Katsucon 2012

Another late post. This time on Katsucon. I had a lot going on, mostly that I was sick after the con, so I wasn't able to get the con report up as quickly as I liked. But here it is!

As before with the previous report, Katsucon is in a gorgeous location. The Gaylord is a beautiful hotel, with many different backdrops and areas for photos. They have this really lovely jungle area, a water location, and all sorts of elegant looking areas. Beyond taking photos, its really just a nice area to be around. It's pretty easy to get around and find different areas to hang out in and just relax.

This year I'm sure it's gotten bigger. Its pretty natural with any con, but you can definietly see the crowding in the Saturday crowd. Luckily the hotel and the convention area is still pretty big enough to hold the people there. They keep the programs/events pretty separate from the main areas so that people aren't crowding around them.

I didn't really attend many panels, again the trend of many different cosplay panels were there though. More and more you'll see more pop up. It definetly show the shift towards the importance of Cosplay within the con scene. And because of that, and the location, people seemed to want to bust out their biggest and best cosplays.

Some of my favorites from the con








And the rest can be found here. Don't forget to check out the subfolders for more photos!

Anime USA

Late AUSA post is super, super late. But it hit right around the time where I was doing a lot of traveling and then I needed to catch up with work. But here is my late AUSA con report.

The con center itself is a fairly decent looking hotel. Though its really too bad that the hotel is getting too small for the con. I went last year and I thought it was a bit crowded, this year was pretty bad. It's been a while since I've been in a con this crowded and this was probably one of the worse. Though I heard a rumor that the con moved to a new location for next year. The hotel itself was really rather nice. And the rooms were really massive, which I guess doesn't matter any more.

They were far more up on badge checks, near the escalator points, but I didn't notice any by the elevators. Maybe they weren't allowed to. But they had the typical ones right by the dealers and artist alley. Speaking of artist alley, I really rarely ever buy stuff from there but there was someone selling these adorable Tiger & Bunny plushies so I had to snag one up.

I got the small one in the front. But look how cute they are! Whoever the artist is, someone link me, I want to credit you.

The dealers room was alright, again, the layout was rather odd. It's almost sectioned off into two areas, and you have to weave your way around. I tend to like getting figures more then anything, so there was maybe a few booths (Anime Sekai being my favorite), but otherwise I didn't end up seeing a lot that I liked. Also on Friday they didn't open until 2pm, which made no sense to me. Most dealers rooms won't open up until around noon, but I don't understand at all why they waited until 2pm.

Unlike most cons I actually spent time going to a few of the panels. One of them was a beginners cosplay's panel, just to see what it was like. I felt rather bad for the people running it, because they had the poor luck of being next to the game room and they didn't have a mic. But otherwise it was a well run and presented panel.

Speaking of the game room...it was probably one of the worst game rooms I've seen. And it wasn't because of the content. The location was small, the room was near impossible to navigate through, and it had tons of people crammed in it. They needed a bigger room, hopefully next year they'll do that.

When it comes to cons, this con is more of "hangout with friends and take photos" con. In the area there isn't a lot (there is a CVS that sells booze) but other then that, once you walk around the hotel there isn't much. I wouldn't recommend coming from far away for this con, but if you live within the east coast I think this con is worth checking out. It's slowly growing into something bigger, so I'll be excited to see where they go next year.

And of course some photo highlights from the con.








And of course the rest can be found here. Enjoy!

Otakon and Post con updates

Wow, so it's been nearly a month since I updated. Normally what I do is write up a quick con report after a convention, but this year things were a bit unsual. I didn't get to go to Otakon for the full weekend like I planned. I had the chance to spend a week in Mexico, so I took that and spent only a day at Otakon. I was happy for the day that I got to spend there, it was so much fun. I can't really write too much about the con itself. Most of my time was spent catching up with my friends.

