Otakon 2006

[Agent Unknown]

I'm going to Otakon this year. It's only my second convention...EVER. I'm going as Shampoo from Ranma one day and Doris Lang from Vampire Hunter D on the other day. Unfortunately I have nobody to go with. Somebody??..a little help here??

[GreatNekoKoneko]

...why not join us in the AN meetup thingie on the other thread?

[Delta-Pheonix]

I wanna go! I'll make the assumtion that it's in Japan so theres no chance of me getting there >_< ,

[EternityOfPain]

I wanna go! I'll make the assumtion that it's in Japan so theres no chance of me getting there >_< ,

Nope. Its actually in Baltimore Maryland (U.S.A). ^_^

I personally can't wait either, its going to be my first con and I figured I missed it last year but ill be damned if I miss it again :P

[GreatNekoKoneko]

... see ya there man. its next week. can't wait. of course, cosplay bashing is definitely part of my usual con-itenerary.

[animegirl7783]

Hey if anyone has been to Otakon in the past does anyone remember the people that are there that have the huge CD table? If anyone knows the name of their company could you let me know? thanks!

[Soluzar]

Son May, M I Rite?

[animegirl7783]

Son May, M I Rite?

Isn't that a bootleg company?

[Soluzar]

Isn't that a bootleg company?

Yeah. I don't go to conventions myself, but I've always assumed that the dealer's room would be full of bootleg merchandise.

[animegirl7783]

Yeah. I don't go to conventions myself, but I've always assumed that the dealer's room would be full of bootleg merchandise.

They actually don't allow bootlegs at Otakon.

[Soluzar]

They actually don't allow bootlegs at Otakon.

Officially. I've heard plenty of anecdotal evidence that bootlegs are sold at Otakon, despite the rules. Dealers simply choose to take that risk in order to make more profit. Do a search for otakon and bootleg on google, and you'll see a few stories straight away.

Even if I were going to a convention, I'd class it as too big of a risk to buy things in the dealer's room.

[EternityOfPain]

Officially. I've heard plenty of anecdotal evidence that bootlegs are sold at Otakon, despite the rules. Dealers simply choose to take that risk in order to make more profit. Do a search for otakon and bootleg on google, and you'll see a few stories straight away.

Even if I were going to a convention, I'd class it as too big of a risk to buy things in the dealer's room.

Sorry but I personally would have to disagree with this statment. I am sorry, but if you see anime DVDs or wallscrolls/posters its very easy to tell if its bootleg or ligit even if your not a "hardcore" anime fan. I agree there is always a chance of bootlegs being sold but so what? Just be careful and you will be fine (which is what i will be doing). When in doubt just think, if its to good to be true, it is.

[WadeW]

I've never had any trouble with getting tricked with a bootleg. If I had to guess where the bootlegs are, I'd say the import games/cds stands. Bootleg merchandice is easy to spot, and I haven't noticed that much.

[5YN-fitik]

maryland? no way.

[Dan]

Sorry but I personally would have to disagree with this statment. I am sorry, but if you see anime DVDs or wallscrolls/posters its very easy to tell if its bootleg or ligit even if your not a "hardcore" anime fan. I agree there is always a chance of bootlegs being sold but so what? Just be careful and you will be fine (which is what i will be doing). When in doubt just think, if its to good to be true, it is.

Its true. There are on average about 3 bootleg places (that Ive noticed in my 4 years at Otakon), and they are painfully obvious.

Basically, if you want DVDs the localizers are THERE, so buy from them. If you want anything else... ebay is better. Sorry, but dealer's rooms are virtually useless with the advent of the internet. Unless you want to pay too much for something that is released the day of the con. But then even then dealers give these things away, so buying is unnecessary.

[Dj_Saito]

omg i didnt know otakon came twice a year .....I need to get there now... spur of the moment lol

[GreatNekoKoneko]

... twice? you must be mistaken. it only comes once a year. and pre-reg pickup is tomorrow... see you there.

[Kangaroo Rat]

Bleh, i'm in baltimore.. but Final worth 50% of grade > Otakon

Damn.

