Otakon 2007

[Strazos]

As it's not strictly a game convention (mostly not), just thought I'd start a thread in here. Did anyone else go?

[Yegolev]

Depends on if you went or not.  Did you?

[Strazos]

I thought that was sort of implied in my first post.

Yes, I went. No, I did not cosplay.

EDIT: Mods, feel free to delete if the thread gets zero activity. I somehow expected a bit more.

[Lantyssa]

I've been in the past, but it has been several years and I'm not up for volunteering with a dealer anymore.  Cons are too much effort.

[Kitsune]

I bailed on the Virginia/DC/Maryland anime cons a few years ago; they were either full to the brim with idiot teenybopper Inu-Yashas or just way too fucking huge in general.  The magic recipe for a good convention is small (2-300ish) attendance of non-retards.  Small enough for a person to be able to recognize a good number of the other attendees by sight, and actually learn some names and make some friends.  Once a con breaks a thousand people, the social aspect dies a blood-soaked, splattery death under the sheer weight of nerds, filtering people through the dealer room as fast as possible to shake the money out of their wallets.  Great for the dealers, not so much for the nerds.

[Lantyssa]

Not even then.  Otakon has traditionally been crappy for dealers because it's all teenagers who either don't have money, or spent it all on the cheap bootlegs.

[Yegolev]

I thought that was sort of implied in my first post.

I initially assumed you did, but you didn't give out any details so I wasn't sure and decided to ask.

[Strazos]

Yeah, I went. I'm considering finding a camara to take a new picture of my PC desk, to show all the silly figures I bought.

But yeah, on cosplayers...some REALLY good ones, but WAY TOO MANY fucking Inuyasha, Bleach, and Narutards. Seriously, maybe a third of all attendees cosplayed, but maybe 50% of That were characters from the 3 aforementioned series. Hell, a lot of them were the same undiscerning character, or just wore a hat from the series or some shit.

I'd be embarrassed if I was caught cosplaying badly. I mean, if you're going to do it, why not do it well?


Unfortunately, I couldn't be bothered to bring a camara; I would hate to have to hold people up to take a picture. However, I would have loved to have brought a camcorder.

I would go again, but then again, I don't like I'm neccessarily like a lot of the other people there; I'm not staying overnight or anything (wtf would you do there for Three Days?), and when I go into dealer rooms, I go in knowing exactly what I am looking for, and only buy what I am looking for.


Also, people need to learn how to walk faster. Sometimes I felt like I was playing Assassin's Creed. I'm going to be really good at that game.  :-D

[Lantyssa]

Unfortunately, I couldn't be bothered to bring a camara; I would hate to have to hold people up to take a picture. However, I would have loved to have brought a camcorder.

They're in costume.  They want their picture taken.

[Strazos]

If I ever cosplayed, I wouldn't necessarily want to get stopped every 5 minutes for a picture. Just saying...

[RhyssaFireheart]

Then why are you dressing up in the first place?  Most people do it because they want others to look at them and take pictures.  It's an attention getter.

[Yegolev]

They enjoy having their picture taken.  That is your assignment for Otakon 2008.  You don't necessarily have to stop them if you are shy/afraid of them/they reek, but at least snap some "candid" shots, perhaps of a morbidly obese Inuyasha eating a hotdog or a Yuna downblouse.  That would be awesome.

[Strazos]

Yeah, I really should have gotten ahold of a camara. My buddy failed as well; at least in my case, I had a one-track mind when I was there. I just wanted to get my stuff, and see some new series.

I could actually write a lot more....stuff, if people were that interested; it could even be a stream-of-consciousness type deal, of my recollection of the day. I wasn't sure if anyone would care, hence my sparse opening post.

[Lantyssa]

If you really want pictures, try A Fan's View.  I think he hits almost every con in existance and has been since before I started attending them.

That will show you what's there.  The candid shots one gets when just walking around are often better though.

[Der Helm]

A Fan's View

I am so tempted to change my avatar again.



I will definitely go to the next convention held here ... :-D

[bhodi]

No... just no.

