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Otakon 2013 - Post Convention Thoughts

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Warrior_Keoni

Member
Hi folks:

I didn't see a thread for Otakon after doing a search so I figured why not. I'm pretty sure I am not the only one who attended Otakon 2013 which was held in Baltimore, MD this past weekend. I was curious to the opinions of other GAF attendees and wanted to hold an off-topic discussion of various things that they saw/did there.

Anyway, the biggest news was that TM Revolution, Homemade Kazoku, Yoko Kanno & Chiaki Ishikawa all performed on the Saturday & Sunday concerts.

TMR_SM_400x267.jpg
HMKU_sm.jpg

YKanno.jpg

CIshikawa.jpg
Click to expand...

Most of you familiar with TM Revolution would know his songs from Gundam SEED, Soul Eater, Rurouni Kenshin, and more. Homemade Kazoku is definitely famous for the second ending to Bleach, as well as one of the Naruto endings. Yoko Kanno is famous for her tracks via Cowboy Bebop, Macross, Wolf's Rain, Ghost in the Shell, etc. Chiaki Ishikawa's voice is pretty powerful as evidenced in Bokurano's opening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05p646nlYS0

Biggest grab for me from Otakon was snagging autographs from Micro, Kuro, & U-Ichi of HMK. Even then, the collaboration towards the end of the concert between TM Revolution and Homemade Kazoku was just mind-blowing.

O8VKEvw.jpg
Click to expand...

This was my very first anime convention and overall felt decent if not for the long lines for panels and getting rejected if a room was full. Otakon is also slated to move to Washington D.C. in 2017.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-08-11/otakon-to-move-to-washington-d.c-in-2017
 
W

Warrior_Keoni

Member
The walkways at the Baltimore Convention Center were pretty crowded and took quite a few minutes to get from one end to the other.

Baltimore will be re-investing so DC is a temporal location...who knows?
 
C

Celegus

Member
So bummed out I missed TMR. Gah that would have been amazing! I'm really hoping I get to go next year, but glad to hear it was fun!
 
M

Mesoian

Member
So I haven't attended Otakon in years, but I'll say that this was the first year that I was interested in going due to Yoko Kanno and TM revolution's attendance. That being said though, Otakon always seemed like a convention that finds itself mired in repetition. Even when doing stuff like participating in the Masq or doing Artist Alley, there's so little that changes from year to year that it's barely worth going. The headliners for this year seem dramatically better than the years when I attended, but is that still how it is? I feel like I spend 90% of my time cosplaying and in the game room, hanging out with friends rather than attending anything entertainment wise that the convention has to offer. And that's not unique to Otakon, I used to attend 6-10 anime cons a year, but found that I was just having more fun not buying a badge and hanging out with friends, since no one checks your batch when you go in heavy cosplay areas, or while you're outside, or when you're walking around the adjacent areas.

Did the convention itself actually do a good job at providing entertainment? Or was it the fun that you manage to generate yourself that made it a memorable experience?

It's been something that's been on my mind more and more as I get older and I start attending more adult focused conventions like PAX or SDCC or Dragoncon or Magfest, stuff that spends a lot of money and time making sure that there's a lot of interesting things for people to see.

Edit: Is Otakon going to the Gaylord National? Because it would be pretty fuckin' funny to go to the same (magnificent) hotel 3 times a year for geeky ass cons.
 
U

UpperCaseN

Member
Kanno concert was amazing. 2 from my group went to TM Revolution but I haven't had a chance to ask them about it yet. My wife and I cosplayed, have yet to upload our photos but I was planning on posting them in the neocosplay thread. I failed on getting Kanno's autograph, failed on Watanabe day 1, but got it day 2:

uQdWAccl.jpg
 
W

Warrior_Keoni

Member
Mesoian said:
So I haven't attended Otakon in years, but I'll say that this was the first year that I was interested in going due to Yoko Kanno and TM revolution's attendance. That being said though, Otakon always seemed like a convention that finds itself mired in repetition. Even when doing stuff like participating in the Masq or doing Artist Alley, there's so little that changes from year to year that it's barely worth going. The headliners for this year seem dramatically better than the years when I attended, but is that still how it is? I feel like I spend 90% of my time cosplaying and in the game room, hanging out with friends rather than attending anything entertainment wise that the convention has to offer. And that's not unique to Otakon, I used to attend 6-10 anime cons a year, but found that I was just having more fun not buying a badge and hanging out with friends, since no one checks your batch when you go in heavy cosplay areas, or while you're outside, or when you're walking around the adjacent areas.

Did the convention itself actually do a good job at providing entertainment? Or was it the fun that you manage to generate yourself that made it a memorable experience?

It's been something that's been on my mind more and more as I get older and I start attending more adult focused conventions like PAX or SDCC or Dragoncon or Magfest, stuff that spends a lot of money and time making sure that there's a lot of interesting things for people to see.

Edit: Is Otakon going to the Gaylord National? Because it would be pretty fuckin' funny to go to the same (magnificent) hotel 3 times a year for geeky ass cons.
Click to expand...

Some of the fan panels such as the Building your Gunpla models were very interesting and had me reconsider how to approach at another angle in detailing my mechs.

It was my first convention, but I had fun in the game room, as well as being able to walk around gathering Streetpasses and just chatting a bit with cosplayers.

Not sure about other entertainment, but the concerts and getting HMK's autographs were my biggest thing.
 
E

Egnirys

Member
I haven't been in years and I really need to make a trip back out there for it. I'm in California, but I prefer Otakon over AX. I heard about the soap in the fountain though and it reminded me of the one year I attended Ota where the city water was shut down near the convention center, so I couldn't wash out the layers of spray adhesive in my hair.

Man I miss Ota. ;_;
 
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