Otakon 2008 – Final Thoughts

Hopefully the last Otakon 2008 post I’ll be making as I’m sure everyone and their cats are sick of me talking about the con for so long. My thoughts on Sunday’s concerts, last minute shopping, and the many characters I met after the jump.

BTW, this turned out to be a long post… really about meeting various anibloggers so be prepared. Plus if I offended anyone mentioned, my bad!

Well, the Sunday concerts weren’t bad but since I didn’t really know any of the bands, I wasn’t expecting much. The DaizyStripper definitely has that whole visual kei thing going and man, got their fans and general audience hyped up as the opening act. I can’t comment too much on the songs given all of them sounded kind of similar to me but I will say they do rock hard without a doubt. Also should mention they were probably the band that “gave” the most as 3/4 of the members threw their jackets to the audience among water bottles and drum sticks… you don’t wanna know how insane THAT was to watch ^^;;

After DaizyStripper, MarBell were next and (un)fortunately were probably the “weakest” of the three groups, if anything based on the audience reactions. It may have had to do with the staff watching over the audience more thoroughly after the insane crowding that DaizyStripper created or the various audio problems that plagued the entire concert, but there wasn’t much love for this band. Their songs were alright but honestly DaizyStripper left more of an impression than MerBell. They, well really the lead vocalist, did however have more “rock” stuff to keep the audience interested like some yuri kissing and flashing us her ass/panties (twice). Overall kind of meh I guess.

Thankfully The Underneath brought the audience back alive, although staff did have to get everyone pumped up to get them to come out(?). I’m guessing The Underneath was most likely the main act given they played the most songs out of the three groups, some of which I kind of enjoyed but have forgotten about by now. I did like how the main vocalist/leader did have a decent amount of english practiced to actually interact with the audience versus just saying random english words anyone would know (sure it was still engrish but a helleva better than the other two bands). Think I may have enjoyed their music a little more if it wasn’t for the fact my legs were killing from almost standing two hours straight for all the bands; something this old body of mine just can’t hack anymore ^^;;

After the concert, with Otakon basically being over I made one last second stop at the Dealers’ Room where I was able to score three free posters (actual poster sized!) at Bandai’s booth of Scrapped Princess, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Gurren Lagann. Heading to HLJ’s booth to see what they had left (or even if they were still there) also scored me a Kemeko figure for 1/2 the price! I was real lucky too as I was semi-eyeing the figure when I visited their booth a few days ago. Thank god no one really knows of the series?

And with shopping finally completed, I finished my 2nd year of going to Otakon with a feeling of satisfaction. Different from the satisfaction I had last year, this year I was able to enjoy the con a lot more thanks to meeting and hanging out with a bunch of anime bloggers. Actually I’m surprised how many I was able to meet this year, which I think had a lot to do with hanging with Omo whom seems to know like everyone.

Starting with the man himself, Omo is like a veretan at cons. Spending a lot of my time with him and seeing him in action, I feel like I should start calling him sensei or something. Honestly it was thanks to him I got to meet a lot more bloggers than I thought I would compared to if I was just going alone. And man, his intel is crazy as I noted in a previous JAM Project post; knowing when to line up for the concert, finding out about misc panels, and JAM Project’s 2nd autograph session were just some of the amazing private info he knew. All I can say is I hope to be as experienced as him one day as the man definitely knows how to get the most out of a con!

I think meeting the one and only Momotato was one of the biggest highlights of the con. Probably 2nd or 3rd if I had to rank my experiences or whatnot. Very easy going guy, he was pretty cool to chill with. Plus we were line buddies for JAM Project’s autograph session so some type of aniblogging bonding had to happen right? Actually on that, I was happy for him that he was able to get all the JAM Project autographs he wanted since initially he may not have gotten any; won’t go into details since it’s not my say but nice to see another aniblogger get what they want.

