Go!Daiko-Con
So I went to a local Detroit anime convention called Go!Daiko-Con or Godaikocon.
Originally, there was no big conventions in Michigan. There was JAFAX, a small con at a university on the west side of the state near Grand Rapids, the state's second biggest city, which has gone on since about '95. Then came Youmacon in the suburbs of Detroit about 5 years ago, and finally Detroit had a con. Youmacon is now huge and thousands of people go to it.
Godaikocon started as Anime Detroit and has only been around 3 years. It now occupies the same hotel Youmacon began in. There's also Northern Michigan Anime Con in Traverse City which is at least 2 years old, and this year was the first year of Shuto-Con in Lansing.
So now Michigan has 5, yes FIVE anime conventions. >_>;
And Godaikon is the smallest of them all. Or at least it felt that way. Even JAFAX is bigger. This con felt like it had only about 200 people at the entire convention. I can't imagine how they afford the hotel with that kind of attendance. I'm not even sure how they got such a big voice actor star like Johnny Young Bosch, known as an actor from Power Rangers, as well as voicing Lelouch, Ichigo from Bleach, Vash the Stampede, and Kaneda.
And it wasn't like it was designed like a small con either. There was a dealer's room, main event hall, 2 panel rooms, 3 video rooms, 2 video game rooms, a tabletop game room, a maid cafe, a manga library room, and an artist alley.
I have no pictures but here's a summary of the con:
- I got there right before the cosplay contest so I went to that first.
- Afterward I browsed the artist alley and dealer room, watched some anime in the screening room, and ate ramen in the Maid Cafe.
- Then I watched the Anime Dating Game (basically like a 60's style dating show), and the Anime trivia show
- Then it was watching Outlaw Star and making fun of it with a bunch of kids who were too young to know about it.
- Then I went to a panel about Toonami, which is what got me into anime
- When I walked out to my car to get antacid, the skies were dark and very violent thunderclouds with lots of lightning were coming up fast. And my windows were cracked open. So I closed them and went back to the Toonami panel.
- I tried to go find fast food, but there were none nearby so I got some food from a convenience store instead.
- I then went to the Furry panel.
- Once again I went foraging for a meal, and found the Kirby's Coney across the street closed (A coney closing at 9pm? Are you serious?). So once again it was a gas station and convenience store food.
- Then I went to the bar for drunken Karaoke of anime tunes.
- I then went to an auction of audience members, and tried to get auctioned, but failed the screening where I had to "fake an orgasm" because I burst out laughing in mid moan. I don't know how to fake it, I'm not a woman... :P
- Then I went to the "Your anime sucks" panel where they make fun of anime, while drunk.
- Then I played some Rock Band 3 for a while
- I then peeked into the Dance, and they were playing MSI so I danced a little, but when they went back to crappy pop/dance music I left and drove home.
It was worth it, even the ridiculous $25/a-day, $35/every-day price for such a small con.
Originally, there was no big conventions in Michigan. There was JAFAX, a small con at a university on the west side of the state near Grand Rapids, the state's second biggest city, which has gone on since about '95. Then came Youmacon in the suburbs of Detroit about 5 years ago, and finally Detroit had a con. Youmacon is now huge and thousands of people go to it.
Godaikocon started as Anime Detroit and has only been around 3 years. It now occupies the same hotel Youmacon began in. There's also Northern Michigan Anime Con in Traverse City which is at least 2 years old, and this year was the first year of Shuto-Con in Lansing.
So now Michigan has 5, yes FIVE anime conventions. >_>;
And Godaikon is the smallest of them all. Or at least it felt that way. Even JAFAX is bigger. This con felt like it had only about 200 people at the entire convention. I can't imagine how they afford the hotel with that kind of attendance. I'm not even sure how they got such a big voice actor star like Johnny Young Bosch, known as an actor from Power Rangers, as well as voicing Lelouch, Ichigo from Bleach, Vash the Stampede, and Kaneda.
And it wasn't like it was designed like a small con either. There was a dealer's room, main event hall, 2 panel rooms, 3 video rooms, 2 video game rooms, a tabletop game room, a maid cafe, a manga library room, and an artist alley.
I have no pictures but here's a summary of the con:
- I got there right before the cosplay contest so I went to that first.
- Afterward I browsed the artist alley and dealer room, watched some anime in the screening room, and ate ramen in the Maid Cafe.
- Then I watched the Anime Dating Game (basically like a 60's style dating show), and the Anime trivia show
- Then it was watching Outlaw Star and making fun of it with a bunch of kids who were too young to know about it.
- Then I went to a panel about Toonami, which is what got me into anime
- When I walked out to my car to get antacid, the skies were dark and very violent thunderclouds with lots of lightning were coming up fast. And my windows were cracked open. So I closed them and went back to the Toonami panel.
- I tried to go find fast food, but there were none nearby so I got some food from a convenience store instead.
- I then went to the Furry panel.
- Once again I went foraging for a meal, and found the Kirby's Coney across the street closed (A coney closing at 9pm? Are you serious?). So once again it was a gas station and convenience store food.
- Then I went to the bar for drunken Karaoke of anime tunes.
- I then went to an auction of audience members, and tried to get auctioned, but failed the screening where I had to "fake an orgasm" because I burst out laughing in mid moan. I don't know how to fake it, I'm not a woman... :P
- Then I went to the "Your anime sucks" panel where they make fun of anime, while drunk.
- Then I played some Rock Band 3 for a while
- I then peeked into the Dance, and they were playing MSI so I danced a little, but when they went back to crappy pop/dance music I left and drove home.
It was worth it, even the ridiculous $25/a-day, $35/every-day price for such a small con.