Ten Years Later...
Well… it has been exactly 10 years since I last posted an entry.
I accidentally stumbled on that fact today, as I wanted to search my old LJ posts for a specific piece of info that I had forgotten which I hoped I wrote down on one of my old posts (it wasn’t there). But since it has been EXACTLY 10 years, I just had to post something!
I know I was already behind on my convention reports back then, well I guess I’m never catching up!
So what should I post about? I initially thought that I would provide an update on what happened in the last 10 years. But then I saw this from my second to last post in 2010:
“ Since I haven't blogged about Otakon '08 yet, but it was there when I failed to get his autograph even though I had ended up waiting 3+ hours! There's much more to that but I'll just provide details whenever I get around to doing a writeup for that con (at this rate... 2017). “
Well, it seems I failed to do a writeup on Otakon '08! (even though back then I was just joking that it would take me until 2017 to write the con report)
Therefore I decided to use this short return to LJ to finally write about Otakon 2008.
I… forgot what I did at Otakon 2008.
Well... I can piece together some stuff based on pics I still have…
My brother attended this con with me. Seems that we stayed overnight at a hotel on Thursday, since the earliest pics I have were already inside the convention center at opening.
We attended a panel with Sailor Moon Character designer (first 2 seasons) Kazuko Tadano and Animation Director Hiromi Matsushita.
Afterwards we went to the Kappei Yamaguchi panel. He had 2 panels that weekend, Friday and Saturday. I don’t recall much from this panel, it was more of a standard Q&A. After the panel I rushed immediately to the autograph line, however it was already full since the people there skipped the panel and just lined up for his autograph. More on this later.
Since the autograph fell through, we ended up going ahead and lining up for the JAM Project concert. I initially wasn’t planning to line up early since we didn’t care which seat we got, and from previous experience, the arena was huge and for the L’Arc en Ciel concert a few years prior, I was still able to get a seat all the way in the back.
Fortunately, we got good seats where the concert was really visible. I think I annoyed my brother by (badly) singing along as JAM Project performed songs from Dragon Ball, One Piece, Utena, etc.
The following day was pretty light for me. My goal was to get Kappei Yamaguchi’s autograph so I decided to skip his panel and start waiting until the line was allowed to form. Prior to that I went to the Dealers Room, and ended up stumbling upon an autograph ticket giveaway for JAM Project. It was slightly going to overlap with Kappei Yamaguchi’s session, but I figured I would be fine since I woul likely be one of the first people in line.
Unfortunately the autograph session was a mess. The system had it so no one can line up until 30 minutes before the session. I was fine with that since the panel would still be going on during that time. So I just waited and loitered around the line area 2 hours ahead, waiting for the go ahead to start lining up. However 30 minutes before the signing came up, and the staff still didn’t have any place for the people waiting to line up. At that point it was still slightly fine since there weren’t that many people yet. But then the panel ended and they still had no place for the folks who were waiting there. It was chaos. People from the panel arrived at the autograph area and just crammed and did not listen to the staff. They forced themselves into a line and the staff ended up giving up and decided that was fine, so the ones who were originally waiting for a proper line to be setup ended up at the back of the line.
Sensing the worse, I called my brother (who went to the panel) and gave him my JAM Project autograph ticket since I wasn't going to make it, and I was still hoping to get Kappei's autograph and was hoping the line would not get cut off. My brother then told me that Kappei's Saturday panel was fun as he did more voices and also sang the Sogeking song. Sadly, the line got cut and I never got Kappei's autograph that year. (fortunately I got it the following year at Animazement). However, my brother got JAM Project's autograph and even shook their hands!
Failing to get Kappei's autograph, we went ahead to line up for the Bandai panel. Surprisingly the line was long, but I figured that the room would be big and there’s usually space left for people to sit at the back. However I was mistaken and this ended up being a smaller room! We were lucky to get in, but I was still a bit confused as sometimes industry panels were not as busy. Then I immediately figured out why there was such a long line, as Bandai started handing out swag to all in attendance. Also, at the end of the panel, they had JAM Project as a special guest!
I don't recall much from Sunday, but I did end up getting Kazuko Tadano and Hiromi Matsushita's autograph.
So that is what happened at Otakon 2008, to the best of my recollection. Sorry all my pics are not posted as usual, my old webhost had closed so the pics related to my old LJ post are not visible anymore.
Well, that ended up a longer return post than I expected. I don’t really know if/when I will post again... but I hope everyone still reading this is doing fine!
