From uunet!in1.uu.net!news.voicenet.com!netnews.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!firehose.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail Tue Aug 11 01:59:47 1998 Path: uunet!in1.uu.net!news.voicenet.com!netnews.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!firehose.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail From: adferraro@mindspring.com (Adam Ferraro) Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime.misc Subject: Yet Another Otakon Review (Part 1 of 3) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 17:39:37 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc. Lines: 125 Message-ID: <6qol75$h3q$1@samsara0.mindspring.com> Reply-To: adferraro@mindspring.com NNTP-Posting-Host: pool-207-205-195-249.wlhm.grid.net X-Server-Date: 11 Aug 1998 05:35:33 GMT X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 Xref: uunet rec.arts.anime.misc:172965 Time for me to throw my two cents in. :) I'm going to write this more in the form of a diary this year, interjecting comments when necessary. Well, this year I decided to do the convention right, and spent 5 days in Washington. I arrived there Thursday evening 8/6/98 after a grueling 10 hour drive from Massachusetts, and found the Hyatt right off. The hotel's directions which were printed on the back of the confirmation slip were impeccable. I must give high marks to the hotel. It was a REALLY nice Hotel, and the staff was very professional, courteous and helpful. I loved the glass elevators (a hotel isn't a real hotel unless it has glass elevators) and found myself riding up to the top floor just to look down from them. @6:00pm - checked in and paid for the rooms in advance. Asked about parking and was told only the first 50 people qualified for the $5 parking fee. Anyone after the first 50 would pay $14 a night (More on this later on). After this went up to my room and unpacked. Then me and my friends split up. @7:30pm - I found out the early pre-reg was canceled but didn't find out why. No biggie. Instead I went around and explored the hotel. The elevators were incredibly slow, but to be fair, there were a lot of floors to cover. However, one of the hotel staff informed me of the existence of the service elevators that they used to get around and said I could use them so I did. (Elevator problem solved :)) The pool seemed sort of lame, and I missed the fact that there was a tennis court. @9:00 went for dinner in the hotel restaurant and as usual figured it was horrendously overpriced (I mean $6.50 for a hamburger and $6.50 for Nachos Grandes? Come on!) then I actually got served my dinner, and I should have listened to the waitress when she said the portions were large. MY GOD MAN! The nachos could have fed a small starving nation, and never mind trying to stuff the hamburger into my mouth, it was too big. Oh well, this time I actually got what I paid for. @11:00 went to the bar with my friends and had a couple of drinks. Around midnight I went to bed, had to get up early after all. ;) Friday 8/7/98 (The First Day) 8:30am - woke up and performed my morning ablutions. 10:00am - got into the line forming for pre-reg, was a little confused at first which line I was supposed to get into, but the force was with me and I chose wisely. Pre-reg did manage to open early and I was well on my way before noon rolled around. The con book was excellent, I especially like the Ian Kim short (When is he going to get his own comic published?) The programming guide was most excellent, and constructed of a sturdy paper, much better than last year. This was especially good as it did double duty...as a programming guide and as a paper fan). Chose the Slayers for my ID badge and that was pretty much all I had to do. I still had time to kill so my friends and I all went to Micky D's for food. (the poor employees, I wonder if they knew what hit them). 12:00pm - watched YUA 5-12 2:00pm - watched Mahou Tsukai Tai 1-4 4:00pm - killed time wandering around 6:00pm - attended the Anime and manga publishing panel. Found out a couple interesting things, Kuni said a couple unflattering things about the AP, and I asked a question. I asked Trish Ledoux how much of an effect was the publication of Dragon Ball and DBZ and Evangelion unflopped having on the industry and was there a future for it. This actually sparked a debate between Stu Levy and Trish. Surprised the hell out of me. Trish said that she would like to ideally see eveything published that way (unflopped) and that the DB and DBZ and Evangelion mangas were the first small steps to opening a chink in the armor of the retail stores. Stu was opposed to it and basically said it should stay flopped and be made palatable to the american public. This is where Trish IMHO made up for any past mistakes she may have made, and she told him that (I'm paraphrasing here) manga should be appreciated on it's own merits for what it is and for it's strengths, not be made to resemble something that it isn't and that there's a hell of a lot of (American comics). I was impressed (after all, I only wanted to know how well unflopped manga sold) :) 7:30pm - Got in line for the dealers room, waited about 15 minutes. Compared to previous years the dealers room was cavernous. Tons of stuff, Didn't buy anything then though. Checked out the art show, saw several pieces I wanted to bid on and resolved to come by early the next morning to sign up. 8:30pm - watched the music video contest (it was packed). Always go to the video contest on its first showing. The audience is always large and enthusiastic. Several great videos, Losing My Religion, Live and Let Die and Master and Servant won respectively for best Serious, Action and Comedy Categories. (Great improvement BTW, it really helped). 