Geek Babble – Coming Down From the Otakon 2011 High

The summer months and a vacation from work wouldn’t be any fun without a trip to Baltimore for Otakon 2011. Last year’s Otakon was rather tiresome as our hotel room was nine blocks away from the convention. This year we booked our normal hotel and were a mere two blocks away from the Baltimore Convention Center. The shorter walking distance meant that I could easily run back and forth between Otakon and my hotel room with relative ease. Unlike last year I attended several industry panels, saw the Trigun: Badlands Rumble movie premier and I was generally more productive. The only downside was my lack of internet access in my hotel room. Needless to say my plans to post articles while at the convention were dashed. Instead my articles will appear much later than intended. Enjoy the standard convention picture post/oddities article for now.

Every year Otakon’s attendance goes up and this year was no exception with over 31,000 attendees for the weekend. Even picking up a conbadge the day before the convention starts can result in a long wait. Thursday’s pre-registration line didn’t open until 4 or 5pm but there was already a surprisingly long line at 3pm. In fact, this was the end of the line and the entire line wrapped around the Baltimore Convention Center. Despite the 90-degree heat anime fans were willing to wait for hours on end just to be the first to pick up their badges. The prize for getting one’s badge first? Absolutely nothing but bragging rights as there wasn’t a single Otakon event to attend on Thursday night. My friends and I decided to skip the line, grabbed lunch at Subway and headed back to the hotel room until about 7pm. When we returned the line was gone and it took five minutes to get our conbadges.

I was hoping to see a few Tiger & Bunny cosplayers and thankfully I wasn’t disappointed. In the dealer’s room I came across this man dressed as Kotetsu Kaburagi, better known as the superhero, Wild Tiger. Before the weekend was out I spotted a female Kotetsu and that was it for one of the most interesting anime series in recent years. The 25-episode show hasn’t finished its Japanese broadcast so there’s plenty of time for the show to increase in popularity among cosplayers. Tiger & Bunny is actually a surprise hit for Sunrise and appeals to a variety of viewers who enjoy the series’ unique premise. (Otaku USA has an in-depth article worth checking out if you’re curious about the show.) Tiger & Bunny was popular enough to have its own panel at Otakon which I unfortunately didn’t have time to attend. I previously wrote about Tiger & Bunny in May’s Geek Babble.

In the seven years I’ve been attending anime, video game and furry conventions I can safely say I’ve never come across Family Guy cosplay quite like this. If I did see someone cosplaying as a character from Seth MacFarlane’s hit series it was usually Brian. This year two fans decided to attend Otakon as Peter and the Giant Chicken. Hilarity ensued and an epic fight was nearly reenacted. If someone decided to cosplay a character from American Dad at either Otakon or Katsucon it would really make my weekend.

Scott Pilgrim: Vs. The World may have been a box office flop last year but it’s fairly popular among geeks. Anime conventions are no exception so I wasn’t surprised to find a few Scott Pilgrim cosplayers. Scott and Ramona are the most popular and recognizable characters from the franchise. Seeing other lesser known characters being cosplayed is still pretty rare and I crossed paths with a few of them. Unfortunately, my camera had been left in my hotel room during a trip to an industry panel. Thankfully I remembered my camera the following day and was able to capture a reenactment of this fight from the movie. The moral of the story? Always place your conbadge next to your camera when returning to your hotel room.

Catherine was released on July 26th, a mere three days before Otakon 2011 took place. The game was quite popular among gamers at the convention. Quite a few people were wearing the “Empty
Hearts” t-shirt and the boxers from the “Love Is Over” edition of the game. Someone at FUNimation Entertainment might have known how popular the game would be among otaku and decided to capitalize on that popularity. On Friday FUNimation offered a PS3 Catherine bundle at their booth. The bundle included the game (with the art book and CD), a 160GB PS3 and a new controller for about $330 dollars. By Saturday the PS3 bundle was gone (hopefully it was sold) and a 360 bundle took its place. At $330 dollars, Catherine, a 360S and an extra controller was quite a steal. If I didn’t already own a 360S I would have been tempted by the bundle.

As long as we’re on the subject of video games I might as well touch upon King of Fighters XIII. I was aware of Atlus allowing fans to preview the game early at Otakon. I actually feared the video game room would be full and it would be impossible to get to KoFXIII. Yet I couldn’t leave the convention without at least seeing the game with my own eyes. So I visited the gaming room a half hour before it closed on Sunday. The room was surprisingly empty and my friends and I were able to play the 360 version of KoFXIII with relative ease. The first thing I noticed about the game was how gorgeous the artwork was. I found myself ogling the lush 3D backgrounds more than anything else. As for the game it was quite fluid and all of the characters looked fantastic and they played well. I can’t imagine KoF fans being disappointed with this game. Geoff (who would have been better suited to preview the game), requested a somewhat in-depth write up so I’ll be saving the rest of my thoughts for a separate article. And in case you were wondering the posters weren’t being given away. If any were given out by Atlus it might have been on Friday and Saturday– the very days I didn’t visit the gaming room.

Otakon 2011 was a fairly productive convention for me. I’m pleased that I got to visit various panels and was active compared to last year’s sleep-fest. If you want to see more (mostly) high quality pictures from Otakon my gallery is located here. You won’t find any pictures of me cosplaying this year as I was on a very tight budget. With that said, look forward to articles about the Aniplex, FUNimation and Sunrise industry panels to be posted throughout the rest of the week, as well as my thoughts on King of Fighters XIII.