Only Blogger Not Invited to the Party

Day 2 of Otakon finally done.

Crappy photos and long summary of the events thus far after the jump.

The one semi-decent photo I took from Otaku Idol from Friday evening. I mentioned about the panel earlier but to add a little more, out of the two-three songs they performed while I was there the first was the best. If I remembered correctly, it was a move song from Initial D but I do not know from which; thinking either the first or maybe third season? What made the song really good was the female vocalist (cosplaying as Sora from Kingdom Hearts) as she had a clear voice and sang the Japanese really well. I can’t say so much for the male vocalist or the rest, which could have been in part due to audio issues.

My co-worker/friend Chris and I didn’t stay too long after the event started, due to not being what we thought it was and not eating anything for several hours, and met up with our other friends to eat at the local Hard Rock Cafe. The food was good and service also surprisingly good considering how late we ate, this being around midnight or so. I ordered the legendary 10 oz burger, which was a burger with cheese, bacon, and an onion ring. Very healthy right? Too bad I didn’t finish it due to filling up on soda as I was more thristy than hungry by then. Anyway, with full stomaches, we headed to the Barnes & Nobles next door for the Harry Potter release party. Personally, I don’t care for the series much but some of the others wanted to check out what was going on. Totally a bad move considering 90% of the crowd was sitting in the aisles reading various books and magazines.

After the uneventful Barnes & Nobles trip, headed back to the hotel to unpack and get ready for the next day. No clue how little sleep I got, probably around 5-6 hours, but was just too excited about the prospects of Saturday that it was hard to sleep… either that or because being under the A&C kept me on/off asleep the whole time.

Woke up at 9:30AM to beautiful sunny weather as I headed to Mamiko Noto’s Saturday Q&A session. Somehow made it to the convention center without getting lost, given the fact I didn’t really know the directions we took the night before. Made it to the panel a good 30+ minutes before it was going to start, and made my first Otakon friend of the day, Jabel, as he too was as big of a fan of Mamiko Noto as yours truly. After some quick introductions, and talking to the staff, we ended up seating in on the current panelist who happened to be Ryuhei Kitamura.

I honestly did not and still do not know much about Ryuhei Kitamura, but I will say one thing: He kept the audience entertained. Even better was he was speaking English himself, which while makes sense considering he’s directing American films, I did not expect. Overall his panel was pretty laid back and most of the time, he had some interesting stories to tell related to questions various audience members asked.

Too bad I don’t remember most, if any, of them. I do remember some random stuff like how he and the guy who does the Metal Gear Solid series are BFF. Or how he loves Commando and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best acting abilities were when he said “No” in it. There are a lot I know I have forgotten but I will admit, seating in on his panel wasn’t bad at all.

Anyway, as soon as Ryuhei Kitamura’s panel ended, you know me, Jabel, and the others waiting for Mamiko Noto jumped to the first row ASAP. Partly because the day before, they gave out the autograph session passes to the first row only, we all wanted to be sure we didn’t luck out (again). Also, sitting in the front row is never a bad idea anyways right?

Front row center, perfect for seeing Mamiko Noto in all her glory. Unfortunately this was the only decent shot I could quickly get before staff informed us there was supposed to be no photographs. I’ll have to check to see if someone else scored better photos.

On Mamiko Noto’s Q&A session itself, ANN has a very nice transcript of what happened at Friday’s. Pretty much very similar questions at the panel I attended, although there were very few requests for character voices/lines. I think one of the better questions asked, which threw even Mamiko Noto off, was a question on who she thought Harima from School Rumble should end up with. After getting a bit flustered about the initial question, she jokingly responded “Hanai?” which earned great laughs from us all.

I could try and vaguely remember some of the other questions and responses during the panel, but I’ll leave that to other folks like Omo whom actually took notes to jog their memories. Notes, what a novel idea.

After Noto’s panel, there were quite a few of us curious about autograph passes and whatnot since the staff didn’t give any out like yesterday. Basically after talking with Noto’s staff which contacted Otakon’s staff, it was going to be a free for all at her signing starting at 2PM (line up at 1PM). With the autograph session confusion resolved, luck was upon those that stayed afterwards, as Noto was taking photo request which lead to one of the best days of my life ever.