11:00 - took a break, went to the con suite and met with other members of the Fushigi Yuugi mailing list, listened to some Karaoke and prepared for MAT3000. 12:00am - watched the GOH Intro and MAT3000. MAT3000 was late (but I didn't mind) and it was a riot. Wish I had videotaped it. The anime was Battle Arena Toshinden Parts 1 and 2, and it was truly deserving. Poor Neil, he does all this hard work translating these titles, but like the man said, through no fault of his (Neil's) own, CPM has given Otakon many titles to mistie for years to come. 2:00am - went to bed. Fell asleep around 4:30am Adam End Part 1 Posted to rec.arts.anime.misc Posted to Otakon Mailing List "You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die." - Old Fremen saying. From uunet!in2.uu.net!newsm2.ibm.net!ibm.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!firehose.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail Tue Aug 11 02:00:00 1998 Path: uunet!in2.uu.net!newsm2.ibm.net!ibm.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!firehose.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail From: adferraro@mindspring.com (Adam Ferraro) Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime.misc Subject: Yet Another Otakon Review (Part 2 of 3) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 17:41:12 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc. Lines: 88 Message-ID: <6qola3$h3q$2@samsara0.mindspring.com> Reply-To: adferraro@mindspring.com NNTP-Posting-Host: pool-207-205-195-249.wlhm.grid.net X-Server-Date: 11 Aug 1998 05:37:07 GMT X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 Xref: uunet rec.arts.anime.misc:172966 dam's Otakon Report: Part 2 (The Second Day) Saturday 8/8/98 8:30am - dragged myself bleary eyed from bed and performed my morning ministrations. 9:00am - watched MAhou Tsukai Tai 5-6 10:00am - got into line for dealers room, it was delayed opening by about 20 minutes. Finally got in and bid on some pieces in the art show. Put bids down for Battle Arena Gold Digger, The Kasuga Twins, A water color painting of the three magic knights by Crystal Gronnestad (she is truly a fine artist) and bought outright another watercolor of Tifa (from FFVII) by Crystal Gronnestad). Also bought some things from the dealers room. (I'll recap my total take later on) 11:30am - went to McDonald's to eat with my friends. Got updated on what they had been doing. 12:30pm - went and napped. 3:00pm - Overnapped and wound up missing the Hiroshi Aro panel. So I went an watched Child's Toy TV 13 - 16 instead. This is an awesomely hysterical series, I'm going to have to try and track it down. I could not stop laughing. 5:30pm - Lined up for the masquerade and was determined to get good seats (all the better from which to videotape from). Me and the other bakas were in for a Loooooooong wait. Finally was let in around 8:00 and due to the fact that I had a camcorder with me I was allowed to the special videopit set up directly in front of the stage. Which was really cool, but there were a couple of problems with this, and those in charge of Otakon on the Otakon mailing list may want to consider this for next year, as I was unable to make the gripe session. One; if you have a videopit next year, please please please move the judges table out of the pit. I got much wonderful footage of the back of the judges' head, and while I don't particularly mind the footage of the back Amanda Winn-Lee's head, I draw the line at the back of Pocky-mans head. (No offense Pocky :) Two; if you can't move the judges table, then at least put us off to the side in the front row and let us sit in a chair. I'd rather film from an angle and sit down in a chair (especially as I forgot my tripod and I ended up filming the cos-play in Adamvision [think Homicide on Steroids]) rather than kneel/sit cross legged on the floor in front of the stage especially for the three hours or so that I was there. All in all the Cos-play was great. I liked the Genma Panda and the Doraemon (whack!) costumes. It was a riot when The Genma panda started to dance (it sounded like the theme to the crying game?) and Amanda Winn-Lee ran onstage and stuffed money under the suit ROTFL) The three girls dressed as the magic knights were cute. The resident evil three skit was funny (GO OFFICER BRADY!). I liked the AMG skit as well. The angel costume from Evangelion and the Hardsuit from BGC were awesome. The girl dressed as Ruri from Nadesico brought the house down with two simple words. She walked up to the microphone and went "Mina Baka." :) The others were great too, but I have to keep this post somewhat of reasonable length. :( My last note on this is to give Kudos to the guy who dressed as "Ranma after he fell into the spring of drowned overweight Otaku." He got up on stage while the judges were deliberating, and Con Chair Scofield was entertaining us, and actually offered to swallow a tea-bag and dance. (No, Con Chair Scofield didn't offer to swallow the tea and dance, the cos-player did. BAKA!) And he did! Swallowed both the tea leaves and the tea bag, then started dancing on stage to music. Banzai! Banzai! Banzai! 11:00pm - watched Nadesico 21 - 24. 1:00am - went to bed. Fell asleep around 4:30am Adam End Part II Posted to rec.arts.anime.misc Posted to Otakon Mailing List "You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die." - Old Fremen saying. From uunet!in5.uu.net!falcon.america.net!newsfeed.atl.bellsouth.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail Tue Aug 11 02:00:11 1998 Path: uunet!in5.uu.net!falcon.america.net!newsfeed.atl.bellsouth.