2003 marked the 10th anniversary of Otakon, and this being my first convention, I was afraid that it would forever raise my expectations too high of conventions I will go to in the future. Indeed, the experience at Otakon would never let any other conventions compare themselves on the same level. Our Anime Academy Staff party included Kain, Mugs, Kjeldoran, Griveton, Gatts, Corpse, vanisher and me. Non-staff party members were yotakafish, HumanoidTyphoon, Jigenuck and Garrett.

Day Zero
Thursday, August 7th, 2003 began like any other day in my life, but ended much differently than it ever has for me. Despite the horrible Baltimore traffic, I was able to get to the Baltimore Convention Center shortly before 4:30 pm… only to learn that everyone was at the hotel. D'oh! Driving through Baltimore proved to be fruitless, so I backtracked on the highway, turned around and went down to find the correct exit. What was suppose to be a ninety-minute drive ended up becoming a three-hour odyssey, and I finally arrived at the right hotel a little after 6:00 pm. As I drove up, I heard everyone (minus Gatts and Garrett) yelling my name from the third floor balcony. Believe me, you would get quite an odd feeling the first time you ever get to meet your bosses and coworkers all at once, having never seen them before in your life.

Introductions behind us, the ten of us managed to wedge ourselves into two cars, one owned by Kain and the other by Corpse. Arriving at the Baltimore Convention Center yielded slow results, but knowing that it would be the last line we would have to stand in for the entire convention, we relished the opportunity to talk, joke with and open ourselves to one another. While standing in line, a non-Anime Academy Staffer named Fash found us and gave us a tip as to where we could find our beloved press passes. Our thirty-minute scavenger hunt came up empty, and as it later turned out, we would have to wait in the original line anyway to receive them and our Otakon 2003 passes. As we got our Otakon passes, I was reminded that I had never pre-registered beforehand, so I walked in one end of the line and out the other because there was nothing else to do; everyone else had planned ahead and pre-registered, so I ended up waiting for them.

Following our only wait at a long line at Otakon, we wined and dined at a nearby Japanese fast food restaurant near the Inner Harbor. This provided me a great opportunity to get myself more acquainted with Corpse and vanisher, as well as with Otakon itself. We called it a night, ran into Gatts' crew while they were off to the BCC and we were back to the hotel by 10 pm, leaving everyone to do as they pleased. I roomed with Kjeldoran, vanisher and Jigenuck; after settling in, I took the time to begin a log of my Otakon 2003 experience, Kjeldoran went about preparing for his T.M.Revolution interview, and several others decided to watch Lupin III: Episode 0 First Contact on Kain's laptop. It would be safe to say that everyone was sound asleep by midnight and eager for the first day of Otakon 2003 to begin!

Day One
Friday, August 8th, 2003 began much differently than usual. Having slept underneath the hotel room's sink (it was really quite comfortable), wake-up call from the front desk came at 7:00 am. Kjeldoran and Jigenuck required ample time to prepare their costumes of Lupin and Jigen, respectively. In the meantime, some fresh air and a quick shower woke me up with quite a jolt. Before heading to the convention center, Kain, Mugs, vanisher and I made off to a local grocery store (cutely named Whitey's) for some snacks and stopped at McDonald's for breakfast. With our stomachs filled, we laid some tread and drove to see the first day of Otakon 2003!

Upon arriving at the Baltimore Convention Center, I was stunned to see a line easily a few thousand strong waiting to register. At this point, I must go out of my way and thank a) Fash for squeezing me in near the front of the line and allowing me to forego a three-hour wait, b) yotakafish for keeping me company while I went through registration and c) everyone else in our group who waited for me. After completing the registration process, our party began wandering around the convention center quite aimlessly, hungry for anime or anything anime-related. During our wanderings, we ran into Gatts, and I had my chance to formally introduce myself to him; it was quite nice to have a chance to meet yet another coworker that I never get to see.

10:00 am rolled around, and we were still not doing a whole lot. Corpse, yotakafish and HumanoidTyphoon beat feet to check out Otaku no Video (very suitable for the situation), and the rest of us went to see an anime music video showing that was already in progress. I must admit that the AMVs we watched were quite a mixed bag; some were works of art that would make your jaw drop while others were merely episodes of an anime with a replaced and ill-fitting audio track. Despite getting more than enough sleep the night before, the poorly created AMVs put me to sleep with ease. Upon our release, we further wandered about the convention center, getting ourselves acquainted with the local environment while allowing Kjeldoran and Jigenuck a lot of time to show off their excellent costumes (and many photo opportunities).

After hitting a local deli/buffet for lunch, we got into the dealers room about noon. An easy way to describe the dealers room itself would be to fill an airplane hangar with all sorts of DVDs, manga, T-shirts, posters and everything anime-related... then have anything anime-related spilling out the sides. Talk about loaded! While the prices were definitely not tasty (a mere 20% off does not impress me), the sheer quantity and variety of everything being sold was enough to awe even the most convention-hardened otaku.