With grins still plastered on our faces while we praised the holiness (and cuteness) that is Mamiko Noto, Jabel and I made our way to her autograph session room after a quick stop at the Dealer’s Room. Apparently Jabel needed some merchandise he could get Noto to sign, which after much debate and spending were either a Jigoku Shoujo artbook or Negima poster. Small debate for my friend aside, we made our way to the room only to find out the staff wasn’t starting the line for a few. So being the type of folk that normally listened to staff, we killed a few just chatting and relaxing.

1PM rolled around and lo-behold, there’s already a line for Mamiko Noto’s even though staff told us not to start one! Slightly annoyed at the staff, Jabel and I entered the line, still earning relatively good spots (23rd-24th). Any annoyance we may have had with the staff soon disappeared after chatting it up with our line-mates, which easily helped to past the hour til the 2PM signing. Really nothing much interesting said during the time except a lot of anime geek talk that one could read anywhere on any anime-related forum. It was just nice to finally talk in person to like minded individuals about a hobby you enjoy so much.

On the actual autograph session, much to say, very little fanfare as everything went smooth as possible. Jabel finally decided on the big Negima poster which was a good choice, considering how big Noto signed it. Meanwhile I went the more “hardcore” route and got her to sign my Ichigo Mashimaro R2 Prologue DVD (box). I was tempted to ask if she could personally address the signature, but didn’t want others to miss out due to my selfishness. Plus I doubted I could keep my cool if I had to actually speak to Mamiko Noto for any length longer than .001 seconds. One thing I should note since I just happened to be watching, was another fan got Noto to sign the Jigoku Shoujo artbook that Jabel himself also bought. The interesting part came when the fan requested if she could sign another page in the book as well, which just happened to be where photos of her were; the embarrassing gestures she made were very moe~ (of course she did sign the page as well).

All in all, truly a once in a lifetime experience. I don’t know what was better. Getting Mamiko Noto’s autograph in person or getting a photo taken with her. I’ll have to lean towards the photo for now, considering it got me this close to her (god that sounds perverted no matter how I think about it). Just totally awesome.

On Mamiko Noto, I’m in complete agreement with my newfound friend and Noto fan Jabel that she is moe… or as her Japanese fans put it, Noto kawaii yo Noto! (see Matthew) Basically, what you see is what you get and with Mamiko Noto, it’s all AA+ in my books. Once again, I would try to write a bit more but I’m horrible at describing people in general, and anything I may say about Noto will not sound right. Just know, I am now 100% a Mamiko Noto fan for life!

Now with my mission in life complete, I could die happy I rushed to catch the last half of Seki’s Q&A panel that was on the opposite end of the convention center.

Much to say, I did make it. Sorry for the crappy photo but I was not sure if photographs were even allowed. It was only after I saw a few other people take photos, that I snapped a quick one.

If Mamiko Noto’s panel was light and more personal, Tomokazu Seki’s was all about his body of work. Unlike Noto’s Q&A where any given audience member could probably ask 3-5 questions due to the small turnout, Seki’s was full with people ready to ask him stuff. I don’t remember all the questions and responses, but I will try to highlight some of the more interesting ones.

Probably the best, in my opinion, was a female’s question about Seki’s feelings on his past roles in doing BL (Boys Love, yaoi, etc) games and if he would ever be interested in doing one again. Seki’s reponse was he actually tried to keep to the uke roles, as they only required him to react to what was happening versus “making all the noise.” For his interest in doing another in the future, I don’t remember his response although considering how many roles he gets, I doubt he’ll do one soon. What really made this question and Seki’s response great was his “since I’m in America at Otakon, I’ll do both the seme and uke roles as a special service.” Let’s just say many fangirls were cheering and I was laughing like crazy

One other question worth noting was this soul bearing one another female audience had as she had deeply related to one of the characters Seki did, saying the character was basically a male version of herself. Very moving stuff. It was around this time that Seki’s Uber Awesomeness was just too much for the room as one of the support lights started to catch fire, literally. The audience was able to see it fine but apparently Seki and his translator couldn’t; thankfully one of the staff there was able to turn off the lights effected and everything proceeded as normal. Although, the translator did initially ask if the girl could repeat her question as due to the fire, he lost track of what he was writing in his notes to translate; girl was “wait you want me to bear my soul again?” but eventually, the translator re-pieced the question on his own.