[Yegolev]

If you really want pictures, try A Fan's View.

Oh man, THANK YOU.  I love that stuff.  Wario and the Haruhi Suzumiya gang made me laugh out loud.  I miss this sort of people.

HAHAHAHA!

[schild]

I can't navigate that site.

Correction due to Yegolev's edit:

I'm glad I can't navigate that site.

[Yegolev]

HO HO!

[Lantyssa]

I can't navigate that site.

Correction due to Yegolev's edit:

I'm glad I can't navigate that site.

Click on Previous Reports -> <Con of Choice> -> Select the day.

Now you can, too! :-D

[Strazos]

Wow, now I'm really sorry I did not take pictures; I would have blown this guy's stuff out of the water.

It's possible that the people just sucked on the day he went, but I doubt that is the case.

(Pointless recap to come this weekend, when I have time)




Fuck, if I go next year, I'm bringing a video camara, and will film shit the Entire time I am there. I'll gets tons of stuff, but I'll have no idea how to edit it.

[Yegolev]

Please get some stills as well, for posting while you learn to make the videos.  It's not quite so awesome as to make me want to go to Baltimore, but it's close.

[Lantyssa]

Wow, now I'm really sorry I did not take pictures; I would have blown this guy's stuff out of the water.

It's possible that the people just sucked on the day he went, but I doubt that is the case.

He only does shots where people pose for him.  Unless things have changed, he won't ask for specific poses or give any directions either, nor go out of his way to get a shot.

Which is fine for seeing what costumes are out there.  It leaves a lot of room for people who don't take as many but take really good pictures or wait for certain events when all the costumers are gathered.

[Sky]

They enjoy having their picture taken.  That is your assignment for Otakon 2008.  You don't necessarily have to stop them if you are shy/afraid of them/they reek, but at least snap some "candid" shots, perhaps of a morbidly obese Inuyasha eating a hotdog or a Yuna downblouse.  That would be awesome.

No, you should be full-on intrusive. Make them pose. Say shit like "make it pouty!" Ask them to slap each other's asses. Make them earn their costumes! If they ignore you, just follow them taking pictures anyway. No expectation of privacy! Our own cospaparazzi.

[Strazos]

Wow, now I'm really sorry I did not take pictures; I would have blown this guy's stuff out of the water.

It's possible that the people just sucked on the day he went, but I doubt that is the case.

He only does shots where people pose for him.  Unless things have changed, he won't ask for specific poses or give any directions either, nor go out of his way to get a shot.

Which is fine for seeing what costumes are out there.  It leaves a lot of room for people who don't take as many but take really good pictures or wait for certain events when all the costumers are gathered.

I figured as much....still would have whooped him. I'm just going to assume he didn't see any of the really good stuff. I saw better stuff just sitting by an escalator for a half hour.

I even saw a guy doing Quail Man...I mean, come on...QUAIL MAN.

[Strazos]

Incoming Stream of Rambling. Turn back if you don't wish to (probably) waste your time.

I get up early Saturday morning and head over to my friend Valador's house. He's driving today, because my car was very close to needing an oil change, and I really didn't want to screw things up by going all the way down to Baltimore. Anyway, I arrive at about 8:30am, and he's mostly up and ready to go. We hang out for a few minutes, informing his parents that we're going to the nerd convention, and we'll be back late tonight.

After a quick stop at Wawa to pick up some breakfast, we're off. It's a fairly uneventful 2 hour drive down to Baltimore from the Philadelphia NJ suburbs. But things get interesting before we even officially arrive at the Baltimore convention center and get out of the car...

Cosplayers. A gaggle of them, around the corner and about a block away from the convention itself. Just to give some quick background info, Valador had been to this thing once, maybe three years ago. I've never seen one of these things (nerd conventions) in person. Hell, until about 4 or 5 years ago, my thoughts on anime were that is was all "ghey shite, like Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon." Obviously, I've found stuff that I actually like in the intervening years.

But anyway, back to the cosplayers. The first ones we saw were mostly random stuff I could not recognize, though I did see someone doing a very good impression of Envy from FMA; they even had that goofy walk down (note; I don't even particularly like the series). Then we round the corner to see...