[Dj_Saito]

:< i didnt make it....yes i was mistaken i was thinking of katsukon, my mistake......well i hope everyone enjoys themselves....ill definately make it next year!(its already in planning :D)

[EternityOfPain]

Whoa! Well that was a very entertaining few days! Since my brother Campus is closer to the BCC i just lived there for a few days (actually writing this from his on campus apartment). So lets see. What did I think of my first con? It was amazing. I don't have the schedule on me so I won't be able to name every activity I did but I will do my best.. First on friday went around 11:30 am (I didn't really like any of the earlier events so I found no reason to have to go and wait in line for hours just to get in ^^). Anyways I checked out the Mobile Suit Gundam panel (even though I have yet to see the series..) and it was still pretty entertaining the panelist were fairly knowledge regarding gundam in period and it was interesting learning about the history. Then I left half way and went to the Science in Anime panel. This panel was amazing, the panelist really knew there stuff regarding the actual facts and the current knowledge regarding possiblities in space travel and wormholes, very interesting. I then went to check out the dealers room. I had no idea the room was so huge. I had no idea where to start from and chances are I missed quite a lot (even though I went to the dealers room twice.) Well I went to one dealer and he was selling some Ichigo 100% figures and I just had to buy them. There is a total of 5. Anyways, I soon left because I really did not want to go in debt... (I would have had to begin using credit cards which I found some vendors didn't accept). I then went and checked out the mecha trivia game show. Now you may be wondering "why the hell where you at a mecha trivia game show when you have yet to even watch a mecha show!" My answer would be "cause I felt like it." Anyways, the panelist was a bit disorganized but it went well in the end. Basically he would ask questions and if the contestests could not answer the question then he would ask the audience (of course I knew none of the answers). Anyways, he was running short on time and he still had some prizes so he said "everyone run up and just grab stuff". And guess what happend? People stormed the stage taking stuff. It was hilarous. I ended up grabbing the first volume of "Hello kitty" (hell yea), first volume of Yojimbo and first volume of banner of the stars. There was some other stuff but i would have felt bad if i took it all (yea right... more like i had other purchases in my other hand and I couldn't grab it all :P ). I did then go check out the madhouse panel which was very cool (even though they didn't give free stuff away.) I did check out the Yuri panel but I was disapointed for the most part frankly because they seemed to focus more on girl x girl friendships verses actual relationships and such (aka i wanted some extreme yuri action and was provided with nothing.) I did go to the Hentai a-go-go panel among other things (this panel was good but they should have showed video content but I guess they couldn't.) I also did go and check out some other panels and the gaming room (which is amazing) but honesty I don't remember the names off the top of my head. I did not actually "watch" much anime there but I did watch all of Golden boy on there big screen (which was amazing because we watched it subbed and it was the fist time Ihad done so via subs and it was just fantastic.) This pretty much sums up Friday. I will post Saturday sometime tonight or tomorrow.

EDIT: For those who care this is Saturdays post..)

