Otakon lurv

To sum up: Otakon 13 = Awesome chaos.

Due to laziness to my part and the avoidance of 100+ degrees heat, I decided to get my badge on Friday itself. The following day, at five o’clock in the morning, I joined the sport famous throughout anime conventions known as queuing. Thankfully, the people after and behind me were a cool bunch, so the wait was relatively painless. It took four hours before I finally get my badge. Then, I was officially in. Woo-hoo.

Since I am an Otakon n00b, confused by the gigantic size of the convention center and swallowed up by the hordes of people, I spent eternity walking around to familiarize with the place. As soon as I was comfy enough, I headed down to the Dealer’s Room to browse around the goods. Sasuga Books and Kinokinuya Bookstore stole my heart.

Once I was accustomed to the convention center, I found a spot to organize my increasingly deranged day.

—–
The Panels.

DramaQueen: And DramaQueen means yaoi. Hee. I had SO MUCH FUN in this panel. Fangirls overwhelmingly outnumbered the fanboys. Only a handful of straight dudes attended. To be honest, I am not exactly a big yaoi enthusiast. I would occasionally dabble in the genre but I do not aggressively find it. Yet this might change… I have always wanted to say, “Gay porn changed my life”.

Funimation: I loved — still love — the School Rumble announcement. Heck, I abandoned timidity once they disclosed their BIG title and joined the very enthusiastic response. I haven’t touched any ep of S2 but I’m definitely looking forward collecting the R1s.

ADV: Most. Annoying. Panel. Ever. I am completely serious. By the end of the session, I wanted to strangle the dude hogging the mic. I like taking notes whenever attending the panels, and look at what I had randomly written. BTW, pardon the illegible handwriting.

I should’ve simply walked out of the room but I dislike the thought that I might miss something important. Oh, well.

Kouta Hirano: Ugh, boring. Aside from the awesome sneak peek of Hellsing Ultimate ep2, I was extremely disappointed. Oh, and it was painful to watch a couple of fangirls begging for a handshake or even a signature. Then, there was this one girl trying so hard to articulate herself in Japanese. I felt sorry for her.

Geneon: Their panel is very straightforward. A few clips of upcoming releases and some Q&A. I was waiting for a teaser of Black Lagoon, to no avail.

Podcasting: I didn’t want to battle my way into the Dealer’s Room yet. Therefore, I wandered into this panel last Sunday. I do not intend to do my own podcast since I have the audio engineering skills of a post, but it was fun learning a few tips, nonetheless. Hmmm. I’m definitely checking out the Geeknights podcast.

Anime News Network: I only caught the last half of the hour. It was mostly Q&A, anyway. Oh, and I saw the face behind Answerman. Hee. Lolicons and fetishes. ;p

Frugal Otaku: I thought I’d have more tips on purchasing anime and manga. The list they’ve mentioned are pretty much what I already know but I learned a few tricks from them. I kinda like the panelists. They sound as if they know what they are talking about and they seem to like genuinely sharing tips on how to save a few extra bucks.

I don’t know how to top the hilarity of the DramaQueen panel so I guess the succeeding sessions were a bit unsatisfactory. ^^; Oh, amongst the list of what I should’ve joined were Yoshiki and Voice Actors Uncut! panels. Bah, too late now.

—–
The Dealer’s Room. Might as well call it the Druggie’s Room.

You don’t know how much effort it took to suppress the urge to buy things in sight. Yet I somehow prevailed. My mantra: If I can buy it online in a decent price, I shouldn’t touch it. And it worked.

The most dangerous dealers in the room were HLJ, Sasuga, and Kinokinuya. On Friday, I saw this Voltes V fig, which cost $190, in HLJ and immediately lusted for it. I did not go back to their stall after that. There’s no way, I’d tempt myself with a monstrosity. ;p

As for Sasuga and Kinokinuya, I < 3 them. One of the dudes in the Kinokinuya counter is cute. Overworked but cute. (Hey, I get to be a girl. ;p)

The only things I bought were a few art books, some untranslated manga, a Kon plushie, a Keroro Gunso fig, a couple of pins, and a TRC poster. My favorites of the bunch are the artbooks: Minami Ozaki supposedly out-of-print GOD collection, Chie Shinohara’s Anatolia Story, YYH, and HanaKimi.

—–
The Cosplay.

ZOMG. I can never get over the massive amounts of cosplayers. Some extremely well done, some not so much. Gazillions of Inuyasha, FMA, Naruto, and Bleach characters ran around the con. A few Jedis, the Mario Brothers, some Sailor Soldiers, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Heart characters, and a whole lot of loligoths mingled among them. It was a trip to watch them. However, I only manage to snag a couple of pics of those that really caught my attention. My faves: two Yakikate cosplayers and one Akabane.

I thought I was able to get a pic of Get Backer’s Akabane but in the process of reviewing my photos, it seems that I wasn’t able to take it. T_T I was stalking the dude until I got a pic only to find out my error. Ugh.

—–
Aside from the panels and the Dealer Room, I did a whole lot of people watching, though. I sat down one corner outside the Otacafe, staring at people as they go their way. There’s something about scrutinizing how fans interact with one another. I saw a couple of glomping going on, which was really weird. Thank goodness, the fan was a very petite lass. There were lots of girls asking for hugs. Again, weird. I mean, where’s the perceived personal space?

I’m not exactly a big fan of crowds. However, it is unavoidable in a con this size. It seems as if it takes great skill navigating through the human traffic, especially with picture taking going on. And boy, there were lots of them.

To say that I was more than a little enthused is a bit of an understatement. The experience was overwhelming, not to mention, tiring. However, the short and enjoyable weekend closed. Thus endeth, Otakon ‘06.

Whoa, that was fun.