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The Comiku Girls'
Otakon 2004 Convention Report

Overall

This was the con of lines and signs, and an amazingly small world for such a big con. We got to experience more of the con - and more of the con-goers - without the protection of an art table in front of us, since we came to the convention this year without a table in the artist's alley, but instead as regular (normal?) con-goers. It meant we were out in the crowds more, and suffered such indignities as having our tails pulled (hiss), yet despite not being centralized in a place where our friends could find us, we managed to run into everyone we wanted to say hi and give hugs to none-the-less.

Friday

Having gotten our badges the night before, we were able to just walk into the con as soon as the doors opened. First priority was getting our sticker-pass to the L'arc en Ciel concert. Then, since there weren't any activities we were interested in, we got some food and found a spot in the hall to sit and watch cosplayers (many of which Li accosted for pictures). We also got a chance to talk briefly with some of them who joined us for a quick seat with us, such as the Sakura and Tentacle Monster pair. Most humorously, on our way to the AMV's, Li's attempts to accost the Suikoden cosplay group resulted in our being named their 'paparazzi' as we took each of their cameras and did our best to photograph the group.

Then onto the AMV's, which we actually cut out early of to see the opening ceremonies (which we probably could have skipped - the only good thing about the opening ceremonies was the preview concert from Angela). Things worked out though, as we couldn't go to their concert later that night.

After opening ceremonies, we made out way to the dealer's room - a massive cavern of anime. Li chatted with the girls at the Muse table (the Gackt fan club in America) and finally purchased her copy of the Moonchild DVD. Akiko found a beautiful artbook when we went to give our Connecticon Kanji commission to the dealer. That was our one and only commission for the entire weekend, and it hadn't even been commissioned there.

Then we journeyed for the first time to the Artist's Alley, where we checked out the wares and actually got to walk through the art show this year! As we chatted with people, we discovered, for such a large convention, it was remarkably small. Turning a corner in the artist's alley, we almost literally ran into Snow Puma from AAF. This was not the first such random meeting that weekend. In fact, the night before, we came upon Mookie and Tim on the street as we walked to the Pre-reg line. Friday morning, while we were waiting for the doors to open for the convention, we found Brittany and Brianna waiting in the registration line. Walking through the convention (over the course of the weekend) Li met two people she knew from Skidmore, and Akiko ran into Chris (Kaji) twice, and Li ran into him once. Walking to dinner the night before, we met up with Adam and Paul from Anime Boston. Back in the Artist's Alley again, Li met someone she knew from Boston working one of the tables, and we finally got to meet RPGKid from AAF pimping his manga. Plus, we got to see people we knew would be behind tables, Mookie (again) and Michael (Piano Squall) and Jay, and of course, Trish and Damian from Novablade.

By the time we finished making our way around the Artist's Alley, we realized that, although we had worn our Yukata's all day before at conventions, never had we spent the entire time walking and our feet HURT. So we made our way (painfully) back to our room to change and grab a bite to eat. Though many people complimented our yukatas throughout the day, we knew we really hade done a good job when a little old Japanese shopkeeper told us that we looked 'beautiful'.

Now in more comfortable clothing (although Akiko was still wearing her obi) we spent a couple hours playing a game of Munchkin with Matt (CTcon), Tim (Ctrl-Alt-Del), Brian (Instant Classic), Webber, and Puma (AAF). The game lasted longer than we expected since, with so many players, it was easy to gang up on anyone who appeared to be taking, or in the lead - namely, Li and Tim (Li still wants here blessed sword back, Webber). Finally with four people poised to win, we all ran out of cards to prevent Tim from taking Victory. The alley was closing by that time, so after a brief stop at their hotel to drop off things, we set off to Little Italy for a very late (midnight) dinner which was an amazingly relaxing chance to hang out and talk with everyone. Finally at 2, we got back to our hotels to crash.

Saturday

We woke up early for the Origami panel, which was rather bogus since it seemed to be more of a do-it-yourself type of thing. So we ate a bit and spent more time cosplay watching (and hunting) before the Artist's Alley opened and we went downstairs to say hello. Our time there reminded us how much we were not fans of the organization of the alley, but since technically we weren't "Artist's" this year, I will leave those rants for someone else. Suffice it to say, we saw very, very few improvements in the Alley from last year.

At noon we made our way to the wig-styling panel which Li cut out of early to catch the end of the AMV's. After, Akiko and Li met up again and we popped down to the Alley to say hello again (and goodbye) as our afternoon and evening were quite filled, and we were not going to be there on Sunday.

At a little before 4, we joined the HUGE line in progress for the L'arc en Ciel concert. We wound up walking 8 blocks, and the line stretched I am sure another 8 behind us. Taking about 2 hours to get us all in, we eventually got seats in the back, mostly center, and got to watch almost the entire first episode of Full Metal Alchemist while waiting for everyone to get seated. The concert started soon after. L'arc was awesome. There were some great pyrotechnics. Li made certain that Akiko would go deaf in her right ear for the rest of the con. Akiko spent the concert drawing Hyde and the rest of the band in her head (look for the realizations of these mental drawings to show up sometime in the future). For most of the concert, Li was disappointed with how calm the crowd sitting around us was (she wanted more standing/dancing/shouting/excitement) but things got better as the concert went on, Li's brief attempt to get a little closer as she stood by the railing didn't last half a song, as security chased us back to our seats. After playing Ready Steady Go, Laruku exited the stage. The crowd was on its feet, cheering, screaming, and clapping for more, and eventually our wait was rewarded as they came back for another three songs, starting with Honey, which is Li's favorite song, and the one she had most hoped to hear.

At various times, Hyde, and once, Tetsu talked with the audience. Akiko was amused by how they appreciated the local cuisine (aka crab cakes) but the con audience was beyond clueless ('huh? Crabs?') and Li just loved their Japanese accents.

Leaving the concert, the crowd was completely riled, despite Laruku ending on the mellow 'Pieces' and we left the area with excited shouts the entire walk back to the con center.

We expected to read the cosplay in time to perhaps get some seats in the very back of the room, but instead we found that they had delayed the cosplay and that we had half hour wait before seating started. We also were surprised that the crowd line was not as long as we thought it would be that that time, obviously we were at the front of the line returning from the concert, however, we also learned later that they had two lines feeding into the ballroom that night. We took advantage of that wait to rest our feet and play 'name that tune' with NinjaCracker. There's so much I still don't know, Li wails. The staff nazi's didn't seem to understand the difference between happy crowd (which we were) and annoyed crowd, and impatiently smacked down any and all noise and activity within the line. Plus, they kept walking up and down the line insisting 'no cutting' when we were all sitting and waiting relatively quietly. We respect that there is a need for crowd control, but please, that is no reason for having a stick up your ass and not allowing any energy in the crowd to be expressed. Once we were seated in the ballroom, we were finally given some leeway, as the cameras panned around the audience, displaying dancing, lots of signs, and a balloon chair. The skits were all very good, and those that really should have one, did so, including the 3 much deserved prizes for the Muppet Extravaganza that brought the house down.

After the awards were handed out, we rushed to catch the last of Piano Squall's performance. Michael's performance was fabulous of course, and he got another standing ovation. The con was closing before Michael was every part way through the line eager to get him to sign their posters, so we interrupted quickly to give him a hug and a quick goodbye and went back to our room to pack.

Sunday morning, we said goodbye to the con before it even opened, giving Nade a hug, and put Baltimore behind us as we drove to catch our plane to Oregon, and our (well, Akiko's) next conference.