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mandolinActually returned from Otakon last Sunday night, but was swept up in the Monday Clean Sweep of Doom (it was necessary ilu Mom and Chris), work craziness, and then the 48-hour sinus migraine that screwed me up at work. Because if a programmer can't look at a computer screen without pain, work will not get done. And then school-related crazy.
So without further ado...
Everything I Needed to Know I Learned From Otakon, Or, Lessons I Will Probably Forget Next Year Anyway
1a) If you're going to be hanging around a convention center with more than 20,000 people for a weekend, do not be surprised if you come down with something shortly afterwards. (Hence the reason I'm posting this a week late.)
1) Cosplay should be authentic to a point. Meaning: if your foot hurts but your character wears heels... for today, said character wears sneakers. Authenticity < lack of pain.
1b) An addendum: if you can only see out of your right eye and the character has an eyepatch over that right eye? Today, they have it on the left. Authenticity < ability to see.
1c) If your hair is the exact same color, texture and style as your character's, just shorter, don't bother with a wig. Seriously.
2) Swapping cell phone numbers should be done before a meetup, especially when the convention has banned signs wholesale.
3) Water is good. As are healthy foods. Trying to subsist on caffeine, Pocky and french fries will land you with a stomachache in the quiet room.
3b) On that note, I could kiss whoever on the Otakon staff realized that setting aside a quiet room where the sick/tired/burned out could lie down and take a nap was a good idea.
4) Pictochat for the Nintendo DS was made for Otakon lines. (Not like I've ever used it anywhere else...)
5) If no less than three different people mention a small panel that's not in a big event room and hasn't been hyped by the con, GET IN LINE EARLY. (I took one look at the line for the Phoenix Wright mock trial - and the overflow line - and went back downstairs.)
6) Tomato sauce + hard-to-wash costume = accident waiting to happen. Backups if you have them are good.
7) Bringing earplugs to the rave is an awesome idea. Especially if it allows you to actually stay in the house room for more than 5 minutes without having to escape to save your brain. (And you can hear the beat FINE with earplugs, seriously.)
8) If you're looking for a specific item you couldn't find last year, haul ass down to the Dealers' Room early. Seriously, one of the booksellers there sold out of the Gyakuten Saiban artbooks BEFORE they even made it to Otakon - if I'd waited til Saturday, I'd have had no chance in hell.
9) Never assume that what's on the schedule will actually be shown. Especially if you go mad on Saturday morning trying to get out the door in time to catch the showing. Because then it will suddenly be canceled.
10) If you're at a loss for what to do, cosplay the whole weekend. Cosplay meetups are always posted on the cosplay.com forums, and the silliness that ensues is always worth the price of admission. (The sight of the Hellsing cast doing the Caramelldansen dance en masse was priceless. PRICELESS.)
11) If next year's Otakon date is less than a year after the current Otakon, START BOOKING HOTELS ASAP. Good Lord, the hotels filled up fast!
12) If you're taking time off for the con and you can manage it, I recommend taking an extra recovery day off on Monday.
13) Planning works only up to a point. Be prepared to just roll with whatever's going on at the moment.
And just in case that sounded too negative...
Why I go every year:
- It's local. Seriously, there's a huge anime con practically on my doorstep every year; of course I'm going to check it out. It is damned nice to be able to get on the Light Rail to get in and out of town and use my place as a backup hotel (which, incidentally, is 10 minutes from a decent rail stop).
- The sheer size of the con causes a lot of headaches for staff and for people waiting in lines... but you have over 20,000 fans in the convention center in one weekend. And I encountered the stereotype of the unwashed otaku fanboy exactly twice the whole time. (Of course, I only set foot in the Dealers' Room twice, but, um, that's neither here nor there.
- The sheer random craziness that ensues in the halls. Sadly, I was not part of any playacting that staff had to break up this year, but I got to have a mock catfight with a Dahlia cosplayer on Friday. (Emphasis on mock: we were dressed up as mortal enemies and just goofing off.)
