Otakon 2016

I was planning to make this post in the week after Otakon, and then I decided against it to post more book reviews, and then I ran out of motivation to write the rest of them and put this back on the schedule. So here we are!

This was my 4th Otakon; I started going after my freshman year of high school. This year was special because it was the last year at the Baltimore Convention Center before moving to DC, and the first day of the con coincided with my 19th birthday! This was also my first time staying in a hotel for a convention after spending my first 12ish cons commuting from home.

Omakase Box Review: January

This year, Otakon partnered with Omakase with an amazing deal: register for Omakase between Jan 11th and the 23rd, and get your Otakon badge at a 100% discount! (In other words, for free. They worded it just about every way but calling it free.) 

Considering my Otakon badge last year was $90 including shipping, I was all for this deal. I'm very depressed with the thought of having to pay adult badge rates now that I'm 18, so this was a good way to trick myself into thinking that I didn't have to deal with it yet.

(Katsucon is going to kill me OTL) 

Anyway, I figured this was a good opportunity to review Omakase! I've been curious about a couple different subscription boxes, but I've never had an excuse to try one out before. 

As a disclaimer: I don't watch Naruto. I went into this with the intention of passing on the contents of the box to friends who did. I have very little background knowledge about Naruto. 

So let's begin!

Otakon 2014

This year marked my third Otakon! It fell the weekend before my birthday again, and I've gotta say it's really cool to consider such a con as a sort of "birthday gift" from whatever luck of fate landed it that weekend.

That said, that luck of fate didn't quite carry over into the first part of the weekend.

On Wed, Emily and I tried to do some last-minute cosplay prep for her. We tried dyeing two different white tops for her rave Snow White cosplay, and both turned out purple instead of the intended blue. Luckily, the one she initially wanted to use turned out indigo when we left both in the dye overnight, so she was able to use it.

Emily and I decided to try Thursday badge pickup this year. And in case you didn't hear, it really backfired for everyone this year. We ended up getting a late start up to Baltimore that evening, getting in line sometime around 8:30, and unfortunately we were one of the thousands of people in line at 10:30 when they announced they were closing the doors. That really wasn't executed well -- while I can't blame the con for computer problems, the staffers were just yelling the news from where they were standing, and we really only heard from word-of-mouth spreading through the line. There were even a few staffers standing in front of the main entrance that had megaphones in their hands but weren't using them. So that wasn't very cool.

So Emily and I woke up early on Friday morning and started again with our usual camp-out until the doors opened. And it went much better. We were much further in the line than in the previous years, most likely due to the people in our situation, so I was a little worried about how long we'd have to wait. However, staff was able to open up registration earlier than planned, so while we were in line since sometime around 7, we were inside with our badges around 9. We were really grateful for that.

All in all, Otakon felt a little more chill than the other two years had. My original cosplay plans had fallen through for the most part, so the most recognition I'd gotten was on Friday as Annabeth Chase. I had a lot more fun than I expected as Annabeth! A lot of people recognized the cosplay or at least that I was from Camp Half-Blood. I didn't complete my Hibiya and Isaac cosplays because I figured the wigs wouldn't come in time. So of course they showed up Saturday while we were at the con;; Saturday I wore my Sailor Moon wig and a cute dress I liked, and on Sunday I went as an OC from my novel using the wig for Hibiya.

While I didn't go to any of the Sailor Moon panels or get any autographs, I was lucky enough to get the special coin! It took me all three days;; The Sailor Moon cosplayer had given both Emily and I the stamp sheets on Friday, so I was carrying around her unwanted one in my bag. I was only able to get two of the scouts on Friday, so Saturday morning I asked Emily to grab the sheet off my desk and she grabbed her empty one instead .... Luckily I was able to get the two I'd missed on Saturday, and on Sunday they were all much closer to the Viz booth, so I finished pretty soon after they'd started the event for the day! I also got pictures of all five scouts. I didn't get any of the shirts that they supposedly had, but I got two different official artwork posters, so I don't really mind.

I also totally overspent on Friday but managed to come in under budget in the long run! On Friday, I really only bought the things that I knew I wanted from artists I followed before the con had even started. Saturday and Sunday I bought less. My haul consisted of mainly posters, but I also came home with a Luna plushie, a shirt with "fight like a magical girl" on it, and a little Tuxedo Mask figurine from a blind box!