Well after arriving late on Saturday and all I basically went to the ADV panel listened to what they had to say (drawing blanks) I checked out this Game Show Quiz where they were giving right answers some random DVD. I checked out the Dating Sim and ADV panel (my brother who doesn't watch anime really likes hentai games/movies (go figure). Then onto Geneon panel followed by some Full metal Alchemist panel (which I might add the girls who where running it had some of the worst give away prizes.. They raffled printed out pictures of characters... yea..) Then I checked out the Transformers panel (no idea why cause i have yet to even watch a single transformers series... But I mainly stayed there cause the next panel (Old school anime) is what really interested me. They orignially had some problems (they were trying to run a mini clip that showed random anime from the 80s till 2002 (disapointed cause they did not have city hunter but thats another story >_<) in The end I headed to the Hentai Doujinshi panel which was semi interesting. It mainly talked about how they draw and then scan in the computer and do there final edits and such there. Then after that panel was 4chan.org panel. it was the largest panel there i swear... The crowd was going freaking crazy. They gave away these pins that have "Anyomous" with a time stamp on them (pretty neat ^^) they talked about there new systems coming up (banning etc) and new potential boards. Then I finished off saturday with WTB? WTF panel which was pretty interesting. Basically it was a panel of 8 ppl who talked about random interesting stories while showing werid things on the projector... At the end they picked 5 ppl in the crowd to tell a story of the most interesting thing that happend to them at a con and the deal was if you lost you would get your picture taken and put on the "hall of shame" to be showed at the next con. One story was about a whole bunch of nuns who randomly came in the con cause they had a meeting on the top floor. Everyone was taking pictures of them and they were really suprised (everyone must have thought they cosplayed as nuns lol). In the end the story regarding Otakon 2002 won because she said there was a gas leak and they were like "everyone has to get the hell out of the building or you may die" and outside the building all the fire hydrates were popping and the streets were flooded. She wanted to remember the occasion so she told this dude in the car to take a picture of her and her friends (with her $400 dollar camera) except he then waved and drove off with the camera lol. That was pretty much then now time to get to where my story becomes a bit ****ed up... Ok so the con ended (basically kicking us out) at around 2:30 am. My brother and I proceed to go the the car garage that we parked the cars in. Except when we arrived (about a 10 minute walk). We noticed that they had closed down the garage... Thats right a ****ing parking garage was CLOSED. So we called this random number on the building to see if we can get the cars out. They said the manager went home for the night and no one can come and open till 8 am... So yea we are in the city now 3 in the morning with no car.. We headed back to the convention. So then my brother called his friend to see if he can come and pick us up. We end up waiting a good 30 minutes untill he arrives.. Before he arrives we are apporached by a con goer who said his gf kicked him out of his hotel and now he is homeless. During the time waiting he told us about his time in Japan where he was beat in a bar.. competely stripped and barbed wired at a baseball after party and then had to go to the hospital and get wheelchaired for 3 weeks... Of course he was charged with lotering on the side of the raod where the cops found him all bloody... Anyways when my brothers friend comes to pick us up we get in and hes "like guess what"? You guys get to come with me to drop off the dude in the back home (which is 40 minutes away from the con.. 80 minute round trip...) Alll in all we get back to my bros place at 6 am... Unable to get a ride to our cars early in the morning I miss Sunday Otakon...

[noriko-takaya]

I only went to Otakon one day, which was all of Friday, and I must say, I had a better time this year than in times past. I managed to get a friend of mine who does not like anime at all to go, and she had more of a blast than I did. Carol really loved the cosplayers, not to mention the one dressed as Jack Sparrow who was lusting after her. I wished I could have gone the remaining two days, but I had prior engagements which I could not break. I really wanted to see that panel on Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse which was on Saturday. I did manage to make the Nana Kitade concert at Rams Head Live on Friday night, and really liked it. The dealer's room was not as good as previous visits, but I did manage to find a 1/48th scale Yamato VF-1S Valkyrie which I wanted, as well as a few airsoft pistols to play with. The biggest disappointment was the lack of cel dealers. I was hoping to find a few more Gunbuster cels for my collection.

[Dan]

The biggest disappointment was the lack of cel dealers. I was hoping to find a few more Gunbuster cels for my collection.

Wish I had known that earlier, because Mandarake had some Gunbuster cel auctions only a few weeks ago. You should keep up with their auctions if you're really looking, the most random stuff pops up a lot.

[GreatNekoKoneko]

...and i still managed to miss the AN panel. i guess Kouta Hirano comes first.

[Michael]

I went specifically for MUCC. Front row, right infront of YUKKE (bassist) for their very first US concert. COMPLETLEY worth the trip up from Atlanta.

[Magdalena]

I had more fun this year than last, mainly because I spent more time there and had three groups of people to hang out with, so I had more choice over what I was doing. I also went to the rave for the first time on Friday night, which was pretty fun. The MUCC concert was really awesome, I'd like to find a list of the songs they played, because before the concert I didn't have any idea who they were and now it's sort of hard to look for their music. Man, I didn't even try to get an autograph from Kouta Hirano, I imagine the line would have been pretty long (and it was scheduled too close to the concert), but I did get a sketch and autograph from Kazuto Nakazawa ^_^ . And good things can be found in the dealer's room, if you know what to look for. I didn't find any decent prices on DVDs, but I found some great deals on manga and other stuff. I didn't see as many awesome cosplayers as last year, but I still wish I'd taken more pictures. I missed sunday for Ozzfest, but if I went back I just would have gone completely broke from shopping :P

[Likely]

...why not join us in the AN meetup thingie on the other thread?
how was it, got pictures? ive never been to one of these things but really want to some day. the one closest to me (i think this is one anyway) would be that annual con in atlanta.

[GreatNekoKoneko]

... i seriously wanted to go to the ADV panel and ask the question that has been bugging me and a million others for they apparently have the answer to it. and the question is... "WHAT IS ANIME?"