------------------------------
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 02:31:14 -0400
From: smoon@clark.net (Sang J. Moon)
Reply-to: sf-lovers-misc@Rutgers.Edu
Subject: [CON] Otakon 96 Review
Otakon 96, My Perspective
by Sang J. Moon
This is far from a complete review of Otakon 96. This article contains
comments and opinions of events I personally saw.
Otakon 96 was a very good convention for me because it was mostly
organized well, the anime shown in the video rooms were mostly ones I
haven't seen before, the main events were very enjoyable, and the dealers
offered some great deals. For background information, Otakon 96 was held
on August 9th through 11th at the Hunt Valley Inn in Maryland. The Hunt
Valley Inn was barely the right size for the number of people that attended
the con; however, there was not enough room in the main theater for all who
wished to see the Masquerade. I can't give an accurate number of people
who attended the con, but I would approximate that there were about 500
people in the main theater during the Masquerade. The male-female ratio
was surprisingly good (only about 5 to 1 :-)), and there were more than a
couple of families with children attending. In terms of floor plan, Otakon
consisted of two dedicated anime video rooms, one live-action video room,
two panel rooms, the main theater, the dealers' room, the art room, the
video gaming room, workshop room, and open gaming room. None of these were
overly crowded except for the main theater during the popular events. The
main events I saw were the Masquerade, the dealers' room, the art show and
model competition, the music videos, and the first showing of the Tenchi
Muyo movie. There was also the con suite, live action role playing,
karaoke and filk, game show, panels, workshops, and guests, but I did not
have time to attend these. The guests of honor were Masaomi Kanzaki
(Xenon, etc.), Adam Warren (Dirty Pair comic book adaptation, etc.), Robert
DeJesus, Steve Bennett, C Sue Shambaugh, Jeff Thompson, Steve Pearl, Niel
Nadelman, John Staton, and Matt Lunsford. The following is my account of
Otakon.
In terms of organization, Otakon 96 was better than average compared to
the other cons I've attended. Parking wasn't too bad. The hotel was very
clean. Registration could have been improved by having more than one
regular and one preregistration line, but luckily I was in the short
preregistration line. Otakon should have advertised at least on their
World Wide Web homepage and flyers when registration starts on August 9th.
This was slightly annoying to me because I never received a preregistration
packet, I didn't get a response when I emailed them the question about when
registration and events start, and I assumed registration started at noon
and events started around 1pm (turned out that the video rooms started
showing at noon - missed Rose of Versailles :-(). The pocket program was
easy to read and contained all the information I wanted to know (events,
times, and map). The main program guide was appropriate too in that it
contained the backgrounds of the guests, events, and all the anime and
live-action being shown. All the events were relatively on schedule, but
the hotel imposed a curfew on all the rooms between 2am and 9am. On the
whole, Otakon was easy for me because of the good organization of the staff
and probably also due to the relatively lower attendance and crowding
compared to other conventions I've attended.
The anime video rooms were the places I spent most of my time, and I was
very happy with the selection available. Otakon was not geared for the new
anime fan - many of the anime that hardcore fans are already familiar with
were not on the video room lists: Ranman 1/2, Uresei Yatsura, Project A-ko,
Macross Movie, Oh My Goddess, Bubblegum Crisis & Crash, Gundam 0080 & 0083,
Gall Force, Record of Lodoss Wars, etc. Maybe future anime cons should
dedicate an extra video room for the new anime fans and show these
separately from the relatively newer or obscurer anime that the experienced
fans want to see. The anime I saw were Assemble Insert (sillier and cuter
than usual comedy about a shy girl with super powers), The Samurai
(BWAHAHAHA - not for the maturity-challenged - some poor father brought his
very young son to watch this; he was spending a lot of the time covering
his son's eyes with his hand), Weathering Continent (a solid but sad
dungeons and dragons themed story), Miracle Girls (soap opera stuff except
the two main characters can teleport), Neon Genesis Evangelion (this is a
must-see), 3x3 Eyes II (great continuation of the 3x3 Eyes story, but
episode 3 is not out yet and the episode 2 cliffhanger makes you want to
know what happens next NOW!), Whisper of the Heart (this touching story of
ordinary people further confirms my belief that Hayao Miyazaki is the king
of anime), Escaflowne (another must-see that combines mecha and dungeons &