A lot more cosplayers. A Lot. And as there was a ton of random traffic in front of the convention center, we had a solid 5 minutes at least to check everything out from the comfort of the car (yeah, I didn't take a camera. I r teh stoopids). There were a lot of people who actually did a very good job impersonating the character of their choice, but unfortunately, they were outnumbered by a great many people who should not have even bothered. I'm sure you can all google for pictures to see what I mean. You had your usual suspects, such as random JP school girls, Sailor Moon characters. I also got a good look at a very good group of...samurai, I think. I don't think they were trying to look like any particular set of characters, but if there were any such thing as professional cosplayers, these guys would be it. They were quite badass.

Finally, we manage to move forward, find a place to park ($25 for the day I think it was  ), and move onto the convention itself. Once we got inside, registered, and started to move about, we noticed something. There were a great many people cosplaying. Perhaps even 50% (depending on hat the bare minimum of "cosplaying" is) of the attendants were dressed as...something. The problem, we found, was that at least a full third of these people were doing something from either Bleach, or Naruto.

Seriously? Fucking Bleach and Naruto? I'd rather see people dressed as Pokemons. These two types of cosplays really caught my ire, because so many of them were so...lazy. Ooo, put on a green jacket and a funny headband you bought in the dealer room, and TADA, you're from Naruto. Or put on a funny green and white striped hat, and Boom, you're some dude from Bleach.

I mean, FFS....I don't quite get it. Also, there were a great many people who were just wearing these red and black robes. I forget which series it's from (naruto or Bleach), but there were easily 100+ people wearing the SAME DAMN ROBE. Seriously, are people this fucking broken? Way to be original, jackasses; just buy a stupid robe from the dealer room, and you're automagically Cosplaying, Oooooo. Anyway....

We wandered about a bit, just to get a feel for the place. Ended up in the...I guess it was the amateur dealer room (not the "real" dealer room). They had some interesting stuff, but I didn't buy anything. I don't exactly have anywhere to put some random artists rendition of Haruhi and Mikuru in my room anyway. As we wandered and saw what people were doing, it made me regret not bringing a camcorder even more; I could have had a lot of good stuff to share. One chick was a dead ringer for Fran from FFXII. Another girl was fairly spot-on for the emo chick from Bleach. There was a Quail Man, some Mega Man characters, a very good Balthier from 12. A good pairing of Chi and Freya from Chobits. A lot of other people who put a lot of effort into their costumes, but I didn't recognize them at all. Of course you had your usual suspects, such as dudes dressing up as Sailor Moon characters, people from FMA, Inuyasha, DBZ, etc. Saw one girl who at first I thought was just lazily dressed, but was actually doing a Very good rendition of Ed from Cowboy Bebop, once I realized why she was carrying a stuffed dog around while barefoot. A chick dressed like she was from Nickelodeon GUTS, and a pair of Green Monkeys from Legends of the Hidden Temple. Some STARS people from Resident Evil games. A guy on a sax  from Trigun doing anime music (including the Bebop intro, of course). Really, too many to list.

Again, sorry for lack of video or stills.

Eventually, we get down to the dealer room. Honestly, I was underwhelmed. Sure, I found all of the stuff I was looking for (minus the Revy from Black Lagoon figure I had to get from Amazon), but still...A lot of the indie booths seemed to be selling the same stuff, and the weapon guys were peddling mostly....junk. Complete Junk. Sure, a lot of people were buying swords and knives and shit. But also, a lot of people are fucking retarded. A lot of them are probably the same people we saw getting dropped off by mommy and daddy earlier in the day, and are actually spending their parents' money.

We do a bit more wandering. We sat by an escalator for at least a half hour at one point, and just observed all of the people coming and going. I only saw 1, One, person doing Haruhi well, and she was working a dealer booth. One thing I noticed about anime conventions that reminds me of Halloween...

