Otakon 2007: Part I


	Convention Reports

Otakon 2007: Part I

The registration line, mere seconds before an impromptu rendition of Cats.

Day Zero
A word to the wise who try to drive anywhere in Chicago: traffic is bad, no matter what time of day you start. Mana and I thought that leaving at 5:30 a.m. to catch an 8:30 flight would give us plenty of time. I'll cut to the chase and say we were wrong. Between the morning commuters, long baggage lines, and the security shake down, we found ourselves running down moving walkways to catch our flight. Thankfully, we made it, and soon found ourselves fast asleep on a non-stop flight to Baltimore for the happiest days in anime fandom. Yes, Otakon 2007 was approaching at several hundred miles per hour.

Former dean, Kain, graciously volunteered to take some time out of his busy schedule and retrieve us from the airport. After years of reading about Kain's "2 fast 2 furious" style of driving, I was sadly disappointed to find that the man had mellowed with age. But, this made sure that we arrived safely at our motel where, unlike last year, check-in was a breeze. Half an hour later found us in our rooms, unpacked, and ready to meet up with Ender and his crew. Since Mugs was unable to attend this year (something about presenting a thesis and getting his masters - obviously the wrong choice, but it's his life), I took shotgun as we navigated towards the Baltimore convention center. Even without my excellent directions, we could have found the place by following the mob of otaku that literally infested Inner Harbor. Despite threats of rain, several thousand people formed a snaking line that stretched for what seemed miles. We knew we'd arrived.

Several communication comedies of errors later led us to meet with Ender and his posse; a motley crew of geeks, nerds, and social outcasts. We had several hours to kill before they could check into their much swankier accommodations, and even more hours before we could get our coveted green-lined passes. Having devoured lunch and explored the meager offerings of a small downtown mall, we retreated to a hotel lobby. Out comes the Nintendo DS. Out comes Mario Kart. Kain is given a brief tutorial in DS handling. And away we go to race the time away.

Eventually, Ender's crew gets the OK to check in, leaving Kain, Mana, and I with some spare time before registration. We wander the Inner Harbor, searching for an umbrella, grabbing several rounds of coffee at various Starbucks, exploring the massive Barnes and Noble, and imagining the mob scene that will descend there for the Harry Potter release. Four o'clock rolls around, and we being our pavlovian salivating in anticipation of our badges. We returned to the front of the line to nab our press badges and meet with Ender, only to be rebuffed by the bouncer and sent to the "special needs" line. Where, of course, we were rebuffed again and told to go… somewhere else, they're not quite sure. Kain politely suggested that they make calls to find out where we should really go. In what would become a refrain for the con, they weren't sure how press was working. It was eventually decided that we would enter after special needs registration. Even then, miscommunications directed us upstairs to register, when we technically should have just grabbed badges from the Press Ops room, as opposed to other years. Badges and bags in hand, we made our way off to find Kain's favorite Inner Harbor restaurant. We looked, and looked, and finally realized that it… just wasn't there. Apparently, the little Italian place had fallen on hard times and was replaced by the monolithic force of Maryland's seafood industry. Disheartened, we looked at several menus and found a place that didn't seem too pricey, but wasn't fast food either. We all enjoyed a good meal punctuated by endless baskets of pretzels. Kain received a phone call that his sweetheart Alex had arrived from Washington D.C. via train, and we made plans to meet her en route to the convention center for the press briefing.

The registration mob still in full swing, a staffer had to escort us to the meeting room. We arrived not too late, and grabbed seats behind the Anime Secrets staff and their patron mother-figure Mira. We made quiet greetings as we got briefed on press roles for this year. We listened to the run down of guests, and heard the dreaded "we're not sure about that yet" in response to most of the questions. Kain practically asked if we could use the coffee bar in the press room. The affirmative response probably saved him several hundred dollars over the next three days.

