Katsucon 18
So, after the frustrating experience that was Anime USA last year, I was kinda ready to be done with doing anime cons. But, the Bear expressed a strong interest in going to Katsucon, so much so that he was willing to put his birthday party off a week to do it. Also, the people at AUSA mentioned that they were having kids programming. So, we gave it one more try.
Unfortunately, Katsucon still has one of the worst prereg experiences I've been to. It is a problem Otakon used to have, where the prereg line was about 10x as long as the pay-at-the-door line. Also, when the line split into two, one side was moving faster than the other. After an hour waiting in line, we find the merch room has closed. So we do a trade off of one person wandering the con while the other watches Bear play video games. We soon take off and go home for some well needed sleep.
We get up the next day so that I can arrive to see the AMV contest 2nd showing. (The first was Friday at 2PM. Really?) I was briefly in the dealer's room, where I was able to snag a free "The Secret World of Arrietty" poster before they disappeared. I headed upstairs to main events when it was time to go in. I found a bunch of people vaguely standing against the wall. No one could say if a line was formed, so I stood where I thought there was one. Then they announced that they were letting people in, and the line actually formed in the opposite direction of where everyone was standing. Big facepalm there.
The theme this year seems to be the resurgence of "My Little Pony". I don't know when it became cool to like MLP again, but it apparently has. (Tho, I think part of it is a joke I haven't been let in on yet.) So, as the warmup, we got treated to music segments set to MLP. There was a new category this year, called "What the...I Don't Even Know!" for videos that don't fit any classification. Instead of it running in its own section, they were actually played between sections. Probably a good thing too, since some of them outstayed their welcome rather quickly. Overall, a good contest. Some I had seen before, but that was expected. It was also nice to see an Ouran Host Club video that didn't for once focus on the sexual ambiguity of the characters. Personally, it deserves a best in show for that.
I went back down to relieve my wife so that she could go to a panel on the history behind Hetalia. In the meantime, I watched Bear play endless rounds of Super Smash Bros in the video room. I figured he'd get tired of it at some point, but he didn't. Really, tho, I should have worked harder to get him out of the room. When my wife came back, she let me have a run through the dealer's room before we went to dinner, since I didn't get much of a chance earlier.
What I didn't know was that Bear was putting up a huge fight verses my wife in leaving the game room. It took me a bit to track them down. Once I did, tho, it was pretty much the end of the night for him. We bent over backwards to make sure he was having a good time, and in return he throws a raging hissy-fit. To be honest, we are both at our wits end to finding a solution to this behavior. So, on his birthday, we need to punish him again and hope he finally gets the message.
So, with this, I'm pretty much done with anime cons. It seems to be going that direction anyways, with AUSA moving into DC, Katsucon being a mess, and Otakon being absolutely no option for a family. To be honest, the compromises that need to be made to make it work don't make it worth it. I'll probably go tomorrow to at least enjoy a little bit of the con, but that's the end of it.
Unfortunately, Katsucon still has one of the worst prereg experiences I've been to. It is a problem Otakon used to have, where the prereg line was about 10x as long as the pay-at-the-door line. Also, when the line split into two, one side was moving faster than the other. After an hour waiting in line, we find the merch room has closed. So we do a trade off of one person wandering the con while the other watches Bear play video games. We soon take off and go home for some well needed sleep.
We get up the next day so that I can arrive to see the AMV contest 2nd showing. (The first was Friday at 2PM. Really?) I was briefly in the dealer's room, where I was able to snag a free "The Secret World of Arrietty" poster before they disappeared. I headed upstairs to main events when it was time to go in. I found a bunch of people vaguely standing against the wall. No one could say if a line was formed, so I stood where I thought there was one. Then they announced that they were letting people in, and the line actually formed in the opposite direction of where everyone was standing. Big facepalm there.
The theme this year seems to be the resurgence of "My Little Pony". I don't know when it became cool to like MLP again, but it apparently has. (Tho, I think part of it is a joke I haven't been let in on yet.) So, as the warmup, we got treated to music segments set to MLP. There was a new category this year, called "What the...I Don't Even Know!" for videos that don't fit any classification. Instead of it running in its own section, they were actually played between sections. Probably a good thing too, since some of them outstayed their welcome rather quickly. Overall, a good contest. Some I had seen before, but that was expected. It was also nice to see an Ouran Host Club video that didn't for once focus on the sexual ambiguity of the characters. Personally, it deserves a best in show for that.
I went back down to relieve my wife so that she could go to a panel on the history behind Hetalia. In the meantime, I watched Bear play endless rounds of Super Smash Bros in the video room. I figured he'd get tired of it at some point, but he didn't. Really, tho, I should have worked harder to get him out of the room. When my wife came back, she let me have a run through the dealer's room before we went to dinner, since I didn't get much of a chance earlier.
What I didn't know was that Bear was putting up a huge fight verses my wife in leaving the game room. It took me a bit to track them down. Once I did, tho, it was pretty much the end of the night for him. We bent over backwards to make sure he was having a good time, and in return he throws a raging hissy-fit. To be honest, we are both at our wits end to finding a solution to this behavior. So, on his birthday, we need to punish him again and hope he finally gets the message.
So, with this, I'm pretty much done with anime cons. It seems to be going that direction anyways, with AUSA moving into DC, Katsucon being a mess, and Otakon being absolutely no option for a family. To be honest, the compromises that need to be made to make it work don't make it worth it. I'll probably go tomorrow to at least enjoy a little bit of the con, but that's the end of it.