I accidentally stumbled on that fact today, as I wanted to search my old LJ posts for a specific piece of info that I had forgotten which I hoped I wrote down on one of my old posts (it wasn’t there). But since it has been EXACTLY 10 years, I just had to post something!
I know I was already behind on my convention reports back then, well I guess I’m never catching up!
So what should I post about? I initially thought that I would provide an update on what happened in the last 10 years. But then I saw this from my second to last post in 2010:
“ Since I haven't blogged about Otakon '08 yet, but it was there when I failed to get his autograph even though I had ended up waiting 3+ hours! There's much more to that but I'll just provide details whenever I get around to doing a writeup for that con (at this rate... 2017). “
Well, it seems I failed to do a writeup on Otakon '08! (even though back then I was just joking that it would take me until 2017 to write the con report)
Therefore I decided to use this short return to LJ to finally write about Otakon 2008.
I… forgot what I did at Otakon 2008.
Well... I can piece together some stuff based on pics I still have…
My brother attended this con with me. Seems that we stayed overnight at a hotel on Thursday, since the earliest pics I have were already inside the convention center at opening.
We attended a panel with Sailor Moon Character designer (first 2 seasons) Kazuko Tadano and Animation Director Hiromi Matsushita.
Afterwards we went to the Kappei Yamaguchi panel. He had 2 panels that weekend, Friday and Saturday. I don’t recall much from this panel, it was more of a standard Q&A. After the panel I rushed immediately to the autograph line, however it was already full since the people there skipped the panel and just lined up for his autograph. More on this later.
Since the autograph fell through, we ended up going ahead and lining up for the JAM Project concert. I initially wasn’t planning to line up early since we didn’t care which seat we got, and from previous experience, the arena was huge and for the L’Arc en Ciel concert a few years prior, I was still able to get a seat all the way in the back.
Fortunately, we got good seats where the concert was really visible. I think I annoyed my brother by (badly) singing along as JAM Project performed songs from Dragon Ball, One Piece, Utena, etc.
The following day was pretty light for me. My goal was to get Kappei Yamaguchi’s autograph so I decided to skip his panel and start waiting until the line was allowed to form. Prior to that I went to the Dealers Room, and ended up stumbling upon an autograph ticket giveaway for JAM Project. It was slightly going to overlap with Kappei Yamaguchi’s session, but I figured I would be fine since I woul likely be one of the first people in line.
Unfortunately the autograph session was a mess. The system had it so no one can line up until 30 minutes before the session. I was fine with that since the panel would still be going on during that time. So I just waited and loitered around the line area 2 hours ahead, waiting for the go ahead to start lining up. However 30 minutes before the signing came up, and the staff still didn’t have any place for the people waiting to line up. At that point it was still slightly fine since there weren’t that many people yet. But then the panel ended and they still had no place for the folks who were waiting there. It was chaos. People from the panel arrived at the autograph area and just crammed and did not listen to the staff. They forced themselves into a line and the staff ended up giving up and decided that was fine, so the ones who were originally waiting for a proper line to be setup ended up at the back of the line.
Sensing the worse, I called my brother (who went to the panel) and gave him my JAM Project autograph ticket since I wasn't going to make it, and I was still hoping to get Kappei's autograph and was hoping the line would not get cut off. My brother then told me that Kappei's Saturday panel was fun as he did more voices and also sang the Sogeking song. Sadly, the line got cut and I never got Kappei's autograph that year. (fortunately I got it the following year at Animazement). However, my brother got JAM Project's autograph and even shook their hands!
Failing to get Kappei's autograph, we went ahead to line up for the Bandai panel. Surprisingly the line was long, but I figured that the room would be big and there’s usually space left for people to sit at the back. However I was mistaken and this ended up being a smaller room! We were lucky to get in, but I was still a bit confused as sometimes industry panels were not as busy. Then I immediately figured out why there was such a long line, as Bandai started handing out swag to all in attendance. Also, at the end of the panel, they had JAM Project as a special guest!
I don't recall much from Sunday, but I did end up getting Kazuko Tadano and Hiromi Matsushita's autograph.
So that is what happened at Otakon 2008, to the best of my recollection. Sorry all my pics are not posted as usual, my old webhost had closed so the pics related to my old LJ post are not visible anymore.
Well, that ended up a longer return post than I expected. I don’t really know if/when I will post again... but I hope everyone still reading this is doing fine!