We made our way back to the press room, made sure that everyone had everything we needed, and made plans for the morning. Kain and Alex were feeling a bit worn down, so we retreated to the motel so that we could all be rested and well for Otakon Day 1…

AAA couldn't make it, so Otakon did an emergeny Cirque du Solei booking.

Day One
Kain, Alex, Roark, and I made our way back down to the Inner Harbor first thing in the morning, entering the Convention Center shortly before nine o’clock. Although things hadn't started quite yet, the boys took the opportunity to take some photos of the epic registration lines, wrapped around the center and some of the surrounding buildings as well. After perusing the pocket guide schedule, we decided that nothing particularly exiting was going on first thing in the morning, so we headed over to the 35mm room where they would be showing Metropolis. Of course, in the world of anime conventions schedules aren’t much more than guidelines, and it was past 9:30 before the film actually began. Fortunately, none of us were in a hurry that morning, and we all enjoyed the movie, a nice, relaxing beginning to what would be a very hectic weekend.font>

Afterwards, we tried to head down to the dealer’s room, but the convention staff members weren’t allowing press early entrance. Feeling rather slighted, we were forced to stand around and wait until the doors opened to the general masses. At least it was worth it. The room was massive, but made good use of its space, a sea of booths surrounded by swarms of salesmen and geeks. Personally, I’m a sucker for dealers at conventions, and I didn’t even notice how much time had passed while I wandered from vendor to vendor, admiring the large selection of goods. I'm always amazed at the quantity and variety of things you can find; sure, so much of the merchandise is all cell phone straps and plushies from the latest craze show, but even fans of older anime like me can still find plenty of trinkets to drool over. It took a nudge from Roark to remind me that it was close to one o’clock and that we should head upstairs.

According to the schedule, Friday was to be the day of Industry panels. A block of hours in Panel 2 was set for five fun-filled, back-to-back Industry Q&A sessions which I planned to have a front row seat for, even if it meant missing my well-deserved lunch. However, as many other scheduling snafus had forewarned us, it was not meant to be. We made the trek to the hallway where the panel room was and were greeted by the board posted outside of the room, gleefully announcing a slew of schedule changes. Sure enough, Panel 2 was not currently hosting the Geneon panel I had rushed to see, but was instead hosting a panel for Purple Sky, an American magazine for Japanese Rock music. As interesting as it would have been to sit in on the panel, my stomach was rumbling and Roark and I instead decided to head across the sky bridge and grab some lunch during our hour long reprieve.

We came back just in time for the Bandai Visual USA Inc. industry panel. Our only panelist was President Tatsunori Konno. He spoke of some of Bandai Visual’s newer acquisitions and releases, and also of the anime they plan on releasing via next-generation formats. One of those happened to be the recent anime Freedom, the first two episodes of which where being shown in a special booth in the dealer’s room. We watched a few trailers, and then moved onto the Q&A portion of the panel, which was regrettably filled almost completely by people complaining about Bandai Visual’s recently released pricing strategy.

We got a small break before the Opening Ceremonies, also conveniently held in Panel 2, a room that quickly became my most-frequented throughout the day. The crowd for the ceremonies was very small, and the guest appearances were few due to flight troubles. In the end, Opening Ceremonies was short and sweet, and the highlight was easily the DVD sent over by Studio Madhouse’s Maruyama Masao, who regretted not being able to make it to Otakon this year. With a digital camcorder, he walked through Madhouse studios, giving us a first hand tour. The whole movie was narrated by Maruyama himself in Japanese, and one of the staffers was able to explain the things he pointed out. After the ceremonies came to a close, I was able to talk to one of the staffers about the drastic schedule changes, and it was then that I learned the pocket guide had been printed from a very out-of-date timetable, and the only way to get the changes for the day was to write them down from the boards.

