Otakon 2016
Aug. 21st, 2016 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kristenskI hadn't mentioned it previously, but, yes, I attended Otakon 2016! It was the final year in Baltimore, and I was sad that I didn't get a last visit down to the Inner Harbor proper. But, with temperatures in the mid to upper 90's and a heat index over 100, it was simply too hot to spend more than the minimum amount of time outside. Still, it was a good year. I got to visit my favorite sandwich place, Macado's twice on the drive to and from Baltimore (and try their giant cinnamon bun... mmm...) and, while we were in Baltimore, we hit Pappa's Restaurant one last time for the fantastic crabcakes.
As has become the norm, we kicked off Thursday with a movie. This year, it was Star Trek Beyond, which I much enjoyed. The plot was straightforward but fun, the character interactions great, and the whole movie a fun ride I suspect I'll enjoy watching again and again once it's out on DVD. And, as a bonus, Mom, the biggest Star Trek fan in our group, finally got to see one of the new movies in the theater.
Then, of course, it was Otakon time on Friday.
The Con: There weren't any big premieres or once-in-a-lifetime guests this year. Instead, this was the craftsman and mecha year. We started off with Man at Arms: Reforged and ended on Takaotacraft. In-between, we attended several fan panels, mostly mecha-centric, and watched anime, also mecha-centric. From which we learned: 1) Mecha-jacking is a time-honored, ancient tradition. 2) You should never give Char Aznable a giant rock.
The Guests: Voice actor-wise, we caught Michael Sinterniklass and Sonny Strait, English voice of Maes Hughes from FMA and, more recently, Koro-sensei in "Assassination Classroom". Sadly, we missed Aaron Dismuke, the first English voice of Al in FMA, as his solo panel was scheduled on Sunday well after we had to leave to head home.
The Panels: This year's standout panel was a toss-up between Man at Arms and the hilarious "When Gundam Goes Bad" panel. With a runner-up in Mike Toole's "Worst Anime of All Time". The Man at Arms crew was really interesting. Obviously, the various anime and videogame-based weapons they've made were the main topics, and they went into some detail as to how many of them were difficult to realize in the real world. Besides having to employ weight-lifters to wield even scaled down versions, they noted that some fictional swords would literally break under their own weight if recreated exactly as depicted. And, other, more reasonable, swords were actually trickier than they appeared due to various design and structural issues. Fascinating stuff. They had an additional panel on historical weapons I wanted to attend, but, it was, like Aaron Dismuke, sadly scheduled on Sunday. *sigh*
Then, by chance, we happened to wander into the Pony Canyon panel and their showing of the first two episodes of the mecha anime Kuromukuro. After the showing, we were surprised to see both Takaotacraft and Man at Arms brought in to the panel. Takaotacraft had been commissioned to make an amazing bronze bust of the title mecha, and Man at Arms had actually been supplied with real Japanese steel to create a replica of the hero's katana. Very, very cool.
The Anime: As mentioned above, Seek and I got to see the first two episodes of "Kuromukuro" at the convention, and I definitely mean to seek out the rest on Netflix. Back at the hotel, we watched through about half of Ushio & Tora, a series I'd been meaning to get back to. It's well worth the watch being the sort of action-packed, supernatural shounen goodness that I love.
The Random Quotes:
"It's like a rite of passage in the Federation, right? 'Son, you're thirteen. Time to steal your first Gundam'." -- From the "When Gundam Goes Bad" panel
"Yes. I was a Pokemon. *beat* If you throw balls at me, I'm out of here." -- Michael Sinterniklass
"Well, I was in Houston, and they were in Atlantis. Atlanta. Yes, they were in a mythical city at the bottom of the ocean. Can you imagine how hard it was to get a signal?!" -- Sonny Strait
The Stuff: I didn't get anything particularly exciting this year. I'd been meaning to get more of the Kekkaishi manga for a while, so I got a few volumes of that and bought the official Otakon T-shirt for the first time since this was a memorable year. I also got a really nice clear file image as a freebie at the "Kuromukuro" premiere. In the end, this was my haul for the year. (I used both mine and Seek's "Kuromukuro" clear files so you can see both sides.)
As has become the norm, we kicked off Thursday with a movie. This year, it was Star Trek Beyond, which I much enjoyed. The plot was straightforward but fun, the character interactions great, and the whole movie a fun ride I suspect I'll enjoy watching again and again once it's out on DVD. And, as a bonus, Mom, the biggest Star Trek fan in our group, finally got to see one of the new movies in the theater.
Then, of course, it was Otakon time on Friday.
The Con: There weren't any big premieres or once-in-a-lifetime guests this year. Instead, this was the craftsman and mecha year. We started off with Man at Arms: Reforged and ended on Takaotacraft. In-between, we attended several fan panels, mostly mecha-centric, and watched anime, also mecha-centric. From which we learned: 1) Mecha-jacking is a time-honored, ancient tradition. 2) You should never give Char Aznable a giant rock.
