Definitely not as awesome as some of j1m0ne’s, but I’m currently listed as #1 on google if you search for “otakon jam project”! Funny that the post that is #1 has like nothing about the concert but if you go a few entries later, you’d be gravy. Yay for good titling and mobile blogging like a madman?

And just in case I eventually get kicked off as the top link, which I know I will, here’s a screenshot to cement the moment.

… in other news, people should watch and/or read Detroit Metal City (DMC). Think BECK but with metal music and 20x the craziness! See Anime wa Bakuhatsu da for more.

You all may have noticed but in the past 24 hours I’ve been playing around with new wordpress themes like a mad man. After going through god knows how many themes, I finally decided on Puzzled but with a few small modifications to make it more personalized

While definitely not as cool as HappySoda’s or mukyaa~’s new themes, I think overall it came out decent. Plus any excuse to use some Minorin photos is always good, right? There are still some small tweaks I need to make here and there but overall everything should be working as they’re suppose to.

Anyway any thoughts, comments, etc are always welcomed. And as is the tradition when I change wordpress themes, you all can expect blogging to go back to zero XD

I know it’s still a month away but thought I may as well announce that I’ll be going to this year’s NY Anime Festival. Already taking the Friday the convention starts off from work, pre-registered, and housing arrangement set I’m pretty psyched if only because Tanka Rie is one of this year’s guest! Honestly if she wasn’t going to be there, I would have been iffy about going but with her as a guest along side such others like Yoshitaka Amano of Final Fantasy fame I have no excuse not to go.

Plus, I semi-fear the wrath of a particular blogger considering this convention should be relatively easy for me to go to (i.e. no good excuse not to go). I know Omo is going, so that should be cool that I’ll get to chill with him again. Anyone else? After Otakon, I’m really getting into going to these cons, if anything else, to meet other anibloggers and folks that I (semi-)know. So if ‘ya are, let me know so we can try to get a meet up of some sort; I’m sure JP and Hinano know of tons of good (Japanese) restaurants we could eat at. And in the worst situation, we can always hit up Chinatown for some er… quality food ^^;;

… now to figure out what I can try to get Tanaka Rie to sign. I’m kind of thinking of getting the Sekirei drama CD in which she plays Tsukiumi. It would definitely be something unique compared to doing any other merchandise related to her other major roles but we’ll see. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated though, since I have some time to think about this.

Strange stuff but thanks to Wasted_Life of MyAnimeList, just found out myself and two other bloggers were cited as references for MyAnimeList’s wiki entry. Kind of weird to see yourself cited on wiki as an er… “legit” reference of some sort but kind of cool nonetheless…

… even if it’d only take a few minutes to get it removed if necessary ^^;;

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 ^^;;

hopefully the last line wait I’ll have to experience today.

not expecting much but always nice to end a con with some “free” music.

I just witnessed the second most epic thing at Otakon tonight…

… the great bloggers Omo, Link, and theBigN singing their unique rendition of JAM Project’s SKILL for us all. And all i wish was that i had my camera with me; that’s how EPIC it was.

…hmmm… anime blogger panel in the hallway to kill time?

Finally have a few minutes to relax back in the hotel and try to summarize my experiences at Otakon thus far.

I know Omo will have a great post on all the JAM Project related events sooner or later, but in the meantime I can say a few things as a teaser. First off I should say I’m not really a BIG JAM Project fan unlike JP but after attending their various Q&A sessions, autograph session, and being at their concert that will most likely change ^^;;

On the concert, I don’t think there are enough words to describe how truly EPIC AND PURE WIN it was. I’ll easily admit I’m not those types that gets all into the music and starts jumping up and down, pumping their fists with glow sticks at hand but even I was doing all that towards the end; that’s just how frickin’ awesome they were! It’s crazy how energetic they were more or less singing for two hours straight while giving the fans what they want… heck I think the only time they had a “break” was when each of them did a solo song (BTW live version of Masami Okui’s Rinbu Revolution was FTW) and before the encore songs. Honestly it truly was a great concert and now I can understand why their fans are so into it; it’s just a totally different experience live compared to just hearing them on media. Well, I should note it does help if you have front row seats thanks to someone’s intel that seems second to none

On the Q&A sessions, pretty straight forward stuff that others will no doubt have transcripts of. Really news wise, the two biggest announcements were probably JAM Project doing this and the OP/ED for the next Super Robot Wars game coming out in September.

Autograph session(s), well I talked about previously. Although I should note there was a 2nd “secret” autograph session right after the first at the Bandai booth that only folks who got tickets from Bandai earlier that day could attend. It seems like they were only getting JAM Project to sign a Scrapped Princess poster but depending on your luck/charm, could get them to sign one of their other related merchandises instead; Omo got 3 separate items while Momotato got 2 signed. Me, didn’t know about the Bandai session but no big lost since I really didn’t have anything “special” to sign. I count myself lucky as is for getting what I got beforehand ^^

Beside fanboying about JAM Project for the past 3 days, honestly haven’t checked out much else. The Metal Gear panel I attended on Friday morning was alright but nothing special. Missed both Bandai panels, although I did hear from Omo whom heard from others that at Bandai’s “Bandai Surprise” panel JAM Project came out wearing Lucky Star t-shirts, giving out free Bandai stuff, and doing a reverse Q&A (asking the audience questions instead). Checked out the Artists and Dealers’ rooms and while nothing really peaked my interest, plan to check them out again tomorrow before the Sunday concerts.

… and of course, I was at the karaoke cafe for a few hours due to Omo and his crew laughing it up at everyone’s various attempts at singing (clarify: that’s me laughing internally at everyone. I wouldn’t be alive if I did out loud). Also met a lot of anime bloggers there and at other places today as well, but I’ll have a separate post about them along with my closing thoughts on Otakon tomorrow. For now, enjoy the random crappy photo I took at JAM Project’s concert, which unfortunately the anibloggers couldn’t re-create at karaoke:

now thats pimp XD