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While I'm glad that Otakon is doing an online event, I still miss doing the "Where to Eat for Otakon" videos I usually do around this time. So, I decided to put together some memories of the past at Otakon, notably between 2013 and 2017. Part One is all about the Pre-Reg lines and Matsuri festivals. A nice look into the past. Next week will be part two, full of the con itself. Please click the link and enjoy! Otakon: Do You Remember the Sweat? Part One: https://youtu.be/DQmv_tdaSUs

Thanks to everyone for coming by!

You can start fermenting your own con funk and have it ready by Saturday. Pop the sealed lid and PEW! Just like being at the real convention. 😆

Hi All! We just had 4 "online cons" just this past weekend. They were "Anime Expo Lite" (July 3rd - 4th), "Aniplex Fest Online" (July 4th - 5th), "FunimationCon" (July 3rd - 4th), and "KuroCon" (July 4th - 5th). FunimationCon seem to be running their con on their own page while also simucasting Aniplex Fest Online on one of their channel until the 4th. Everyone else was using Twitch and Youtube. The cons were basically streaming Panels that were live but most were prerecorded. I honestly missed most of Friday beccause my car was being worked on the entire day, and I couldn't get a stable enough connection on my phone to access the cons while I waited. But I stuck around at home for Saturday and Sunday for what I can get. The Good Like I said before, most of the programming were Panels. Some were live, but most were prerecorded. for FunimationCon, you had to preregister before you can get access to them (they will assign you a badge number to your email address). Everything else was on Twitch and YouTube. You can get on for free, but you have to register for both of these services if you wanted to intereact (chat) with the rest of the crowd. Aniplex had a DJ to do a virtual "Dance" and play some music videos and concert clips. Anime Expo Lite also had concert clips playing, too. Before I forget, Aniplex panels were mostly in Japanese but had english subs on them. I basically stayed with Aniplex until the very end. Some had vurtual "Dealer's Room" that you can click on a vendor's name and it will take you a page of some of their exclusive items that they're selling just for the online cons. You can still go back to Aniplex Youtube channel and watch some of the panels that you missed. It will only stay for a week. The Bad There were just too much going on at the same time. I had to have multiple windows open on 3 computers. I used my tv to watch the panels and music that I really cared the most with, while my other 2 computers were tuned to the other cons. It looks like that they were only using twitter for their main Q&As instead of using the chat window, instead. The Ugly Nothing really. But there were times when I wanted to go watch a panel , I would get a "connection time-out". I had to refresh the page a few times. Overall It felt more like I was watching a "Telethon" more than anything. Reading the chats was fun most of the time (there were a few trolls, unfortunatly). Will I do it, again? Why not? As long as it's free, it's still an interesting experience, but it doesn't replace the feeling of actually being there in person.

Online Comic Con is this week. Should be interesting.