Day Zero
Our story begins like any other convention story: a bunch of otaku trying to turn off the alarm. Starting in White Plains, Alscadal and Reiken allowed my girlfriend Hime and I to stay at their apartment so we would be able to catch a bus from New York. Hime and I woke up at around 6:00 am and headed towards the train that would take us to Grand Central Station. From Grand Central we headed to Port Authority, stopping for breakfast along the way, then take a bus down to Baltimore.

At the station, we met up with our fellow MAC (Manhattanville Anime Club) officer, Kupek, who was bringing his "li'l bros" Joe and Spence along for the ride. The bus arrived a little bit before 9:00 am, and after some baggage and ticket checks, we got our seats… right next to the bathroom. I cannot begin to tell you how much I have learned to despise the back area of the bus.

We made it down to Baltimore at around 1:00 pm, and Alscadal and Reiken said they would meet up with us later seeing as how they decided to fly in rather than take the bus. From there, we took a cab to the Renaissance Harbor Place. Hime and I had to share a cab with a young otaku named Stephanie. She told us it was her first con. Well, let me say that Otakon is definitely the best con to be one's first.

Though it was Thursday, you could already see the tell-tale signs of a convention: most notably the otaku walking up and down the halls wearing T-shirts of their favorite anime while displaying badges from previous cons. It was the kind of sight that can make any otaku say, "I'm home"... until a yaoi fan girl screams in your ear while in the elevator! We checked in right on time and went up to our rooms on the 9th floor; beautiful, comfortable place, I must say, though the $4.00 bottle of water begging for one of us to open was a little more than an eyesore. After we dropped our bags and got situated with the place (it was attached to a mall!), we went down to the 7th floor to meet up with one of Kupek's friends, Kitsune.

We laughed and sang, and I impersonated a monkey, so it was all in good fun. Then we received a call from Kain telling us to go to the pre-registration line, and so we were off. Now, when I say line, what I really mean is herd. The giant mass of early conventioneers stretched beyond any conceivable boundary. Not helping matters any, the sun hung low in the sky, glaring its hateful burn upon the crowd, and there I was wearing a jacket. Oops.

We linked up with Kain, Mugs and Kain's girlfriend Alex somewhere on the line. Once again, Kain's entrance was majestic, with hundreds of adoring fans rushing to obtain either an autograph or a lock of his hair. And then Mugs snapped him back to reality. After introductions were made, Kjeldoran and Jigenuckette arrived on the scene. Truly, this was something wonderful… had it not been obscenely humid. Around 5:00 pm, the line started to move about as slow as a 400 lb. Sailor Moon cosplayer in line for Starbucks™, but it moved nonetheless.

After all of us that were non-press got passes, Kain treated us to a lovely Italian restaurant by the Baltimore harbor. Note to all of you out there: when someone else is paying for your meal, take it for what it's worth. Anyway, the MAC crew chatted it up with the Anime Academy Staffers, telling all kinds of swanky stories. Soon enough, 8:00 pm came, and we had to go get our press passes.

The press orientation was longer than I would have imagined. Our sources said it would be no longer than an hour. Yeah, right. Luckily, around this time, Gatts entered the scene and livened things up with his comedic disposition. After we got our press passes (this year the design was from Golden Boy) and our Saturday interview was scheduled, we emptied out into the Baltimore night. From there we walked over to the Renaissance and chilled a little bit. At around 11:00 pm, the Anime Academy crew had to head on over to their hotel. Before I hit the hay, I showed some of the lads and ladies the first One Piece movie off of my laptop. I figured if there was any place in the world to fall asleep to anime, it would be at Otakon.

Thank the skies I didn't have to deal with Kain's snoring this year.

Uh, I'll have you know that my drastically lightened wallet from dinner helped to alleviate the pressure on my sinuses, thank you very much! Oh, and Mugs paid for half.

Day One
After a long night of trying to fall asleep on the floor of a freezing hotel room, Friday morning finally rolled around marking the beginning of Otakon 2005! We all woke up early enough to shower and prepare for the big day ahead. Since we had already picked up our badges the night before, there was no real rush to get to the convention the very second the doors opened, but we still left in order to arrive at the Baltimore Convention Center right around 9:00 am. Our group this year was a little bit too big for one car, so Kain drove most of the Anime Academy crew and I rode separately with Garrett and some other friends from home.

