My First Convention, or, alternatively, Banana (Part 1)
Well, that was fun! I kind of can't believe it's over already. Not that you know, another day of that and I wouldn't have been passing out all over the place. Lack of sleep is an interesting thing. Anyway, this is going to be a gigantic post of all of my Otakon hijinks and oddity. There will be a ridiculous amount of pictures. Consider yourself warned.
Friday
After a terrible night of trying to sleep on a not-bed (we deemed the mattresses to be stuffed with sand, I kid you not), I woke up at 5 in the morning thinking I was Korean and craving kimchee (er?). Then I realized that I was a [skinny] white girl and was just really hungry. This was how I came to wake up at 5AM on my own for the first time in my life.
We ended up getting lost on our drive into Baltimore, but we had picked up our badges on Thursday, so we were able to use the side entrance and skip the lines (that wrapped all around the building O_o).
My badge! (My name is written on the bottom, so that has been cut off :P) BTW, I hadn't gotten the pin at this point.
10:00AM: First order of business was All Your Toy Are Belong To Us (heh), in which we picked up a few tips about the Dealers Room and the proper care and upkeep of merchandise, etc etc.
11:00AM: The real fun was after that with Fans on Fans, which is run by a group self-dubbed the 'Bitter Cynics.' Basically, everybody in the audience was given the chance to gripe about the state of otaku-dom today. Much ranting and hilarity ensued.
12:00PM: The line on Friday for the Dealers Room was insane. It took up most the 2nd Floor. Fortunately, the wait was well worth it. No one is a true otaku until they see stalls selling anime merch as far as the eye can see (121 stalls in all). The feeling I got -- the overwhelmed, giddy, omgiamsobuyingEVERYTHING!!1! feeling -- was of someone who has just walked in on paradise and found it to their liking.
Of course, 5 stalls later and the thoughts turn to omgiamnowPOOR, yet on we continued. We managed to hit at least 60 of them before we to a break for lunch. Money. Byebye. *waves*
4:45PM: While we waited for PINE*AM to finish up their concert, we checked out the Manga Room. Not much of a selection, but it was right across from the concert stage and its thick doors took the edge off the questionable quality of the music we had to listen to.
5:15PM Now, here's an interesting thing. Before Otakon, Dae nor I had ever heard The Indigo. An hour-long concert and we were CONVERTED (capitals needed). We became The Indigo STALKERS. It was both pathetic and rather thrilling.
We were not supposed to have cameras, thus I rushed it and the pic is blurry. STALKERS.
6:45PM: We went in search of Diru cosplayers and instead we discovered Otacafe had karaoke. Within 10 minutes we were so absorbed by the people making utter fools of themselves and having the time of their lives doing it that we basically missed the cosplay. The bad singers! The not-so-bad singers! The all-around corny improvisational dancing! There was laughter. There was camaraderie. There was cat-calling and booty-shaking and lo, it was awesome.
Dude. Shuichi cosplayer singing. AWESOME-NESS.
8:00PM: We went to go see the Otaku Idol Contest, but we were early. We saw the end of the Otaku Idol Concert, which I, personally and regretfully, found extremely lame. We agreed that we could get the same thing with twice the entertainment value at Otacafe, so we went back to waste more time there.
TMR cosplayer singing. ALSO AWESOME-NESS.
10:00PM: Went to go watch the premiere showing of the Gravitation OAV. Let me say this: one has never truly seen Gravitation until one has seen it in a room full to bursting with fangirls. We clapped as each character came up in the opening animation. We laughed hysterically at even the smallest jokes. We 'aww'ed and offered sympathy at all of Shuichi's angst. We cat-called and whistled at all the appropriate moments. It was fun, albeit slightly hard to keep up with (trying to read subtitles at the bottom of the screen with heads sticking up all over the place isn't easy). In conclusion, Shining Collection has rocked before, rocked that time, and will rock again, forever and ever amen.
11:00PM: Stuck around to see the showing of Loveless. I've read some of the manga and now I am most intrigued. The plot is really interesting. The characters were extremely pretty. The shota creeps me the out, but provides fodder for some truly hilarious innuendo. I believe I shall download some episodes when I get home.
