For part 1, go here.
NOTE: Yes, I know that its perhaps a bit past the point of people caring anymore, and I know I said I’d finish up my Otakon report last night, but I had to take care of some things, and sorry but real business always takes precedent (which I didn’t even finish up since I wasn’t so hot late last night). Though I did waste about an hour watching the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference keynote (yes, I’m one of those Apple nerds… though I gotta say, Leapord looks friggin’ hawt), so maybe I have no excuses. Anyway, on with the show…
WARNING: TONS AND TONS OF PICTURES. SORRY 56K.
DAY 2
Day 2 was basically more of the same, but a LOT more. There were a couple thousand more this day than before, which meant even more cosplayer to take pictures of. So I’ll just start with all the ones I took that day.
Here’s everyone’s favorite Street Fighter fangirl, from Street Fighter, Sakura. It’s actually from the day before, but I forgot to post it, so…
I also forgot to pass along this pic of a dude dressed as the Japanese wrestling superstar, Jushin “Tiger” Liger…
Check out these Day of The Tentacles characters dressed as Zelda and Link. Simply brilliant…
The Shy Girls…
Even more Pikmin! I simply love the prop sim card…
I’m not sure what this dude’s gimmick was. All I know is that he had a crown made out of construction paper with assorted video game console names written on it, he’s a got an image of PlayStation controller up front, and has a SNES controller as a scepter. That and the pit stain…
Here I am getting accosted by Megatron. Costumes made entirely of out duct tape for the win BTW…
A pair from Ghost in the Shell….
The girls from Soul Calibur were in full effect on day two. Note the attention to detail with Tira’s costume (i.e. the under-cleavage)…
And here’s someone as Player 2 Tira…
I also saw two different Captain N’s. There was the fat, dopey looking one, and this guy who carries the role much better…
Sub Zero and Scorpion. Need I say more?
Here’s a girl dressed as a Dance Dance Revolution pad. Right after taking the picture, one of her friends exclaimed “You have the nicest smile!”
So everyone know that I hate furries, but I was a fan of Usagi Yojimbo before the furry scene became exploded, hence why I had no problems taking this pic (plus I know Jason is a major fan)…
Here’s a guy that’s supposed to be Stephanie from the kid’s show Lazy Town…
Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill…
As a BIG fan of Claire Redfield from Resident Evil 2 (ask Dave), I had to take a pic the minute I spotted her, who happened to be friends with the girl from Silent Hill 3…
Dude, its Inspector Gadget!
Here’s a girl playing Wander (or Wanda?) from Shadow of the Colossus…
It was always nice to see some old school anime (I remember when it was called Japanimation) character getting some recognition…
And every anime/manga con needs Sailor Moon…
Penny Arcade fans will know what this one’s about: its Winnie the Pooh, all dark and shit from their parody of Kingdon Hearts 2…
At 2:00 I hit my first set of panels for the day. That was when Otaku Culture & Trends in Japan took place, which was moderated by the guy who runs J-List and a pair of Japanese folks who run a company or something that’s all about brining the Japanese Otaku culture to here in America (yeah, I’m not sure what that means exactly either). It was actually not all that bad, because despite going over old territory, I did learn something new: maid cafes. They’re apparently all the rage in Japan; its basically a tea house with girls dressed up as maid serving all the drinks. From what I heard, the prices are pretty outrageous ($7 for a cup?), but you’re not paying for the drinks but to ogle the pretty girls. Some offer “premium” services like chit-chatting or just listening to customers after a long, hard day, and even offering massages. So it’s sorta like prostitution. Apparently people will wait in line for hours to just drink a cup and a chance to talk with a pretty maid, who often go on to achieve fame, or “idol” status. They even had music shows and CDs with a bunch of pretty maids, though the best part is how they great everyone with “Hello master, how can I make you feel good?” or some variation of. But what’s even crazier is how the maid thing is starting to loose a bit of steam and it’s being overtaken by “little sister” cafes that is the same basic thing. Pretty fucking nuts…
During the Q&A I really wanted to ask the Japanese woman who gave the presentation how she personally felt about it, but given that she apparently makes a business passing along hentai and other such shit, I passed. Besides it would have been a bit over the head for the audience. Speaking off, there was this one guy who came in late and while trying to get a seat in middle of the row behind me apologized to everyone he had to pass with a very drawn out and whiney (think Urkel; looked like him too) “Excuse me… I’m sorry”, and I just knew he’d be one of those kind of dweebs. And as expected, he ended up asking way too many questions that fucking went no where: (remember, in an Urkel voice) “Can you please explain… why do some people act like girls don’t like anime? But they do!!! Why?” Late on, the guy from J-List was showing off the newest dating simulator from Japan that his company has translated and will be releasing here, which happened to be a Yaoi based game, got the nerd all hot and bothered, so he rushed to the stage to get a closer look and asked over and over again if he could have it.
