Otakon 2007
Jul. 25th, 2007 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kristenskWell, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seekersks and I got off to a rough start with Otakon this year. We almost didn't go. Our mother was going to go with us, but the day before the trip she was hit by a car while crossing a parking lot. Thankfully, she sustained no serious injuries and no broken bones (though one knee does have a torn ligament). Still, she was in no shape to run off to Baltimore. She did finally convince us to go. We got off to a slow start and got stuck in traffic around Washington for about two hours. But, we made it to Baltimore and discovered that arriving at 6:00 or 7:00 pm wasn't a bad thing at all. We were able to walk right in and get our con badges with only a short line inside the convention center to deal with.
From there, everything picked up considerably. The weather was wonderfully cool for July with temperatures ranging from the 60's to upper 70's. And, I was finally able to drag Seeker over to the harbor area where we found a really cool walk-through fountain, a nice Barnes & Noble built in an old power plant (along with other things) and a variety of eating places. We also learned that we could take the skywalk from the convention center directly into the upper floor of the Harborplace shopping area. All of which is something we should have discovered two years ago, but oh well. This year, we had extra incentive to want to avoid the traffic. (And, in fact, "Yeah, we don't want to be hit by a car," became a running warning/joke.)
Anyways, the breakdown:
The Panels: The Overclocked Remix panel was excellent again. I heard some new remixes I've already scurried off to download, and I'll be looking for that Final Fantasy VII music collection they have coming in September.
The Inuyasha panel almost wasn't due to a mix-up in the con book. I noticed the discrepancy between the internet schedule and the con book and decided it couldn't hurt to show up at the earlier time listed on the internet. Good thing we did. The bad thing was that it was me, Seek, Urd-chan, who was heading the panel, and maybe five other people at first. Others eventually trickled in. The discussion was interesting though nothing really stood out. I will note that I'm growing very tired of the standard Inuyasha fan kneejerk response of, "The movies are not canon." I fail to see why this is relevant when someone has asked a question about a particular movie's internal timeline. Of course, so far as I'm concerned if it's officially licensed and the creator is okay enough with it to show up at premieres and do the ocassional character design for it, then whatever it is is most certainly canon, just not the only canon and not necessarily in the same continuity as other canons.
In going to the One Piece panel, Seek and I managed to squeeze in at the tail end of Steve Blum's question and answer session. Steve had recruited Vic Mignona to help him, and the two of them were hilarious together. We'll definitely have to pay more attention to the con book and guest list next year since we almost missed that one entirely.
The One Piece panelists were also funny... though I think Seek and I were some of the only people to get their references to Rainbow Brite and The Neverending Story. Seek claimed they were dating themselves, but I maintain that if you date yourself to a cool time, it's all good. Anyways, it was great to hear that FUNimation, who has taken over the English license for One Piece, will be releasing DVD's of the series in its complete, original form. Unfortunately, they're starting around episode 144 and may not have access to the earlier episodes for several years. But, it's better than nothing... and definitely better than the horror 4Kids unleashed on the show.
The Anime: Handsdown the best thing we saw over the course of the convention was Steamboy. Excellent, excellent movie with awesome animation and a really fun steampunk-style adventure. Plus, it had a couple of twists I never expected that kept things interesting throughout. I'm definitely looking for it on DVD. Back at the hotel, we finally finished Bleach's Bount arc (argh, we're so far behind!), and Seek got me started watching "Law of Ueki".
The Loot: I didn't get much this year. The biggest thing I picked up was a copy of The Last Unicorn on DVD, which I bought from Peter S. Beagle's table and had signed by him. And, that's several kinds of awesome. I also got a new Inuyasha T-shirt. Yet another red shirt for my collection. (I do love red, but in this case it's just that some of my favorite Inuyasha images/designs have been on the red shirts.) And, I finally picked up the "Demon Box Set" with the Youkai Inuyasha figure and Volume 19 of the manga. Unfortunately, I already have Volume 19, but they've never released the Youkai Inuyasha figure separately.
