Here’s the deal.

All vitals are on their website here.

There are a lot of details about Kakihara’s autograph session, the best thing to do is read Loy’s post. The key takeaway is that for both of his sessions, there will be no more than 1 hour or 100 autographs, although in times past the autograph staffers have powers to make a plea and if the guest’s management is nice enough, the autographing will extend to accommodate as reasonably possible. The booth Kakki session is with Bandai and require a purchased item for a ticket, which probably limits you to just Gundam related items for autograph. (You can find more details about that if you read the same thread.)

For everyone else, expect the usual treatment. To spell it out– be ready 90 to 75 minutes before the con autograph session time. Session will last for an hour. Same location as last year. Most likely not ticketed. Contact autograph staffer at location for specifics. For booth deals, consult specific booths for their location and time, but most likely the English-language dudes as well as Aipon, Butch, and Kakki (as mentioned before).

Bandai Visual has outed some guests and autograph session details besides what Loy has posted publicly. That includes a Sasaki Shin autograph session at their booth Friday at 6pm,with Sinterniklaas. Sinterniklaas also will have a session Sunday at 11. I’m going to assume they are signing official goods only at their booth, and will have freebies to provide if you don’t have something.

I haven’t read anything from NISA about Otakon specifically, in terms of what they have in store for the con. I guess that’ll be on their agenda hopefully before Wednesday’s out. On that note, I looked for NISA on the dealer room listing, and I didn’t see it. This probably means they won’t have a real booth, and may sell through another retailer at the con. It may also mean they will just do their ninja stuff for the two panels they have Saturday and be done with it. I don’t know, they haven’t said anything to any degree and it doesn’t look like they need to. Maybe they still will.

Aniplex is fronting the Madoka guests, and their panel time and detail can be found on their calendar/website. To summarize, there is one booth session for Nonaka at 3:30 Saturday and another booth session for Urobuchi at 5 on Saturday. Both require a ticket, which comes with purchase. And, yeah, that means you have to buy Madoka BD/DVD for Aipon and Madoka BD/DVD or Fate/Zero BD for Butch. Hah. I’m going to say that at the con, they might have more things to sell that may come with tickets, or they may be giving tickets to people who do certain things at their panels and booth shows (like they usually do). But a copy of Madoka on DVD is not ridiculously expensive.

Unfortunately, that second Aipon session lands right smack in the middle of the Maruyama panel I wanted to go to, and may cut into the Hirano panel. Bah, I might go anyway if by that time I am “satisfied.”

Funimation isn’t doing anything special that isn’t handled by the con. They are doing the usual con-special bonus item stuff, including leftover Panty Stocking stuff, but new with One Piece bonus items and something for Steins;Gate? Nothing looking very interesting. No more Fractale bonus items, I see. Which means losing that $60 plastic bag at AX kinda sucks… [Totally side note, while looking for some Lost & Found function at AX, I came across this, the guy who bought the Takeuchi sketch from Otakon 2011 (at a low price to boot). He also had the “high score” at this year’s AX auction.]

The Matsuri would be a good way to kill time. It’s located in the First Mariner Arena parking deck. I don’t know how that works, but given the ~100 degree weather you might be experiencing on Thursday, it would be more preferable than out in the open. Kind of interested in Hsu-nami but blargh.

There’s some details on the charity auction already, but hopefully it will pile on with the donations from the attending industry and guests. Will the East Cost wota gang continue their quest for full concert wardrobes? Aya Hirano probably won’t have the time to donate her sweat-drenched gear given the timing, so too bad! If a certain somebody’s mannequin had a head, he could buy, say, Aipon’s hat?

I wonder if I will have time to make it worth the while of carrying around a copy of Tanto Cuore. Speaking of maids, maybe the Maid Cafe is worth a visit, to just go and chill. It could be a more baller location, even with the $10 cover charge. Well, I’ll think about it. The karaoke room/Otacafe is always a good fallback.

Lastly, there’s going to be an Otakon…video game. I don’t even.

Personally, my schedule is not set. I have at least one commitment and probably two that I have to go to that isn’t set in stone. Most likely I will try to catch a game Thursday, get some nice dinner on Friday, hang out at the late-night panels Friday and Saturday, and hit Aya Hirano’s show. For loot, I really want at least get Butch to sign my AX loot, and get my Manabi Straight DVD set up to 3/5. I did buy the blu-ray and that shipped last night. The odds of me getting it by tomorrow is pretty slim but I should be fine without it. I would be elated to just set eyes on Nanrietta, to be honest. Autograph is a bonus.

