After the tremendous success that was Otakon 2011, Otakon
2012 had a lot to live up to…and it kinda didn’t. Most of it was me desperately trying to find
a friend to come with me to experience it all with me…and failing
miserably. The rest was a mix of so-so
events, not as stellar a guest list as last year and just a general downer
feeling. My expectations were high and
in truth that wasn’t fair. There was
still a lot of good to come out of 2012 but expecting a repeat of last year
hampered the overall experience. No two
con experiences are alike and youre doing yourself a disadvantage if you think
otherwise. I learned this in 2012 and
still stick with it (though I did have re relearn it with Katsucon this
year). Anyway, onto the 5.
#5-The Hotel Room
When I first thought about getting a hotel room this
year, I really wanted to go for the Hilton.
But I looked too late and all of the rooms were taken. There was one still up for grabs though, at
the Hyatt across from the opposite skybridge.
There would be no roof over my head if it rained and I had to get back
to my hotel room, but it was close enough.
Thing is, the room was designated a “Parlor Room” and I had no idea what
that meant. Would I be in a broom
closet, or something as small as my college dorm room? The answer was neither. Holy freaking crap. Basically they locked down the living room
portion of a condo and handed it to me for two nights for a pretty reasonable
price. There was no standard bed, but
there was a couch bed and TV and a lot of space. And one helluva view too. It was big…a bit too big. Made the notion of no one coming with me feel
a bit more real. But as far as staying
rooms for a convention go, this wasn’t bad at all.
#4-Maid Cafe
To my knowledge, Otakon had never attempted a Maid Café
before. True or not, this was my first
year to try going to one. I was a little
stunned as to how it all worked out. It
wasn’t your typical Starbucks, that’s for sure.
No the Maid Café was a rehearsed show that restarted every hour or so
for a new audience. There were mini
games, dances, skits and of course, cute girls and handsome young men serving
drinks. It was a little bit costly but
it was a fun little experience all the same.
Kinda wished it was more of a come in, sit down and have a drink without
all the theatrics, but still, wont complain.
#3-Otaku Idol
It’s exactly what it sounded like. Anyone with the vocals to belt out Anime
tunes stepped up to participate in an American Idol showdown in the Otaka-Café
(again not really a café), aka the Karaoke room of Otakon. I only sat in on the first round of
contestants, as I knew of a couple of people participating. Themes from Haruhi Suzumiya, Durarara and
various other shows were heard. But it
was one girl who belted out “Shinjitsu
no Uta” from Inuyasha who clearly stole the show first round, even the people I
was cheering for were impressed. From
what I learned later on, I think that girl won the competition overall. Hard to argue with that result since even I
could see she was attracting a ton of outsiders during her Inuyasha theme
performance.
#2-AMV 101
Back in 2012 I was really into AMV crafting and had a ton
of my own videos under my belt. An
alliance of AMV makers under the banner PixelBlended Studios, came together to
do a special panel on AMVs and I was excited to attend. Turns out, our philosophies were pretty
similar-Why choose certain Anime, what songs work better and which don’t, why
use a ton of special effects when sometimes none will do, and what kind of
story do you tell with your AMV? I loved
that they took the time to show us samples from all across the board: comedy,
action, dramatic, movie trailers, music videos, the works. In the end, I gave them a sample DVD of some
of my work. I heard one little bit from
them not long after but never went on to work with them. And since 2013 my AMV churn out rate had dipped
drastically. Still this was probably the
heyday of my AMV making experience and it was a fun presentation that I really
enjoyed.
#1-LittleKuriboh’s
Shout Out to My Sister
After sitting out 2012, LittleKuriboh returned to
Baltimore for another Otakon. Not only
did I manage to get a cool Duke Devlin shirt from his booth, not only did we
take a picture that is eerily similar to the one we took two years prior, but
he ALSO was happy enough to do a short video shout out to my sister. Otakon is an experience id really like to
share with her but things just keep getting in the way. So each year I try to bring back something
she’d like, like plushies or a DVD. In
this case, had to get a popular Anime celebrity to say hi. This was on the last day of the convention so
he was super beat. He couldn’t do the
shout out in the voice of the villainous Melvin, but LittleKuriboh was still
happy to say a few words and promise “Free hugs” from Melvin should my sis
attend in the future. I’ve run into LK a
few times over the years but this was my favorite run in with him. It’s one of my best Otakon moments and one of
the best gifts ive gotten for my sis.
So 2012 was a little bit of a bust. But yeah, next week we get to the first of
two years that have come tremendously close to matching if not surpassing
2011’s greatness. See ya then.
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