Aresef

Yeah, I used my limited Japanese skills to say something.

The movie was amazing. It was a great Thursday night activity.

I *really* wish I could have seen the whole Sunday concert. But I had to take care of so many errands that morning. I saw a bit of DS though, that was cool. That said, as I've conveyed before, JAM was something I've waited years to see happen in the US. If it happened at AX, I would have flown to AX. If it happened anywhere else, I would have gone there too. The way I see it, Otakon saved me hundreds of dollars.

I picture you just gleefully hopping onstage and busting out with SKILL. Imagine if Fukuyama spotted you wearing a cowboy shirt like his.

I got the same feeling from them. They were all enjoying themselves the whole time.

I remember at the concert, he said "Everybody yell! It's me, Endoh!" Pretty much sums it up. And I've seen all sorts of numbers on blogs, from 3000 to 5000. Anybody out there on staff care to enlighten us? There was no stickering or anything, so I guess it's hard to really do an accurate count.

So have people started lining up for pre-reg pickup yet?

It would be awesome if Otakon found the space and manpower to get the cosplay.com guys to move their photoshoots to, say, the 300 level fountains, where it's less populated and you can still get nice pictures. Make the schedule centralized, put a Photo Suite staffer there, problem solved.

Epic song wailing? I thought that was Endoh's department. Like in Hagane no Messiah, near the end of the song when he holds the last note of "STOP THE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" for about half a century.

At least put recycling bins--city bins or anything, really--by the Aramark stands and by the entrances and exits. All those bottles and cans shouldn't be going to waste. If Virgin Fest can go green, so can we.

The Bandai surprise panel....it was one minor announcement (another .hack movie) followed by epic win. -First, Toshi told us press no pictures, that we'd figure out why soon as they rolled a cart of boxes in. -Showed some blooper reels -Gave away tons of t-shirts because they could. -Brought out Yuri Lowenthal to pimp some stuff like the new Gurren Lagann box -Told everybody to look under their chairs for a magic Haruhi armband. One person won an autographed Geass figure and another won one of Bandai's Geass banners, both signed and presented by Yuri. -Showed Lucky Star bloopers

A few Katsucon buddies of mine walked by me as they were leaving. They joked they shoulda had them first.

It might have been an arena thing, but what I would have done, since we were all standing anyway would be get some fencing and make it standing room only. It would also make it easy for press to get up into the pit for the photos.

Actually wearing some of the swag right now. http://i35.tinypic.com/5v163q.jpg Other than that, the standard Otakon swag, Adventures in Vocie Acting, various other DVD's, CD's...I regret not buying anything from AA, thought that was mostly because I didn't have time.

Hehe, lol http://www.makusonia.com/cgi-bin/diary/pho...80808230108.JPG

Stressed out journalist with recorder and Otakon-branded notepad, wearing Otakon, JAM Project, or GLaDOS '08 shirt. I'm easy to miss. >_>

i.e. You can't use a Warner Bros. logo, no matter what. Fair use doesn't apply like that to trademarks.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aresef/OtakonXV

Crap...first time I've crunched the numbers... Transportation: Irrelevant, I'm a local with an MTA pass Hotel: $100 Food : $80ish? Otakon merch: $30 JAM merch: $30 Funi booth: $20 Aardvark shirt: $20 HLJ booth: $15 Miscellany: $15 Paying a friend for his help with photography at the JAM concert so he could go get a shirt and CD: $20 So about $330. But simply experiencing Otakon? Priceless.

A video greeting from T.M. Revolution.

Yeah, big props to staff. I had very few issues this weekend. Otakon keeps getting bigger and better. JAM Project was everything I imagined and more. Panels were great. The people were great. It was all awesome. Next year can only be better.

Anime USA, Katsucon, Anime Mid-Atlantic, T-Mode, Tigercon (hehehe)...yeah, this part of the US is a real breeding ground for cons.

Oh, also, last night I had a feeling, just a random feeling something fun would happen at the Bandai Surprise panel. So I went there, sat down with some other press monkeys up front. At one point they were doing Lucky Star trivia and tossing out Scrapped Princess vol4 LE boxes. There's a question about who took away the serafuku in the show. The answer? JAM Project. So Bandai decided to give them back. They had boxes and boxes of the t-shirts from the show with the uniform printed on them, so they made us all wear them. After a little bit, the Bandai guys have us scream "JAM!" then I inst

I hit both autograph sessions today, but not so I could double dip. A friend of mine, who is epileptic, came to Otakon for the first time since 2001 with the sole purpose of seeing JAM Project. She got checked out by an army of doctors to make sure she was cool with the strobes and stuff. Hopping off the Amtrak at Penn Station, she slipped between the train and platform and messed up her leg. She limped her way through Thursday and Friday. Friday, after returning from the concert, she had a seizure. She then had to head home today. She wanted to get the shirt autographed, so I took c