That morning, Garrett and my friends were frantically putting together an enormous Domo-kun costume they had made for the convention. They had only begun making the outfit a few days before, but despite the relatively short amount of time spent constructing it, it ended up looking great. It took a little while to put the finishing touches on their costume, but after a short delay, we were on the road to Otakon!

As the convention center came into view over the horizon, the line of otaku waiting in line could be seen wrapped around the outside of the BCC. However, the line was noticeably shorter than it had been in previous years, most likely as a result of Otakon 2005's self-imposed attendance cap of 22,000 attendees. Far more people pre-registered this year in order to guarantee their spot for the east coast's largest anime convention. Just as we finished parking the car in a nearby lot, a torrential downpour began drenching all those waiting outside in line much like what happened on the first day of Otakon 2002. Luckily, we were able to sprint inside with the Domo-kun costume without getting soaked.

After making it inside, I met up with Kain, Ender and Alex for a panel on Japanese politics and its portrayal in anime. The speakers gave a brief overview of the Japan's political structure and then spent the rest of the time talking about how Japanese political issues can be seen in various anime such as Akira and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It was a well-done panel that presented a decent amount of information without being terribly dry or boring.

The panel ended around noon, so Ender, Mugs and I decided to go check out this year's dealers room. We waited in line because it had just opened, but the line moved quickly, so we soon were in an anime buyer's paradise. The dealers room's floor seemed even larger than usual, and as always it was packed full of just about everything an anime fan could want. Mugs and I walked around for a bit just looking at the different booths while searching for the most recent volumes of the Berserk manga. Luckily, I was able to restrain myself from any impulse purchases that would have put a serious damper on my bank account.

At a little before 1:30 pm, we headed back upstairs to go to the Mizushima Seiji panel. Mizushima began his career by directing five episodes of the ever-popular Neon Genesis Evangelion. He has since moved on to be the chief director for Generator Gawl, Shaman King and most recently Full Metal Alchemist. His panel was strictly Q&A, but there was certainly no shortage of questions from the crowd of excited fans. Most of the questions Mizushima answered were about the production of Full Metal Alchemist. The most entertaining moment of the panel was when a women in the audience stood up and asked for an autograph for her son, complaining that Full Metal Alchemist DVDs had cost her family way too much money.

Immediately following this panel was the Studio Madhouse panel with founder and frequent Otakon guest, Maruyama Masao. I'm a huge fan of Madhouse's works, so their panel is usually one of my favorite parts of Otakon. Unfortunately though, technical difficulties occurred early on as they were unable to play a DVD highlighting Madhouse's most recent anime. While the Otakon staff worked on fixing the problem, the panel became a Q&A session with a few very interesting pieces of information. Maruyama explained how in some cases shows are not popular in Japan but are very successful in foreign markets. Specifically, he mentioned Trigun as being one of these titles; because of its popularity in the America, fans can expect to see a Trigun feature film in two years! After a 40-minute delay, the DVD player finally started working and showed the promotional video. This video highlighted the company's ten most recent works including Beck, Monster, Red Line and Ichigo 100%. The end of the video also marked the world premiere of a futuristic Highlander anime. No further details were given about this new anime, but Maruyama encouraged fans to look forward to it in the future.

Opening Ceremonies followed, but unlike previous years, it was held in a normal panel room, rather than being in the main events hall. As always, there were a few comedy skits that I personally could have lived without seeing, but the ceremony ended quickly after introducing all the quests and a brief speech from the convention chair, Thomas McMullan.

By the time Opening Ceremonies had finished, The Indigo's (Ai Yori Aoshi, Someday's Dreamers) concert had already begun. While I'm normally a huge fan of seeing the musical guests at Otakon, for some incomprehensible reason The Indigo was performing in one of the BCC's hallways rather than the main events hall. The poor location really hindered my enjoyment of the concert, and I hope that in the future all musical performances will be held in the main events hall like in previous years.

