liked my tweet~ My friend then waited in line for Max Mittleman again, while I went to the Artist Alley with Draco and Flash. I bought two posters, a necklace with the tattoo from Dishonored, and a Firefly "Keep Flying" necklace for my roommate. We also walked through the art show, which was up for silent auction. Most of them were fairly average, but there were really awesome piece! We weren't able to get pictures, unfortunately, though. Afterward, my friend met back up with us. She said that she had been able to get Robbie Daymond's autograph for me on a poster of Prompto from FFXV. I am so excited, and I need to get it framed! Then, my friend and I saw LAVA's Super Happy Funtime, a panel with Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, and Max Mittleman. It was basically a hilarious improv show. Those three are wonderfully amusing human beings. I managed to get videos of just about the whole thing! From there, we met up with the guys and went to You're Wrong And You Should Feel Bad, hosted by The Manly Battleships, a panel that looks at a popular anime and a popular movie and explains why they are terrible. This time they did Attack On Titan and Star Wars 4-8 and Rogue One. We wanted to end the night with a panel on Metal Gear to Death Stranding: Hideo Kojima's transition, and it turned out to be the worst panel I have ever been to. The guy just fanboyed and did a recap of all of his favorite Metal Gear games, and he couldn't even remember half of the boss's names! It was definitely not worth the hour.
Sunday, we checked out of the hotel and had them hold out bags while we were at the con. My friend wanted to try one more time for Todd Haberkorn's autograph, but I had a few things that I wanted to see Plus, waiting in line the day before had been super disheartening and I felt like I was missing the whole con. My friend, though, is awesome. She managed to get my plushie of Natsu signed for me! I was so excited!!! I have him hanging from a thumbtack next to my door and white board, so I can start each day with inspiration and a smile~ While she was there, I picked up a couple last things from the Dealer Room (2 Fairy Tail movies, 2 Mr. CreepyPasta books, Myst III for PS2, and Taeyang's third album), then went to the East Coast Kpop Outlet Dance Competition. The competition made me feel old, to be honest (about ten years ago, my two best friends and I used to do that kind of stuff, and now fans these days consider the groups we danced to "old" T.T), but it was still fun to watch. The dancers were all pretty talented, a few especially so, and it was high energy and fun. Then I sat in on the end of a panel by Josh Grelle about voice acting and directing in anime. The last panel was one by MrCreepyPasta on writing horror. I really enjoyed that one and it was interesting to hear about writing from someone who didn't necessarily ever intend to become a legitimate writer and kind of accidentally fell into internet fame for his stories.
Below the cut are some pictures from the weekend!
It says:
"To Victoria, Ever at your side. Robbie Daymond -Prompto-"
Pardon me while I hug my copy of FFXV and go tear up in the corner <3
My signed Natsu! He says "Keep the fire alive!"
Other merch I picked up
Cool things to see
My friend's cosplays. Friday - Chat Noir (Miraculous Ladybug) posing wih Phil Mizuno. Saturday - Lady Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler). Sunday - Shego (Kim Possible)
Other cosplays
Hope you all had a nice weekend!