With plenty of time on the ticker before the floodgates were scheduled to open, many of the vendors were still setting up their wares. We were privy to the goods on display and unencumbered by hordes of shoppers. Deciding it would be of interest to witness the opening of the dealers room from the inside looking out, we set up camp near the doors with cameras at the ready. Much to our dismay, the tension ended not with a bang, but a whimper; the approaching masses were orderly and civilized, not the rampaging pillagers we had anticipated. Simultaneously disappointed and astonished that such a crowd was herded so successfully, I quickly purchased two Otakon 2007 T-shirts for Alex and myself and made my exit before the claustrophobia became suffocating.

Umm... I wanted a shot of the booth, not someone's rear.

After a quick break, I settled back in for the ADV Sneak Peak panel, hosted by our old favorites Dave Williams and Matt Greenfield. They opened up by announcing their new licenses right away. As this was their “sneak peak” panel, we also got to watch the first episode of Tokyo Maijin, a supernatural anime starring a team of high schoolers fighting zombies. The subs were late in coming, but the showing was fun, and even Matt and Dave watched it with us. During the Q&A after the show, they were asked about ADV’s position on next-gen DVD formats, and we learned that they don’t plan on releasing their shows on either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray in the near future, at least not until either or both formats are more commonplace in the home.

Right after the ADV was finished, the FUNimation panel started. Our panelists included Adam Sheehan and Lance Heiskell along with some others chiming in. They opened open by reporting on some recent news, including reports on FUNimation having the number one market share for anime DVD sales. We got to learn about some current promotions: news about their iTunes store; details about a campaign with Gaia Online in regards to their show Tsubasa Chronicles; Operation Anime, a website devoted to providing support and screening information for anime clubs in the US; a guitar giveaway contest for Beck; and the Cartoon Network releases of Shin-Chan. We also got to hear the cast list for the dubbed version of One Piece, finally to released in the states outside of 4kids. In a spectacular end to the panel, they announced their new licenses, including the long-awaited acquisition of Ouran High School Host club, an announcement met with much cheering and yelling from the crowd. Throughout the entire panel, we were hearing mysterious feedback through the microphone line, originally annoying, but Adam and Lance made the most of it, turning it into a long-running joke throughout the panel. Honestly speaking, it was the most fun I’ve had at any industry panel, and a great success.

Stretching my legs for a bit, Roark and I went to wander the dealer’s room again to kill some time. Eventually, we made our way down to the main hall to meet Kain, Ender, and Alex for the Attack All Around concert. Truthfully, I didn’t really want to attend the concert; I was certain that it would be filled with screaming fangirls, and AAA isn’t the kind of music I particularly like. While I was correct on both accounts, the concert wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be. AAA actually started on time, and because we got priority seating, I was actually able to see the stage and watch their movements. If nothing else, they have a great choreographer, and while I won’t be rushing out to buy a AAA CD, I was able to appreciate the effort they put into performing, including real (not lip-synced) singing and passable Engrish when speaking to the crowd.

Our convention-attending done for the day, Roark and I met up with a whole group of AAers at Hard Rock Café where we had an incredibly entertaining evening. The dinner lasted for over 3 hours, but it was a blast getting to spend time with everyone, old faces and new. The highlight of the dinner was the Bready Special, a revolting drink concocted by Le_bread (of the AA forums) and Niner of leftover bits from around the table. The adventurous can find the recipe here for their drink-making pleasure.

Anime Academy and Anime Secrets - United by Fate! Also, somebody's mom.

Hard Rock was conveniently located right next door to the Inner Harbor Barnes and Noble, where a number of us had pre-ordered copies of the last Harry Potter novel. Although not an officially sanctioned Otakon event, a great many con-goers had also showed up for the book release, turning the event into something rather spectacular. Roark managed to get an impromptu interview with the store manager about the event, learning that, thankfully, the Barnes and Noble was able to learn about Otakon and had been able to adequately prepare for the larger influx of people in town for the convention.

It wasn't until past 1 o'oclock that we called an end to our first day, but what a blast! It's easy to forget the energy of an anime convention until you're right there in the thick of it. Weary and footsore, I think we all slept well in preparation for an even busier day later in the morning.

Continue to Otakon 2007: Part II...