The Guests: Voice actor-wise, we caught Michael Sinterniklass and Sonny Strait, English voice of Maes Hughes from FMA and, more recently, Koro-sensei in "Assassination Classroom". Sadly, we missed Aaron Dismuke, the first English voice of Al in FMA, as his solo panel was scheduled on Sunday well after we had to leave to head home.
The Panels: This year's standout panel was a toss-up between Man at Arms and the hilarious "When Gundam Goes Bad" panel. With a runner-up in Mike Toole's "Worst Anime of All Time". The Man at Arms crew was really interesting. Obviously, the various anime and videogame-based weapons they've made were the main topics, and they went into some detail as to how many of them were difficult to realize in the real world. Besides having to employ weight-lifters to wield even scaled down versions, they noted that some fictional swords would literally break under their own weight if recreated exactly as depicted. And, other, more reasonable, swords were actually trickier than they appeared due to various design and structural issues. Fascinating stuff. They had an additional panel on historical weapons I wanted to attend, but, it was, like Aaron Dismuke, sadly scheduled on Sunday. *sigh*
Then, by chance, we happened to wander into the Pony Canyon panel and their showing of the first two episodes of the mecha anime Kuromukuro. After the showing, we were surprised to see both Takaotacraft and Man at Arms brought in to the panel. Takaotacraft had been commissioned to make an amazing bronze bust of the title mecha, and Man at Arms had actually been supplied with real Japanese steel to create a replica of the hero's katana. Very, very cool.
The Anime: As mentioned above, Seek and I got to see the first two episodes of "Kuromukuro" at the convention, and I definitely mean to seek out the rest on Netflix. Back at the hotel, we watched through about half of Ushio & Tora, a series I'd been meaning to get back to. It's well worth the watch being the sort of action-packed, supernatural shounen goodness that I love.
The Random Quotes:
"It's like a rite of passage in the Federation, right? 'Son, you're thirteen. Time to steal your first Gundam'." -- From the "When Gundam Goes Bad" panel
"Yes. I was a Pokemon. *beat* If you throw balls at me, I'm out of here." -- Michael Sinterniklass
"Well, I was in Houston, and they were in Atlantis. Atlanta. Yes, they were in a mythical city at the bottom of the ocean. Can you imagine how hard it was to get a signal?!" -- Sonny Strait
The Stuff: I didn't get anything particularly exciting this year. I'd been meaning to get more of the Kekkaishi manga for a while, so I got a few volumes of that and bought the official Otakon T-shirt for the first time since this was a memorable year. I also got a really nice clear file image as a freebie at the "Kuromukuro" premiere. In the end, this was my haul for the year. (I used both mine and Seek's "Kuromukuro" clear files so you can see both sides.)
no subject
Date: 2016-08-22 04:49 am (UTC)Michael Sinterniklass was at AFO. I don't know him from anything, so I never sought him out, but he did wander through the dealers' room once. I'd still *like* to see Sonny Strait sometime. (Love the Atlantis quote!)
I've never gotten to see any fan-run panels. Of course, I've had to prioritize things in *trying* to not be away from the dealer table any longer than I can avoid--and the voice actors must come first. *g*
no subject
Date: 2016-08-22 03:21 pm (UTC)I wasn't familiar with Michael Sinterniklass either. (Although, when I looked him up, I realized that we saw him briefly at an anime premiere a couple years ago.) Sonny Strait was a lot of fun, and I wish I could have thought of more to say about him. Aside from his hilarious Atlantis fumble, there weren't a lot of standout moments, just a fun question and answer session.
Fan-run panels are always a little bit of a gamble if it's not someone I recognize from a previous year or another source. (Mike Toole, for example, writes for Anime News Network, putting out anime history articles that are a wonderful balance of informative and amusing.) We've attended some that were brilliant and others that were awkward and left me feeling bad for the clearly nervous presenter.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-23 02:32 am (UTC)...Of course, as wretched as the rest of the "Brothers Conflict" series is, Strait's "Hughes!squirrel" was pretty much the best thing ever. *snork*
Looking at the lists of fan panels in cons I've worked, I've rarely even seen any topics that appealed to me. At Umicon last year, I did consider seeing a geek band's panel about an instrument they featured, the Japanese koto--but when I stopped by their booth in the dealers' room, the main guy was fairly rude in his disinterest and obvious lack of enthusiasm for being there. So I didn't go to the panel. With his attitude, I'd suspect it wasn't great.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-23 05:39 am (UTC)He was very much like that. Definitely one of those guests who just seemed to enjoy being there.
--...the main guy was fairly rude in his disinterest and obvious lack of enthusiasm for being there. So I didn't go to the panel. With his attitude, I'd suspect it wasn't great.--
Urgh. Probably not. I'm glad to have only encountered one speaker like that and, instead, found more people who were genuinely excited for their topics.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-23 05:49 am (UTC)John Swasey, who I probably got to be around a bit more than any other guest at AFO, struck me as that kind too. Not one of the big stars (just a very prolific one), but so nice and full of fun and genuinely enjoying himself.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-23 01:26 pm (UTC)