After the concert, Kain, Alex, Mugs and I met up with Anime Academy alumna Mira for dinner in the Inner Harbor. We all had a good discussion of conventions and anime in general over nice seafood. It's always a pleasure to meet some of our regular Anime Academy visitors, and it was really enjoyable dinner. Once we finished eating, Mugs and I went back to the BCC to catch Battlefield Baseball in the 35mm theater room. Kjeldoran had first shown us this painfully funny live-action film in our hotel room at last year's Otakon, so it was fun being able to see it up on the big screen. If you are in the mood for some truly over-the-top comedy, be sure to check out this title.

There was a bit of time to kill before Friday's big event, the Anime Music Video contest, so I decided to stay in the 35mm theater to watch one of my favorite recent films, Oldboy. While not an anime, this Korean film from director Chan Wook Park is an extremely well made revenge movie that is engrossing from start to finish. But be warned it is certainly not for younger audiences or for the weak of heart!

I had to leave Oldboy early in order to make it up to the AMV contest on time, but I was able to make it up there in time to get seats with the rest of the Anime Academy Staff. The music videos started playing shortly after we were seated, but after a few videos were shown, technical difficulties reared their ugly head once again. The audience sat in the main events hall patiently as we watched the Otakon staff try to fix the computer problem. Just as I was contemplating giving up on the AMVs, the issues were finally solved and the contest continued. There were some pretty good entries in all of the categories, but one video really stole the show; "The Wizard of Ozaka" was a brilliant parody of the Wizard of Oz featuring Osaka from Azumanga Daioh as Dorothy, One Piece's Luffy as the Scarecrow and Al from Full Metal Alchemist as the Tin Man. The whole video was made to look like a Final Fantasy game complete with Biggs, Wedge and even an Eva unit summon!

There was only one problem with this year's AMV contest. There were way too many FLCL music videos. Since FLCL is only a six-episode OVA and there isn't a whole lot of footage to work with, while watching the finalists' videos we ended up having to endure the same scenes over and over again. By the fourth FLCL video, any impact the scenes would have had was lost due to the sheer repetition of the entries.

After the AMV contest ended, we handed in our ballots and headed out to the parking lot to drive back to the hotel. We would need a good night's sleep because Otakon 2005 had only just begun!

Day Two
The MAC crew got up at 7:00 am. All right, so I got up at 7:00 am, decided to be the nice guy and let everyone sleep in for a bit.

We grabbed breakfast at a McDonald's at around 9:00 am and then hit the convention center. As it was rainy the previous night, this day was humid. I had some time to kill before the Anime Academy interview with character designer Kawamoto Toshihiro, so I took Hime to the dealers room. Though my sense of perception may be shot, I could have sworn that the room was much bigger than last year. Seeing as how this was also Hime's first time in a dealers room, we took our sweet time looking at all the who-has and what-whats. I also took this chance to buy Hime a plushie of a fox. Note to all you boyfriends out there: if you find yourself in a dealers room and your girlfriend is eyeing something for more than 12 seconds, then you know you're gonna have to reach for your wallet.

Unless it's yaoi.

11:00 am rolled around and we met up with Kain, Mugs and Alex. Hime went off with Alex while Kain, Mugs and I headed over to do the Anime Academy thing and interview a couple of Japanese guests over at the Hyatt hotel and met up with fellow press members from Anime Web Turnpike and Clear Channel. After that, we sat down for an interview with character designers/animators Kanemori Yoshinori and Kawamoto Toshihiro. Overall, it was a fun interview with the best question being "What are your favorite swear words?"

After the interview, it was time for lunch. We all headed to The Gallery (the mall connected to the Renaissance hotel) and proceeded to scarf and talk. We brought with us a friend from the interview, Maya from the Anime Web Turnpike. She was cool, though I think she might have been scared of us. Then again, so would most sane people.

It was straight back to the convention center after lunch. Hime and I spent most of that time just walking around and killing time. Very interesting cosplayers were seen, I must say. Hime stopped to get her picture taken… with a Tetris piece. There was also a little girl dressed like Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess; like I said, very interesting cosplayers. I also took this time to buy my little brother, Dogan, a Zeta Gundam model. Seeing as how he's the big Gundam fan in the family, it would have been a crime to leave the convention without a proper gift for him.

