Otakon 2013 Diary: One fan’s view

Saturday at Otakon was much of the same, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

SOUL EATER Medusa Cosplay Wig

I wore the same costumes I wore on Friday — I tend to do costume changes at conventions once one costume becomes too uncomfortable to wear. I started out with Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena. It’s a show from the late 1990′s about a girl who wants to become a prince after being so impressed by one during her childhood. The show has a lot of underlying themes to it, like dealing with adolescence and the loss of innocence. Visually it’s stunning, and Utena is a fantastic protagonist, which is why I chose her as a character to emulate. The problem is, she’s got long pink hair, and I do not, which necessitates a wig.

Naruto Sasori Cosplay Wig

Wigs are easy to get but can be difficult to maintain. I’ve got shoulder-length hair, and I do not envy anyone who decides to go longer. Obviously, the fact that it’s plastic fibers has an effect on that; it tangles easily, it’s a pain to straighten out, and it’s no fun to wash. But I deal with it. I changed midday simply because the wig became so hot, and because wearing a black jacket in Baltimore in August isn’t a fantastic idea.

Green 60cm Starry☆Sky-Hoshizuki Kotarō Nylon Cosplay Wig

I spent a lot of time on Saturday simply bumming around the convention, meeting new people and checking out panels. Nothing too memorable panel-wise, but those can be pretty hit-or-miss. Even if a topic seems interesting, if the people running it aren’t good at public speaking, the whole thing can become an embarrassing disaster pretty quickly. I’ve been on panels in the past, discussing games or shows that I like in detail, but usually with other people, which takes the pressure off (and makes the whole process more fun).

I went back to that artist’s alley booth and picked up one of those Nintendo cartridge clocks. I had decided on the original “Legend of Zelda,” but by the time I went back, those had sold out. I ended up settling for “Zelda II: The Adventure of Link,” which is not exactly fondly remembered by fans of the series. I enjoyed it, though, if for no other reason than it introduced a lot of great musical themes that have persisted in the games since then. The ladies running the booth said that they are actual, genuine Nintendo cartridges that have been donated to them because they no longer worked as games. They also take busted controllers and turn them into wallets. It’s a pretty cute way to recycle such iconic video gaming items.

I also picked up a blind box trading figure from a series of games I’m a fan of called Touhou Project. The issue with these kind of figures is that they are indeed blind boxes — you don’t know what you’re going to get. Most sets have photos of what’s in the set, somewhere between six to 12 different figures, and when you pick a box it could be any one of them. I had already ranked which figures I wanted from most to least in my head, and went ahead and purchased a box. Of course, since this is my luck we’re talking about, I got the one I really didn’t want at all. Thankfully, the people I’m rooming with are also into Touhou Project, and one was willing to purchase it from me for what I had originally paid for it. No loss there, thankfully.

Speaking of the people I’m rooming with… we had arranged an annual convention dinner with a lot of our friends. The people at Edo Sushi at Harborplace have been very accommodating in the past, and were willing to rent a room to us this year. When you accidentally bring close to 50 people to a restaurant — together — unannounced, they’ll do that. (Apparently, that’s what happened last year — I missed last year’s convention due to work conflicts.)

The rest of the evening was spent packing, since check-out on Sunday is going to be a predictable mess, given that a vast majority of the people staying here are going to be checking out at the same time.

Here’s hoping things go well.
SOURCE:http://darkroom.baltimoresun.com