Otakon was SUPER hot. I mean hotter then any year I've ever been to. Even in the super light costume I was wearing, I felt like death standing outside for the few moments from when I had to go between hotel to con center. I felt bad for anyone in thick or massive costumes, you guys are all champs for making it through. Every year feels like more and more people are going.

My cosplay for the con...I went as Kamila from Ghost Trick.


I had a wonderful, fantastic group with me. Everyone did such a fantastic job on their costumes.



Jowd, Lynne & Sissile.

And of course I'm going to post some of the highlights from Friday that I snapped.








And of course, the rest of my photos are here.

It looks like I'll be making it to AUSA again this year, which I'm excited about. I've got two new cosplays in the works, so I best be working on them.

Connecticon 2011

Connecticut Convention Center; Hartford, CT
July 8-10th
Website

This was another one of those conventions where I was surprised at the last moment that I could go (literally, I found out 2 days before the con I could make it). I've heard of the con before but never really experienced it until now. The con itself is one of those big mix cons, it's not just anime, but video-games, sci-fi and everything else. They do a pretty good job of mixing everything, and there was a ton of different people. If I had to compare the size it reminds me of Ohayocon.

This was one of the few times I actually got the chance to really check out the panels, and I'm glad I got to. About all the panels I went to were really great. One of the more different panels I went to was the Parkour panel (which a lot of Assassin Creed cosplayers showed up to, no surprise there). While not really fitting too much into the whole con, it was an interesting panel to go to, to hear about what Parkour was really about.

Out of the main events, I saw the Dating Game, Masquerade and the Death Match (also a very small bit of the chess game). What I want to start off with, and what I didn't know, is that a lot of these have these main skits that the people running them do. I don't think the idea is bad, but they ran WAY too long. The best example is the Masquerade. It was supposed to end at 10:00pm so the Geek Comedy could begin. We left by 11:00pm and they were still doing their skits. The Dating Game was run the same way, everything was pre-decided and was just made to be a skit. Which is fine, if that's what they want to do. But something like this shouldn't be done for the Masquerade. The Masq is for the people who entered, who made costumes and skits for it. It really shouldn't be overrun by the people running it. The skits ran on FAR too long. I think if they need to do something like that, they need to make sure they run far shorter, they'd be far more enjoyable.

But moving on, I caught the end of most of the skits, and they looked pretty good. They placed the winning AMVs at the end and ALL of them were amazing. My favorite was "Captain Jack Sparrow" one...I wish I could find it online just to post. The Death Match was amazing. The MC was great and I loved to be able to cheer for the characters I wanted to win. I sadly didn't get to see the end of that, but I think the events where the audience can participate are the best.

The dealers room was pretty fantastic. Lots of space and a lot of really good booths. There was one in particular though that was selling nothing but knock off figures. The prices were super tempting, extremely low, but every single figure there was a knock off. I know some people don't really care either way, I'm particular about the figures I buy. If I'm buying a figure I want it to be authentic. But my favorite booth Anime Seikai was there. If you're going to buy a figure Anime Seikai is the best place to do it. They have a ton of figures, all authentic and range in pretty decent prices. I love seeing their booth at cons because they always have new figures. (Okay I think I've pumped up Anime Seikai enough). Another great thing was the Artist Alley set up. The room was pretty big and there was a lot of different types of artists there.

I really loved the layout of the whole convention. There was a lot of space, and it was pretty easy to get from one place to another. I think it worked out well because the amount of people there. I have a feeling once the convention gets larger this will be more difficult to fit everyone, that's pretty normal for any con. But the size and the center was perfect. I had a really good time overall, I would definitely come back to this con.

Photos








And of course the rest of the photos are here. Enjoy!

Zenkaikon 2011 & Photos

Vally Forge Convention Center, King of Prussia, PA
March 18-20th
Website

Zenkaikon is a newer con, that's still slowly sort of growing. It seems to be one of those cons that do seem to get better with every year. They learn from their previous mistakes. I've attended for three years so far, and I've seen a lot of improvements from year to year.