Next was the Gaming in Japan panel, and to kill some time while setting up, the presenter decided to play the Super Smash Brother Brawl trailer for everyone. And to further cement how gay Nintendo fans can be, when the video was shut off to get one with the panel, right at the part when Solid Snake shows up, lots of folks in the room gave their whiniest “Nooo!!!” So the panelists gave the room what they wanted (yeah, like every single one of the wieners hasn’t watched that video like a billion fucking times since E3). As for the panel itself, it wasn’t very good. The same folks who did the previous topic ran it, and while they may have been knowledgeable about Otaku culture in general, but they didn’t know shit about the current gaming scene. Though they did highlight some interesting early titles from the current big names in the industry, like Konami, Koei, and Square, which all pretty much got started with dating/hentai games, like Lolita Syndrome or awesome sounding Hook Up With Girls In Tokyo. And an interesting opinion as to why Japanese players haven’t hopped onto the EverQuest/World of Warcraft brand of MMOs: “Japanese players do not favor goblins and trolls.” Interesting.
Otherwise, they didn’t address anything substantial, and instead went over facts and figures that anyone could get from IGN; another annoying part was when the Wii was mentioned, all the N-dorks started going “Wii! Wii! Wii!” How fucking gay is that? I tried asking what the current attitude among developers were regarding Sony’s decisions to eliminate region coding with their games, and Microsoft allowing the game’s makers to make the call themselves, and if they were at all aware of the interest that some of their games generate in other part of the world, and the such, but of course, they had nothing to say. The panelists decided to close things up like they did in the previous before: a “quiz” in which they named off video game companies and asked the audience to name their work. Too bad that all the companies were super well-known. Better yet, none of them were at all familiar with any game not made in the past few years, so I ended up being the guy who verified if the answers were right or wrong; when they said Square and Jeremiah answered with Einhander, they were all confused, till gave them the nod. The prizes were all J-List stuff, so he got some hentai comic.
Afterwards I decided to check up on MK at the dealer’s room; she pretty much spent the entire time there, though since she prefers to man the table at any show when there’s books to sell, it wasn’t much a problem with her. Though that meant that I was hardly there and I kept missing folks from Insert Credit who had stopped by to both buy a book and say hello, though I did meet one guy, Tim and his girlfriend Sara, right before closing up the table last night…. really nice folks! BTW, thanks for everyone who came and sorry I wasn’t there, but MK & I do appreciate the business!
Anyway, when I arrived, I noticed that one of the guys who ran the Studio 4C panel was talking with her. We talked for a while, and he seemed totally blown away to meet folks with similar tastes, or at least people that knew more about stuff he wanted to know more about, that being American comics and live action Japanese cinema. Since we mentioned that we liked FLCL so much, to check out the director’s live action film, and he offered to make us a copy since it was on his laptop. But since we didn’t have a blank CD-R (I loved how he was surprised to meet folks who didn’t have blank CD’s on him) we actually went out, bought some discs, burned us that movie and other stuff, and traded us it for some comics. Hence why MK & I dubbed him “our new best friend.”
Eventually I decided to wander around even more and take more pictures.
Perhaps the most popular cosplayer from Saturday was the guy dressed up as Hard Gay. Lord knows the minute I saw the guy, I started getting all giddy like a little girl. Here I am with him, and yes, he’s grinding me…
And here he is with both MK and I…
Too bad this pic came out so blurry; this father and daughter pair from Evangelion was quite nice…
Here’s another great picture that’s ruined by my shitty camera; Snape giving some shit to Hermione and Ron. I also have one of Hermione looking longingly into Snape’s eyes, but that one turned out even worse. Sorry…
Another day, another ninja. This time it’s Ninja Gaiden…
The only other girl playing Heather from Silent Hill 3 (the fact that there were two is pretty neat in itself)…
More Silent Hill….
