Otakon - Part II
Page: 5/11
Day 3: Friday July 20th - 1pm
Randomness
As the time-stamp says, it's afternoon on the first day of the convention. The Baltimore Convention Center is packed tight already. If past attendence figures are any indication, there are well over 22,000 people at this con (second only to AnimeExpo's 23,000, but far ahead of the next-ranking con, which is down in the mid-10k range). Attendees are spread out far and wide though. The biggest crowds are in the Dealers' Hall, but with 6 Video Rooms + 1 35mm Room, 4 Panel Rooms, 3 Workshops, a massive Video Game Room, and plenty of hallspace for roving cosplayers and the photographers who love them, you never feel like the crowd is insanely encroaching. Each of the event rooms is massively huge and can hold a couple hundred spectators.
And speaking of event rooms, a quick glance at my pocket schedule clues me in to the kinds of things that have been going on during my aimless wandering. I've missed a few first-episode screenings of ADV's most recent anime titles, including 009, Air TV, Innocent Venus, Pumpkin Scissors, RED Garden, Welcome to the NHK, and Magikano. If you're like me, you probably think to yourself, "meh, I can watch anime at home, I'm here for other con-offerings," then maybe you'd be interested in some of the fan-run panels that have been taking place, like "Anime 101," "Cosplay Props and Weaponry," "J-pop 101: Intro to J-Music," "20 Years of Mega Man" or the ever-popular con-staple "Anime Parliament" in which cosplayers stage a phony court trial involving characters from different anime. Brief summaries of each events are detailed in the program guides that came in every registration bag, so if a title isn't clear for you, more info is readily available.
Fan-run panels are all and good, but sometimes it's the industry guests and VIP's that become the real draw of the more serious anime fans. Otakon would be your Mecca then touting 11 VIPs from across the Pacific and 14 domestically. They even snared two from Europe for that added worldly-flair. More on guests later... let's enjoy more of the convention for now...
 Was there a Tron level in Kingdom Hearts? |  It's fan-favorite, Kaname Chidori from the Full Metal Panic! series |
 Earlier it was Princess Zelda, now her hero, Link, is here to
save the day. |  Two different cuties from two different series: Sailor Moon
and Sakura Kinamoto. |
 Geneon's Industry Panel started at 1pm |  A crowd clearing out of another room. |
 ABOVE: Maids with assorted animal ears... are those cow
ears I'm seeing on the two girls on each end?
RIGHT: Cute girl... cute dress... cute pig? |  |
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