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail From: adferraro@mindspring.com (Adam Ferraro) Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime.misc Subject: Yet Another Otakon Report (Part 3 of 3) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 17:42:29 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc. Lines: 119 Message-ID: <6qolch$h3q$3@samsara0.mindspring.com> Reply-To: adferraro@mindspring.com NNTP-Posting-Host: pool-207-205-195-249.wlhm.grid.net X-Server-Date: 11 Aug 1998 05:38:25 GMT X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 Xref: uunet rec.arts.anime.misc:172967 Adam's Otakon Report: Part 3 Sunday 8/9/98 (the Final Day) 8:30am - Woke up groggy and blindly stumbled into the bathroom to perform my daily toilet. 9:30am - running late. Went in to watch the rest of Detective Conan. Another great series that I'm going to have to acquire. 11:00am - Hit the dealers room, bought a couple more things and killed some time. It was also at this time that I ambled over to OPS, determined to find an answer to the parking situation. I spoke to a couple of staffers, and they in turn got Con Chair Scofield to look into the matter. Within 15 minutes I had my answer. Parking was indeed $5.00 for any member of Otakon, it was in the contract. I'd like to say thank you now, since I know you were harried and pretty busy yet still took the time to find out the answer for me and wish me luck on my trip back. 12:30pm - watched YUA 9-10. 1:30pm - went to art auction to bid on the pieces. Everything I was looking at went up for auction. There were a lot of people there, but the bidding was not very spirited and the prices did not get into the stratosphere. The mirrors generated interest, and the Gold Digger pieces generated interest, and I did not win on those, I bid on one Karumi picture, but was outbid (and a good thing too, there were actually TWO set's of pictures of the kasuga twins.) I feel sorry for the poor lady who bid $47 on the first one, for at that point none of us knew that there was an exact duplicate of it. The other three (another Karumi and two of her sister) went for substantially less (in the 20's I believe) *note to the Otakon staff to keep in mind for next year. We bidders bid on the pieces of art because they are original one of a kind pieces. It is not very kosher to NOT tell us when a piece is in essence a print. You should have let us know in the begining that there were two sets of identical works. Then the watercolor of the Magic Knights came up for auction and I prevailed, forking over $100 for it. I was happy. Afetr that, me and my friend (who had finally shown up) headed on over to the art room to pick up my pieces. HA Ha (all I can do is laugh) after waiting in line about 20 minutes, I had JUST reached the table and the staffer had JUST brought my art to me and I was JUST about to pay him, the FIRE ALARM went off and we had to evacuate. DOH! @3:30 or so, while the hotel emptied for the fire alarm, me and my friends went to McDonald's for lunch rather than wait around for the all clear. After we got back the hotel was back to normal and I went back to the dealers room, and had another 20 minute wait in line before I was able to finally get back to where I was before the alarm had gone off. Que sera sera, it's a good thing I'm such an easy going guy, and I really find it sort of funny. For the rest of the night I just chilled out hanging round the hotel. I managed to score a complete set of Otakon Badges, and my final tally for the weekend was something like $300 dollars. 4 Cd's (One Yamato, One Super Hits Collection, and two Marmalade Boy Cd's), Two Laser Discs (They were 11 and Towards The Terra [the dealer actually dealed]), two t-shirts (one Fushigi Yuugi, and one from Katsucon, the Return of the Kabuki Ninjas) and two pieces of art from Crystal Gronnestad (Tifa from FFVII, and the magic knights picture.) Pooped out, I finally went to bed about 11:00pm and slept like a stone. I woke up at 8:00 am on Monday, checked out for 10:00 and drove home. Arrived here in Worcester around 8:30 this evening, took a little break, and promptly commenced work on my massive missive. Overall, this years Otakon was the best so far, which is no surprise as every year it just keeps getting better. I enjoyed the hotel and the location, and the staff was pleasant and helpful. The con itself attracted 2500 or more people yet it was not as crowded as last year. There were a ton of females there this year especially cute ones, which was great, (probably the best female turn out yet) and the amount of male otaku who cross dressed was down significantly (LUCKY!). On a funny side note, I believe it was on Saturday night when a bunch of Japanese stewardesses from JAL checked into the hotel, and I'm told they all laughed really hard upon seeing tons of screaming otaku running around the hotel ;) The video programming was much improved from last year as well, I saw several great series that I would not have had the chance to see otherwise, and I much prefer it that way, truth be told, than to see a convention dedicate itself to showing only commercially released stuff. My feeling is that if I want to see commercially released stuff, then I'll buy it. I go to conventions to see things that I don't normally get to see. No real changes are needed here. As I said before, I missed the feedback panel, so I''m doing it here. As for the people who made Otakon run, I have no complaints about any of the staff, I was pleasant to them, they were pleasant to me (I think that is the key, be pleasant to people. I know that if someone comes across as an a$$hole to me, then I'm going to be one right back.) I have a couple of minor gripes about the cos-play videopit and the art auction, but that in no-way affects my overall enjoyment of the con. John Scofield and all the rest have my thanks, the con was super, and I look forward to next year. Adam Posted to rec.arts.anime.misc Posted to Otakon Mailing List "You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die." - Old Fremen saying.