And some more…
Here I am with Freakazoid, a fave character of MK’s…
Black Mario posing with the Shy Girls. Just as a took out my camera, that guy dressed as Link popped up, and from out of nowhere, the dude dressed as the NES controller ran up to be part of the action. He held that face for a solid minute…
Seung Mina was also a pretty popular character at the show (I actually saw about five or so), and here’s perhaps the best one…
Though in the end, I believe Tifa (the Advent Children version, of course) was the most popular. I spotted a good dozen of them. Here’s one in the artists’ alley…
And one roaming the halls upstairs…
Here’s person who resembles Jeremiah and myself with one of the Kobun-bots from Mega Man Legends. Easily one of my fave costumes of the weekend as well…
And here he is a bit later in the game room, jamming on Guitar Hero…
Because I love Daisy so much, I simply had to have a picture with her…
Leon Belmont from the first 3D Castlevania game for the PS2. Again, shitty game, but awesome character design, and very neat costume….
Here’s another Sailor Moon, but whose costume is entirely made of paper!
Aside from Naruto, the one other catagory for characters which I didn’t care enough to take pictures of was Kingdom Hearts (and boy was it popular; at a certain point MK had to ask me why everyone was carrying around big keys). But I just had to take a picture of this guy, simply because he has this look of utter pain, like he was just wedgie d or something….
Behind the kid was this huge dance party that quickly became very weird. Long story short: it started out with a bunch of cosplayers and regular folks just dancing around to shitty trance music in the middle of the main floor (they had a DJ spinning crappy music the whole time). So imagine the whitest people in the world trying to shake it to crappy rave music, and further hindered by bulky costumes. Once the song was over everyone cleared out, so to fill the spot a guy dressed as Ranma and one as his grandfather (the panda) came onto the floor. Eventually Ranma left, so the panda was left by himself to just jump around. Soon a “regular” guy came out, and I forget how, but both of them began to play fight. You know how sometimes playful wrestling starts to slowly become a real fight. Well that’s what happened here, as the dude began to really manhandle the panda a but much, so he had to retaliate, everyone looked one wondering what the fuck was happening…
This was all being recorded by Jeremiah btw, so hopefully it’ll be on YouTube real soon. Anyway, yet another dude come out and starts hopping around, doing crazy and somewhat sloppy flips, so everyone began to anticipate when he’d break his neck, and the “fight” sorta petered out. Fun stuff.
Anyway, here’s the Frog from Chrono Trigger. Really nice work with the paper-mache head (also the girl inside was pretty cute)…
Sniper Wolf and Meryl from MGS…
Aside from Hard Gay, the most popular cosplayer at the show had to be E Honda…
Yet my absolute favorite had to be the guy who dressed up as the he Monarch from Venture Brothers!
Here’s something funny I guess: I was walking down the hall when some girl dressed up as Asuka asks “Are you such-and-such’s friend?” I replied no, and then she asked if I went to such-and-such’s wedding, and again I replied no. But when she mentioned that the wedding was in Cape Cod…. and I was at one last year…. and if I was friends with Matt Singer… and I am…. then came the realization that I did in fact know this person, or at the very least met her before. What a crazy place Otakon is. Actually, since literally thousands of folks were there, I did run into quite of folks that I’m friends or acquaintances….
