Otakon anyone?

Baakay · Post by **Baakay** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:08 am

Geez, this sounds like fun. Wish I could go... *sniff*

shadowlight · Post by **shadowlight** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:34 pm

Hi all,

Other than being down with a bit of a cold (which seem to have effected my ability to select the right posting option), things are going well with me. I should be at cel panel and hopefully some of the other stuff. Anyways, I should have a cel book or ten with me. Do you need any specific cel types or varieties for the panel? I pretty much have at least one to two examples of just about all the varieties out there. If anyone wants me to bring cels from a specific series, please PM me in the next day or two, otherwise I will just bring new stuff that is not in my gallery yet.

Catch you all later,
Marcus

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:34 pm

Do you want another one?

blueshinma · Post by **blueshinma** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:20 pm

Oh cloud we always want more books to look at.

Thanks Marcus, I think we are covered for the proper panel but if we can work out a swap time or if you want to bring some choice bits Friday night I know I'm always up for peeking at your bits

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:20 pm

Yeah that's right. we always want more books to look at, huh? What for?

yukineko · Post by **yukineko** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 6:35 pm

Well, another Otakon come and gone.

It was nice meeting everyone!

Even though I've been collecting for years now I still learned some things I didn't know at the panel, and I was very amused at the little cel commune that popped up outside the room afterwards. It was funny to see people pass by and peek in on what was going on out of curiosity. I saw a few surprised looks on a few faces of passerby!

Post by **sensei** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:29 pm

A memorable event on all fronts. Time to sing another chorus of "Deanna, Deanna is our hero..."

I enjoyed looking at so much eye candy and hearing all the stories about how they were nabbed and what they meant. And I once again learned how much yet there was to collect out there ... so many beautifully designed and colored cels and sketches. I especially loved looking at Reithejelly's and Weyrlady's wonderful selections. (More than once!)

It was great, also, to put faces with other collectors and talk shop over sketch sets to real interest. I think it would be great to have a Mid-Atlantic cel collectors' moot half a calendar off from Otakon (around Spring Break, in other words) and I'm pretty certain I can commandeer a space on my campus for the event. I'll keep the people who gave me names and the rest of Beta informed about plans.

Memorable moments: arriving early at the Anime Asylum booth and coming (as you might predict) shoulder-to-shoulder with Valpalla as we looked at the new and unposted TnN cels. (Happily there were two of the real prize, and we even managed to agree who got which one without launching Fire Arrows at each other and destroying neighboring dealers' booths.)

It was, for me, an epiphany to get dressed up as the Count of Monte Cristo (complete with blue face makeup) and walk into the Convention Center without raising a single ripple ... except that every so often I got glomped by members of the small but viciously fanatical Gankutsuou fangirl mafia. So far as anyone could tell, I was the only (or nearly the only) Count cosplayer out of 20,000 attendees. It was fun to be, for once, ahead of the otaku crowd. (My daughter cosplayed Black Chii, and when we were together we got dozens of long stares as people tried to figure out which series we both were from.)

Walking along with my Liz (who cosplayed Rin from Samurai Champloo on the first day) helping her do the hip-hop theme while one of her friends helped out by going "Shika-shika! Shika-shika!" in the background. (The second day he shifted to Shika-shika! Shika-shika! Chii!!" )

(One now wishes Chobits had had at least one hip-hop opening or ending theme.)

My OP Miruru went along with the rest and complained bitterly all the way: how hot she was in the car, how badly she was getting jostled in the bag with the other books, how it almost rained on her on the way over to the Holiday Inn (she kept my daughter trotting alongside, holding a white umbrella over the cel book ala Michael Jackson's bodyguard). Then when we got to the various events, she grumbled and pouted that people kept asking to "see the Li-kun" in the other cel book rather than giving her the attention she properly deserved.

So to cheer her up, I went back to the dealer's room (still in my Count cosplay) and looked through Curt's entire Bodadacious Box of Beaucoups Backgrounds and found her a real grass background. She's home and still looking irritated, but I know she's happier than she's been for a long time.

Update sometime this week (including a rescan of Miruru with her grassy bed) . My RS gallery has been delisted pending some reorganizations and improvements, but the link (from the sig) still works, so stop by periodically to see what's up.

