*back from Otakon

[kiramaru7]

I'm back! I had fun, despite getting sick. At one point, I felt like I was going to pass out in the dealers' room, which wasn't fun. I needed to sit down & the only available chair was right outside the really stinky, smelly bathroom. I felt really bad for all the dealers in that area. It was not pleasant being there & their booths were mostly empty. Would I ever go to a huge con again? Probably not. Way too many people, so waiting on line for anything took forever. We went a day early to pick up our badges, & saw a massively huge line so we said "forget this" only to have to wait 2 hours the next morning to get them. T.T Food was expensive, there were a few choices in the dealers' room area, & outside had a ton of "weenie wagons" with different kinds of food in the, We would up eating several blocks away in a food court at this mall that was attached to a hotel in the area. We also ate at 5 guys burgers & fries (good food, but not cheap), at a sandwich place across the street from the con, which was good. I also got my traditional con hotdog as you have to eat something wurst-like dressed as Prussia. ;p Breakfast wasn't bad. The hotel had a small breakfast buffet, I ate yogurt, oatmeal, & a muffin. The one day I woke up very nauseous, so all I ate was dry toast. T.T As for panels, they made a smart phone app with the schedule, which is awesome, unless you're like me & have a normal phone. So I missed all that, & only found out about the maid cafe, which I wanted to go to, on the way home. T.T Badly disorganized, very expensive, too many people, & no anime on the hotel TV (AnimeNext's main hotel airs it all weekend). Good part, the hugs I'd get from all the Chibitalia's I'd see. XD And the hug from the Germany cosplayer. Unfortunately, my sister had the camera, so no pic of that. Besides, the one at AnimeNext was hotter. ;p)

Comments

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Sorry not all of it was fun (I think I'm getting too old for big cons. I have no patience for the lines)

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Thanks

I think the fun stuff outweighed the bad though. I have to agree with you about the lines. Let's see, the line snaked around the one side of the building (It was it's own block) doubling back on itself twice, before getting near the front of the building & turning around to go all the way around to the other side of the building, getting to the front, only to double back around again to the front. We made it to the door, before we had to go upstairs to queue up another line just to get our badges. ^^;

So we are back at AnimeNext next year & we're trying Senkaikon, which looks like another smaller con. Less people = more fun. :D

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Well that's good.

Columbus holds theirs at a truly stupid time. January. There is a smaller on I go to in April if I can. I went to a small one in Huntington too

I did go to Boston's a while back but it was packed and the vendors room sucked but I didn't have to wait because my friend and I were guiding a blind girl.

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Yeah. *nods*

We looked at some too in January & February. The cold's not that big an issue, it's more being unable to get there or get home cuz of the snow.

*nods* I wanted to go there too, but after this, I'm sticking to smaller cons. Especially ones we can drive to for the weekend. :D

That was very nice of you. I did oddly enough see a blind girl dressed like fem!England. She was with someone else, she was coming out of one of the upscale strip malls on the harbor, but I didn't want to startle her (I was going in through the door she wasn't exiting) or her companion with a comment, even if was only "Nice cosplay!" Like there was a guy cosplaying a character Jen knows form an anime she likes, but he was eating in the sandwich place, & that's not cool to bother someone like that for a pic. Outside, not problem. ;p I was waiting at a table for my sister & talking to cosplayers that came in.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Yeah Columbus is 100 miles north so it would be a snow issue. The college's anime club I'm the advisor for went and got stuck up there this year

I prefer smaller ones. I'm not into panels any more (i've pretty much seen it all at this point)

She has a head injury as well. We usually get bumped to the head of the line anywhere (except oddly enough once in Columbus. that venue is still on the no-go list after how they treated her. It was dangerous)

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's cool if you're a student & the con is at the college you attend. Not so if you're traveling & need to stay in a hotel to go to a con. My sister's boyfriend, lost a whole day's admission to a con cuz of the snow. His flight was cancelled & he had to take one the next morning & he was not happy, since it was expensive.