On day two, there were a ton of white guys in black suits wearing afros and I had no idea why, though I would find out later on…
At 9:00 was the Transformers panel, which I was naturally really looking forward to, but once again, it was geek-ridden clusterfuck on an epic scale. I love how almost none of the geeks who took center stage throughout the entire weekend knew how to hook up a laptop to a video projector, so things start out late, with one of the dudes yelling and screaming in an effort to create some pep rally atmosphere. At a certain point, someone handed him the mike, but he went “I work at a summer camp, I’m used to yelling. I don’t need it.” Which was total bullshit since I was in the third row and I still couldn’t make out anything from all the fanboys yelling screaming at each other with all the “Beast Wars sux!!!” and “No it doesn’t'!!!” angry, nerdy decrees. So yeah, yet another bunch of un-organized dorks up there without a plan, assuming that if they just mentioned the subject, shit will just happen all by itself. Though the best part was how all the speakers were also clearly mad with “geek power”, with huge shit-eating grins from all the attention from everybody, which meant even more lame attempts at witticisms. The crowd was also the absolute worst from the entire weekend. Early on they played the You’ve Got The Touch music video from the movie, and everyone started singing along. Loudest of all was the self-appointed star of the show was the obligatory cute nerdy chick who just won’t shut the fuck up the rest of the hour because all the dorks around her are too madly in love to say anything.
Once the computer was up and running, they showed assorted image of interest, such this one…
Problem was, they never bothered to address what they were showing. Hence why most everyone was ultra confused when they saw this bizarro Megatron…
At one point one of the speakers declared that “Transformers was the ultimate 80′s toys!” and the dork next to me who tried to play along with the unruly nerd crowd banter by responding with “Dude, what about Star Wars?!?!” Then another nerd trying to play the alpha male card shot back with “Dude. you’re in the wrong room. Take it outside.” which got the one next to be all scared and dejected with “I didn’t meant it that way, I still love Transformers the best too…” You sorta had to be there. Or maybe you should be happy that you weren’t. Anyway, every single nerd in that room was in nirvana, which is sorta nice to hear but a true horror to witness (let along smell). As for the guy next to me, he was so happy that he had what I like to call “the fanboy shakes”, meaning he was so elated by the nerdly spectacle in front of him that his mind and body could hardly take it, which meant that his almost out of control shaking leg was constantly rubbing against mind, which was made me finally bolt the room.
While killing time till the next panel, I noticed the line of 200+ people strong for the one that everyone was curious about, Do It Yourself Bukkake. For those who don’t know what Bukkake is…. Google it. Anyway, I asked folks in the line what it was supposed to be, but no one had a clue; there was no description in the book and every volunteer claimed ignorance. I also wondered why it wasn’t labeled 18+ in the schedule (all adult content was marked as such, and you needed a hand-stamp to prove one’s age). It was at that point that I realized that it was probably some jokey panel, and I sure has hell wasn’t going to wait in line for hours for the shitty punchline.
The J-Indie Rock panel was actually very, very good, because it had none of the problems that plagued all the othes: you had just one guy, not a gaggle of dorks, but instead some normal looking dude that seemed straight out of Willamsburg (and as much as I hate hipsters, it was a nice change of pace at that point), who had a very well-organized presentation, and most importantly, the guy not only knew his shit but expressed all the facts in a very clear and concise manner. He simply went down a list of bands alphabetically, displayed some vitals like the members of the bands, first & latest release dates, and URLs, then played a quick sample of their music. So if anyone out there is a fan of Zazen Boys, Straightener, The Black Horn, The Band Apart, Blankey Jet City. Quruli, and Sparta Locals, please get ahold of me, thanks. And the best part was when some angry girl in the audience asked, in an oh-so condescending and retarded fashion why there were no girl bands, and the guy responded with “Umm… because I don’t like any?” which got the girl so pissed that she called him an asshole. Hilarious.
Before the next one, I went outside and noticed that huge line for the Bukkake was gone and the panel was finally in progress. Yet there were still a good ten or so folks waiting by the door; the room had filled to capacity, and these folks were waiting for any free seat that might appear. The door was also closed shut, some a volunteer manning it. I asked the guy what exactly was going on, and he responded with “Dude, I can’t even begin to tell you. Some crazy shit is going down!” But when I told him “Okay, enough with the fucking act, I want to know what the hell is going on in there”, the guy became all sheepish and admitted that it was a Yaoi drawing party. Just as I thought, a fucking joke panel.
