Otakon 2013
Wow, there has been 20 years of Otakon? How time flies. The first one for me was 1999, which I think was the first one in the Baltimore Convention Center. I remember taking up a couple of the big rooms on the Charles Street side and the upper rooms were video rooms all the way to the causeway. Now, it takes up the whole convention center, and the hotel next door. It is so big, that they are moving to the DC convention center in 2017. Funny, since I was talking with someone in line about a potential move to DC in the near future. (He also thought attendance was down, which he was wrong about.)
It got off to a rocky start, with katrinb not feeling well after giving blood and misplacing a bag, which we spent a couple of hours fruitlessly searching for. I later found it Sunday night in the library. So, we headed up there and checked into the hotel near the airport. While waiting for extra blankets, she told me to take Bear and leave without her.
So, we made it to the con, which was a madhouse. Pre-reg took about an hour to get through. I also basically spent most of the evening in the video game room, since that was pretty much all Bear was interested in.
Reminder to self: unless taking the whole day off, don't bother with Friday.
Saturday, the wife was feeling more chipper, so after breakfast we were off to the con again. Badging was much easier Saturday morning so it didn't take my wife long.
Course, one of my stated goals was to try to get into the Yoko Kanno concert. Unfortunately, it was the one concert that wasn't in the arena, so I had to get into line to get tickets. The unfortunate thing is that the lineup started at 8:30 AM for a 1 PM giveaway. I was there a little before 11, so I didn't like my chances. Things did look up when I found out I was 400 in line, for 350 pairs of tickets. So, I had a decent shot at it. Unfortunately, it was all for naught, being about 20 people short.
So, I headed off to the art room to say hi to Jen then off to the dealer's room. There I did get to play Fluxx: The Board Game with Andrew Looney himself. It actually was a quick win for me, pulling it off in 2 turns. The only purchase I had there was a Fujiko Mine figure, mostly from the hard sell. (Me dressed in my Lupin costume, with the refrain, "You know you want Fujiko..." Yeah, I did.)
Then I quickly made my way out to the dealer's room to make it in time for the AMV contest, which was enjoyable. Winners below:
Trailer/Parody:
First Place: Corsair AMV - Dora the Explorer - “Dora the Explorer (trailer audio)” by College Humor - Various
Second Place: Hagaren Viper - Soul Hunters - “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (trailer audio)” by Paramount Pictures - Soul Eater
Drama/Serious:
First Place: Anicsi - If I Never - “Feel Alive” by Quietdrive - anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Second Place: E-Designs - Vindicta - “Damned” by Superhuman - Attack on Titan
Action:
First Place: BecauseImBored1 - Inhumanity - “Enemies” by Shinedown - Hellsing Ultimate
Second Place: Rider4Z - DBZ - Always Hardcore - “One (Always Hardcore)” by Scooter - Dragon Ball Z
Romance/Sentimental:
First Place: AngelDragoon - Married Life - “Married Life” by Michael Giacchino - Hotarubi no Mori e
Second Place: PieandBeer - Stay Young - “Alone Together” by Fall Out Boy - FLCL
Upbeat/Dance:
First Place: alexmichur00 - Sweet Dreams - “You Make My Dreams” by Hall & Oates - various
Second Place: Centurione - Cockaine - “Addictive” by Royal Republic - Hyou-ka
Comedy:
First Place: Iron Solari - The Mioing: Miostep Edition - “Circles” by KDrew - Nichijō
Second Place: Lone Wolves Productions - Popularity, the Final Frontier - “Popular” by Kristin Chenoweth - Macross Frontier
Best Overflow: KireBlue - I Choose Hippopotas - "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas" by Gretchen Wilson - Pokémon
Vic's Pick: Gunther AMVs - Glam Jam - “Primadonna Girl” by Marina and the Diamonds - The IDOLM@STER, Love Live! School idol project
Best in Show: l33tmeatwad & snapxynith - Evangelion 0.33 - Shinji Did (Not) Have Sex - “I Just Had Sex” by The Lonely Island (feat. Akon) - Neon Genesis Evangelion
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Then we were off for dinner and Bear got one more round in the video game room before the wife called it quits.
Sunday we were up early because the wife wanted to see the AMVs, so some time split between Otachan (with bear frosting cookies) and the video game room when it opened. Then we switched off for me heading to the overflow room for the concert. Course the line was out the door, but it didn't matter because there was plenty of room in Video One.
First up was supposed to be Chiaki Ishikawa, but I think the whole thing confused everyone since she never came on stage and the whole show was four of her songs done to videos. I'm not sure if she was singing backstage or not, but it was kinda disappointing for what I expected to be a live performance.
The main show, tho, was not disappointing at all. It was a show with just Kanno and a piano mostly featuring her latest project "Piano Me", but she did play to the crowd with some selections from Cowboy Bebop, inviting people to sing along with what they knew. The Piano Me stuff was also excellent. Her piano was covered with what looked like white fur, and during the show she was using it as a projection screen doing various nifty things (like her piano filling up with hearts as an applause meter) I also have to say that even in her late 40s she's very much an imp, obviously very excited about the performance. I was glad to finally see her perform.
