Many ask me what anime conventions are like, so I write little reports like this from time to time. This is the analysis from my most memorable con to date.
Otakon ‘07
You’ve seen the pix. Now read how it happened & what went down. If you were there, feel free to add a comment or two.
Thursday
Me & my siblingss get into B-more around 8:40am, so we were mad early and had a very good spot in line, albeit, our friends ended up with better ones. Hotel check-in wasn’t supposed to occur until 3:00, but we lucked out. Thursday being pre-registration pickup day. After texting everyone I knew goin to Otakon this year, I set out to explore the surrounding area. I tried to snaps some shots for a photoblog of the old Burger King that used to be right across the street from the convention, but this cop started raggin me about taking pictures. Demanding I stop and asking who the hell I worked for? Moving on, I ran into The original Sheraton (My party just so happened to be staying in The Sheraton that was recently put up & no I have no Earthly idea why there are 2 Sheraton hotels in downtown Baltimore). Like I said, we lucked out, cause when I did get to our hotel, they let me check in at half past 9. I met up w/Dennis & Andy & their friends after returning to the BCC to get back in line. We played Pokemon & slept most of the day away. Oh, and I told everyone’s fortune via tarot. Thinking back, it would have been more fun to charge ppl. The line didn’t get movin until 5 that afternoon, so while we waited, everyone ended up showing up, even Ken, who almost didn’t make it, showed up. Ryan & Kate got there about an hour/hour & half b4 anything got started. They’ll tell ya, parking was no walk in the park this year. We were all there, everyone except for Joe. LOL, just what is it about your friends that gets you into so much trouble. I go to meet Joe at the hotel, and we’re really pushing it for time. Ticket pickup starts in 20 minutes. 20 minutes that included rushing my ass over 2 blocks, up 5 sets of stairs, dumping all of Joe’s shit in the room, back down said stairs, running [and by running, I mean dodging buses & sliding over cab hoods] through Baltimore traffic at this point, and we just barely caught back up with our group at the last minute. What a rush! The great thing about getting in line early for pre-reg is that you’ll have a spot saved and it won’t take 3 or more hours to get your ticket, the bad thing is, there’s another 20 min wait once you get in the convention center. So I’d been hangin around Baltimore since 9-something AM dat morning and here it was, after running through Balitmore-traffic at that, 5:20/30ish and I was still waiting for my ticket. Ken gets the brilliant idea to get the crowd riled up. So we start clappin & cheerin, ya kno dat slow clap dat gets everyone pumped, waking everyone up. Dat was cool. So yea, originally Ken wasn’t supposed to make it, but I gave him a ticket I had originally bought for….someone else. I think we cut it kinda close, cause everyone kinda looked at us funny when we tried to do it, and sending us to the next person on STAFF, and we finally got to this one guy & after almost beggin him, he let it go, and Ken was good to go. My siblings split [or so I thought]; my kid sis was crying cause she couldn’t go to Otakon. We had our tix, it was time to get everyone checked in, finally! Room 432: Dark, Joe, Dennis, Andy, Dusty, Sean S[Brim]. Room 431: Ryan, Kate. Room 430: Sean G[Epic], Ken, Mike, Milt, Rick, E-Man. We weren’t too packed in our rooms; or so we thought….In 432, the group took time to reacquaint themselves and goof off. The last minute ticket rush had driven Joe temporarily insane. Since everyone had already stopped by my room/Rm 432 to raid some of my food, I decided to try & find a grocery store and re-up. There just happened to be a Superfresh a couple of blocks away, so I went shopping. New to the city, the Superfresh was not too well known, thus making it all the more hidden. I missed this place twice trying to find it; it def did a better job of hidin than most of the ninja there (cosplayers, ninja, and/or STAFF). The store continued to astound me w/its size. It was a full-size supermarket packet into 1/10th the space. It really was like a maze. I kinda wanna shop there again now, lol. I hooked back up w/Dennis & Andy & we went to Hooters. What?!?! We just wanted to try the wings. It was a 10 min walk from the room 2 da Double-D Boom, in which time we ran into some nice Deathnote & Air Gear cosplayers. Made me smile all the more to see the [Air Gear] characters had left their marks all over Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Yep, just like in Air Gear, there were tons of stickers, magnets, and graffiti left all over Baltimore’s Inner Harbor! Now I don’t know if it’s destiny, or if all of my life’s irony seems to focus around this place, but this night was made all the interesting by Hooters. If you’ve ever been, you know you get those lil wet naps that always say something on them. Last time I got one of these [from one of the most awesome guys I know] it said “Insomnia is nothing to lose sleep over”. That was FUCKING HILARIOUS, especially considering I’d only gotten maybe 10 hours of sleep that entire month, haha. So this time I get the wet nap, it says, “What is the speed of dark?” And while I know only some of you reading this will see the irony here, it doesn’t make me any less sarcastic. Can’t wait to go next time, wonder the wet nap will say then. I tried to sleep that night, but should’ve realized from the getgo, that wasn’t going to happen. I kept poppin up every 15 mins to the sounds of my roommates until morning rolled around.
