Category Archives: Otakon

In Baltimore Once Again

Well, not exactly in Baltimore.  More like a few miles to the south, but you know what I mean: I have arrived at my hotel for my 2nd year of Otakon.  Luckily this time I got hear before rush hour traffic, so the bad traffic wasn’t horrendous traffic like it was last year.

It once again rained so hard that I had to pull off for a bout 15 to 20 minutes this year, as it did last year, but this time I had built in enough leway that I still had plenty of time.  In a couple hours I’ll head down to the BCC to pick up my badge.

I’m interested to see what they have on the badges this year.  Last year I didn’t see anything that really interested me, so I just picked up Raxephon (of course, I had only been watching anime for about 2 years (vs. the 3 years now) so I have quite a few more shows under my belt this time.  I suggested that they should have a “Nice Boat” badge this year on the Otakon forums, but we’ll see if they will.

I’ll see if I can get some cosplay pictures too while I’m down there.

Otakon

Unless you’re visiting this blog for the first time in a while, you are probably aware that I’m going to Otakon this upcoming weekend.  As a result, there are several things I should note:

1) I have signed up for week-long wireless access to a wireless provider in Baltimore who at least says they have a router right across the street from the Convention Center.  I hope to be able to post updates to my blog whenever I get a free chance, but I’ll only know how good the connectivity is once I get there.  I will be able to post updates in the evening when I’m back at my hotel.

2) My back-up posting method is by twitter via text message.  If you haven’t noticed by now (largely because it makes my page load take longer), I have the two most recent twitter messages on my sidebar.  I’ll only have this during Otakon, so don’t worry about the slower page loads being anything permanent.  Any hot updates I’ll post there unless I miraculously have a wireless internet connection inside the panel rooms.

3) Don’t expect any episode reviews while I’m there.  I hardly have the time to do what I’m already doing, much less time to do that.  I’ll catch up when I get back.

4) I’ll try to get audio of some of the bigger panels that I attend, though that will depend on the quality of audo I can get.  It’s rather hit or miss.  If you don’t see any audio clips posted, you know why.

5) I’ll try to get a lot more pictures this time.  I was surprised by how few pictures I took last year.  Moar. I want Moar Pictures!

Oh yeah, and even though I may not hand out any, I ordered these cool Moo mini-cards for my blog.  They’re not exactly 100% kosher since the back side has images from various anime shows (with apologies to the people who made those shows), but it’s not exactly like I’m getting rich off this blog.

In any case, I’ll be heading out in the next hour or so, and I’ll make sure to post once I get into Baltimore!

Otakon Tweets on the Sidebar

I’ve activated a widget which shows the two lateast tweets from my twitter on the sidebar.  You can click to go to my twitter by clicking “Latest Tweets” or you can click to see each individual tweet.

Since I’m unsure whether I’ll have internet access within the convention center (it looks like most of the center is within about 300m of a wireless router across the street, I’m not taking any chances), I may end up having to post many of my updates via text message to twitter.  This way, a visitor to my site can see the lateast of what’s happening at Otakon.

Otakon Schedule Up

Here it is (pdf).

Huge gaps in the Hall D schedule and all.  Not sure what’s up with that, since I don’t recall such big gaps last year.  One person on the forum suggested that it was rehearsals, though I don’t know for what since Masquerade rehearsals appears to be in the Arena.  However, they don’t have TBAs either, so it’s possible that there is just nothing going on in there, which seems like a waste of space to me.

I’m also curious about the TBA between 12:30 and 2:30 PM in the HD theater on Friday.  Possibly Evangelion?  I’m not sure what else might be there which they wish to keep a secret unless it’s Ponyo.

Also, why have 3 workshop rooms if the vast, vast majority of the time there is nothing going on in there (by my count, there is a total of 46 hours of workshops.  At 38 hours of total convention time…38 hours x 3 rooms = 46 hours or programming?  I’m just sayin’.

Update

Looking back at last year’s schedule (I still have the booklet from last year), there were some gaps in the what was called Main Events room last year as well.  This year there is about 15 hours of dead time in Hall D while last year there was 17.5 hours, so it’s actually basically the same, plus 9 hours were spent on the Masquerade and a concert, which are taking place in the area this year.  So in reality, Otakon went from 13 hours of non-masquerade non-concert programming to 23 hours so it’s actually a significant increase, despite all the dead time.  And this doesn’t even account for 2 hours where the hall was used along with Video 1 for the AMV Contest.

So I guess despite all of the gaps in the Hall D schedule, it’s still a significant increase in programming.  I just think that it’s still a waste to have so much dead time, though, when you could be showing some popular shows (see: Girl Who Leapt Through Time) a 2nd or even 3rd time during those slots, but that’s just me.  I’m not organizing the thing and there are probably good reasons for the gaps.

My Tentative Otakon Panel Schedule

This is my personal tentative schedule for panels, at least as they are currently listed in the Event Planner on the Otakon website (a pretty neat thing).  Note that not all panels may be listed yet, and I’m sure times are tentative as well:

Friday, August 8th
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Lantis / JAM Project Q&A (Panel 3)
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM: FUNimation Q&A (Panel 2)
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Media Blasters Q&A (Panel 2)
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Kappei Yamaguchi Q&A #1 (Panel 4)

Wow, not a lot of panels on Friday that I’m interested in, at least that are listed yet.  Friday – especially the morning and evening – may be spent checking out the anime viewing rooms.  I may either skip the 1PM panel or leave early so that I can make sure I can get into the FUNimation panel.  I’m not sure what the policy is as far as attending two panels in the same room back-to-back (do you have to leave and get back in line, or not?) but last year it seemed that people didn’t care if one just hung out in the room.  Of course, I wasn’t necessarily attending packed panels either when I did that.

I also intend to visit the Dealers room as early as I can so I can grab up any remaining ADV titles which aren’t with ADV anymore which I may want to buy.  Again, not sure when it opens, but if it opens before 1PM, then you can bet that’s one thing I’ll be doing.

Saturday, August 9th
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Laura Bailey Q&A (Panel 3)
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Bandai (Panel 2)
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Kadokawa Pictures USA Premieres Panel (Panel 2)
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Media Blasters Premieres Panel (Panel 2)
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM: AMVs: From Concept to Planning (Panel 1)
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM: Fansubber and Industry Discussion (Panel 4)
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Bandai Surprise (Panel 2)

Again, based on how well attended the Industry Panels on Friday are, I may or may not skip or pop-out of the Laura Bailey panel early so I can hit Bandai.  Also, I have some nice breaks built into this schedule.  I can get lunch in the 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM break and grab dinner in the 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM break

Sunday, August 10th
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: State of the Industry (Panel 4)
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: ADV Announcements (Panel 1)
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Closing Ceremonies (Panel 4)
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Con Feedback Panel (Panel 4)

I’ll probably go straight from leaving the State of the Industry panel to stand in line for the ADV panel since that is a absolutely-must-attend panel for me.

Just another note, if they show The Girl Who Leapt Through Time or the new Evangelion movie, then that may impact things, depending on what they conflict with.  I would tend to prioritize them over the non-industry panels, but I would tend to put the industry panels over watching the movies.

Also, I’m just wondering why Otakon always tends to have panels like “Basic Photoshop” or “Basic Flash.”  I found that odd last year too, but I guess it’s a way to learn something new if there isn’t anything else interesting to you going on at the time being.

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