Hope to see you there! James Shields is pitching Thursday, which means that I would have seen every one of their quality starter in the past few years, which is amazing–just how many games did I go see in the past few years? Not very many at all. But what I do not want is an extra-innings affair when it’s going to be like 99F outside. Speaking of hot and humid weather, that’s something Ichiro now has to live with, huh?

[Updated: NISA newsletter]

There will be a “special anime announcement” at NISA’s anime panel. I guess it can’t hurt to check it out. Saturday 9am! Plus the usual giveaways, I’m going to assume.

Here we go again.

As usual the otakon forums is a wonderful resource, and even if I am by proximity not that far from it, it’s still a good 3-hour drive. That’s like almost as far as Shimoda to Tokyo! [/Natsukise]

Oh, first of all, they have now officially released the schedule. They are saying they will use Guidebook, but on the app it only lists Otakon 2011 and it’s showing the old schedule on there as of this writing (11am Eastern).

And as usual, all of this is subject to change. And I mean all of it.

Guests and pawprints and Hancocks

• Aya Hirano doesn’t seem to have a standalone autograph session. When she was first announced way back (good job on Otakon for outing this one early) the word was already that she will autograph after her concert (assuming with the usual sales of goods–and all its potential stipulations) and maybe a separate autograph session. I think that is a safe bet, given how typically this has happened in times past. For some reason I have a hard time finding the concrete start time for her concert, but it is on Sunday afternoon. The only remaining question is if she will sign just anything, or it has to be something you bought with her new label.
• Ai Nonaka and Gen Urobuchi are visiting Otakon on behalf of Aniplex and their Madoka effort. Great! Because that probably means they will have a booth autograph session. I’m going to guess that will also include the dub actress for Kyoko, Lauren Landa. But checking for booth times? You know the drill.
• Since the cat is basically out of the bag, Otakon debuts its first Korean act, VIXX. That’s the “guess the guest” answer (or so we think) for their ongoing contest. It’s kind of a game changer, yeah? They have not announced the other guest for their Friday night concert, but she has an autograph session on Sunday at the same time as Maruyama and Nonaka. And yeah, that might be another opportunity right at/after the concert!
• Otakon is probably going to announce more guests this week. There might even be some music acts for their Thursday matsuri thing, which hopefully will also involve a better list of food vendors. Last year it was kind of pathetic.
• Lastly, get a refresher on the autograph policy. Note that depending on how they run it, there could be tickets and non-tickets. I read somewhere it may be a system where they will give tickets to people who are not in the first line, if the autograph line runs too long. The usual 1-hour lineup time stands as previous Otakons, so there’s no real major reward for getting there more than 2 hours before start time. But who knows how these things will go?

Panels

Well, this is more like advertisement than something to check out, but if you find yourself looking to do something, and the time fits, check out these guys.

• Dave and SDS are doing their mahjong show again. I hope they showcase at least a little of that advance MJ play we see in Saki Achiga-hen. I might even be there!
• Super Rats is up for being harassed by you at the figure panel he cohosts with Andy and jdcseiken. The timing is unfortunate but I hope they get a nice crowd going. I mean, I’m pretty sure there will be some giveaways. Maybe.
• There is a Satelight panel. I have no idea what it is but people are suspecting it is an industry panel given the description was written.
• Mangagamer’s panel coincides with my friend’s panel on ero for the ladies. Otakon is neat in that they run “serous” content even at 1AM. Mangagamer’s panel, at Otakon, tend to be a snore though. It’s just a question if they can announce anything there or not. Certainly something to do after an Oriole’s game.
• NISA has their anime and game panels back-to-back. Looking forward for something cool there. If I recall correctly last year they were pretty much missing at Otakon. Hopefully they can engage the East side a little more? I probably should look up what their dealer room presence is.
• Funimation is throwing a Geneon retrospective panel on Sunday. That is kind of funny.