Friday's Cosplay
The pink hooker outfit (done amazingly well, I'm sorry if that cosplayer ever sees this post)! Me loves my Shu-chan. Gravitation's Shuichi and a random dude that Dae and I recognize, but can't name. Curses! Chrono Trigger's Chrono (looks great, but I can't fangirl as I've never seen the show).
Ye gads, that outfit is prettier IRL than in the manga or the anime. Woot! Tsubasa Chronicle's Sakura.
Fruits basket's Shigure, Tohru, and Kyo. Wheeeeeee. *fangirls*
Inuyasha's Sango done stunningly.
Gravitation's Shuichi in the banana-coat outfit. Seriously folks, I mean no offense to these cosplayers. All affectionate nicknames, I swear.
Angelic Layer's Hikaru and Wizard (perfect! great! whee!). Those two held that pose for at least a minute. They deserved applause.
We gots the Fullmetal folks: Ed, Mustang, Hawkeye, and Hughes. Just... Yay. Lots and lots of yay.
Juvenile Orion's Tonomori and Tsukasa. Lots of awesome-ness goin' on.
And here is Al to complete the cast of Fullmetal Alchemist. Hee.
Tsubasa Chronicle's Fye. I wanted to glomp her. Because I love Fye that much. *more fangirling*
Turnip-head aka Prince Justin of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle. He even hopped. And couldn't see. He was cool anyhow.
Bleach's Urahara and Chad. There were a great many shinigami outfits running around, but to save myself the agony of getting all their pictures, I grabbed the two who were immediately recognizable. And how! Great arm and Urahara looks perfect. Woot!
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne's Miyako (possibly Maron?) and Jeanne herself. I sat near them for the Indigo concert trying with all my might to remember where they came from. Took me about half the show. -___-;;
Chobit's Sumomo and Full Moon Wo Sagashite's Meroko. Before this pic, Sumomo had been doing her exercise routine. So cute~!
Well crap. We've been working on this for nearly three hours and we only got through Friday! It's late and we're sleep-deprived. I think I shall continue this tomorrow. Till then!
ETA: Part 2, Part 3
Friday
After a terrible night of trying to sleep on a not-bed (we deemed the mattresses to be stuffed with sand, I kid you not), I woke up at 5 in the morning thinking I was Korean and craving kimchee (er?). Then I realized that I was a [skinny] white girl and was just really hungry. This was how I came to wake up at 5AM on my own for the first time in my life.
We ended up getting lost on our drive into Baltimore, but we had picked up our badges on Thursday, so we were able to use the side entrance and skip the lines (that wrapped all around the building O_o).
My badge! (My name is written on the bottom, so that has been cut off :P) BTW, I hadn't gotten the pin at this point.
10:00AM: First order of business was All Your Toy Are Belong To Us (heh), in which we picked up a few tips about the Dealers Room and the proper care and upkeep of merchandise, etc etc.
11:00AM: The real fun was after that with Fans on Fans, which is run by a group self-dubbed the 'Bitter Cynics.' Basically, everybody in the audience was given the chance to gripe about the state of otaku-dom today. Much ranting and hilarity ensued.
12:00PM: The line on Friday for the Dealers Room was insane. It took up most the 2nd Floor. Fortunately, the wait was well worth it. No one is a true otaku until they see stalls selling anime merch as far as the eye can see (121 stalls in all). The feeling I got -- the overwhelmed, giddy, omgiamsobuyingEVERYTHING!!1! feeling -- was of someone who has just walked in on paradise and found it to their liking.
Of course, 5 stalls later and the thoughts turn to omgiamnowPOOR, yet on we continued. We managed to hit at least 60 of them before we to a break for lunch. Money. Byebye. *waves*
4:45PM: While we waited for PINE*AM to finish up their concert, we checked out the Manga Room. Not much of a selection, but it was right across from the concert stage and its thick doors took the edge off the questionable quality of the music we had to listen to.