First off the space. The space has been improved SO much. Last year they weren't in the Scanticon but the area next to it, the hotel area. It was so awfully cramped. There was no place to really stand around and hang out, or get photos if you needed to. But this year they got several floors of the Scanitcon center and it was a huge sigh of relief. There was several floors to walk around in, a nice big area for people to hang around in on the bottom floor, while all the panals were held at the top floor. There was a second floor between but I guess they weren't able to get that for the con, since it was blocked off the whole time. But it was a HUGE improvement over last year. There was a small place selling food (rather expensive food, but they did give you a lot of it, between $6-8) but it was convenient. I seriously can't tell you how happy I was about the space, because of how bad it was last year.

This con I'm never really focused on my own cosplay quite so much, I'll wear a costume but I don't care for the meetup quite so much so I got the chance to see a few panels. Now I can't really judge all of them, only the ones I went to. Also I was only there on Saturday so I can't speak for anything else that happened, only for what happened on Saturday. And it was a 50/50 experience. The first panel we went to was something on Lovecraft and it was...pretty terrible to be honest. The idea behind the panel and the information that could have been presented would have been great. An information panel on Lovecraft and his universe. What it ended up being was a slightly unorganized, book pimping panel. The author there seemed to know what he was talking about, but he spent the entire time talking about himself as an author and talking about all of his books (within ten mins of the panel he had all of his books on him and he pulled them out to show everyone). If you're running a panel, I don't have a problem with your pimping your merchandise. I have a problem with you doing it throughout the whole presentation. If you're going to do it, do it after the panel. As your ending it, make a mention of it and where they can buy it. It's annoying and rather eye rolling to watch you do it throughout the whole panel.

The panel I did really liked was the Square to Bioware panel, the one on American and Japanese RPGs. It started with a quick sort of information part, but included a huge audience participation and discussion. It partly plays into my interests, since I like discussion, but I think the guys did a good job putting it together and kept on topic, but still allowed people to talk and share their opinions. They were overall really enjoyable. The guys who ran it were g33kWatch so check out their website.

The last event I got to see was the masquerade. And this was a pretty vast improvement from last year. Last year was in a really small room, and there was only a few people really interested in it. This year they had a whole stage set up and two large screens. The way the seating was set up was around the stage, but for whatever reason the two large screens set up along the sides weren't playing the masquerade, they were just showing the logo. So the people who were sitting along the sides were pretty much missing out on about everything. Maybe the cameras weren’t working? But if you have an area set up that large then they really, really needed to get the screens working. But they seemed to be taking a step towards making the masquerade more legitimate with the stage and giving more people the chance to actually see it. Zenkaikon is the con that tends to give out a lot of awards, but with a con as small as it is, it’s not really surprising.

Another big change was the dealer’s room and artist alley. With the growing interest in the con I suppose they were able to get more dealers interested in selling. The dealer’s room was pretty big, with varied types of booths. The artist ally was mixed in there, which wasn’t unusual. But what was strange was that they had a different hallway for ore of the artist ally. There was an artist alley B section with like maybe 5-6 artists there. I have no idea why they did that. The B section was upstairs and far away from the main dealers room/artist alley. We found it by accident, maybe they ran out of room in the main area, but with how big it was, they probably could have easily fit them in.

I think that’s about all I can say for the con. I’m happy to see the con starting to grow and improve. I think there’s still little stuff they can improve on, but I’m glad to see them better and better with each year. I’ll be curious to see what they’re like next year.

Unlike most posts, I tend to make two separate ones for photos and con reports. But I really didn’t take that much photos, so I’m tacking them on at the end of this post. Enjoy!

Katsucon 2011

Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center, National Harbor, MD
February 18th-20th
Website

Alright so now it's time for the con report! Katsucon was actually my first convention ever, so it's always sort of special for me. First off the hotel is AMAZING. If you've never been to the Gaylord it's a beautiful resort hotel. It's probably one of the nicest places that I've been to for a con. For cosplayers it's a photo dream. There's so many different types of settings someone could take for photos.