Friday
Friday started out at 6 in the morning for me. Dusty and Joe would not sit still, so I dragged them to Burger King. Yes, thankfully there was still a BK left in the city, & less than a block from us at that. We were in line for the actual event itself about a hour later, even though prep time for everyone’s cosplay made it seem a lot longer. There were A LOT of AnimeNEXT con-goers @ Otakon this year, so it was kinda surprising to run into them again. Joe cosplayed as FMA’s Hughes & Dusty as Kingdom’s Heart’s Roxas (srry if I didn’t spell dat right). We toured the pre-reged line, which was massive in its own right, but the @-con registration line on Friday pretty much engulfed 1/3 of lower downtown B-more. Now I don’t cosplay, and have NO INTENTION OF EVER DOING SO, despite numerous pleas from friends. It’s got nothing to do with the time, energy & upkeep I’d have to put into it, or the fact that I’m limited by the lack of matching ethnicity, nor is it the fact that I’d have to stop every 5 mins to pose for 20 because ppl loves my costume. My reason for the anti-costume approach is the numba 1 reason I love conventions. In case you missed the memo, my name’s Dark Angel, it’s who I am, though some have argued what in some cases. And while my title & identity may mean beans to you, it means interview after interview after interview for me, almost everyday of my life. Conventions are the one place I can go, and no one gives a shit about who I am, nobody chases me around asking me questions they swear they don’t really want the answer too, and nobody tries to pick a fight with me about my name. It’s not that I hate or even mind the attention-I’m used to it, but too much of anything will kill you, and any change of pace is welcomed. Hughues, Roxas & I make our way down the presumably 700-900+ [attendees in line] all the while stopping to have their pictures taken every 20 secs. Dusty was a rarity and a damn good one at that, and there aren’t too many who’ve forgotten Hughes death so quickly. I think it was the only time this whole trip I played pack mule. We get in the doors of the convention, and the 1st thing we do is split up! Some group, lol. I wanted to check out the bank, but instead ended up runnin into an old friend [Krista Camp] from high school. We checked out a new anime, I forget the title, then we split. I caught up with the others only to end up helping them track down some n00b who’d never even been to the BCC before. We lost his trail, but eventually ran into him. Joe & I decided to go check out the con and ran into a lot of good cosplayers. While strolling thru Hall A of the convention center we witnessed a live masquerade fight of Ken & Ryu. That was sweet! Sonic & Shadow happened to be floatin around for their own lil photo shoot and I’m not sure why, but the most awesome picture idea came to mind then. “Why don’t I get Shadow to kick Sonic in the balls?!?! It’s brilliant!” Yea, my best friend looked at me with the same face you’re making now and quickly reverted the grin you probably have on your face as well. Sadly despite the superawesome idea, I didn’t get that shot. We waited around like 10 mins to get an opening. And the more we waited, the more ppl just gathered and took pictures. So Joe & I moved on; a lost cause…for now. Probably didn’t help that the hedgehogs stood out being like 10 feet and all, and we were in Hall A. Hall A of the BCC is where pretty much everyone comes to get their picture taken or take pix of all the kickass cosplay. After running into my good friend, The Burger King ^.^ we decided to meet the group up for lunch at the Inner Harbor. While it didn’t quite turn out exactly as planned, it was still good, and good food, and cheap cause local businesses give special discounts for Otakon every year. As I made my way back to the con (The convention center [Baltimore Convention Center or BCC is about 2 blocks from the Inner Harbor]) I ran into the 1st of a minority of Marvel Comics’ playlsit. Then I ran into a Deathscyhte Hell; for those of you old enough to remember Gundam Wing. Joe had managed to catch up to me & was trying to tag along. He suggested I try to lose him. I just laughed to myself and went on my way. Incidentally, later that day, I overheard STAFF talking about a dust cloud sighting following a blur of some sort…I booked a seat in line to meet Jennifer Sekiguchi, the voice actress for Bleach’s Orihime, Hare & Guu’s Guu, Tenjho Tenje’s Aya Natsume, Naruto’s Hinata, and FLCL’s Mamimi. It was cool meeting her, but things were only just heating up. I went the Dealer’s Room (Dealer’s Room-imagine 4 football fields of anime merchandise. Normally stuffed at a shoulder-to-shoulder pace, this year, there was actually breathing room) for all of 15 minutes, then I met up with Joe & my blood bro, and we got in line to meet Vic Mignogna & Aaron Dismuke, or as you may know them, the voices of FMA’s Edward & Alphonse Elric. I’d already met Vic in ’05, but it was still cool. Aaron was a whole nother story. He’s 14 & I’m Dark Angel, so suffice to say the 1st meeting between Alphonse Elric & Dark Angel was dat of skepticism. But then we ended up cheesin over the unbelievablness of it all and he signed my stuff. I had the brothers Elric sign my FMA movie, lol, now it really is a collector’s item. I made sure to get my picture with those two, because that’s one memory I don’t want to forget for a good loooonnnnnggg time. Wait time for them, oh maybe 3 hours, not too bad. Still star-struck we proceed to the Videogame room. Mountain Dew was product testing a new drink, so I’d be on the lookout for that this fall. Ran into another old friends down there, namely Tito. We wound back up in Hall A for some of the group photoshoots, and from there it was back to the Dealer’s Room. Now this time yesterday we had found out that our friend Epic was turning 21, and strolling by all the naughty things in the dealer’s room we (Now just Joe & I; my bro had split) come across giant yuri posters and I get another brilliant idea. “Hey, let’s get this for Epic for his birthday!” Joe & I go 1⁄2 on it, and once purchased, my common sense comes back on. “Oh crap, we have a giant 2×4 yuri poster we’re luggin around”. Which, in hindsight, wouldn’t have been such a bad thing if we had a bag to put it in; Other than the plastic bags the guy had used to cover the “yuri” everything else was in plain view, and with my skinny tail carrying it around, you’re pretty much gonna see everything on the poster. So we hightailed it back to the rooms and left it, in all its glory, on Epic’s bed facedown. Now we were back in the Dealer’s Room by the time he found it, but from what we heard he went to all 3 rooms making sure everyone saw his new gift. I got a call about 15 minutes after delivering the good to thank us & he hasn’t stopped thanking me and Joe since. Back in the Dealer’s Room we ran into another history making cosplay. The Bud Lite Samurai! They were on the hunt for the Mountain Dew Warriors. I don’t know if the 2 ever confronted, but everyone wanted them to fight. I made sure to stop by Madi-sempai’s panel on the Tale’s game series. I wished I could’ve stayed longer, but I needed to recharge. I took some pix & bounced. Now as things started coolin down I really started getting pumped, the day was over, sun was settin, it was officially time for the rave!!!! OMFG! OMFG! OMFG!!!!!!!!!! THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH WORDS TO DESCRIBE…LIKE…..O MY GOODNESSS!!!!!FUCKING A!!!!!!!! JUST LIKE THE GREATEST THING EVER!!!! Well, not really, but pretty damn close. Yeah, I had fun the 1st night of rave. Musiq was okay the 1st night, not awesome, but good enuff for a party. It was a real blast. My only regret is that I really didn’t hit the dance floor as hard as I could’ve. Up til now, I’ve never hit up the infamous ‘Otakon Rave’, and while it’s not on anyone’s Top 8, its still fun to go to. Oh, so fun to go to. Let me forewarn anyone who confuses the ‘Otakon Rave’ for a real ‘rave’. It isn’t, plain and simple. It’s popular because it happens at Otakon which pulls in 25,000+ ppl nowadays. It’s a great place to dance and watch real B-boys, ravers, *cough D-2-da-A!*, and party girls shake their asses & strut their stuff. The musiq can be good or bad depending on what the DJ brings/has on hands, but since these guys don’t get paid, more often than not they’re sampling the stuff they’re playing on tour during that time. There are no drugs, or alcohol, and the ppl in the rafters are not go-go dancers. 1⁄2 the crowd is underage. There is ALOT of dry humping. What?!?! At a real rave it’s usually sex 1⁄2 da time. I mean the differences are mad obvious, but if the music is bumpin, you feel the energy, and party like it’s Zion’s last day, you’ll have a blast. I partied my ass off for 3.5 hours, and it was time for bed….or so I thought. Tummy was rumbling, and I wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the group had the munchies, guess we played too hard for our own good. To make matters more irritating, my brother had somehow hoodwinked my father into letting him stay with us in downtown Baltimore. Only reason I didn’t kick him out was cause his R&B were paid for. Great! One more mouth to feed! So I go from pumped-up dancer to pooped-out grouch in less than 5 minutes. I needed food, and to make matters worse no one was open, no one was taking orders, and no one felt like delivering. Ken had spotted a 7/11 earlier, so 1 or 2 ppl from each room ventured there to grab food for everyone else. We get to the 7/11 and pick out our food, and yet another idea pops into my head. I almost throw my camera at my brother, and I’m like “John, take a picture of this!” He laughs it off, “Yea right. You high?” I was dead serious. “We are out at 7/11 at 1 in the morning, TAKE THE PICTURE!!! If this doesn’t count as a memory for this trip, I don’t what does” I’m pretty sure even the hobos heard me. Looking back, it was probably due to hunger-induced anger, but sure enuff we got some pix of that lil adventure. Our stomachs quelled, everyone else fell asleep to the sounds of Inu-Yasha. I drifted in & out, cursing my irony. I paid for this great bed, and yet, I can’t sleep in it. Stupid insomnia!
Saturday
This is pretty much every con’s hump day. The real meat & potatoes. The one day of any 3 day con, you can’t afford to miss!!! The part that sux about being an insomniac is having to get up early. 6 in da morn again! Sigh….to the BK for breakfast! Woohoo! Joe & I were up way too damn early to get Colleen Clinkenbeard’s autograph (FMA’s Hawkeye & Trinity Blood’s Ester). We started off in the empty Otacafe; a small lounge where ppl come to chill & sing karaoke. Then we moved on to watch this anime called Zoids. I still don’t understand it fully, but the dialogue for the episode we watched sounded mad dirty taken outta context. The wait for CC was def one of the more interesting. We met a lot of good cosplayers. While we were waiting around playing DS & cards & trying to pass the time Channel 9 news shows up outta da blue! Dat was cool, they interviewed Joe, and part of me was jealous, until the interviewed aired. The press did us otaku so wrong. That interview was a sham, but the fact that they were interviewin kats at da con, dat was cool. Maybe once day, the perception of anime culture, and the ppl who indulge in it, won’t be so misunderstood. 2 cosplayers spawned the weirdest conversation of dat day. Alphonse (movie ver.) & Spider-man were walking by. I jus wanted Spidey’s picture, but Joe insisted I get Alphonse’s, & then both. I countered w/”Why bother, I’m never gonna bring up Spidey & Alphonse in a conversation”. I had both cosplayers stop dead in front of us & pose for one picture, and as I’m taking this picture, I turn to Joe & say, “There! This is the only time I’ll bring up Spidey & Alphonse Elric in a sentence together.” The Urahara next to us got a laugh outta dat. Then we got into a a debate on who’d win in a fight between Spider-man & either Edward or movie ver. Alphonse. Trust me, not as easy a call as it seems. After Colleen’s autograph, we went to lunch after meeting up w/ Brim in the Dealer’s Room & buying some delicious doujinshi. I split from the group after lunch and wondered around the con, eventually landing in the unofficial line for Steven Blum autographs. That line merged with a another unofficial line, and we fans just grew & grew & grew, til we were 600, 700+ strong. Now by this time, the STAFF had blocked off the official line space, so you had 600, 700, or more ppl all standing around a 45×45 square, hungry fans all salivating at the chance to get in the line to meet Steven Jay Blum. We all waited outside the square for about an hr & 10 mins, then STAFF let us form an official line, and the bumrush was instantaneous. Now, it was bad enough outside the square, but inside, ppl crammed & packed so tightly, that you couldn’t even sit down. I have honestly been on subways in NYC that were less packed. Eventually the line did thin out, and I did get to meet my idol. On dat day, I met greatness. Some voice actors alter their natural voices to do certain characters, some naturally sound as such, Steve sounded like any other character he’s done, so everything he said, and more importantly, what he said to me, sounded like just like he sounds (yea, retarded, I kno), it sounded just like Spike, Roger, Cunningham, Oroachimaru, etc, etc, etc. His words and autograph are all the more, if not my greatest source of now, inspiration to be a voice actor. Being the fanboy I am, I glomped da shit outta Blum, and nearly fainted in the process. If he hadn’t glomped back & held me up, I probably would have. That right there was the single greatest moment of that weekend for me. Now for those of you reading this, and going WTF is Steve Blum, this guy is one of the greatest voice actors, hands down, no one is going to dispute that. He’s helped the industry substantially (both anime & voice acting). This veteran VA has done some of biggest & most recognizable roles in anime to date. Cowboy Bebop’s Spike, Naruto’s Orochimaru, Big O’s Roger Smith, IGPX’s Cunningham, Final Fantasy’s Vincent Valentine, Ghost In A Shell’s Laughing Man, Toonami’s Tom, oh does the list go on…. Meeting Mr. Blum was so important to me, because he is the primary reason I want to be a voice actor. That day was a dream come true, and when I do become a voice actor, maybe, just maybe, I’ll get a chance to work with him. I left the autograph area faint, starstruck, hellz yea, but I’d been waiting to meet this guy for close to 6 hours outta this Saturday, and I was a wee bit tired. After stopping by the Artist Alley (The place where tons of fans, webcomics, and freelance artist display, sell, and auction off their art), I headed back towards the room. On my way outta the con, guess who I run into, Sonic & Shadow. They were posing with kids, who ran off giddy as school kids after pix w/da icons. I figured my earlier desire was pointless, but it turned out the posse surrounding was just the group they were taggin along with. My chance in hand, I not only got Shadow taking down Sonic, but Sonic gettin some sweet revenge. This day was just getting better & better. After restin up, I went straight for the rave. I was so pumped, so hyped for round 2. I was kinda bummed though cause I couldn’t get ahold of enuff glowsticks (next year I bring my own). I get there, and my mood is sliced by the music. Friday was okay, but Saturday sucked. Sure it was good enough to listen to, but you couldn’t rave to it. I tired to groove, but I couldn’t feel the rhythm. On the verge of leaving, I noticed the train was dying. All I could think about were the con-virgins, I don’t know why, but I couldn’t let it end like dat. I knew what I had to do. So I hopped back on the track, and grabbed the train, and brought it back. We were killin it! The train just could not be stopped from then on. I think the max ppl I saw riding were like close to 80, and even then it was till goin! Eventually, I decided to break off, and a new conductor took over. I only meant to have a good time, help pick up the party, I had no idea my actions would have ppl recognizing & thanking me. You know how hard it is to pick someone out of a crowd in a rave, so the fact that anyone could do that blew me away, but there were close to 20 or 30 ppl givin me props for my part in the rave. It was official, Saturday had rocked so damn hard! The only real prob w/Saturday’s rave, other than the lackluster tunes, was RAVE + DARK ANGEL = TOES STEPPED ON. Now while I did my part to keep the party goin, I’m pretty sure anyone who recognized my face after I stepped on them probably isn’t too happy with me… but dats the thing about a rave you know, it’ll happen. Ppl bump into you, your toes get stepped on, you get bumrushed, etc. Only 3 rules you need to remember for a rave. 1. Stay hydrated. You like livin right? 2. Party your ass off. Don’t go to a rave and sit in the corner, cause then you take up perfectly good space ppl can used to battle, but would more than likely dry hump in. 3. Most important rule! Never ever ever, under any circumstances, STOP MOVING or FALL DOWN. If you do, you best had made peace with your maker, cause no one’s gonna stop for you, best believe you’ll get trampled. Back at the room now, it’s time to sleep right? Wrong! So wrong Mr. Angel. Sigh….what I thought would be a routine night turned out to be anything less. Here’s the short version of what happened Saturday night through my eyes, however I won’t go into anymore detail than this, ya had to be there to see it, feel it, and live it. How what went down in B-more, stays in B-more.
Saturday Night
Guns, booze, new friends, rave afterparty, prostitutes, broken elevators, cosplay goddesses, sake hunt, Red Light district, drunks, hot zombies, fumbled hotel security, underage stowaways, tree humping, subways, tagging, pranks, West Side Story, Sandstorm, interesting uses for a guitar, caroling, gangstas, and so much, much more.
Oh what a night….
Sunday
This is always the “Hangover Day” for Otakon. Other than its quite literal nickname, Sunday is the last day of the con and it’s about now that everything from the entire weekend starts catchin up with you. On top of that most ppl start checking outta their hotels that morning, if they haven’t already. Con always seems to go out with a whimper, never a bang. It’s rather depressing. I was still pumped from everything that happened last night, so I was up at the crack of dawn ready for more con. 1st things 1st though, we had to clean all the rooms, Saturday had wiped everyone else’s energy, but destroyed all our rooms. Then it was off to the con for some last minute pix & a panel on FMA. I get back to the room to find everyone has decided to stay in and watch Cartoon Network; can’t be helped though, Sunday can be mad dull. After all the rooms were cleaned, it was time to checkout, and I’m getting keys, only to find dat Ryan & Kate had disappeared. Turns out they’re in the Dealer’s Room. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but we have 10 mins to checkout. Now normally, I like to hold back, I really have no need to move like there’s a rocket strapped to my back, but 10 mins on the clock, I made it from my hotel room (2.3 blocks away) to the Dealer’s Room in less than 5. Snagged the keys, said goodbye, and checked everyone else out. Those of us still left in the city attempted to find out when the dates for Otakon ’08 were gonna be, and then left the city. I managed to see Madi-sempai for all of 5 seconds. Later that day Glen Burnie, Maryland would come to speak of an incident that involved a lite rail train & a yuri poster. ^.^ With the end of the con comes a bittersweet sense of awesome. I mean, for all the hassle, all the screwups, all the mixups, all the things that went wrong & could’ve really gone wrong, it was all worth it. Can’t wait for Otakon ’08!