At 4:30 pm, we headed over to the MegaTokyo: Naze Nani panel. Though I read MegaTokyo every chance I get, Hime has never really delved into the full web comic experience. So with the magical powers of the press pass, we went in and took some of the best seats in the house. The panel was a riot with introductions given by Pontus Madsen and Christian Fundin of Little Gamers. Fred Gallagher took most of the time to explain everything he could about this little web comic and how it became an Internet phenomenon. There wasn't any time for Q&A, but the audience was entertained, and that's always a good thing.

The panel ended at 6:30 pm, so a bunch of us went out to grab dinner before the Masquerade. For dinner we had… crab cakes! I've never had any before, and every time I went down to Baltimore people would say, "Try the crab cakes!" So I did, and they were delicious. And now I recommend it to anyone who goes down to Otakon, try the crab cakes. Ender said so.

By the time dinner was over, the Masquerade was already in full-swing. I arrived with Hime at around 9:00 pm. We stayed to the very end, though, and were both very, very entertained by the wacky cosplayers. Highlights included "Ethnic Chi" from Chobits, "Kiba and Akamaru" from Naruto (which involved an adorable little girl dressed as a puppy, lots of "awwwws" there) and a Metal Gear Solid III cosplay. Things wrapped up with "Cardcaptor Will" and his cross-dressing comedy routine.

This all ended at 11:30 PM, just in time for the Saturday Night Fan Parodies. Though we only stuck around for one of the parodies, it was epic in scope and lasted longer than an hour. The parody in question was called "S.T.E.A.M. The Movie" and ripped on every anime from Rurouni Kenshin to Ranma ½ to Dragonball Z. And it also made the best use out of Weiss Kreuz with "Yaoi Eye for the Shounen Guy." I was laughing so hard, I must have broken something.

We left the convention center pretty close to 1:00 am. I was tempted to watch another One Piece movie, but Hime wisely "convinced" me to go to sleep, though her method of convincing involved hitting me over the head with my own laptop until I shut up. Whatever works, I guess.

Day Three
The third and final day of Otakon typically doesn't have a whole lot going on, and this year was no different. We took advantage of the lack of early morning activities to get a little extra, much needed sleep. Mugs had a train to catch, and Kjeldoran and Jigenuckette had an early flight back to Canada. We said our farewells at the hotel while we were packing our cars. Our numbers had dwindled, but those of us who remained headed down to the BCC for the final day of Otakon 2005.

Since most of the main events were over, I spent much of Sunday morning walking around with my friends in their Domo-kun costume. For any cosplayers reading this that are considering going as a large, fluffy creature, keep in mind that you will be stopped every ten seconds for people to take your picture. It really makes getting around a convention a lot slower, and navigating through the sea of people can be quite cumbersome in such a large costume!

We strolled around the dealers room looking for any last-minute bargains and then made our way back to the 35mm theater to watch Howl's Moving Castle. The theater was pretty crowded because this was the last big event of the convention. Unfortunately for purists such as myself, the film was dubbed, but I was happy to hear that the dub was surprisingly tolerable. The audience really seemed to enjoy the film, and as the credits began to roll, the theater was full of the sound of people clapping. After the film was over, the convention was drawing to a close. We had a long drive back home ahead of us, so we decided it was time to say goodbye to Otakon until next year.

There definitely was something missing from this year's Otakon. I really wanted to see more people from the Anime Academy and MAC crews come, but personal business must be taken care of before fun can be had. Also, more than once my press pass was denied by convention staffers who didn't know what was what. But when all was said and done, I had a tremendous blast attending Otakon 2005. There is always a lot to do at an anime convention of this size, and you won't get bored unless you do nothing. That and one of the things that make a convention experience memorable is with whom you spend your time. Since I can safely say there was no shortage of good friends around, that's what made Otakon, well, Otakon.

Looking back on Otakon 2005, it was yet another fun and exciting convention. While this year's lack of a "big name" Japanese guest was initially a bit disappointing, the convention itself and the people more than made up for the lack of star power. This was my fourth year attending Otakon, and I must say that my enjoyment has not decreased at all. As always, it was a pleasure being able to experience the convention with the Anime Academy Staff and students, and I eagerly anticipate going back for Otakon 2006. Hopefully, we'll see you there!