I has an Otakon
So Otakon was pretty sweet. Not bad for a first time.
Took the Amtrak train down to Penn Station, which was really nice. I've gone down to my cousins in Virginia so many times that the stretch of I95 between Philly and Fredericksberg is too familiar. Got there Thursday afternoon, checked in, got my badge and stuff early, and dicked around until night.
Friday was kinda confusing, since it was my first time. Saw a movie there, Origin, Spirits of the Past. Seemed rather slow and kinda heavy-handed on the environmentalist bit, but then picks up into some great action scenes. To sum it up, one dude punches out a meteor.
Went to the JAM Project concert, which was my actual reason for even going at all. There are no words to describe how awesome it was. I grabbed one of their T-shirts, and once it's washed and all I'll get a pic of that. Afterwards it was the Your Favorite Video Game Character Sucks panel, which more or less confirmed that not only am I getting too old for this stuff, but that everyone else is getting too old for this stuff too.
Saturday I went over to check out the AMV contest. Some good ones were in there, smothered completely by total crap. Despite there being like seven in each category, there were at most two good ones in each.
After that I wandered around the convention hall, taking pics of cosplayers that seemed cool, and then one of Miguel, Ali and Rizzo, and some guy I don't know the name of. There were some really cool ones, though I missed a Nono and Nicola from Diebuster, though I ran into a L'arc that also expressed disappointment at missing them. There were apparently working props of Ghostbuster Proton Packs (not working as in particle streams, but as in blinkenlights and stuff) floating around, because I saw more than a couple of those.
After that it was dinner at a stupidly good Japanese restaurant right around the corner from my hotel. Never had the stuff before, so it was a pretty good introduction. Then it was the Fan Parodies video show, and then crashing for the night.
Sunday involved packing, scouring the room to prevent lost items, and logistics shenanigans regarding luggage storage in cars. Then it was back for some more people watching and hitting the dealer's room, aka That Scene in The Christmas Story When The Old Man Buys a Christmas Tree. I wound up with some manga that I can't find anywhere, and artbooks for MegaMan Zero and Okami. The last two are the best, though, because UDON (and basically Capcom, too) had a booth there and were selling translated artbooks, so instead of 2/3 of the book being MOONRUNES I can actually see all the neat detailed explanation.
Then it was Chinese food, and heading home. A couple other random Otakon people were taking my train back, so we talked while we waited in the station and then on the train. One of the guys was actually there as press and had been for several years, so we got to hear stories.
And here I am, finished resizing pictures and writing this blog post.
And now onto the weirdos!
Dagger and Beatrix from Final Fantasy 9, an underrated game in my opinion.
Clare, from Claymore.
This is one of the Ghostbusters guys I saw, which was great because I love Ghostbusters. The lights blinked and everything on their packs.
A pair of Kamen Riders.
In retrospect, I really should've tried to hit on the L'arc cosplayer. Oh well.
Queen Rutella, from Twilight Princess.
Sanosuke from Ruroni Kenshin. This guy couldn't get into the con, due to the giant freaking sword. See the seam on the blade there?
Yeah, that thing's giant.
Buddy from Six String Samurai. He had a really detailed guitar.
Alright, so FFX-2 sucked. But a well-made Lady Luck makes up for it.
kaminaclose.jpg
He even did the eyebrows.
Wait, this is just a box.
I cast the spells that makes the peoples fall down :V
I didn't actually take his picture; I was more interested in the awesome sword there.
So the convention was awesome, the people at Amtrak managed to not cock anything up, the Tremont Plaza Hotel in Baltimore was very accommodating, and the Geisha Suishi Bar which was just around the corner from the hotel makes incredible food.
Took the Amtrak train down to Penn Station, which was really nice. I've gone down to my cousins in Virginia so many times that the stretch of I95 between Philly and Fredericksberg is too familiar. Got there Thursday afternoon, checked in, got my badge and stuff early, and dicked around until night.
Friday was kinda confusing, since it was my first time. Saw a movie there, Origin, Spirits of the Past. Seemed rather slow and kinda heavy-handed on the environmentalist bit, but then picks up into some great action scenes. To sum it up, one dude punches out a meteor.
Went to the JAM Project concert, which was my actual reason for even going at all. There are no words to describe how awesome it was. I grabbed one of their T-shirts, and once it's washed and all I'll get a pic of that. Afterwards it was the Your Favorite Video Game Character Sucks panel, which more or less confirmed that not only am I getting too old for this stuff, but that everyone else is getting too old for this stuff too.
Saturday I went over to check out the AMV contest. Some good ones were in there, smothered completely by total crap. Despite there being like seven in each category, there were at most two good ones in each.
After that I wandered around the convention hall, taking pics of cosplayers that seemed cool, and then one of Miguel, Ali and Rizzo, and some guy I don't know the name of. There were some really cool ones, though I missed a Nono and Nicola from Diebuster, though I ran into a L'arc that also expressed disappointment at missing them. There were apparently working props of Ghostbuster Proton Packs (not working as in particle streams, but as in blinkenlights and stuff) floating around, because I saw more than a couple of those.
After that it was dinner at a stupidly good Japanese restaurant right around the corner from my hotel. Never had the stuff before, so it was a pretty good introduction. Then it was the Fan Parodies video show, and then crashing for the night.
Sunday involved packing, scouring the room to prevent lost items, and logistics shenanigans regarding luggage storage in cars. Then it was back for some more people watching and hitting the dealer's room, aka That Scene in The Christmas Story When The Old Man Buys a Christmas Tree. I wound up with some manga that I can't find anywhere, and artbooks for MegaMan Zero and Okami. The last two are the best, though, because UDON (and basically Capcom, too) had a booth there and were selling translated artbooks, so instead of 2/3 of the book being MOONRUNES I can actually see all the neat detailed explanation.
Then it was Chinese food, and heading home. A couple other random Otakon people were taking my train back, so we talked while we waited in the station and then on the train. One of the guys was actually there as press and had been for several years, so we got to hear stories.
And here I am, finished resizing pictures and writing this blog post.
And now onto the weirdos!
Dagger and Beatrix from Final Fantasy 9, an underrated game in my opinion.
Clare, from Claymore.
This is one of the Ghostbusters guys I saw, which was great because I love Ghostbusters. The lights blinked and everything on their packs.
A pair of Kamen Riders.
In retrospect, I really should've tried to hit on the L'arc cosplayer. Oh well.
Queen Rutella, from Twilight Princess.
Sanosuke from Ruroni Kenshin. This guy couldn't get into the con, due to the giant freaking sword. See the seam on the blade there?
Yeah, that thing's giant.
Buddy from Six String Samurai. He had a really detailed guitar.
Alright, so FFX-2 sucked. But a well-made Lady Luck makes up for it.
kaminaclose.jpg
He even did the eyebrows.
Wait, this is just a box.
I cast the spells that makes the peoples fall down :V
I didn't actually take his picture; I was more interested in the awesome sword there.
So the convention was awesome, the people at Amtrak managed to not cock anything up, the Tremont Plaza Hotel in Baltimore was very accommodating, and the Geisha Suishi Bar which was just around the corner from the hotel makes incredible food.