At 1:40 pm, we arrived at the opening ceremony room; we saw a massive line in front of us, but the power of the press pass forced us past the bulging lines and through the front doors. However, we had a long wait ahead of us; the ceremony was scheduled to begin at 2:00 pm, but it was not until an hour later that we were treated to the ceremony itself. A very quick introduction of both American and Japanese guests was followed by a Saturday Night Live-style introduction of the guests and staff. Convention chairperson Joseph Foering was available to make fun of his position with a show of "abusing" his powers, and then we were able to sample some of Kristine Sa's music with a live mini-concert. While there were plenty of laughs and fun to go around, the ceremony itself was scheduled to be ninety-minutes long but was instead cut in half; on top of that, the Otakon 2003 staff was forced to improvise at multiple points during the ceremony.

After the fairly disappointing opening ceremony ended, we detoured back to Kain's car so Kjeldoran could pick up the materials he needed for his 6:00 pm interview with T.M.Revolution. With nothing to do for quite some time, we decided to sit down and take it easy for a little bit. Griveton was around taking pictures of cosplayers, and in the process, ran into Kjeldoran's cosplay "honey bunny", Mistress Mel. Filled with excitement, the Mexican Jumping Bean passed Mel-chan to Kjeldoran, whom then led her out onto the terrace balcony for an interview.

In the meantime, I decided to not meddle with Kjeldoran's good time and attended the Studio Madhouse panel at 5:30 pm. Due to Otakon's mistake, the panel's guests came ten minutes late because they thought it would begin at 6:00 pm instead. Guests of the panel included Maruyama Masao, president of Studio Madhouse, and Nishimura Satoshi, the director of Trigun and Hajime no Ippo. With such high-profile guests, I could hardly contain my excitement! We were privy to anime that Madhouse was currently working on, including those previously mentioned at Otakon 2002. Works-in-progress that were already mentioned at the previous year's convention included Gungrave and the big and small screen sequel to Ninja Scroll (the movie should be completed in two years); however, newly-discussed anime included Tenjo Tenge, Gunslinger Girl, Monster and Gauksen. Talk about a line-up! Madhouse must have their hands full these days with so much anime. In addition, we also learned what draws many Japanese towards a more American cowboy-style (which partially dipped into Kain and Madoka's Japanese Invasion point-counterpoint lecture), and the fact that Madhouse is making a frames-per-second transition from twenty-four to thirty.

Following the incredibly informative Madhouse panel, we quickly hit up the New York Deli at the Inner Harbor for some dinner. Returning to the convention center at 8:00 pm, we stopped in to see some J-Rock music videos for a few minutes, but then made our way up to see Mystery Anime Theater 3000. Talk about a gut-buster! The Otakon staff put on an excellent show by making fun of Crusher Joe for a good seventy-five minutes. With seats front and center, we were left crying with laughter for the entire time. Beginning at 11:00 pm in the same room arrived the Anime Music Video Contest Screening; while we were left to watch only the better AMVs, I fell asleep for my own sake.

At 12:15 am, despite the fact that the AMV screening was packed, we cut loose to see some fandubbing parodies. We caught Fanboy Beebop, the $$60 Billion Funky Chicken and Kentucky Fried Anime, all of them being quite hilarious... if not having poor audio/video quality. Shortly following Kentucky Fried, we drove back to our hotel rooms. After such a long day, we were in bed by 2:00 am. Quite a day, and there were still two more!

Day Two
Saturday, August 9th, 2003 began at 7:28 am. Kjeldoran and Jigenuck had decided to cosplay on Saturday as two characters from the live-action movie Shaolin Soccer (an Anime Academy Staff favorite), and they put their time to good use preparing their costumes. After showering, I made the blunder of trying McDonald's new McGriddle breakfast sandwich; just a tip from your professor: spend your breakfast money on something better. Following the McGriddle Mistake, we were still waiting on Kain, Mugs and Griveton to get their butts in gear so we could get going for a long day at Otakon. Leaving the hotel at 9:15 am, Kain put his car in gear and used his Indy Car racing skills to get us to the convention center by 9:30 am (we would have been there sooner had we not made a slight mistake en route).

Once again using the power of the press pass, we bypassed a long line leading to the dealers room and were the very first ones in at 10:00 am! vanisher purchased the entire Kimagure Orange Road series on DVD, and I happened to come upon a great surprise: the first DVD box set of Maison Ikkoku. After learning that the box set was made in very small quantities, I had no problem with purchasing it... and for a good price, to boot.

