The first full day of Otakon arrived today! I got myself
checked in nice and early with the folks who handle the guests around 9 AM. I
spent a couple of hours in the VIP Lounge, checking over the schedule and
listening and talking to people such as Steve Bennett, Ian & Andy Kim, Jeff
Kleist and the good members of the Otakon staff.
Around 11, I made may way out amongst the ever growing crowd.
I personally don't remember Friday being this crowded last year, but then
again, we skipped registration then as well since I was a guest. Walking
around a bit, I stumbled upon the first two people to succumb to my lecherous
side and allowed me to take their picture...
Suffice to say, the day was off to a good start. Since in the
schedule there were no panels I was interested in attending (there were
precious few for Friday as it was) and I'm not that keen on the video rooms (gimme
my setup!), I walked around for a bit. It wasn't too long before I heard my
named yelled across the convention center, and noticed that #animedvd chat
regular Riki, aka Mill-chan, was in line for the dealers room.
So, at 11:30, I got in line with her and another chat regular,
Kwan, aka Dr. Anime. The dealers room opens at 4 PM. So began the long wait...
and the taking of many pictures of cosplayers! You can click on the images to
see larger versions.
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So after a long aching 4 hour wait (my poor back!), the line
finally moved from upstairs to down where they made a corral for us to wander
through like a herd to the slaughter. And then we got to wait another hour!
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| The line originally started up here. Thankfully we were the second group in the line. | Here's where we were when we got to the front of the corral! |
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| This was the group of guys were in front of us the whole time and made sure that they were indeed the front of the line at every instance. We did have some rat bastards who cut in right behind us when the line was moved downstairs though, and they were soundly cussed out among us. Bah! | |
And then we finally made our way into the dealers room! Kwan, Riki, Danny
and I spent about 2 hours in there. I conned Reikun into picking up the shirts
I wanted since the line was horribly long. I paid for his shirt too though, so
I'm not a complete rat bastard.
Here's a couple shots of the dealers room. Other than the aisles against
the walls, there was a lot of walking space through the area. Very nicely laid
out, much like last year. Having space to walk is a good thing!
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For our Urusei Yatsura experience,
check out this link.
After that experience, having been at the con for almost 10 hours, my
decrepit old body demanded both rest and food, since we hadn't eaten much of
anything that day. Saturday is the big panel day, with studio panels starting
at 9 AM and running through 5 PM in the same room. So we should have a lot
more solid news and pictures then.
But, as a parting shot... no anime convention is complete until Rei from
Neon Genesis Evangelion is crucified. This moment, when it happened the first
time, won much applause and laughter as well as dozens of camera shots. It was
recreated later when the Otakon staff found out and realized it would be a
good piece to have for their archives. You'll note that the cross is actually
Wolfwood's...
And here's another one I took just in case. Frankly, I don't
know why this gentleman is sniffing the plant...
Stay tuned for Saturday's report!
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