There are a few more questions, but I’ll leave those up to others with better memory and actual notes to talk about instead. Anyway, after Seki’s Q&A I along with Jabel (whom while did not have anything for Seki to sign, was more energetic about trying to get to Seki’s autograph session than I, who wanted Seki’s signature) literally ran to Seki’s autograph session in the faint hope of making it. Once we got there, which was probably less than 3 minutes after his Q&A finished, the line was already closed. Seems like people either opted for Seki’s Q&A or autograph or attended one yesterday and was doing the other today. Kind of sucked for me but I pretty much knew I had little hope of getting Seki’s autograph as well after the great luck I had with Noto.

A little dishearten and a lot of tired, I split with Jabel to go back to the hotel room to relax and blog real quick. Along the way ran into the guy whom I gave the “Church of Moyism” t-shirt to, and asked if we could take a shot together (this was me requesting of him). He was pretty cool about it and a shot later, I had proof of at least one reader out there!

Back in the safety and nicely air-conditioned room, caught up with Omni, did a quick Otakon blog update, and waited for my friends to come back so we could get a bite to eat. And to keep the record straight, at that point I had only had a bottle of raspberry snapple and a few pieces of random candy to tie me over. My inability to blog quickly didn’t help any as it held us from eating even longer.

Finally finishing my post, we all headed towards the bay/port/water where all the food was. Eventually ate at Phillip’s after having some green apple smoothie to tie me over. Phillips, for those that do not know, is a seafood restaurant which doesn’t work well for me since I’m not that much of a fan of the stuff. Luckily a chicken penne pasta dish saved me from totally starvation. After Phillip’s, headed back to the con with Chris to check out the gaming room before going to the Silent Hill panel at 9PM.

The gaming room was pretty cool but one can only expect so much. If anything, it was cool seeing games I would never normally play or find games I never heard of that seemed interesting. After looking around for a bit, Chris and I headed off to the Silent Hill panel hoping for something worthwhile. What we got instead was a mixed bag of blood and guts.

I know Chris probably enjoyed the panel a little more than I did since I was starting to pass out, but overall it wasn’t that interesting. Basically it was being back in college with a powerpoint presentation and the usual random noise and comments one would expect, with the occasional random audience member in cosplay coming up when their character was talked about. Pretty much like all my college classes back in the day.

For me, as well as Chris, I think the best part was the impromptu audience member singing one of the songs from the Silent Hill series insanely well. I missed the beginning part before deciding to try to shoot, but here’s the last 2 minutes of the girl singing (70MB). For her to randomly come up, sing, and sing that well. Just wow.

Somehow surviving the panel, the two of us headed back to the gaming room to kill a few. I didn’t play too much but I will say it’s always entertaining watching Chris play Guitar Heroes so well. I can’t say so much for either of us on the game that actually used a keyboard, however. Man, I royally sucked on that! After a hour or so of walking around, gaming, looking for cosplay photo ops, we headed back to the hotel to eat and prepare for tomorrow.

One thing I forgot to was that inbetween the seiyuu panels and eating, Chris and I headed to the dealer’s room as our other friends Matt and Janet were going to forever to get ready. I won’t go into the details, but HLJ sure knew how to keep their customer base as not only did I get a coupon to save 10% on my next 5000+yen order, but also received the Revoltech figure free as a gift! I don’t know if the HLJ rep guy just happened to like me as we were somewhat joking when they asked if I needed help, but man I ain’t complaining! Actually it seemed HLJ was giving away the figure to all those that bought something and said they were a customer. Looked like I lucked in and got the last one, which I’m definitely thankful for, although I have no clue what to do with it! Free merchandise is free merchandise however, so I ain’t complaining