Food and others

• The skybridge is in the process of being removed. I think Baltimore realized those bridges are kind of dinky and no longer trendy like how they were in the 70s. Also they want to funnel more traffic to the ground level…which is to say it’s kind of lame. This actually just means the bridge to that cool Korean food-by-the-pound place, coming from the ex-Windham/now-Sheraton is gone, so you will have to walk on the ground level for part of it. I believe the skybridge connecting the Hyatt and Sheraton, as well as the whole plaza area towards the inner harbor are still intact, but the future looks grim for those things.
• The inner harbor pavilions have some updates. I believe one of them were renovated earlier this year? Anyways, more food options.
• The food truck scene in B-more has improved since last year. With the O’s in town for a homestand all weekend (Thursday is a day game versus the Rays, and then a weekend series against the A’s–check out Calaggie’s plans for that, LOL) you can be sure there will be some of that if you walk just towards the park around the Hilton. Hm, wonder if any Japanese guests would be into that.
• The most exciting food news this year is how Otakon runs right in the middle of the Baltimore restaurant week. In typical restaurant week fashion, participating restaurants will offer prix fixe meals at a fixed, uniform price; 15 something for lunch and 20 or 30 something for dinner. Reservation is typically highly recommended. Best thing to do is scope out the menu and offerings on the official site, and call ahead no later than probably Monday.
• It’s going to be pretty hot this year, but I don’t think an extra 5 degrees make all that much of a difference to me. I’ve already optimized my Otakons to avoid the heat. All the more to thank the Ice Cold Water For Only One Dollar dude.
• The Matsuri on Thursday is promising real improvements from last year with better food options. It’s something to do instead of waiting in line, for sure. They just haven’t announced all the details yet. So far I hear some more food options and more bands, rather than just one band last year. There will be a Taiko drums thing first up, then a workshop, then a DJ, then band #1 (a 3-piece VK outfit), then DJ again, then band #2 (A Chinese traditional/rock band). They’re still signing those bands I guess but a “guess the artist” thing is running in the forums, for any Matsuri attendees who can go and claim their prize.

A lot of this stuff is in flux, so most like I will just do a follow-up post for Otakon prep rather than update this one.

Welp, I’m home. And it’s like, TL;DR let’s-just-hit-mark-all-as-read.

Continue reading

More LiSA, more everyone. Cosplay, learning to use my camera–two people I know got themselves NEX-5Ns so I guess that’s kind of the sweet spot.

Tatsuo Sato is great, it’s the kind of thing I wish I could go do the press circus for, but this year AX’s setup for that is less than optimal, let’s just say. Instead I ended up going to his fan panel and having breakfast, taking pictures of cosplay… Probably I only have myself to blame?

At any rate, Sato is a good sport and despite the panel’s overt intention to make you ask questions about Mouretsu Pirates, the usual complains still surfaces about Nadesico and what not. Nobody talked about Stellvia for some reason. I did what I could and Sato fessed up about how they modeled the scene in episode 25 after the recording studio Komatsu  and Hanazawa did their session in. Yeah, why not right? But yes, episode 21 and onward, anime original stuff.

Otherwise I wasted most of the day buying loot and lining up for autograph. Tamiyasu Tomoe is great, I hope she gets some well-deserved fame for her Little Buster gig coming up this fall. FictionJunction’s show on Day 2 is gonna be awesome. Kind of sucked that I missed out on Animetal USA though.

AX this year has this 21-and-over lounge thing. It’s great because after the dealer’s room closes you have somewhere to go. It’s kinda bad because everyone goes there, turning it into this crowded place with loud music. At least the live music it provides (and some of the non-live stuff) is pretty okay. What isn’t pretty okay is the expensive drinks. $7 for domestic beers is highway robbery if the term can ever be used on anything. It’s a cool idea I suppose, just needs to be executed better.

No blogger dinner, but it’s like a tweet-up all over this time with protein overdose.

Moral of the story: spend over $200 at the NISA booth with your Anohana purchase and get a towel? Buy a LiSA CD to option for a photo session with the cute Japanese girl? I haven’t even seen Aimi and Izumi Kitta yet what is up with this? Bushiroad’s Dr. K is easily confused with Dr. O (I learned more about Cardfight Vangard the game more than I ever wanted to)? “Ufotable”? The world may never know.

Best cosplay (that I got a picture of) of the day:

PS. I saw a pretty good Nyaruko, but couldn’t get it.

Blogger party was pretty smashing but old guys like us retire earlier. For our credit we are still on East Coast time and had to wake up quite a bit earlier than the younger, fresher local dudes and dudettes.

Longest press reg line ever.

I took over 900 pics at the various press functions. Lisa’s little dance routine is, well, something to behold. It’s nice to see all of FictionJunction–Keiko, Yuriko, Karoi, Wakana, and the band. Or in Animetal’s case, the band. The madhouse guys are serious but it’s nice to see two senior director types: Sato and Asaka. Aoki looks positively a greenhorn compared.

Enjoy!