The Final Wrap Up

Final summary of the last day of Otakon, overall thoughts, why Church of Moyism fails, and plans for next year after the jump.

Going to sleep at 6AM only to get up at 8:30AM on the last day of Otakon was probably not a good indication of things to come. With what little sleep I got, after a shower, checking out of the hotel, packing all our crap in my car, Chris and I headed to the convention center once last time to see the US Premiere Emience Concert. Our initial plan was to be there around 10:30-11AM to score some good seats but one thing led to another which resulted in us not getting on line until 11:30AM… outside the convention center.

I was a bit afraid we may not get in or get decent seats but knowing just how big the Main Events room was thanks to Seki’s Saturday Q&A, I knew we would be fine for the most part. The only interesting thing I took note of were some idiotic teenagers trying to be all Jackie Chan like and were climbing and sliding down the nearby slanted wall that goes up to the second/main floor. Honestly, how stupid do you have to be do that? Especially if you get hurt? I don’t mind being adventurous every once in awhile but to do so while a crowd was watching just doesn’t click with me. I guess teenagers will just be teenagers. Sigh.

Watching the future of America, and planning my leave of the country if they ever hold power, the staff let us in around 12PM. By the time Chris and I actually entered the hall, it was a good 50% full already! Luckily the back area towards the center was empty so we sat ourselves there, right behind the sound techs. Pretty good seats considering how “late” we were; we could see the stage clearly and had plenty of leg room to relax comfortably. We probably waited another 10-15 minutes for the rest of the crowd to enter but sure enough, the concert started…

… and I kind of blank out on what exactly was played. Even if I did remember, I would be unable to describe just how good Eminence was. Just go to Omo’s entry as he described the event better than I ever could. I would also recommend youtube as another great source to check the concert. I have a few crappy videos as well if one is interested. Unfortunately I did not keep track of what’s what, so it’s anyone’s guess what I was recording beside a lot of Romeo X Juliet tracks to show Omni (see Omo’s comments below for song listings for the videos. Thanks dude!). Word of warning, I’m weaksauce in the strength department after carrying all my luggage back to the car, so my muscles were hurting. Trying to maintain the camera for anything longer than a few seconds and my arms started to give out. Thus why 3/4 of my videos looked like something from the Blair Witch Project, so those that get motion sickness easy may want to avoid them.

After the excellent concert that had Chris and I hyped about Eminence, we wanted to get their CDs badly, specifically their games and anime ones. Unfortunately so did everyone else as there was a long arse line for their CDs and autograph session that eventually, we decided not to venture to. A little disappointed about not getting their CDs, we headed to the Dealer’s Room one last time for last minute purchases and potential deals.

We first tried to hit Eminence’s booth as I remembered they were selling their CDs the day before but once again, we were disappointed as they only had the games and movies CDs. No anime no dice. I was tempted to get their t-shirt but at $20 I passed. At this point Chris and I sort of split up as he looked for stuff for his friends and girlfriend while I headed to HLJ’s booth to see what last second prices they may have had. A little surprisingly, at least to myself, their merchandise were mostly gone as either they started to pack or just sold a lot since Saturday. Looking at the prices, they knocked everything off by $5, which while not much was still cheaper than probably 50% of the other dealers there. Plus knowing I was buying from a legit store ensured I was getting the real deal and not getting shafted. After much debate between Escalayer, Fuana, and this I eventually decided on Fuana. Made some quick smalltalk with the same rep from yesterday when paying which involved him saying he liked the figure as well, me giving them too much cash (and them keeping the extra), and getting another 10% coupon. Once I secured the figure, I was out of there as soon as possible, a little afraid I may have bought something else if I stayed too long.

With my wad of cash being $50 lighter, walked around a bit more and ended up checking out Sasuga Books’ booth. This ended up being bad financially for me in a few minutes but before I got to check anything, Ten called hunting me down for a free shirt. Yes, anime fans, especially anime bloggers, would do anything to get free swag… even if it involved meeting me in person. Anyway, met up with her near the Gaia booth, finally meeting an anime blogger after three days of failed attempts. Didn’t really have a chance to talk much due to the Dealer’s Room closing soon, me being sleep deprived, etc but Ten seemed pretty cool for the few minutes we talked. I did learn she met or ran into a few other anime bloggers as mentioned in her post and that they were looking for me. Except they were looking for a black t-shirt and not light blue. People really don’t read my blog after all :aorz:

My deflated ego aside, we snapped a quick photo together after Ten made me promise not to post it if I valued my life and parted shortly afterwards. I think Ten had to meet up with some friends while I wanted to do some shopping before the con was over. Plus I think I may have freaked Ten out a bit. Oops. Went back to Sasuga Books’ booth and picked up Fujitsubo Machine.tw artbook for $60. A little pricey but then again, I haven’t really seen it anywhere plus it has pieces by Noizi Ito who’s work I always love looking at.