Next was the Shoot’Em Up panel, another one I was pretty hyped for. Again it sucked. I knew it was going to be trash once the fat, full of himself nerd proclaimed to the audience when telling them they should all go out and get some particular game, “Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. I’m the manager of a game store.” Ugghh… Anyway, how it worked was two people played a shmup while the nerds up front talked about it or something. What I thought would happen, or more specifically, what should have been done was to show a bunch of superplay videos from assorted games. Instead you have two folks playing each game from the beginning, and any shmup fan knows that level 1 is always the most pedestrian. Plus the two guys playing totally sucked; the first game up was Gradius Gaiden for the PSone and one dude kept dying over and over again at the stage 1 boss, which is a joke. When I asked the guy upfront if he had such-and-such game (though knowing that there was only a PS2 on-hand, which was pretty limiting), the guy gave me a cocky “Duh!” response; I totally loved how all the jack-asses running virtually every panel couldn’t respond normally but had to use attitude or make some joke. Anyway, they next popped in Sexy Parodius, and of course, simply mentioning the title got everyone in the room screaming like a bunch of retards on the yellow bus as if they had passed a candy shop. One of the two players at this point had decided to sit down right next to me, and once he asked with total glee “Does that mean I get to shoot at boobies!” I pretty much said “fuck this shit” and got the hell out of there.
As I exited, two ICers were just arriving. I mentioned to them that I was on my way to the 4chan panel, and they informed me that the waiting line had been cut off over an hour ago. Holy shit. Once I finally arrived on the scene, there were literally over 600 (I would later find out that the room had a capacity of that much) waiting, and had been doing so practically the entire evening. So I was flat out of luck, right? Well thanks to some luck and perseverance, and somewhat becoming acquainted with a 4chan-er over the course of the show allowed me to beat the line and get a practically front row seat to the spectacle. And the key word here is indeed spectacle.
I can’t even begin to describe all that ensued. It was part Rocky Horror Show (with everyone in the audience yelling and screaming, and on cue), part Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (the part when all the kids are telling “their” tale), and part sporting event (more like a pro wrestling audience, really). Just imagine every single internet joke and meme, all in person, and in the same room together. The energy in the room even before thing got underway was simply electric; one minute after the next everyone was screaming and taking pictures of the next internet superstar to make his or her presence. The first one to make the crowd go nuts was the appearance of CardCaptor Will…
Who’s CardCaptor Will you ask? For those of you who have been surfing the web for at least a few good years now, primarily message boards, have you ever seen the picture of a skinny black guy cosplaying as the cute and cuddly CardCaptor Sakura? Well he was there, in the flesh. A minute later everyone was ging crazy at appearance of the guy dressed up as Stephanie from Lazy Town. Thank God Jeremiah was next to me, because he had to give me a play-by-play account of all that I was witnessing; the character of Stephanie is apparently a very popular meme over at 4chan (which I have seen spill into places like the Gaming Age Forums), and the dude took a seat next to me. Me, next to a bona-fide internet sensation! Then everyone got up and onto their chairs to take pictures of the back as a huge wall of those dudes in black suits and afros. Because my camera died at this precise moment (I did get one picture, but it too was blurry, damnit), here’s a picture of the scene courtesy of Jeremiah’s camera…
Yet another 4chan phenomena, and in the flesh. After a few minutes of this, the folks behind the panel, and the site, took the stage. Soon a video played that can only be described as “very internet”…
Then a guy dressed as a pastor came up and gave a sermon, about the creation of the internet, with random folks yelling “Hallelujah!” and assorted internet slangs. And then Raptor Jesus came out…
Soon the pastor brought up the word “furries” and everyone began to boo intensely. Right then and there, I began to realize that these people, were my people, and I booed along with them. Even though I was dazed and confused by all that I was witnessing, it felt like a baptism of sorts, and that I was finally among “my people” to a certain degree. Then again, that’s how cults work I guess. Here’s another shot of the very vocal crowd, in this instance yelling “NO U” to the people on stage…
I really can’t explain more, simply because it would make zero sense to anyone who’s not heavy into web-culture and the such. But all I can is, it was by far, one of the most nerdiest moment in my entire life. And it was easily the highlight of the entire con for me, more than justifying all the time, energy, and expenses spent towards the trip.
It should also be noted that, of all the panels that tried to be funny, this one was the only to actually be successful. Also, it was by far the best smelling crowd of the whole show as well (Stephanie sitting next to me smelled of strawberry-scented kids’ perfume).