- This list would be longer but I've actually had this post half-finished and private-locked for four days. It was fun, it was huge, it was crazy, and I still can't believe it's over.
More later.
So without further ado...
Everything I Needed to Know I Learned From Otakon, Or, Lessons I Will Probably Forget Next Year Anyway
1a) If you're going to be hanging around a convention center with more than 20,000 people for a weekend, do not be surprised if you come down with something shortly afterwards. (Hence the reason I'm posting this a week late.)
1) Cosplay should be authentic to a point. Meaning: if your foot hurts but your character wears heels... for today, said character wears sneakers. Authenticity < lack of pain.
1b) An addendum: if you can only see out of your right eye and the character has an eyepatch over that right eye? Today, they have it on the left. Authenticity < ability to see.
1c) If your hair is the exact same color, texture and style as your character's, just shorter, don't bother with a wig. Seriously.
2) Swapping cell phone numbers should be done before a meetup, especially when the convention has banned signs wholesale.
3) Water is good. As are healthy foods. Trying to subsist on caffeine, Pocky and french fries will land you with a stomachache in the quiet room.
3b) On that note, I could kiss whoever on the Otakon staff realized that setting aside a quiet room where the sick/tired/burned out could lie down and take a nap was a good idea.
4) Pictochat for the Nintendo DS was made for Otakon lines. (Not like I've ever used it anywhere else...)
5) If no less than three different people mention a small panel that's not in a big event room and hasn't been hyped by the con, GET IN LINE EARLY. (I took one look at the line for the Phoenix Wright mock trial - and the overflow line - and went back downstairs.)
6) Tomato sauce + hard-to-wash costume = accident waiting to happen. Backups if you have them are good.
7) Bringing earplugs to the rave is an awesome idea. Especially if it allows you to actually stay in the house room for more than 5 minutes without having to escape to save your brain. (And you can hear the beat FINE with earplugs, seriously.)
8) If you're looking for a specific item you couldn't find last year, haul ass down to the Dealers' Room early. Seriously, one of the booksellers there sold out of the Gyakuten Saiban artbooks BEFORE they even made it to Otakon - if I'd waited til Saturday, I'd have had no chance in hell.
9) Never assume that what's on the schedule will actually be shown. Especially if you go mad on Saturday morning trying to get out the door in time to catch the showing. Because then it will suddenly be canceled.
10) If you're at a loss for what to do, cosplay the whole weekend. Cosplay meetups are always posted on the cosplay.com forums, and the silliness that ensues is always worth the price of admission. (The sight of the Hellsing cast doing the Caramelldansen dance en masse was priceless. PRICELESS.)
11) If next year's Otakon date is less than a year after the current Otakon, START BOOKING HOTELS ASAP. Good Lord, the hotels filled up fast!
12) If you're taking time off for the con and you can manage it, I recommend taking an extra recovery day off on Monday.
13) Planning works only up to a point. Be prepared to just roll with whatever's going on at the moment.
And just in case that sounded too negative...
Why I go every year:
- It's local. Seriously, there's a huge anime con practically on my doorstep every year; of course I'm going to check it out. It is damned nice to be able to get on the Light Rail to get in and out of town and use my place as a backup hotel (which, incidentally, is 10 minutes from a decent rail stop).
- The sheer size of the con causes a lot of headaches for staff and for people waiting in lines... but you have over 20,000 fans in the convention center in one weekend. And I encountered the stereotype of the unwashed otaku fanboy exactly twice the whole time. (Of course, I only set foot in the Dealers' Room twice, but, um, that's neither here nor there.
- The sheer random craziness that ensues in the halls. Sadly, I was not part of any playacting that staff had to break up this year, but I got to have a mock catfight with a Dahlia cosplayer on Friday. (Emphasis on mock: we were dressed up as mortal enemies and just goofing off.)
- This list would be longer but I've actually had this post half-finished and private-locked for four days. It was fun, it was huge, it was crazy, and I still can't believe it's over.
More later.
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Date: 2008-08-21 09:33 pm (UTC)