Now with $110 worth of goods in tow, and the Dealer’s Room closing any minute, I headed out to meet with Jabel for a few. I just had to give the man a t-shirt for being such a cool guy to chill with during Mamiko Noto’s panels, which I really should have done earlier but forgot. We did the usual photo with the t-shirt, said our manly goodbyes, and parted ways as I waited to meet with my friends to head back to NJ.

Or so I thought. Ended up taking a detour in Delware since one of my friends Matt and his girlfriend Janet wanted to stop at a cheap hibachi place. Service and food were excellent, as seemed to be the trend for the weekend, with all of us full and satisfied. For the record, I got the NY steak and chicken with fried rice, some shrimp, and veggies plus a salad. A salad that I ate (don’t like salad normally) since I was hungry as crazy. It was good, but that extra spice called “hunger” could have given it that special kick

The drive home was pretty quick minus me driving half asleep most of the time. I’m surprised Chris and I made it back in one piece without me crashing into something. Seriously. Dropped Chris off at his place and chilled for a bit, mostly to see how our videos came out from the concert. Another fun one hour half asleep driving and I was back home where I ended staying up to 4AM as I caught up downloading anime and whatever I missed plus unpacking everything.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Otakon. It was light years better than my experience at MangaNEXT if anything, simply because I was with friends this time.

The main highlight, of course, had to be meeting Mamiko Noto. If someone told me I would have taken a photo with her as well as getting her autograph a week ago, I would have bitch-slapped that person and call him a lair and giver of false hope. Thinking back, I sort of wished I asked or done more like Omo getting a handshake or another fan getting their item personalized (well really for his girlfriend but still) but hindsight is 20/20 and this was first time ever meeting a seiyuu, let alone getting anything autographed. Now that I know better, in the future, I won’t be such a n00b and will try for more… I hope. I also did find it funny how my chance photo with her led to some interesting posts by other jealous blogging peers.

Beside Mamiko Noto, I don’t think I have to mention how excellent Eminence’s concert was. The more I think about it, the more I feel like shooting myself in the foot for not picking up their various CDs when I had the chance. Even though I’m not into background music much, after their concert I was ready to dedicate a full week listening to all their available music! That’s just how impressed I was. I wonder how Tomokazu Seki’s character Chiaki from Nodame would do if he had to conduct such an orchestra?

And speaking of Tomokazu Seki, the man was great. Period. I was already pretty GAR for him as I enjoyed the majority of work he’s done but after seating in on part of his Q&A, my respect and GAR-ness for him has gone up a few levels to over 9000. The guy really kept his panel rolling and always offered some decent answers. And of course, he totally kicked arse when doing any character voice requests, which out of the few I heard, enjoyed Chiaki’s the most. I still think the best part was him doing both the seme and uke roles common in BL/yaoi. Now that’s a man not afraid to do it all!

Okay, enough fanboying over the various guests. People want to hear what I thought of the cosplayers right? Well, sorry to disappoint but I don’t have much to say. Unless someone pointed specific people or groups to me, I pretty much ignored the crowd around me, including the hundreds of cosplayers. From the little I did actually noticed, quality varied a lot. There were some great cosplayers, there were some not so great cosplayers. I think basically, it’s similar to what one would see at any decently sized anime convention. So sorry, those looking for insightful comments on cosplayers won’t be finding any from me!

On the convention and staff, I personally thought everything ran fine although others disagree. For me, since I knew when and where the panels I wanted were I had very little issues seeing what I wanted to. The staff seemed friendly enough and the layout of the convention center was fine, so no complaints here. I guess once I get more con experience under my belt, I will have more constructive comments to say but for now, I would say Otakon got a high passing grade by me. Good atmosphere, excellent guests, great crowd, and nice weather really made my experience at Otakon 2007 an enjoyable one. I can probably say that without a doubt, there’s a 90% chance I’ll head back next year ready for more and prepared to enjoy the convention thoroughly.

Speaking of preparing for the future, I definitely need to do so if I plan to do anything similar to this year’s failed attempt at “Church of Moyism” t-shirts. A combination of last minute problems and changes, not getting contact information, plus my blind faith of my “popularity” (or lack thereof) hit home at how badly the idea failed. Sure I got lucky and was able to give away a few but it was not in the way I thought. Heck even with my friends wearing custom “Church of Moyism” t-shirts like mine, no one asked about it. I think part of the problem was everyone else was wearing some type of shirt with designs (come on, a black t-shirt that just said “ANIME”!?) that most people just took mine as such and never actually looked at it. I’m going to have to re-think this for next year and start at least a month in advance, so if there are any problems there will be plenty of time to notify everyone.

… maybe I need a sign that says, “Hi, I’m moyism. I’m giving away free shit. Come!”