Dark Lord's Otakon Report

Every year about this time, Baltimore suffers an invasion of it's inner harbor. Ninjas, pirates, sailor scouts, robots, and lots of guys with spikey hair and really big swords converge by the thousands on the Baltimore Convention Center. It's Otakon, as in Otaku, a Japanese word for Japanese pop culture geeks. Anime, manga, J-pop music, martial arts movies and the like are all ingested, sold, packaged, previewed, emulated, discussed, and in some cases outright worshipped, in large doses. This was my first time attending Otakon, and so, I took my camera. The whole thing lasted three days, Friday through Sunday, but I only went Friday night and Saturday. the Convention Center is huge, two massive, multi-story buildings, and it can be murder on your feet. Friday, I really went for the atmosphere. There were at least six video rooms showing anime constantly, or live action flicks from Japan. There were also several panels focusing on various aspects of Japanese culture, such as one I sat in on that discussed Nieczche's philosophy as demonstrated by the characters in Trigun. At night the films and panels got more and more risque, however. I saw one panel advertised as a "Do it yourself bukkake" panel. I decided to duck that one. So the first day I got a good measure of the place, took lots of pictures and watched lots of subtitled original Macross episodes. I also tried to get a handle on this whole Naruto thing. Because, let me tell ya, there was no escaping it. Everywhere you looked there were little Naruto Ninjas, alone and in clusters, in corners fighting with the wrappers of new DVDs or trying to chat up one of the countless roving bands of 4'11" tall 80 lbs asian girls in Sailor Moon outfits. I finally caught a few minutes of it. Looks to me like DBZ, but with newer animation. I just never got into shows where a fight took three episodes, two of which were the opponents talking and "powering up."
There were also a ton of pirates. Ninjas....pirates...in the same place?!?! You KNOW there was gonna be trouble. It all boiled over Friday night when the DJ started spinning techno/anime remixes in the main hall. The ninjas and the pirates faced off in a "You Got Served" style dance battle that was highlighted by two Naruto ninjas actually knowing how to break dance and then being countered by the crew of One Piece, headed by Jack Sparrow, doing the River Dance. I knew you wouldn't believe me. So I got pictures.

After that and a few panels and videos, I called it a night, returning early saturday morning to try and get in on some of that dealer room action.
How big was the dealer room? Well they said it was large enough that you could launch an F-16 from it. Not only were all the big heavies of the anime biz there, but there were countless video game dealers, anime booths, clothiers, artists, model and toy dealers and lots and lots of swords. I got myself some DVDs of some older stuff that I only had on VHS, bought two new swords and some art and then spent a good chunk of time in the massive video game center.
Kudos to the organizers for this. They carted in at least two dozen large plasma screen televisions, then filled them with everything from brand new DBZ and Narutu fighting games that weren't even translated from Japanese yet, to old classics like Street Fighter II Alpah, Tekken III and Samurai Showdown, as well as many non-fight games. I waxed some guys with my never flagging Chun Li skills and then got schooled by dudes doing crazy ridiculo naruto moves (I think I finally decided to give it up when someone did a super move that appeared to steal my soul...).
I was going to stay for another night of panels and dance music, but by then I was bushed. Also, I had just about had my fill of the Otaku crowd. While I definitely have my geek attributes, I'm nothing compared to some of these people. Most are cool, but there are some that I just can't understand how they function in society outside of their Otaku world. Some of them, obviously, don't.
Case in point, on Friday night when the dealer room closed, there was a massive traffic jam at the steps leading out, with people crowded in pretty tight. Fortunately, everyone had made sure to use their Right Guard that morning. I made a crack about the bad planning, and a girl in line behind me said "LOL". no, she didn't laugh out loud.
She.
Said.
The.
Letters.
L-O-L.
When you begin speaking in internet anagrams, it's time to unplug and maybe take in a ball game...or something.
Overall, I found out that there were 25,000 people in attendance over the course of those three days. I had blast. If you're into anime, manga or the like, this is a lovefest you just can't miss.
You've got a year to prepare. See you there.
Oh, and because I love ya...here's more pix, mostly sexy cosplay girls.