Which brings me to the food there. The food within the hotel is amaaaaazing. Really rather pricey, so if you don't spending a bit of extra money then I'd say go for it, because I enjoyed it. But if you want to save a bit of money there's a ton of different cheaper restaurants outside the hotel and they're within walking distance. Which was actually doable this year because the weather was much nicer! Friday was so warm and nice I didn't mind walking around the area, though Saturday had really crazy wind, for the most part the congoers were actually able to spread out and weren't as confined to the hotel as they were last year. Thanks to the odd weather there wasn't some freak snow storm, making it so much easier to drive up.

This year was a bigger focus on cosplay, so I really didn't make any panels. That's sadly sort of the norm for me, I've heard some good things. I have noticed the bigger focus on cosplay in the panels, most of them how to's or beginners guides to cosplay. Probably shows the growing interest with cosplay in the con circuit, maybe it's starting to become bigger then the original focus (stuff like anime and Japanese culture). I can't say I'm too bothered by it, because of my own love for cosplay, but it does tend to change the focus of the con. Two special guests were cosplayers, so it seems the con is aware of how significant cosplay is at a con.



Now I get into the issues. Katsucon has always seemed a bit disorganized at times. Last year the badges didn't come on time for pre-reg so people were there on Thurs had to get some kind of voucher and pick up their badges later. This year there was an hour wait beyond the badge pickup time, due to...something, I never really got a reason why. But what really annoyed me was the fact that the people on Thursday never got a program or full schedule, just a Friday one. Maybe they rectified this later on, you could pick it up somewhere, but wherever it was, I never got one. Thankfully we had a computer to check the schedule for stuff.

Other then this issue I can't say I have much to complain about. The hotel staff was nice, and I really didn't have much interaction with staffers. I can't really comment much on the panels. What I can say was how it was a a semi mess to try and get photos by the gazebo. Everyone wants photos there because of how nice it is.


Probably the best example of it I have here.

But it came down to a first come first serve type thing, and if there wasn't a gathering there you can bet someone was rushing to get a photo there.

I have little to really complain, other then those reasons. Overall I was pretty happy with the con. I hope the Gaylord continues to have Katsucon. Despite the expense it was really well worth it.

Magfest 9

Hilton Alexandria Mark Center; Alexandria, Virginia.
Jan 13 - 16, 2011 (Thu - Sun)

When I initially agreed to come to this con I really didn't know much about it. A friend invited me and I invited someone else, so I was a bit surprised it was a 4 day con (my thought being only the biggest cons would have the extra day, like Otakon this year). For anyone that doesn't really know what Magfest is, it's basically a video game/music con. It's devoted to anything video game and music to video games. So there was a ton of bands there that played video game related music.

We arrived a bit late on Thursday so we missed almost all the panels. But we took care of getting our badges, which brings me to my first issue.

Registration
What surprised me was that the con sold out of badges in the pre-reg phase. Of all the cons I've been to I've never really seen that happen before. A lot of times cons have a pre-reg cap at a certain date and allow walk-ins to pick up their tickets at the door (which usually tend to cost a bit extra since you didn't pre-reg). But this is the first time I've had a con sell all of their tickets in pre-reg and I'm not entirely sure what to say about it. I guess on one hand you don't have to deal with the two lines, so maybe it would be easier to deal with? That and you guarantee that you sell out all your tickets. But with a con like Magfest I doubt there would have been any issue with selling their tickets without a pre-reg.

But other then that oddity, what I can really compliment is the price. For a 4 day con it was $40. Last year Otakon was a 3 day con and cost about $60. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Magfest raised their price next year, but I was extremely happy to pay so little for a 4 day con.

