Otakon 2007, My First “Real” Anime Convention – Day 0
Posted in Anime, Anime Conventions on July 19th, 2007 by Kevin LinIt’s hard to believe that only a year ago, I would’ve wondered about even taking a few seconds to look at an episode of anime, or read a “backwards” copy of manga. Well, now that’s all changed. I’m writing this post from Columbia, Maryland, at a friend’s house, about ready to fall asleep for the night (many thanks to the Chiangs for letting me stay at their place!). Why? Because I’m staying here for the weekend, about a 20-minute ride from one, if not the largest anime conventions in the United States: Otakon.
Fine, so those who’ve known me well in the past year also understand that I worked at the gaming room in January for Setsucon, Penn State’s own little anime convention. But that only had ~400 attendees. Otakon, on the other hand, is known for having over 20,000 people show up at the Baltimore Convention Center, and a great deal of them might do one or more of the following: watch anime, read manga, cosplay, volunteer, create Japanese art, play import video games, dance, sing, listen to J-pop and R-rock…etc. You get the idea. This is a huge gathering of, how my sister puts it, nerds. Yes, a nerd congregation. And I’m not afraid to say that I am finally one of those obsessed with the facet of Japanese culture…haha. If the Tesla coil won’t convince you, what will? A death ray on top of world destruction? Maybe…
Anyway, let’s get down to mass otakudom…
Day 0 – Heading up and getting pre-registration.
$50 dollars (pre-reg) for 3 days? Not bad, considering how many things one can do at Otakon! Dan Cicconi, one of my closer friends from middle school through college, also came up along with his group (though he will be staying at a hotel near the BCC). The lack of a registration cap this year was a nice thing, though I wonder if a building containing the equivalent of half of Penn State Main Campus would feel too cramped…?
First off, I’m very grateful for having parents who are willing to take me here, because it’s pretty certain that not many would be willing to make a 2 1/2-hour car ride for one person. Not to mention, both of my grandmas came along, and they aren’t staying over. So, I packed my things (clothes and related stuff, books, drawing materials, camera/camcorder, and even my overweight tower computer so I can write this post :p), took 202 and I-95 down to Maryland, and unloaded at the Chiang’s house in Columbia. Then, we left for the Convention Center so I can pick up pre-registration from the Pratt Street entrance.
My family and I got dinner at the waterfront (specifically, the Harbor Place), and surprisingly, amongst the midst of people bearing red neck straps and Otakon ID cards, I found some Penn State Anime Club members by the end of the night!
Returned back to the Chiangs, and said good-byes before my mom, dad, and grandmas headed back. Hope they drove safely…
And thus concludes the short day and post. Oh, and by the way: I’m not cosplaying this year. However, I did make a Full Metal Panic!-related shirt the day before to wear to the con (FYI, the second image looks off, but the shirt’s not unfolded fully):
Here are the PNG image files, if you would like to make your own as well: front (0.3 MB), back (3.9 MB)
Next year, I’m going to try and cosplay as FMP!’s ARX-7 Arm Slave, so instead of merely the shirt that bears the images of one this year, it’ll be the “real” armored mech come 2008…hopefully. Keep updated on my Cosplay.com progress here.
Note: the shirt’s screenshots, front FMP! logo, and ARX-7 image are copyright to their specific creators and holders, not me! Only the grid renders, back slogan, and layout/shadowing are my scratch-made creations in The Gimp. I’m merely a fan of Full Metal Panic!, so don’t hurt me, please…
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