Me too. They never seem to have any panels I'm interested in. I watch my anime subbed, so why go sit & listen to English voice actors talk about something I don't watch. I know with Hetalia, the dub has a different script to the sub. (They play up the stereotypes & it's a lil raunchier)Plus one time I did go see Vic something or other speak about his experiences voice acting, which was nice until he started talking about how much he loves Jesus & I felt uncomfortable, since I'm not Christian. I don't mind hearing about other's beliefs, but this was a bit much. ^^;


So not nice or good! She could have been hurt or something, not to mention, it's not right to treat someone badly cuz they have a disability. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised & happy, that there were service dogs at Otakon. In fact, at one booth for an upcoming con, they had a thing where you take a flyer, you get top pet the puppy, who was someone associated with the con's service dog. What a sweet little dog! He was like the kind of dogs that I can see visiting sick people in a hospital. He calmly lapped up all the attention & I felt better patting him. XD

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah, the students lost a day too trying to get there then got stuck in the hotel but luckily it wasn't too pricey.

My eye sight is getting too bad to watch the subs anymore (that and I'm so busy that I grade while watching and cant' do that with subs).

Vic has a BAD rep of using his VA guest spots to recruit people to church. I find it highly inappropriate.

yeah it was bad and that's cool about the service pups

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'd be annoyed if that happened. They're lucky it wasn't too expensive.

Awe... There are some series I like both ways, & I guess it's whatever you get used to. The first anime DVDs I bought were Cardcaptor Sakura & they are all in Japanese with optional subs. Took me a while to figure that out too. ^^; *was watching it raw*

I wasn't aware of that. Unfortunately, he kinda soured me on going to see other VAs, since I felt bad getting up & leaving on him (I was down in front & it was hard to get out without making a fuss & he could definitely see me leaving XD) & I don't want to be put in that position again.

Sorry to hear that. Yeah, that service pup was awesoem! :D

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I'm so darned old that I started with the bad 60s-70s wooden VAs. Then in the 80s the only things you could get in cons were bootlegs you were lucky to get subtitled or you had to send it off to get it that way because you didn't speak Japanese. The 90s was a bunch of half translated animes that were never finished, some subbed some dubbed. This 21st cen boon in whatever you want is pretty amazing really.

ugh yeah that is a bad experience. I've never cared much for VAs or the lines to see them.

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

No way! *huggles* I never went to a con until HS & that's cuz there was an anime club. I mostly watched stuff online, or borrowed stuff from the teacher who ran the anime club. CCS was the first DVD I got, although, I did have *wonders where they went* several tapes of Dragonball, that I enjoyed. :D We didn't ahve a DVD player at the time &^ I remember finding them in fake!Japan in EPCOT. :D Once I started working, It was easier to buy the DVDs of stuff I had seen in English. I started reading manga back then too. Tahnsk to things like Crunchyroll, I've seen a lot of anime, I never would have before. And I watched it subbed, so I guess I just got used to it. XD Yeah, it really is! I love that I can "sample" a series & if I really like it, like I did with Hetalia, I can buy it. :D

*nods* I don't get the attraction to them, either. So bad experience aside, it's not like I'm missing much. ;p

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

haha like I said, I'm older. My first animes were Simba the White Lion and Speed Racer and Gatchaman (called Battle of the Planets back then or G Force). I didn't go to cons til h.s. but that was in the 80s.

Sadly until recently i couldn't use crunchyroll or funimation or hulu etc etc

You probably aren't. To me, cons are vendors rooms (which you can get on ebay any more but I still like the vendors) and cosplay.

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Yeah? I remember watching Sailor Moon & hating it, & loving Dragoinball Z when it came on & Gundam Wing. :D CCS, which was called cardcaptors was a fave o9n Saturday mornings. :D

I'm glad you can now! :D

Yeah! I can't tell you how many times we ended up in the dealer's room. I would have liked to have explored artist alley, but we were looking for a friend of my sister's & in the wrong place. Unfortunately, we never made it back there. Definite fun places to be!@ And cosplaying is always fun! :D