The look on MK’s face at the end (she had managed to break into the inner circle as well) was classic. As Jeremiah went off to join the party that was moving outside (they had to clear the room due to the next panel, How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse), MK and I made our exit from the show. We soon found ourselves in a really ghetto fried chicken joint, though the food was excellent (those places may look like the hell, but the food is always awesome). While eating some homeless looking guy started talking to us, and we humored him despite us both thinking he was eventually going to try to hit us both up for crack money, but he turned out to be an anime geek himself. Then it was the road and back to bed in the shitty Motel 6 bed.
Day 3
Most last days for shows are almost always slow and boring, but not at Otakon. I was pissed that my camera was dead, but it was just as well since most of the cosplayers were in regular threads, intent on just enjoying the show without having to pose for pics.
Though there were still plenty in full regalia, such as this pair of Phoenix Wright cosplayers that Jeremiah got…
Meanwhile, everyone else it seemed had their minds set on one thing, and that was to shop, so the dealer’s room was packed. Once again, since I was dirt, dirt poor, I couldn’t really get much, though I did get one of those capsule Animal Crossing houses.
I also finally spent some quality time at the game room. And I gotta say, it totally fucking beat the shit out of the ones I’ve seen at ICON. The place was literally the size of an entire city block, I shit you not. It had fucking EVERYTHING: countless systems (PS2, PSone, GameCube, Xbox, Dreamcast, even Saturn) running all sorts of stuff, big name games, as well as hidden gems, covering assorted genres. It was mostly fighters and shmups, though you had various puzzle, music, and FPSs as well. Plus there was an arcade DDR set-up, as well as some Neo Geo arcade units, and fucking TMNT: Turtles in Time arcade!!! I mostly tried out a few shmups (all the monitors were turned over to allow for TATE mode…. very nice), with the highlight being Ibara and a Saturn shooter whose name I forget and which I’m now really regretting for not picking up when the chance was there. And over at one of the SNK fighting sections, I watched folks go at it in KOF XI (the PS2 version is indeed very nice, with faster loading the such). They had a Super Smash Bros area and I’m amazed by how popular that game still is (I also love how the set up before each match is about twenty times longer than the actual bouts).
Also unlike ICON, where everyone is sad and depressed on the last day, you didn’t get that vibe at Otakon. I guess it makes sense: its mostly teenagers who have their whole lives ahead of them, and not sad-sack men and women in their mid-to-late thirties who have to go back to their hum-drum existences. So last day Yuna or Vash the Stampede is far livelier and less pathetic than last day orc or wizard.
Plus, and this was totally unexpected, Otakon was the most successful show ever for both MK & I! By the end of the weekend, many copies of Copykat were sold (again, the paper dolls were a hit!), as well as quite a few of MK’s other books, Catfight and Pale Fire, and I totally was sold out of Unlucky #2. Awesome. And again, thanks to all of you all who stopped by and picked up a book. Sorry I wasn’t around half the time. Also, for those who missed out…. cough, cough.
Once it was said and done, we packed our bags and made our exit. Though before totally leaving Baltimore, we went looking for Atomic Books, a really sweet bookstore which MK had long heard about, and what we found was quite nice. I felt a little ridiculous leafing through their hentai comics, considering I had been just at a show that had tons of it. I almost bought the special rape issue of Answer Me! and on some DVD featuring women shooting guns and with flame throwers (and all totally oiled up as well), but had to pass for another time. Though Jeremiah picked up the DVD instead and I brought up the possibility of maybe projecting the movie in my backyard, and maybe firing up the girl to make a party out of it. Oh, and MK passed along copies of Copykat and her other books, as well as mine, so if you live in Baltimore and are interested, stop by the store.
And on the drive home, Nullsleep showed me the picture he took of the O RLY owl cosplayer and I simply couldn’t stop laughing…
… It?s so dead on. Anyway, that was the show!
Oh, and to check out some other pictures I took, and in a tab bit more navigation friendly manner, simply check out my Flickr page from the show.
And while you’re at it, take a look at Jeremiah’s terrific pics as well.
EDIT: Hey! For those of you who are especially curious, the whole 4chan spectacle is available for download, via the miracle of BitTorrent.
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