Thanks again to Blueshinma and to all the others who were willing to pass their Precioussses around to profane hands such as mine.

vapalla · Post by **vapalla** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:26 am

It was great to meet so many fellow collectors at the rubberslug gathering and prove to Gandhi that we were not the only fanatics! I hope to go over the tape he shot at the rubberslug gathering soon and make stills of everyone there. Saw so many beautiful cels from collectors!

Sorry we didn't make it to the cel collecting panel, but we spent almost the entire day getting the signatures from the directer of Full Metal Alchemist, and the character designers for X TV and Cowboy Beebop/Wolf's Rain (in line with Yukineko). THEN with only a quick snack at Starbucks, we were watching the new Ah My Goddess (went with Sensei, then bumped into Shadowlight) and the end of Yakitate!!Japan (to a very enthusiastic audience!!!) and finally to the Geneon panel where they interviewed The Indigo and showed a trailer for the new HELLSING!!! If the actual anime is half as good as the trailer, anime horror fans have something to really look forward to next year!Well, after leaving the panel at 8:20 PM, we actually felt dizzy from fatigue and lack of food, so we were forced to pack it in and eat a proper meal, instead of going to the panel.

We didn't have any camera during that day, but we did have a cell phone camera, and we took a pic of Sensei in his "ho" wig with his face painted a beautiful shade of blue! We hope to download the pic today and add it to the scrapbook. Bought some cels, of course, including the TnN cel that Sensei mentions (we each have a nice key cel of the same scene.) Also adding a Devilman Lady, Miyu and a Bloodlust cel. 2 are in the gallery now, hope to have all of them posted by tonight. Came home exhausted. As we were finally stumbling to bed, we had a call from a relative to tell us that he saw our daughter posing in her costume on Baltimore channel 13 evening news in a story on Otakon and the convention center. What a weekend!!!

Thanks so much Blueshinma, for putting together the rubberslug gathering! We will try to make the cel panel next year.

iriairi · Post by **iriairi** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 4:25 pm

It was great getting to meet so many fellow collectors. It is always so much better to see the pretties on person than online.

Thanks blueshinma for bearing with everything for the Friday night gathering and the Saturday panel. I think that they both went really well.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 4:25 pm

What's the best one?

blueshinma · Post by **blueshinma** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 5:59 pm

So, I'm finally back from Otakon and got the preliminary update done. I had an awesome time this weekend and got to meet some incredibly cool new people and got to hang out with old friends. I find it amazing that I can see some people once every six months or so and feel so comfortable so quickly. If anyone wants to see a few of my pictures I got them uploaded at http://www.flickr.com/photos/thistledown/sets/ And if you see yourself and I don't have your name drop me a note and I'll get it posted. And thanks again to everyone who came and made it so much fun!!!! PS I had a great cel haul so stop by the gallery and peek. This was one of the best cons ever!

ReAnimator · Post by **ReAnimator** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:32 pm

Sweet pictures blueshinma, looks like everyone had a blast.

Gotta love those shots of bursting Itoya folders!!!

Post by **sensei** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 7:34 am

Thank you so much for posting these: I'll alert Liz so she can have a look. I like how you caught the dynamics of the event, with everyone sitting nervously on their books at first, then the stacks getting messier and messier as everyone gets a little drunk and high on huffing trace line fumes inside cel bags.

I love #227, with the evil grin I had for some reason and the "glowing eyes" effect you got on Reithejelly's expression.

Oh, and don't anybody miss the "flying feathers" Escaflowne cel Blueshinma nabbed. After seeing people's books, this series is looking more and more attractive: you don't need to know the plot to see that some studios did great jobs on their cels. And this one is a stunner: with a great background that shows it off perfectly even if it's not the matching one.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 7:34 am

You love #227 with the evil grin I had for some reason and the glowing eyes effect you got on Reithejelly's expression. What do you like about #227 with the evil grin I had for some reason and the glowing eyes effect you got on Reithejelly's expression so much?

iriairi · Post by **iriairi** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:55 am

Great photos. Thanks for posting them. I will hopefully get the one of mine that are presentable after I clean them up. Finalsignal (Chris) took some at the panel, too.

Finally, here is the link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iriairi/sets/

Anime-Beta TNG

Otakon anyone?

Belated response - try number two

Chii!