Why did you start attending Otakon?

[Clutch 64]

I had never really heard of anime back in 1993. However, I had to stay home from work for a few days from the "Storm of the Century" when the governor closed the highways. With nothing to do, I asked my brother to borrow those Ranma 1/2 VCR tapes he had. I was hooked. Either searching through USENET, or looking at Protoculture Addicts, I stumbled upon a reference to Otakon. Drove up to State College in 1994 to the Days Inn, and have gone ever since. I still have my 1994 con shirt around somewhere, but am not sure that the program guide survived.

[Guest Hpnotiq115]

my friend from my softball team told me about it when she found out that i was into anime. But i kinda ignored it and continued to lead my sad sheltered, closeted, anime obsession.

I first really heard about it in my school's anime club in my freshman year of high school. I made a few friends and we all signed up to go, none of us knew what to expect.

The first hour or so wasn't that epic, and we were tired of waiting in lines...but once that dealer's room opened up, things started to get exciting. We had SOOOOOOooOooo much fun by the end of those wonderful three days.

Since then, i have signed up other people, been the go to girl for questions, and actually talked to parents about the how fun and safe the con is and that their child should be allowed to go!

I have gone everyyear since the 2005 convention, and i loved all of it!! (except last year...it wasnt a good year for me...>.>...but thats another story...)

And here I am!!! excitedly awaiting for this year!!!

[tomopanda 0]

I learned about anime back when I was in middle school and my friend Flo told me to watch this anime ( it was Wicked City and Trigun ). When I saw this I was like "wow, this is the best thing ever" and I asked where could I get more and then that

[toujourspret 0]

Way back in 1999, I started hanging out online in the Gundam Wing fandom (haha, yes, I was one of the original scary fangirls!). Through that fandom, I met a couple of writers that I really gelled with, and we started sending 'round our fics in a circle among our other friends. One day, someone mixed the mailing list up and added in a bunch of people from the Cursed Fanboys Forum, who reacted really positively, and we all formed an E-group (before it was owned by Yahoo!).

One of the older members did a con report in the summer of 2000, and since by then we'd been sending e-mails and chatting for nearly two years, we all agreed that it would be a blast to go the next year and hang out IRL. We did, and through that mailing list, we managed to get a group of people who come back to the con every year since. We've kind of all spread out and started doing our own thing now, but it's still one of the only places where I can see friends I've known for almost ten years.

[DDR BIG C 3]

The reason why I attend Otakon because it's the superbowl of anime conventions, and of course to meet new people who have the same interest as me.

[killerrobo 0]

I've been an anime freak for years before my first time, but had never heard of it.

My first Otakon was purely accidental. I was actually just walking downtown for the sake of walking[i'm a Baltimoreon], with my b.f.f. We walked past the convention center and started recognizing characters, so we ended up getting one day passes. It was also a sort of exercise in seeing if I could force myself to get through my Social Anxiety, which had been giving me panic attacks.

It seems to have worked, because I've been going every year since. I figure the massive crowds were easier to take because most everyone was generally friendly, including a few older con-goers that used to give us snacks and story-time.

I really can't remember the exact year... I know my first two years seem to have been the last two that they had the hard plastic cases for the badges, though. (Yanno, you signed it, they ran it through a thingie...x.x;

[Shadaki 0]

Ex-GF wanted me to go...

I've been going ever since

[Otakumadness 0]

For it started back in High School when I found out one of my fellow classmates was a fellow Otaku. When he had on an Otakon I think it was 1999, It was the one that had Evagelion on it. Well I asked him about it after I had butchered the name and he told me that it was this huge anime convention down in Maryland. After that I was made a life milestone and that was "To go to atleast one Otakon before I die!". For the next four or five years I failed at attending Otakon whether it be ride down, financial situations, or even a good hotel. But this year I put my balls to the wall and I kicked ass and got down to Otakon and this was full of first. First Otakon, first cosplay "Gluttony", first attendence to a AMV Contest overflow, first time ever being in Baltimore and the list goes on!!!

This was so amazing that me and my friend are already planning for next year!!!!

[syntaxerror37 0]

Let's see...

I have always been a fan of animation since I was a little kid and anime was just an extension of that love. I met up with a group of anime fans while attending Penn College in the fall of 1999 and their non-official club. I had a blast and I'm still friends with most of them, but anyway there was talk about going to Otakon in 2000, but since I didn't know how my summer was going to turn out I said no thanks. We had a get together later that summer after Otakon, and everyone who went was telling these great stories and that they were going next year. I decided that I had to go in 2001.

So in 2000 I came down after taking a half-day off from work. I got in around 5:00 and I had an awesome time. We were at the con practically every minute it was open. When I got home I told my girlfriend (now wife) that she had to go next year with us.