So Otakon is over, and both Raevyn and I are sadder for it, but we had an amazing time; probably the best Otakon yet.
Of course the calvacade of cosplayers will come soon in the form of all the pictures I took at the con, but damn if it wasn’t just a great time all around. We also learned an important lesson; taking the thursday before the con off is a great idea; it let us get a lot of the stuff we had to do done on Thursday, and even though we still didn’t get a lot of sleep before the con itself, we still got downtown good and early on Friday to get to the con early in the morning and see everything we wanted to see. There a good balance of must-see panels, awesome anime in the viewing rooms (and fan parodies/AMVs that were amazing), and brilliant cosplayers walking about. We of course spent a good clip of time spending money in the dealer’s room, buying a ton of manga and anime (I finally picked up the entire Vision of Escaflowne box set, something that was long long overdue) and a few action figures just to round things out. Also picked up a few gifts for our friends and coworkers, and all in all had a great time.
Saw a few people I knew; my old friend from college Sarah K, whom I haven’t seen in years since right around the end of college (it was good to see you!); and my friend from high school Alex, whom I don’t get to see that often either. Good times. We wandered around the con hitting panels (for Raevyn, this year was the year of Yaoi…for me; not so much. Although we both had a blast at the How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse panel and the highly anticipated Megatokyo panel) and watching My-Hime (definitely one of my new most favorite Animes) and other animes in the viewing rooms (I now have a fondness for SpeedGrapher and am entertained by Gantz) and today we spent the bulk of the day in the dealer’s room picking up all manner of coolness. Sadly by the time we got to the MegaGear booth, we found out they only take cards, so I’ll have to pick up my tees online. I did manage to get the con-only badges, which was well worth it. Don’t worry, I’ll take a picture of my phat lewts soon.
Walking around with our handmade “?” and “!” signs (think World of Warcraft) was a blast; it wasn’t technically cosplay or anything, but it was a blast, we had our pictures taken a dozen times (if I can find any, I’ll post them!), and plenty of people came up to us and asked for quests, completed them, and we gave them quest rewards. Maybe next year we’ll do it again, this time with guild tabards!
And now? Relaxing in the hotel with a few drinks and room service. Our only annoyance? Commericals for Step Up, which looks like a half-assed take on Save the Last Dance without the guts to take on the racial issues that Save the Last Dance was able to. It’s almost like Step Up specifically choked on the notion of dealing with classism and racism and decided instead to sell itself to the MySpace crowd with a few heartthrob leads. Okay, yeah, between that and Mel Gibson showing the world that the apple doesn’t fall far from the anti-semetic, holocasut-denier tree (of all the satire on the matter, I love this one and this one are my favorites!) That and the commericals for that movie where perky blonde cheerleader gets transferred to a high school in the hood and racial hilarity ensues (the moral: everyone has something to teach one another!) remind me why I haven’t felt lured to the movie theatres in ages. But I digress.
Tomorrow we head home, an excellent 5 days away from the office spent and a glorious con attended. I’m always sad when Otakon is over; maybe we’ll hit Katsucon this year to stave off our jonesin’ for another con before Otakon 2007. Then again, as much as we like Anime, we probably shouldn’t quite fill the house with Anime gear, should we?