TL;DR despite the slight rocky start Otakon had, it was still a really good con overall! My con vlogs can be found here, and hopefully I'll have a new video up every Thursday!

Now begins the prep for Anime USA...

Otakon cosplay plans

I know it's still too early to really be posting about Otakon, but I wanted to talk about my cosplay plans. I've already got most everything planned out, and I've already ordered the two wigs I needed, so I really just needed something to funnel my excitement into.

Amamiya Hibiya from Mekakucity Actors

The song "Kagerou Daze" was what got me into the Kagerou Project fandom and the Mekakucity Actors anime, so I thought it'd be nice to honor my recent fandom by cosplaying the kid that got me into all of it in the first place. I also considered cosplaying Kisaragi Momo, but I decided to postpone that. Also, Otakon falls pretty close to the Heat Haze / time loop, so I figured it was relevant. He'll probably be my Saturday cosplay, since it'll be the most recognizable.

 Isaac O'Connor from Paranatural

Paranatural is my favorite webcomic right now. It's not all that big, but I love all of the characters and the premise of it. Isaac is pretty much my favorite character, and pretty much ever since he was introduced into the series I wanted to cosplay him. I'm not sure anybody would recognize me at the con, but I still want to do it anyway. (So he'll probably be my Sunday cosplay.)

art by burdge / coloring by juliajm15

Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson series

I've been looking at a lot of Percy Jackson fanart recently, though I initially found the artists through coincidence. Annabeth would be really easy to cosplay and still pretty recognizable, I think, so I'll probably be her on Friday. Originally she was going to be a backup for my Chimecho cosplay, since that one is a little more revealing than I'd like, but honestly at this point I'd rather cosplay Annabeth than Chimecho. I'm still not sure what I'd put on the t-shirt, though, because I've seen a couple different fanart designs and I'm not sure which one I like the best. (Probably the one where "CHB" is in stick-like black letters so the C looks like <.)

I don't think my plans will change between now and Otakon. The only thing I can think of would be having to drop Hibiya because the wig is currently on backorder, but that's a worst-case scenario. I'm really looking forward to Otakon at this point! I have easy cosplays planned that are of characters I really adore, and hopefully I won't have to worry about the weather!

Otakon Vlog Reflections

My photography teacher is always telling us to write reflections about how our assignments turned out so we can figure out where we went wrong and how we might be able to fix it in the future. As I'm going through and finishing the last half of my Otakon 2013 vlogs, I'm noticing some problems, and I figured I could talk about it! I'm at a loss for what to blog about right now.

I recorded my Otakon videos with a new camcorder I had bought this spring. I had recorded my Katsucon videos with my digital camera, but I wanted something that would take "better" video, as well as avoid having to switch between the photo / video options. Unfortunately, the camcorder is bulkier than my digital camera, and because of that I didn't use it as much as I probably would have with the digital camera. I'm still trying to find settings on the camcorder that work for me, but as of right now I haven't found how to make the quality better without making everything on my computer run slow while trying to use that footage.

It was also harder to get things in the frame while recording with the camcorder. It had a hand strap, but that made it hard to turn the camera around to my face. The camcorder is also heavier than the digital camera so I had trouble holding it up high enough while I was recording. I ended up cutting off my friends' faces a lot...

My camcorder does have a better zoom to it and doesn't have dust in the lens (as of yet) like my digital camera does. It can also take pictures while you're recording, and often takes them automatically every few minutes, though those usually aren't the best. (All of them somehow made us look bad ...)

This point isn't related to the camera issue, but with time management of sorts. I didn't really vlog while we were doing things. A majority of the video I have is while we're sitting down and resting between going to panels or Artist Alley / Dealer's and photoshoots. I'm not sure how much of this could be avoided, because I know at least Anime USA had a policy against photo / video recording in their Dealer's Hall last year. I'll have to look into that for Katsucon.

So, ways that I can improve for Katsucon 2014:

• Aim -- getting everything in the shot is good
• Vlogging more -- hopefully not just when we're sitting down and resting. I'd love to get more "action" video, or at least give a recap of what I did. 
• Content -- more talking! I need to get better at talking while I'm vlogging. 

Of course, I'll probably come up with more later, especially as it gets closer to Valentine's weekend. I'm already excited for Katsucon and it's still about two months off! I'm not sure how I'm going to bide my time until then.