Otakon 2012 Day 3: Not Much Quantity, Yet So Much Quality

By TheBigN

Sundays at Otakon are always a cool down period for me. Part of it is that usually the panels scheduled on this day tend to be ones that I don’t particularly have much interest in (though I really wish I did check out the Director’s panels when they used to be there. I missed out on something special there).  Part of it is the anticipation for going back to my regular daily grind and wishing that I had more of a respite from it. Part of it is gearing up to say final Hi’s and Goodbyes with friends. And so on. So I don’t really run around during this time and try to get something more out of my leftover time there. I’d like to think this was the case on this Sunday…

Yuki Sanada from Tsuritama. You can find the most interesting cosplays in autograph lines…

Otakon 2012 Day 2: Panels, Podcasts and… Pictures

By TheBigN

To start off, I was remiss in not mentioning the random get-together on Friday that was had over a lack of mahjong sets available. In another example of how some of the best things that occur often come unplanned, the hope that someone had an available set for some riichi outside of the Internet was dashed. But a conversation about life, randomness and Tanto Cuore (loved how the way to explain the game went as “Dominion with maids”, given that I’ve never played that card game either) ensued with people such as 7thWraith, Eternal, and others. In terms of importance, there wasn’t that much, but that moment was worth something in measures of enjoyment, and always a good reminder as to why I’ll probably only really enjoy going to conventions where I can meet up with people I know.

Flandre Scarlet Cosplay. Best Touhou cosplay I saw at the con. She even had fangs!

Otakon 2012 Day 1: Felt Good To Get Back

By TheBigN

Compared to last year, when I essentially had to piecemeal any hours I could get from my work hours (since I couldn’t change my schedule at that point), I tried to set things up so that my weekend would be free enough to at least enjoy a full Saturday and Sunday, with whatever I could get from Friday as a bonus. It worked out, and I was in a light enough rotation that I didn’t have to stay longer than necessary there before I headed out. Stepping into Baltimore Convention Center again felt damn good after quickly getting my badge (not even 5 minutes, really) and left my things at the hotel room I roomed at for the next 2 and a half days. It was around 6PM when I came around, so there were some moments that I missed by then, such as SDS and Dave Cabrera‘s mahjong panel, the Gen Urobuchi Q&A, and the Opening Ceremonies, the latter of which included a mimetic surprise, from what I held. But while I missed those, I was at least glad to be in Baltimore for an uninterrupted amount of time, where I did not have to worry about being called to return to work for any specific reasoning. It was refreshing.

Strength from Black Rock Shooter. Impressed with how much effort it took for those arms.

Anime USA 2011: Brimming Ambivalence.

This was the first year that I was actually able to make all three days of the con, which was a little surprising. Though the first thing I think is that I wish I had as much free time to go to all three days of Otakon instead. I do like the convenience of Anime USA, since it’s pretty easy for me to get there from home with little hassle. But substance-wise, there isn’t enough to really keep me interested in terms of all the goings on at the con. I tend to be pretty focused in panels that tend to be more company-based and more about anime rather than anime culture, as well as guest that are more from the anime industry in Japan compared to elsewhere, and from my limited experience with this convention over the years, I’ve rarely been able to have these desires fulfilled. And that’s probably due to the size of the con as well as probably looking for a target fanbase that I don’t exactly fit in the demographics for (Without any evidence though, this is just whining). It’s times like this where I try to convince myself that I should set up a panel and see if it could get accepted in a con, but quickly psyche myself out of doing so by believing that my work schedule will never allow me to do such insanity.

The Dr. Pepper and everything.

Otakon 2010 Days 2 and 3: This One Might Hurt More Than Expected

Right, time to finish this one up. Picture and text spam incoming.

Chise from Saikano.

Almost forgot to mention…

…that I (TheBigN) will be at Otakon 2010 this weekend. At first, I had assumed that there wouldn’t be much running around this con compared to most, since the guest list for the most part doesn’t have anyone that really grabs my interest (save for those people who worked on those things some years ago – which as a side note also I guess really shows where my sad interests lie), and there wouldn’t be wall-to-wall industry panels (but then, are there ever). But based on the schedule, there will be enough panels that sound interesting that I’m a little worried that I won’t have enough time to meet and hang out with people, or join in on helping omo and co. sing the Working!! OP if he can’t find enough people to do it with. And I think that’s a good thing.

I really lucked out this year in terms of timing, since this year’s convention fell in the small bit of break time (thurs-sun this weekend yay) between my third and fourth years of medical school, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to enjoy everything to the fullest. I’m not sure if I’ll have many opportunities to visit conventions fully again, so I’m hoping to try and make the most of what I have now. Or at least have fun winging it this year like I did last year. As for the future? We’ll see.

I was hoping this would be a more “productive” post behind this…

By TheBigN

So, I had another post about the rest of Otakon at least partly written some weeks ago about the rest of my time there (you know, stuff like enjoying MELL’s Q&A and Yamakan’s second Q&A, EPIC KARAOKE throughout [at least on the end of those of us participating], seeing omo give his confession to Zange-chan, the FUNimation panel, bagpipes, seeing the Dealer’s Room after closing time and helping Hen Da Ne take down their wares, etc.). But then my main computer tanked, OSes were reinstalled, and all that good information, as well as 3 months of other stuffs, is gone to the electronic ether where all deleted files go. This also explains some of why I’ll probably be late with my Secret Santa entry for Reverse Thieves. And I always told myself to not write one of these “why I haven’t been writing in a while” filler posts. I’m a little ashamed at this.

But on to the real point of this post. If you’ve read my posts on Katsucon and Otakon for this year, you noticed that I had some pictures of cosplay that I’d taken for both of these. And I was planning on releasing more photos for later posts, like the said Otakon one, that have ended up not being made or have been purged. Instead, I’ve just put those cosplay pictures that I’ve taken con-wise onto a flickr account, and should be planning to add some more pictures of much more other stuff down the road. I’ve had the account up for a while, but it’s been incomplete to about now. Still, it’s kind of interesting to see that very few people have already found the place, and apparently some characters are focused on more than others.

As always, if any person looking at this is one of the people cosplaying and wants me to take down their picture, I will comply quickly. No problems. And there will be something of more substance than this post coming up soon, for those of you still reading. 😛

It says something that this was one of the most seen pics in that short time, but hey. Bridget is awesome

Otakon 2009 Day 1: (Ful)Filling

I find that it’s been hard for me to write up my thoughts on things like going to conventions (or just writing in general recently). Part of it is me worrying if I got everything down that I remembered or wanted to remember (but that’s what other people fact checking are for! \o). Part of it is that I feel like there’s a lot that I want to say, but it’s going to be tedious as it’s long as the pre-reg line was on Friday (took about an hour 45 minutes to get in); i.e., me being a lazy bum. And part of it is that other people have done it beforehand. But I did achieve a lot more in this con than I was expecting to; getting autographs and pictures with some guests (more like one guest :3), meeting up with Internet friends I’ve met with before and meeting plenty of new ones in the process (so many that I’m not sure if I can name them all), spending all of my spending money in one hour on the first day at the dealer’s room (still not sure how I did that), taking pictures of cosplay with my recently acquired camera (pics up soon I thinks), doing more karaoke than last year (and how) and so on. For not really having a definite plan for this year’s Otakon, I still had a blast.

First Alice I saw at the con the pre-reg line. The best one out of all I saw too.