And that was it. Unfortunately, none of us got to do nearly enough at the con, which is part of the problem with managing a 7 year old, but I at least got the bare minimum of what I wanted. I think it just will be a struggle for a while with anime conventions because Bear's interest is pretty narrow right now.
It got off to a rocky start, with katrinb not feeling well after giving blood and misplacing a bag, which we spent a couple of hours fruitlessly searching for. I later found it Sunday night in the library. So, we headed up there and checked into the hotel near the airport. While waiting for extra blankets, she told me to take Bear and leave without her.
So, we made it to the con, which was a madhouse. Pre-reg took about an hour to get through. I also basically spent most of the evening in the video game room, since that was pretty much all Bear was interested in.
Reminder to self: unless taking the whole day off, don't bother with Friday.
Saturday, the wife was feeling more chipper, so after breakfast we were off to the con again. Badging was much easier Saturday morning so it didn't take my wife long.
Course, one of my stated goals was to try to get into the Yoko Kanno concert. Unfortunately, it was the one concert that wasn't in the arena, so I had to get into line to get tickets. The unfortunate thing is that the lineup started at 8:30 AM for a 1 PM giveaway. I was there a little before 11, so I didn't like my chances. Things did look up when I found out I was 400 in line, for 350 pairs of tickets. So, I had a decent shot at it. Unfortunately, it was all for naught, being about 20 people short.
So, I headed off to the art room to say hi to Jen then off to the dealer's room. There I did get to play Fluxx: The Board Game with Andrew Looney himself. It actually was a quick win for me, pulling it off in 2 turns. The only purchase I had there was a Fujiko Mine figure, mostly from the hard sell. (Me dressed in my Lupin costume, with the refrain, "You know you want Fujiko..." Yeah, I did.)
Then I quickly made my way out to the dealer's room to make it in time for the AMV contest, which was enjoyable. Winners below:
Trailer/Parody:
First Place: Corsair AMV - Dora the Explorer - “Dora the Explorer (trailer audio)” by College Humor - Various
Second Place: Hagaren Viper - Soul Hunters - “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (trailer audio)” by Paramount Pictures - Soul Eater
Drama/Serious:
First Place: Anicsi - If I Never - “Feel Alive” by Quietdrive - anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Second Place: E-Designs - Vindicta - “Damned” by Superhuman - Attack on Titan
Action:
First Place: BecauseImBored1 - Inhumanity - “Enemies” by Shinedown - Hellsing Ultimate
Second Place: Rider4Z - DBZ - Always Hardcore - “One (Always Hardcore)” by Scooter - Dragon Ball Z
Romance/Sentimental:
First Place: AngelDragoon - Married Life - “Married Life” by Michael Giacchino - Hotarubi no Mori e
Second Place: PieandBeer - Stay Young - “Alone Together” by Fall Out Boy - FLCL
Upbeat/Dance:
First Place: alexmichur00 - Sweet Dreams - “You Make My Dreams” by Hall & Oates - various
Second Place: Centurione - Cockaine - “Addictive” by Royal Republic - Hyou-ka
Comedy:
First Place: Iron Solari - The Mioing: Miostep Edition - “Circles” by KDrew - Nichijō
Second Place: Lone Wolves Productions - Popularity, the Final Frontier - “Popular” by Kristin Chenoweth - Macross Frontier
Best Overflow: KireBlue - I Choose Hippopotas - "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas" by Gretchen Wilson - Pokémon
Vic's Pick: Gunther AMVs - Glam Jam - “Primadonna Girl” by Marina and the Diamonds - The IDOLM@STER, Love Live! School idol project
Best in Show: l33tmeatwad & snapxynith - Evangelion 0.33 - Shinji Did (Not) Have Sex - “I Just Had Sex” by The Lonely Island (feat. Akon) - Neon Genesis Evangelion
-----------------------
Then we were off for dinner and Bear got one more round in the video game room before the wife called it quits.
Sunday we were up early because the wife wanted to see the AMVs, so some time split between Otachan (with bear frosting cookies) and the video game room when it opened. Then we switched off for me heading to the overflow room for the concert. Course the line was out the door, but it didn't matter because there was plenty of room in Video One.
First up was supposed to be Chiaki Ishikawa, but I think the whole thing confused everyone since she never came on stage and the whole show was four of her songs done to videos. I'm not sure if she was singing backstage or not, but it was kinda disappointing for what I expected to be a live performance.
The main show, tho, was not disappointing at all. It was a show with just Kanno and a piano mostly featuring her latest project "Piano Me", but she did play to the crowd with some selections from Cowboy Bebop, inviting people to sing along with what they knew. The Piano Me stuff was also excellent. Her piano was covered with what looked like white fur, and during the show she was using it as a projection screen doing various nifty things (like her piano filling up with hearts as an applause meter) I also have to say that even in her late 40s she's very much an imp, obviously very excited about the performance. I was glad to finally see her perform.
And that was it. Unfortunately, none of us got to do nearly enough at the con, which is part of the problem with managing a 7 year old, but I at least got the bare minimum of what I wanted. I think it just will be a struggle for a while with anime conventions because Bear's interest is pretty narrow right now.