Link was the next aniblogger I happen to meet, actually at the bar a bunch of us decided to go to after JAM Project’s concert on Friday night (as noted by super rats). I did LOL when we were all introducing ourselves that he was surprised that I was er… well me since everyone was chatting it up about the concert as if we all been friends for awhile. Definitely an interesting fellow to say the least, it was good to hear that his Touhou panel had a decent turn out; which probably would have been a few higher if it wasn’t right before JAM Project’s concert (which he did make as well). If I ever get into Touhou, I definitely know who I’ll talk to first

And speaking of the bar, it was also where I finally got to meet the other uber famous blogger super rats. Pretty cool he was able to drop by given how late it was, even though he was only able to hang out for a few it great finally meeting after my failed attempt last year. I had a good laugh when he was mentioning his blog to some non-anibloggers explaining how his domain namewas initially maybe going to be about beers and whatnot but due to him cutting down on drinking eventually turn into what we all know of it as of now. Now I’m not 100% positive he was serious or just making a joke, but I’m glad he decided to stick with figures as I’m sure is all his fans/readers. LOL also loved how when we asked him what figure(s) he may have bought at the dealers’ room already, he was like “hell no I don’t want to carry all that stuff back!”

The only blogger I was able to meet last year, Ten made a few quick appearances throughout the con to meet others. I know she was in and out pretty quick but it was cool that at least she (and Anna) dropped by to say hi to everyone. I’m guessing Ten and Anna may have hung out longer if it wasn’t just us guys… I guess this is to be expected considering how “crazy” us male anibloggers can get?!?

Meeting theBigN was a surprise as, and I’m being honest, I knew of him and his blog but haven’t checked it out much. Not to say his blog isn’t interesting or anything but being an “old timer” I’m pretty set in stone on which blogs I’ll check out daily so when “new” blogs come out I probably don’t know or look into them until someone else mentions them. Anyway theBigN is a very cool cat and I was glad I was able to meet the guy. We unfortunately didn’t get to talk much due to the time but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for his blog more often. I can say at the very least that personally I thought he was the best of the three (no offense Link or Omo) when the guys went to sing JAM Project’s SKILL at karaoke. Heck I give him props just for going up there with the other two to do the song!

Os, Os, Os. I think he’ll easily be the one blogger I met that left the biggest impression on me considering when Omo introduced me, Os actually got out of his seat, walked up to me, and wanted to shake hands like he was semi-awed I was er… me. Os definitely wasn’t the guy I thought him to be based on his blog and the comments he leaves on mine, but I mean that in a good way. A good guy that just enjoys kicking it back and having a good time, it was cool hanging out with him the bit we were all together. I think the kicker with him was when he wanted a photo of us bloggers (Omo, wildarmsheero, myself, and him), his camera decided to die right there and then. Also him missing meeting Ten, momotato(?), and super rats twice was hilarious if only cause I loved the reaction he had every time I told him as such LOL.

With Os, kinda met baka raptor as well but we didn’t really talk much so yea…

… and wildarmsheero as well, whom easily became the 2nd blogger to leave the most impression on me. I can’t help but grin as I try to find the right words to describe the man himself. I think the easiest way is to say he’s an entertaining character, if anything else. Also after meeting him, he completely matches the type of person he may have been based on his blog and webcomics. I honestly mean that in a good way but somehow that just sounds horrible ^^;; But really, he’s one heck of a guy to hang with; you’ll definitely not be bored if he’s around.

The only other female aniblogger I met, thanks to Ten, Anna seems pretty cool as well. Much like Ten, she couldn’t hang out too long but it was just nice meeting another follow aniblogger.

Last but not least, I semi-met SDS. When I mean semi-met, I mean we were all chilling together but we never really introduced our selves to each other kind of way?

So in total, met roughly 9-11 anibloggers. Not too bad considering I only met like 1 last year. Next year I’ll try for more as just as they say in Pokemon, you “gotta catch ‘em all!”

… and yes, that was pretty horrible. Please just forget what I wrote before and instead, you can go “OoOoOo” and “Aaaahhh” over a close up shot of all the goods I recently got. Surprisingly spent under $100USD in anime related merchandise, although food expenses were a different story all together ^^;;