July 23, 2007

• The Return from Otakon

  "And Jimbo said, Let me go to Otakon: and he went to Otakon.

  "And Jimbo saw Otakon, that it was good"

                    -- Jimbo
  10:23

  Yes friends, I am back from my trip to Otakon. I really
  enjoyed myself. It was a fun couple of days where I got to meet lots of people
  and have, generally, a really good time. In all, it was worth the
  hour-and-a-half drive to and from the Baltimore Convention Center (BCC). So,
  without further ado, I thought I would give you my report on all of my
  adventures.

  

  On the first day, my goal was to go into the
  Dealers' Room and get my autograph from Fred Gallagher before the crowd got
  unbearable large. I waited in line to get to the Dealers' Room, which opened at
  noon, for over two hours. It was totally worth it. As it turns out, he was a
  fairly cool and mellow guy. He managed to whip out a drawing of my favorite
  character in the series in a few seconds. In short, he did in a few seconds
  what I could not do even with several hours. Anyway, I asked him if he ever
  planned on ending the series, and he told me that he did, but it was a long
  distance away. Now, my signed copy of MegaTokyo five is sitting in my room in a
  plastic cover. That’s one goal out of the way.

  

  I suppose I should also mention how many people
  were actually at attendance. To put it simply, there was a lot. The picture
  above shows only a tiny portion of the BCC. Let me tell you that most of the
  areas were just as packed as this one, not to mention all of the sidewalks
  outside. It was pretty funny watching some of the legitimate business men's
  faces when cosplayers walk by. Some laughed, while others were clearly thinking "what the hell is going on in my fair city." Speaking of cosplay...

  
  

  
  
  

  There was a good amount of it. There were a lot
  of Naruto cosplayers. When I say "a lot," I mean A WHOLE MOTHER-F~CKIN' LOT of
  Naruto cosplayers. I mostly saw a lot of Itachi, Gaara, and Naruto costumes,
  but almost every character was represented (even a really good-looking Anko,
  which I did not manage to take a picture of, much to my chagrin). Another big
  problem was the lack of Haruhi Suzumiya characters. During my whole time there,
  I saw maybe three Haruhi and a single SOS-Dan (see above). I also have pictures
  of Midna (from Zelda: Twilight Princess) and Saber & Rin (from Fate / stay
  night), but they turned out poorly, and will not be shown. I didn’t take too
  many cosplay pictures, but it was still fun to see some of my favorite
  characters doing their rounds. Amazingly, however, there was more cosplay at
  the midnight Harry Potter release party per capita than at Otakon. Interesting...

  

  I spent a large amount of time (and money) in the Dealers'
  room. The picture above shows the spoils of my battles with other overzealous
  customers. All the things shown above cost a little over $150. Amazingly, the
  Yuki Nagato figure was the most expensive of the lot, practically doubling the
  total cost of the other items. It was totally worth it, though. I also picked
  up and official Otakon polo shirt (for work) and an Otakon umbrella (for when
  it rains). I debated whether I should have bought a replica of a samurai sword,
  but decided against it. I did not need to spend a whole lot of money on
  something that served no useful purpose. So I bought a Sgt. Frog throw pillow
  and went on my merry way.

  Things to keep in mind when going to next Otakon:

  • Bring more water
  • Bring more trail mix
  • Bring Nintendo DS
  • Leave GameCube controller at home
  • Leave car parked on sidewalk. It would be cheaper to get it out of hock than pay for a parking garage.

  • 7:53 am
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