dragons), Video Girl Ai (romantic comedy that combines the love
complications of Kimagure Orange Road with the aiding "angel" concept of Oh
My Goddess), Pon Poko (bittersweet and strongly environmentally-minded
story of raccoons being pushed out by human expansion), Ghost in the Shell
(thought provoking Blade Runneresque story about what it means to be human
when you have nothing physical left of your human body - I thought the
movie was a little too obsessive about showing naked perfect female
bodies), Mobile Suit Gundam 8th Mobile Suit Team (standard complicated
Gundam fare about a hotshot Federation pilot during the Zion-Federation
war), Tenchi Muyo Movie: Tenchi in Love (I was expecting too much from this
- - the dialogue was slightly below average in content and quality and there
wasn't much of the character development that I liked in the series -
however the animation was excellent and Tenchi's mom was cool), Fam & Iri
(comedic dungeons & dragons themed anime about a female fighter-magic-user
and a female elf magic-user in search of treasure), Oz (the warlike nature
of man has expanded in the future and a madman and his artificially
intelligent androids attempt to take over the world or destroy it), and the
Daicon III & IV trailers (done by the guys who formed Gainax - extremely
good stuff considering they were just fans back then). I also watched
Dragons Forever, a Jackie Chan movie about three martial arts friends
fighting a drug mob - I feel pain just watching them bash each other.
The main events I saw were the music videos, the Masquerade, and the art
show. The music videos were good as usual, and the winner was a video of
Ryoga from various Ranma 1/2 scenes done in good timing to the Proclaimers
song, "I Wanna Be". It was very appropriate especially when they sang "I
would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more..." while Ryoga wandered. I
thought a close contender was a video of various anime girls doing funny
things to the tune "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". The Masquerade was
excellent as usual too. The overall winner was a guy dressed exactly as
Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story (some people booed because Buzz Lightyear
wasn't anime, but the judges were the guests of honors and the quality of
the Buzz Lightyear was obviously the best). The best performance went to a
guy dressed in a skintight costume as some anime male singer and he
actually flexed his stuff and sang a rock song in Japanese (girls were
screaming around me - don't know why :-)) The bravest person to come on
stage went to the person fully dressed in Valkyrie battloid costume that
looked like it was made from plywood (he had trouble climbing the small
steps going up to the stage). The best craftsman award went to a guy
dressed as Tenchi in Jurai battle dress. Two that stuck in my mind were
the group of people dressed as all the Dragonball Z characters and did a
skit where Mr. Satan beats everybody else by shear coincidence and a brave
girl dressed as Kei (from dirty pair) who actually ripped open her costume
halter top to the crowd (she had a bra on - don't think nasty thoughts
:-)). The art work was good overall - more than a few of the female
figurines were very anatomically correct (defied gravity too) :-). I
suggest people definitely see these events in future cons, but get in line
at least 30 minutes before the events like the Masquerade start.
The dealers' room had an excellent selection. They had more pure
Japanese merchandise than I've seen in other cons I've been to. I
personally bought a T-shirt, a few graphics novels, and tapes (Nadia 1-8,
Phantom Quest Corp 1-2, Mermaid Forest, Please Save My Earth 1-2, and
You're Under Arrest 1-4) for an average price of $12 per tape. Animeigo
was the predominant big name there. Points of interest: Orion has started
rereleasing Nadia which it bought from Streamline - hopefully Orion will
expand their selection, Here is Greenwood 1-6 is coming out commercially
real soon, and Pandora's Box had the best deal of 50% off tape prices on
the last day. I hope future cons can at least match this dealers' room.
Other things of interest that occurred was the joint Maryland anime
clubs' party in the con suite on Saturday night and a theft. The party was
okay. There were chicken wings, cheeses, etc., but there wasn't anybody
with a strange personality who usually becomes the life of a party - I
guess anime fans in Maryland have a life and have better things to do than
get drunk :-). There was a major theft in the hotel; someone had various
things (about $1200 worth) including a VCR stolen from their room. Take
this as a lesson to keep your important stuff at home, on your body, or
secured in a con - don't leave it in your room.
Overall, Otakon 96 was worth the price, and I look forward to it next
year - hopefully with a few improvements.
Sang J. Moon
smoon@clark.net
------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment