You’ve sat through parts 1-3. This is it! The official Otakon 2010 Convention Report, through my old tired eyes.
Otakon was a big deal for me this year. Even if it was my very last Otakon, it was still the first time I got a real chance to be around people (aside from work) and enjoy what was my first anime convention and rave on a good leg. After the whole getting shot thing, it was really hard to say whether or not I’d ever return to the world I love. (Eventually however, that didn‘t turn out to be the case, thanks to Anime Matsuri & the fact that I couldn‘t go to the rave anyway.)
Thursday was fraught with hobos and asshats. Even though the line had started the Wednesday prior(!), there was a couple of last-minute line waiting directives that weren’t delivered until, well, the last minute. There was a lot of last minute stuff at the con, like the artists, panelist, and dealers who got pulled in last second, or the events that got postponed or canceled. Pre-reg Thursday’s usually a good indicator of what the weekend attendance is going to look like, and when the hobos are saying that the line looks slim, perhaps it’s not your best year of attendance.
*It should be noted that Pre-reg Thursday (the Thursday before the event actually starts in which attendees grab their passes for said event) is not an exact predictor for how attendance plays out, the crowd did feel slimmer this year & there were a lot less cosplayers floating around, and while [at time of writing] there was an estimated 30,000 in attendance, Otakon was offering replacement badges for anyone that lost their original; so unless there’s some way to distinguish the replacement badges vs. original sold, Otakon could very easily inflate their final numbers.*
Thursday marched on with little excitement until 12 noon. Maryland has been suffering a pretty wicked heat wave all summer and while most of the attendees hadn’t bothered to check the local weather, the little Dark Angel that could managed to snag a look the night before. In fact the whole week building up to Ota, every weatherman had been proclaiming rain for that Thursday, with child-like giddy. So while I was happy I’d packed an umbrella, it was still not less of a surprise when the rain came. In the span of 20 mins Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was terra-formed from a desert into monsoon wetland. And it was cool too (everyone played in the rain), until the winds picked up. It evolved like a Pokemon in the span of minutes. Light rain, to thunderstorm, to heavy storm surge. Anything that wasn’t attached to your body or bolted to the ground, went flying away like a kite. And if you didn’t have an umbrella, you might as well have been naked in the shower. Logically, the staff let us in. The good news was, we now had shelter (most of us), the bad news was, the BCC (Baltimore Convention Center) has a convention practically every weekend, so the A/C never stops running; essentially it’s the coolest place in Baltimore all Summer. A couple hundred soaking wet anime fans, crammed into arguably the coldest building in the city, does not make for an awesome beach party. Though that didn’t stop some fans from stripping down to the bare essentials. We weren’t soaked, we were “if I squeeze my shirt, I have 2 buckets of water now“ drenched. Once pre-reg started, everyone was accommodated briskly. And that kids, was the day the ‘Hurricane of Otakon 2010’ took place. That was also the day IT came, the arrival of the Buttscratcher.
If Otakon was my anniversary con, it was certainly a throwback. This was the first year in a long time that I couldn’t stick around over night for a convention. I missed all the parties, all the raves, all the crazy that went down as soon as the sun did. If I had to break my 2010 experience into themes, Thursday would have been water (clearly), and Friday, regret. It felt terrible, because no matter how many people I got to see [again], how many things I got to do, how much fun it was to be back on the scene (and not walk around after hurting my legs), the experience never felt complete. Regret also sprang from the loss of my camera, which was stolen earlier this year. I’d had that thing for so long, I’d forgotten what it was like to not have one; I felt so naked. You could tell the Buttscratchers were multiplying by mid-Friday.
Saturday, July 31st, 2010. A day that will not be forgotten anytime soon. A day that will go down in Otakon’s chronicles as it’s greatest day of infamy. This was the day the fire alarm got pulled. But before all those crazy shenanigans, it seemed like a perfectly normal day at Otakon. Costumed characters walking rampant through Baltimore’s streets. Lines for everything longer than the DMV. People from all over the world celebrating anime. I spent today getting things done. I went to panels, I (pardon the 90s) got my game on, I got to meet many influential artist like Mookie & Garth. I met up & hung out with friends; it felt great, and yet so alien. Ever since the big Recession, I hadn’t really gotten a chance to relax and be me, I’d just been so busy working, and dealing with regulars, and making sure my bosses were happy, and it never felt like I was ever taking a minute to just chill; so it was weird doing so now. I somehow wound up working at one of the booths in the Dealer’s Room – Anime Pavilion. That was a different experience to say the least; it was nice to add the experience to my con scene resume. 1/2way through my 1st shift the fire alarm goes off, and at first, everyone ignores it. Then the Fire Marshall starts clearing us out. Everyone! Fans, staff, guests, etc. Fire drills were never like this in high school, and the amount of people was sheer MASSIVE. If the 30,000 estimate is to be believed, then there were at least 18,000 cleared out of the convention center. All of them seemingly packed onto Pratt Street, in Baltimore‘s Inner Harbor. It was like watching an epidemic break out, or the makings of a zombie apocalypse. So many people….and at first no one was moving, everyone just kinda congregated in the same area. Just this massive outbreak of anime fans. After this little stunt, I think it’s safe to say that Anime Expo will never have ANYTHING that will ever come close to that exciting; and it’s amazing to have been part of it. Now rumor has it that the culprit(s) range from a faulty stove to Rastafarians to 4chan. Course I’m inclined to agree with those who think it was Charmander. Or maybe Vic Mignogna actually picked up some tricks from all those recordings of FMA & Brotherhood. Fortunately (or unfortunately) however, according to the big cheese running the show, there was no actual fire.. The evacuation was definitive testament to the staff’s organization, because if there was actually something wrong, then they did a great job of getting us out of danger. Once the commotion died down, I went back to roaming with old friends, got back to work, and made some new friends. It still sucked that I couldn’t stay, but it was overall, a pretty good day. And you realize at this point that the viral buttscratrer meme has simply multiplied out of hand. It started as a rave, but within the first few days it had grown to something I think no one could control. I had a friend suggest that vuvuzelas (which had been preemptively banned this year) be allowed to combat the septic beast; however I countered in that his solution would be tantamount to trying to use the Aliens to fight the Predators; everyone loses as the problem gets worse. What amazed me the most was not the stamina in which this idea virus spread, but rather the various strains that derived from the original bug, seemingly all in one weekend, in the same building. You had opt-in buttscratcher, passing buttscratcher, Vendor buttscratcher, Buttscratcher cosplay, and even a couple of [people literally] running buttscratchers. Notably the Dealer’s Room was packed as always, and they weren‘t selling 3-month old merch (for the most part, and as far as I could tell). A lot of the vendors really seemed pressed to try to bring up the bottom line with some outstanding lineups, but even in a recession I think most have discovered they are still losing to the Internet. I think there’s got to be a new business model if those guys are going to survive.
In all the years I’ve spent going to cons, researching cons, and working (at) cons I’d never seen anything like Otakon 2010 to date. Hurricanes, no parties, fire alarms; it was starting to pre-qualify for free range pandemonium. It only felt slightly normal because it was all happening in Baltimore. So even though I shouldn’t have been, I was really surprised at what went down Sunday. See it was bad enough not being able to stay for any of the overnight chaos, but on top of that I had to run back to town to work (about an hour away) with no car, which essentially made my commute about 2.5 hours (because we all know how reliable public transportation is). So imagine my unnecessary surprise when I got to the train stop Sunday only to find out that they were all running about hour late. Bad enough it’d take an hour to get into the city, but an hr late for these things to boot, would mean I probably wouldn’t get there until noon; just as everyone started going home. Pissed as usual, I randomly relayed the bad news to a small group of cosplayers. A chance encounter really, because they then offered to take me to the show. Hitchiking to Otakon, what a way to travel! I made it in around 10, got a chance to say goodbye to some old friends, new friends, do a little last minute networking. And as the last of the festivities began to wind down I got a chance to go to my 1st anime convention wedding. The couple are friends of mine who you may remember from Otakon 2009. The groom proposed to his bride in the middle of the rave last year. This ceremony was more a recap than the actual ceremony , but it was still cool. Nowhere near as cool as my wedding will be, but awesome nonetheless.
So that was my Otakon 2010. Nothing at all like I was expecting, but hey, is it ever? But it’s the end of the ride for this old cowboy, no more Otakons. To quote myself, “I, Dark Angel, will never, ever again, as of the end of Otakon 2010, attend the Otakon convention ever again.” What’s next for the future? I’m the wrong person to ask, but I’m sure it’s gonna be crazy.
