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Otakon
2001
- Convention of Otaku Generation
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Region:
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USA |
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Category: |
Event |
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Date: |
09/20/2001 |
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Report
by: |
Borroms-kun
& Elche-Kun |
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Edited
by: |
MJ |
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Elche-kun
& Jonathon Harmon |
THE
TRIP
Otakon
2001 was held at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore,
Maryland from August 4-6, 2001.
Having
never been to an anime convention I was full of anticipation
and very excited to finally become part of the great Otakon
experience. On the first day of the convention Elche-kun and
I (Borroms-kun) boarded an Air Canada plane in Toronto's Pearson
International Airport.
We cruised
over the great lakes bordering Canada and the US passing over
Lake Ontario and Niagara Falls. At about 10:00 am we landed
in the Baltimore Washington International Airport, dropped
by our hotel and then continued onto the
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Baltimore Convention
Center is located right beside the stadium and after crossing the
street and walking a corner we were at the Pratt street entrance
of the convention center.
AT THE CONVENTION
Otakon 2001
doors opened at 9:00 am but it was then about 11:00 am and most
people were in line to pickup their pre-registration badges. The
line was LONG. It started from the stairs at the exhibition area
and ended up almost at the basement of the convention center. The
wait was about 30 to 45 minutes. But there were many colourful cosplayers
from anime such as Cowboy Bebop, Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura
and Trigun around so it was pretty interesting!
Being my very
first anime convention, I was amazed by the number of people who
had turned up. Surrounded by so many anime fans I could not help
but feel "at home". Maybe that sounds silly, but I guess I felt
that I belonged there. The atmosphere was cheerful, energetic and
embracing. Elche-kun and I soon got down to business. We asked one
of the ushers (those cool volunteers who have the big "OTAKON STAFF"
shirts) where we could get our Press Badges. We were told to go
to the other side of the convention center where the VIP room was
located and see Mr. Jonathon Harmon (the super cool Press contact
for Otakon 2001). Mr. Harmon was very professional and helpful.
We introduced ourselves as representatives from Animaxis and were
given a Press Kit, badges and a briefing on the programming events
of the convention
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After
our meeting with Mr. Harmon we took a few moments to review
the program guide. The guide was well laid out and had a lot
of useful information including a "Where to Eat" guide (Ah!
Yes food!). There were many scheduled events such as discussion
panels, anime screenings and video game rooms. As always the
highlight of the con were the cosplay events, which were schedule
on the Saturday. Armed with the powers of the Press Badge
we went to roam around the convention center.
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FLOOR BY
FLOOR
The convention
center is a multi floor building (about 4 floors) - the ground floor
having the video screening hall, the dealer section and the artists'
area. Our first stop of the day was the Dealer Area. It was around
noon and the dealers were pretty busy setting up. The dealer area
of Otakon 2001 was at Hall C of the convention centre. It was a
very BIG hall about the size of 4 to 5 full sized basketball courts
placed side by side. The ceiling was very high up which provided
good ventilation and cool breezes, which the hundreds of attendees
were really grateful for! Elche-kun later told me that the area
was even bigger than that at AnimeExpo 2001. By this time though,
not all the dealers had fully set up yet because the opening was
at 3pm.
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Located
on the western side of the ground floor, the artists' area
featured fan art on display for purchase. A piece of paper
was placed beside the artwork where you could write your convention
id number and the amount you would like to bid for the piece.
The lucky people whose buds were successful where notified
after the last day of the convention.
Unfortunately,
no pictures were allowed in the artist alley so I can't show
you the great art that was on display!
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Entries included
large textured canvas prints of Shinobu and Narusegawa from Love
Hina, various artworks from Evangelion, Digicharat, Ah! Megami Sama
and Final Fantasy. Elche-kun and I found some really cool cel works
of Sailor Moon in Power Puff Girls style!
Elche-kun tried
to bid big bucks on one piece but lucked out! Maybe next year Elche-kun!
In addition to the art showcase were artist booths were you could
have commission pieces, as well as purchase the artwork already
on display. I walked around some of the booths and thought that
most of the artists were extremely talented and I was tempted to
have a chibi-version of myself made.
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The second
floor of the convention center did not have any rooms but
served as a good open space for convention goers to chill
out in. This floor provided an open space to walk from one
side to the other side of the convention center. Many people
sat on the sides to rest and it became the main area to meet
up in.
The third
floor where most of the traffic and action was, had the majority
of video rooms as well as the video game room, the panel rooms,
otakon staff headquarters, autograph area, refreshments lounge,
registration area and for the first time in
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Otakon - the
Otachan kids only rooms offering fun activities for the "next generation"
of little otakus.
Large rooms
on the third floor where used for the video screenings and each
could hold hundreds of people quite comfortably. Equipped with decently
sized projector screens, even subtitles could be seen clearly from
the back. There was a wide variety of anime and live action videos
shown such as Astro Boy, Macross, Card Captor Sakura and Uzumaki.
So much choice but since Elche-kun and I had already seen most of
them we didn't sit through them again. We did drop by for an hour
of Macross while taking a break from walking around the convention
though.
Although the
constant stream of con goers was generally pretty smooth, at times
the traffic was unbelievable. The registration area was the smallest
so there were stacks of people around there. Not that it was as
bad as downtown Baltimore traffic but sometimes we would get stuck
at a bottleneck. It's not nice being surrounded by hot sweaty otaku
bodies!
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Maybe
next time they should have the registration area on the second
floor, which had a lot more space.
The fourth
floor had the grand ballroom where the cosplay events were
later held. The grand ballroom was as big as the dealer area
if not bigger. It had a high ceiling and a stage with projector
screens on both sides.
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