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Oh and how could I forget Robotech (which was like so well done in comparison and now it's just sad looking) I didn't get into Dragonball Z or Sailor Moon

oh yeah the artist alley, love that too

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

That one sounds familiar... I know what you mean about some looking sad. XD They play a mix of anime at the DoubleTree during AnimeNext. It's so nice coming back to your room when you're tired & watching it. Although I can do without Slayers (must be whoever sets that up's favorite series, but I find it annoying). XD

I LOVED DBZ! Sailor Moon's annoying heroine killed that series for me. Plus I was watching it dubbed & I sometimes think English VA's take a character who can be mildly annoying & make them ANNOYING!!!11!! ;p They did that to Kuro's poor Lizzie. *sighs*

It's always fun, then again, I really don't buy much there, if anything. XD

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Robotech was the bomb in the 80s. I still have the OST. it's on vinyl.

I never got into a surprising number of popular anime DBZ, Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, Naruto, One Piece. I don't dislike them per se, I just never got into them. For that matter I'm with you on Slayers though it's very cool the Hotel had that.

I don't buy too much artist alley stuff either. I did last con to get something for evil_little_dog and I bought a comic book series from someone who I talked to for some time because I recognized the Athens Lunatic Asylum in his art (I live nearby and it was the center for the freebie novella I just did)

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Cool! :D

*nods* I liked Inuyasha, gave Naruto a shot, but didn't like it, same with Bleach, One Piece. FMA, I just couldn't get into & I gave a few tries. But we can't all like the same things so if others like them, that's okay. :D

Yeah... :D They played some old stuff that was pretty good. One was about a girl who was very strong & good at judo. It was so old, that it would white out at times, but it was still cool to see. :D One year they had Gundam Wing which I liked. :D

*nods* That's sooo nice of you to buy your friend soemthing! :D Last year I bought a cute pic of Chibi Prussia & the artist also drew me dressed as fem!Prussia in the same style next to him. It must have been somewhat popular, cuz when I went to pick it up, she asked if she could use the design on a keychain. I said sure & she sent me one. :D The artist is at DA & she said she had a baby, which was why I didn't see her at AnimeNext. She's a very nice person & she also makes plushies. I guess we probably won't see her until her baby's bigger. XD

It's always nice to talk to people about their art. That's cool that they had something in their comic that was close to home. Even cooler that you mentioned it too in your work! :D

[lynne-monstr.livejournal.com]

Hope you feel better soon. There's nothing worse than feeling sick when you're away from home. Sorry to hear that the con wasn't all it was cracked up to be but I'm happy you had fun regardless!

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Lynne! I'm sure a night in my own bed will do wonders too. :D

I thought of you when I was in the dealers' room, drooling all over the Germancest doujinshi. If only I had more money, I probably woudl have bought it all. But I did buy a few nice ones, once I found out that I could take them out of the sleeves. XD The first one I bought had an awesoem cover, I've seen the artwork online before which is why I got it, but it has stories in it that I can't read. At least with the comics I can look at the pix & imagine what they're saying. ;p

I also found a Prussia/Fritz doujinshi which made me happy, cuz that's another one of my fave pairings. :D


(I need to take a pic of all the crappu I bought. I still can't believe I bought a $100 worth of yaoi doujinshi. XD And one Prussia messenger bag. XD)

[furousha.livejournal.com]

I have a friend on fb that went as well and didn't have a good time, either. Bug in his food and long lines and such. :p

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Yeah? Sorry to hear that. *huggles*

It's not like I HATED it, but it could have been better. My sister said it was very badly run & disorganized. I wish they had the paper schedules along with the con booklet, instead of downloading an app or trying to find a staff member in the sea of humanity. ^^; The lines were insane & that kinda set the tone for the whole thing, which is a shame, cuz they hold it in a really nice place.

[kattrip033.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had fun despite everything else and I hope you are feeling better.

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Thanks, kat! I'm feeling a lot better today! *huggles*

I think I might have been dehydrated. It was very hot & I was sweaty with the wig & all the walking. ^^; No handy water fountains or places to get water. Just the dollar water guy out front. XD

[kattrip033.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! *huggles back*

You very well could have been.

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

*more huggles*

*nods*