It's an excuse for some girls to dress like whores. Sorry ladies of F13 (all what, 4 of you?  ), I said it. Not all women are whores. Hell, I'm sure not all of the women dressing like whores at Otakon are actually whores, buy my point still stands. It would be fine it they were all hot, but alas....a lot of kids being dropped off by their parents, and a lot of other people breaking the weight capacity on their outfits. Yuna, as usual, was a big target. I'm not sure which is worse; all the fat Yunas, or all the little teen Yunas running around in asspants...asspants for which they do not have the requisite posterior to fill out the pants properly. But I digress...

After buying all of the stuff I planned on buying, we took a break and went out for lunch/dinner (it was late afternoon) down at the wharf. It must have been an interesting weekend for all of the people who work in and around the wharf area, what with all the nerds running around in full costume. We ate at an Uno or some shit. I had some nice stuffed ravioli, and they skimped on the booze in my Pina Colada, but it was still all good.

Once we got back, we met up with some friends who went down for the whole weekend. One of them was cosplaying as someone from Fruits Basket (no idea who, as I've never seen the series); she was filling in for someone, apparently. Also, I guess she did a decent job with the costume, because a few people hassled her for pictures. We wandered about the dealer room a bit more, then went up to watch some anime stuff.

The Witchblade preview seemed cool. Watched some Rozen Maiden stuff, which was cool I guess (Yeah, I watch some "lame" stuff, sue me). Valador's never seen Black Lagoon, so I dragged him into that showing. Some dude was yelling for the English version, because it was better he said. I guess he was a bit too lazy to read the subs.

After that, we wandered about a bit more before leaving. There was the cosplay masquerade, some dance party....thing, later in the night. Us? We had things to do the next day (like make Comcast fix my fucking cable), so we left around 10pm. We had a long drive home ahead of us. We stopped at some rest area in Maryland to get something to drink. There were some really hot Russian/Eastern European chicks working the Starbucks, which was fine, but also perplexing; I mean, what is the series of events that leads someone from way overseas to work at a rest area Starbucks, in the middle of the night, in the US?


But anyway, I guess that's really all I can say about Otakon. Even though I had a generally good time, and found everything I intended to look for, I was somehow....underwhelmed. I'll certainly go again if I am around here this time next year, but....I don't know, something about the whole thing just left me with an "amateur hour" impression of the whole thing. Oh well. At least if I go again, I gets lots of material to share.

[schild]

Why do you have a friend named Valador?

Is that his real name?

Why are his parents so mean?

That wasn't the point, was it?

[Yegolev]

For God's sake, don't discourage him.

[Lantyssa]

It's an excuse for some girls to dress like whores. Sorry ladies of F13 (all what, 4 of you?  ), I said it. Not all women are whores. Hell, I'm sure not all of the women dressing like whores at Otakon are actually whores, buy my point still stands. It would be fine it they were all hot, but alas....a lot of kids being dropped off by their parents, and a lot of other people breaking the weight capacity on their outfits. Yuna, as usual, was a big target. I'm not sure which is worse; all the fat Yunas, or all the little teen Yunas running around in asspants...asspants for which they do not have the requisite posterior to fill out the pants properly. But I digress...

It's part of dressing up.  I've considered doing Helba from .hack//sign before, but so far haven't been brave enough to try, plus I cut my hair so it wouldn't work as well.  Teen fashion has been all about showing skin for the past several years, so they're already trained for it, too.

Much like RenFest though, many of the cosplayers don't understand the important rule of choosing a character and dressing based on their body type.  Nigh impossible with some characters and the American diet, but an effort is appreciated by all and can make a huge difference in how well one pulls off the costume.

[Strazos]

Why do you have a friend named Valador?

Is that his real name?

Why are his parents so mean?

That wasn't the point, was it?

Negative. I was referring to Valador, a personal friend of mine.

Obviously, not his real name.

[schild]

Negative. I was referring to Valador, a personal friend of mine.

Obviously, not his real name.

Date Registered:     January 11, 2007, 05:13:59 PM
Last Active:    February 18, 2007, 03:51:31 PM

[Strazos]

For whatever reason, he doesn't usually lo in when he lurks. No idea why.