5:15PM Now, here's an interesting thing. Before Otakon, Dae nor I had ever heard The Indigo. An hour-long concert and we were CONVERTED (capitals needed). We became The Indigo STALKERS. It was both pathetic and rather thrilling.
We were not supposed to have cameras, thus I rushed it and the pic is blurry. STALKERS.
6:45PM: We went in search of Diru cosplayers and instead we discovered Otacafe had karaoke. Within 10 minutes we were so absorbed by the people making utter fools of themselves and having the time of their lives doing it that we basically missed the cosplay. The bad singers! The not-so-bad singers! The all-around corny improvisational dancing! There was laughter. There was camaraderie. There was cat-calling and booty-shaking and lo, it was awesome.
Dude. Shuichi cosplayer singing. AWESOME-NESS.
8:00PM: We went to go see the Otaku Idol Contest, but we were early. We saw the end of the Otaku Idol Concert, which I, personally and regretfully, found extremely lame. We agreed that we could get the same thing with twice the entertainment value at Otacafe, so we went back to waste more time there.
TMR cosplayer singing. ALSO AWESOME-NESS.
10:00PM: Went to go watch the premiere showing of the Gravitation OAV. Let me say this: one has never truly seen Gravitation until one has seen it in a room full to bursting with fangirls. We clapped as each character came up in the opening animation. We laughed hysterically at even the smallest jokes. We 'aww'ed and offered sympathy at all of Shuichi's angst. We cat-called and whistled at all the appropriate moments. It was fun, albeit slightly hard to keep up with (trying to read subtitles at the bottom of the screen with heads sticking up all over the place isn't easy). In conclusion, Shining Collection has rocked before, rocked that time, and will rock again, forever and ever amen.
11:00PM: Stuck around to see the showing of Loveless. I've read some of the manga and now I am most intrigued. The plot is really interesting. The characters were extremely pretty. The shota creeps me the out, but provides fodder for some truly hilarious innuendo. I believe I shall download some episodes when I get home.
Friday's Cosplay
The pink hooker outfit (done amazingly well, I'm sorry if that cosplayer ever sees this post)! Me loves my Shu-chan. Gravitation's Shuichi and a random dude that Dae and I recognize, but can't name. Curses! Chrono Trigger's Chrono (looks great, but I can't fangirl as I've never seen the show).
Ye gads, that outfit is prettier IRL than in the manga or the anime. Woot! Tsubasa Chronicle's Sakura.
Fruits basket's Shigure, Tohru, and Kyo. Wheeeeeee. *fangirls*
Inuyasha's Sango done stunningly.
Gravitation's Shuichi in the banana-coat outfit. Seriously folks, I mean no offense to these cosplayers. All affectionate nicknames, I swear.
Angelic Layer's Hikaru and Wizard (perfect! great! whee!). Those two held that pose for at least a minute. They deserved applause.
We gots the Fullmetal folks: Ed, Mustang, Hawkeye, and Hughes. Just... Yay. Lots and lots of yay.
Juvenile Orion's Tonomori and Tsukasa. Lots of awesome-ness goin' on.
And here is Al to complete the cast of Fullmetal Alchemist. Hee.
Tsubasa Chronicle's Fye. I wanted to glomp her. Because I love Fye that much. *more fangirling*
Turnip-head aka Prince Justin of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle. He even hopped. And couldn't see. He was cool anyhow.
Bleach's Urahara and Chad. There were a great many shinigami outfits running around, but to save myself the agony of getting all their pictures, I grabbed the two who were immediately recognizable. And how! Great arm and Urahara looks perfect. Woot!
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne's Miyako (possibly Maron?) and Jeanne herself. I sat near them for the Indigo concert trying with all my might to remember where they came from. Took me about half the show. -___-;;
Chobit's Sumomo and Full Moon Wo Sagashite's Meroko. Before this pic, Sumomo had been doing her exercise routine. So cute~!
Well crap. We've been working on this for nearly three hours and we only got through Friday! It's late and we're sleep-deprived. I think I shall continue this tomorrow. Till then!
ETA: Part 2, Part 3