The Quotes:
"I'm sorry that you died!" - Overheard
"Don't get hit by the train! Mom'll think you're trying to one-up her!" - Me to Seeker
Note: All of the Baltimore photos up at the top were taken by Seek.
seekersks and I got off to a rough start with Otakon this year. We almost didn't go. Our mother was going to go with us, but the day before the trip she was hit by a car while crossing a parking lot. Thankfully, she sustained no serious injuries and no broken bones (though one knee does have a torn ligament). Still, she was in no shape to run off to Baltimore. She did finally convince us to go. We got off to a slow start and got stuck in traffic around Washington for about two hours. But, we made it to Baltimore and discovered that arriving at 6:00 or 7:00 pm wasn't a bad thing at all. We were able to walk right in and get our con badges with only a short line inside the convention center to deal with. From there, everything picked up considerably. The weather was wonderfully cool for July with temperatures ranging from the 60's to upper 70's. And, I was finally able to drag Seeker over to the harbor area where we found a really cool walk-through fountain, a nice Barnes & Noble built in an old power plant (along with other things) and a variety of eating places. We also learned that we could take the skywalk from the convention center directly into the upper floor of the Harborplace shopping area. All of which is something we should have discovered two years ago, but oh well. This year, we had extra incentive to want to avoid the traffic. (And, in fact, "Yeah, we don't want to be hit by a car," became a running warning/joke.)
Anyways, the breakdown:
The Panels: The Overclocked Remix panel was excellent again. I heard some new remixes I've already scurried off to download, and I'll be looking for that Final Fantasy VII music collection they have coming in September.
The Inuyasha panel almost wasn't due to a mix-up in the con book. I noticed the discrepancy between the internet schedule and the con book and decided it couldn't hurt to show up at the earlier time listed on the internet. Good thing we did. The bad thing was that it was me, Seek, Urd-chan, who was heading the panel, and maybe five other people at first. Others eventually trickled in. The discussion was interesting though nothing really stood out. I will note that I'm growing very tired of the standard Inuyasha fan kneejerk response of, "The movies are not canon." I fail to see why this is relevant when someone has asked a question about a particular movie's internal timeline. Of course, so far as I'm concerned if it's officially licensed and the creator is okay enough with it to show up at premieres and do the ocassional character design for it, then whatever it is is most certainly canon, just not the only canon and not necessarily in the same continuity as other canons.
In going to the One Piece panel, Seek and I managed to squeeze in at the tail end of Steve Blum's question and answer session. Steve had recruited Vic Mignona to help him, and the two of them were hilarious together. We'll definitely have to pay more attention to the con book and guest list next year since we almost missed that one entirely.
The One Piece panelists were also funny... though I think Seek and I were some of the only people to get their references to Rainbow Brite and The Neverending Story. Seek claimed they were dating themselves, but I maintain that if you date yourself to a cool time, it's all good. Anyways, it was great to hear that FUNimation, who has taken over the English license for One Piece, will be releasing DVD's of the series in its complete, original form. Unfortunately, they're starting around episode 144 and may not have access to the earlier episodes for several years. But, it's better than nothing... and definitely better than the horror 4Kids unleashed on the show.
The Anime: Handsdown the best thing we saw over the course of the convention was Steamboy. Excellent, excellent movie with awesome animation and a really fun steampunk-style adventure. Plus, it had a couple of twists I never expected that kept things interesting throughout. I'm definitely looking for it on DVD. Back at the hotel, we finally finished Bleach's Bount arc (argh, we're so far behind!), and Seek got me started watching "Law of Ueki".
The Loot: I didn't get much this year. The biggest thing I picked up was a copy of The Last Unicorn on DVD, which I bought from Peter S. Beagle's table and had signed by him. And, that's several kinds of awesome. I also got a new Inuyasha T-shirt. Yet another red shirt for my collection. (I do love red, but in this case it's just that some of my favorite Inuyasha images/designs have been on the red shirts.) And, I finally picked up the "Demon Box Set" with the Youkai Inuyasha figure and Volume 19 of the manga. Unfortunately, I already have Volume 19, but they've never released the Youkai Inuyasha figure separately.
The Quotes:
"I'm sorry that you died!" - Overheard
"Don't get hit by the train! Mom'll think you're trying to one-up her!" - Me to Seeker
Note: All of the Baltimore photos up at the top were taken by Seek.