About 11:15 am, we headed over to see Catnapped! on 35mm film, and unlike Kain's disappointment at Otakon 2002, it was shown with the original Japanese dubbing. Despite the fact that it was clearly intended for children, the movie was very enjoyable. Following its conclusion, we were able to catch the final few minutes of the first season of You're Under Arrest!.

We sat in the same video room from 12:30 pm until 1:10 pm; at that point, I decided to follow Kain and Mugs to see the Anime in Academia panel. While the panel's five professors and academic teachers had their own opinions, this professor had to disagree with many of their opinions and question some of their facts. In my opinion, anyone who considers Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion to be anime that define anime itself is sadly mistaken. Despite opposing opinions, the panel was quite informative about the academic study of anime, and it was interesting to listen to Madoka's former college professor, Dr. Susan Napier.

Although lunchtime was ending, we made sure to hit up the same Japanese fast food restaurant for lunch about 2:30 pm. While in line, I received a call from Bikutoru and we told him how to find us. With some food in our stomachs, we got back to the convention center for a concert featuring T.M.Revolution and Kristine Sa. We were unable to find Bikutoru (or rather, he was unable to find us), so with a shrug of our shoulders, we used the press pass to bypass any lines and get into the concert with ease.

The show was originally scheduled to begin at 3:30 pm, but it was delayed until 4:00 pm for unknown reasons. Kristine Sa kicked off the concert with six of her songs, including one song played in Final Fantasy X-2. Sa's performance was concluded with a ten-minute intermission, followed by T.M.Revolution's performance. Including multiple good songs, he played the first opening song for Gundam Seed, Invoke, as well as the third ending song for Rurouni Kenshin, Heart of Sword... twice! Although our ears were bleeding, and we had so much of T.M.Revolution's spit all over our faces it would have looked like a waterfall, his performance was spectacular. The concert ended at 5:40 pm, and despite the fact that everything we heard for the next four hours was muffled, the concert made our days complete... but there was still much more to do.

Following the concert, we decided to let our eardrums recover as we went to a local bar for some dinner and a few games of billiards; Kain made sure that I looked like a fool on the pool table as he beat me three times in a row! Oh well.

At 7:30 pm, we made our way back to the BCC for Masquerade. Following Otakon's streak of being behind schedule, the show was set to begin at 8:00 pm but started at 8:25 pm, but what followed was a good show nevertheless. Highlights included the Black Chocobo from the Final Fantasy series jamming the Chocobo theme song on a guitar, as well as a dance routine featuring characters from the game Super Smash Brothers. Masquerade, itself, ended at 9:40 pm and was shortly followed by a fashion show of people showing off their costumes (and a few hundred other people taking photographs). The excellent host of the show was able to stall long enough for the Otakon staff to put together a DVD showing the winners of the Anime Music Video Contest and then announcing the cosplay winners.

Following the conclusion of the show, we made our getaway back to the hotel at 1:00 am. Bikutoru picked the best day to attend Otakon 2003, but due to miscommunication, was unable to hang with the rest of the Anime Academy Staff. Perhaps next year!

Day Three
Sunday, August 10th, 2003 is the first day where I can say we all started to get into a rut, but due to being the last day of Otakon 2003, we were not allowed the time to get too established; so much the better. Kjeldoran and Jigenuck took off at 8:50 am, and I made my final run to McDonald's for a breakfast that would be better than the previous day's.

Leaving the hotel at 9:55 am, we used Kain's racing experience to fly between cars going down the highway and made it to the convention center at 10:05 am; record time! We made our last sweep through the dealers room, making sure to check out any last-minute specials. While still wondering why the MegaTokyo stand was receiving raving fans by the hundreds looking for autographs, our group made tracks to a video room to check out episodes 55 through 57 of Hajime no Ippo. The episodes we saw were of a fight, and while I had no prior exposure to the series, it definitely caught my interest.

We decided to pass on more episodes and instead attended the Awards and Closing Ceremony at 1:00 pm. We got to hear the closing speech by the Con Chair Joseph Foering, and while he was not saying anything quite like what he had said in the opening ceremony, he made it clear that it was the fans, not just the staff, who made Otakon what it is; I must wholeheartedly agree. Following the improvised speech, they showed the Anime Music Video Contest winners for each category, with the Anime Academy Staff favorite being an AMV of Macross Plus and Macross: Do You Remember Love? set to Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins.

We did not give the Awards and Closing Ceremony a chance to end. Swarming a confused woman and asking her to take a picture, she did just that as we began parting ways on the walk back out to the parking lot. With a sniffle, our group began shaking hands and gradually broke up, going back to our homes and families who had not seen us in quite some time. By 2:30 pm, Otakon 2003 was winding down and we were already out of town.

We had a lot of fun, and that is what matters the most. Spending time with people who are both coworkers and friends was priceless, and we hope to see you there next year! If you wish to get a hold of a Staff member to meet us at Otakon 2004, don't be a stranger!