Now I must go back to complaining. Actually being in line for picking up the badge was bad. I've been in much worse lines (AX 09) but this was kind of ridiculous how unorganized it was. I waited for about 2 and half hours, but I heard people waiting much longer. And the process itself was fairly simple, you show your ID and they look you up and give you a badge. So I'm sort of wondering what the holdup really was. It could have been a mix between the staffers and the people in line themselves (I'm certainly not one to immediately blame the staffers). Either way I think what might have helped if they had someone standing by the line and directing people where to go. It seems like a bit micromanaging, but with a line as big as it was, its easier and more efficient.

NOW getting past registration. This con was a bit different then most cons I go to. I tend to go to mostly Anime Conventions. So there's a far bigger focus on cosplay, at least more people cospay at an anime convention. Here it was pretty low key, there was a few cosplayers that wandered around and I tried to get photos of whoever I saw.

This was the first time I ever really took the time to go to panels. My big focus on cons normally is to; see friends, do cosplay stuff (gatherings and what not) and spend time in the dealers room. But since I really wasn't doing a lot of cosplay stuff I spent time trying to get to panels.

Panels
There was a lot I had a lot of fun with, but I think one of the biggest issues with the panels was the rooms themselves. The con was held mostly within a hotel and it wasn't really big. So the panel rooms were smaller and made it harder to get into. For some of the more popular panels you had to go and wait at least an hour ahead of time to make sure you'd get in, otherwise you'd get left in the dust. Someone pointed out that it would have been nice if they put a line cap so that people wouldn't waist their time in line, not able to get in. But I doubt the con really would have the man power to really deal with that. I think by this point, what with how big the con is getting I heard rumors they were going to move to a new location.

I think all the panels that I attended I had a great time during, even the ones I sort of wandered into unintentionally. One of the best panels was the art fight. Where two artist are given a new topic to draw every five minuets and they have to draw it. So eventually it started to devolve into something utterly insane. But watching it evolve slowly was a fun process.

The other fun panel was getting to see Spoony's. It was mostly him showing some of his videos (including a short new one) but he did take the time to answer some questions and talk to the audience. It was the last panel we went to and I had a really good time. But this sort of leads me into my next part.

There was a big, big focus on the people from thatguywiththeglasses.com, all of which are internet reviewers in some fashion. Some review games, other review nostalgic tvshows, movies, music and comics. The people who do review games do relate to the con, I guess even the music people might (they don't make music, they just review general pop songs, so maybe even that's a bit of a stretch). But people like the Nostalgia Critic or Linkara don't really relate so much and Linkara had a panel. This isn't trying to bash either of those people, I actually love their reviews. I was mad disappointed I couldn't make it to Linkara's panel, but it does make me question a bit. Maybe this just goes to show how the con is evolving. Much like Anime cons really aren't just about Anime, but delve into Japanese culture. Maybe this shows the nature progression of this con. What was sort of mind blowing was to see the sheer amount of fans for a lot of internet guests. It's not too surprising I guess, but you don't tend to think of people on the internet as celebrities. It's the same sort of odd feeling when you see a celebrity. You know them, you've seen their work and you know who they are, but they don't know you, so when you go up and speak to someone all you can do is compliment their work, which isn't a terrible thing, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

All of the people I managed to snag photos with or just spoke to were all wonderfully nice and it was awesome getting the chance to see the people whos videos I enjoy watching.

The Con Itself
Pretty much anything I couldn't think to add in the previous parts. The people at the con, the guests and con goers were all really nice. I think the best part was the game room. There was a TON of games, unlike an Anime Con where there are little to no options of what to play (granted this con is dedicated to video-games, it better have a good game room). But the people were pretty polite, if people were waiting for a game, then they'd finish up their game and let the next person on, so I got the chance to try the different games there (and now starting to become a fan of King of Fighters). I think the only thing I wish I could have tried is the Dance Central game they had set up, but there was generally a lot of people around it and I really didn't feel like waiting in line for it.

Overall it was a really good con. I had a great time, I would probably go again. In the second post I'll post more photos, mostly of cosplayers.