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Experience By Panel…
Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’s’ Effect on Anime & Manga
This panel went decently. Put a lot of work into it, I liked the final design, I liked the layout, I did all the research…just didn’t take enough notes ~.~ Legit, the day of I realized I forgot a lot of the minor details with a majority of the individual shows mentioned. I could only give the generic “it has XYZ thing, like in A & W…” & I just had to pimp my way through it. Of course, the lessons to be learned are more notes (can never have too many notes) & to learn how to use Presenter’s View. I could use it on the computer I use at work. Then again, my computer set up at work has a dual monitor set-up, so I could never get it to work on my personal laptop.
The other minor hiccup came when I mentioned that I didn’t agree with Lewis Carroll being hailed as such a “brilliant” writer because essentially anyone could write a gobbledity-gook language yet he gets all this praise for it. Of course, poems like the Jabberwocky come to mind, but I didn’t mean that as far as all his works are concerned, & I made sure to emphasize that to the audience. Little did I know that would cause a minor thorn in some audience members’ sides b/c I apparently offended some of them…somehow (like I insulted their family meber or best friend) >.> However, people politely raised their hand, stated their opinion, let me explain myself, etc. vs. losing their s**t & just leaving in a hurry. So, there’s that, which is honestly pretty important (it’s one thing to have an academic debate, it’s another to deal with someone having a temper tantrum). Then you had people mentioning things/asking questions that didn’t relate to the original issue at all (“What do you feel about *insert famous author here who has nothing to do with Lewis Carroll*?”). Some people left because of this, my mentioning my opinion, but a majority of the audience stayed (& not that many left in the first place), so no serious damage done, just need to remember to phrase that better & have a disclaimer stating this is my opinion & that no one has to agree with it. More importantly, it had absolutely nothing to do with the panel topic at-large & was supposed to be a brief tangent. What slipped my mind to say at the time (for maximum awkwardness) was mention the observable fact that all one had to do to be considered a “genius” by today’s standards is be White, male, well-to-do, have some decent connections, & did something, anything. That ‘anything’ doesn’t even have to necessarily be considered noteworthy or important, just something to say they did anything. That would have shut a lot of those preppy know-everything tweenagers up ~.~
All in all, lessons were learned, it was relatively well attended for not being on the pocket schedule & for being one of the first panels in the day (early in the morning) & I enjoyed making it. It’s one of my favorite layouts for a panel that requires listing a bunch of series/games/etc. in relation to a broader topic. Granted, I probably won’t be presenting this for a while because it left a sour taste in my mouth. The audience as a whole were, if nothing else, pretty tolerant of that minor hiccup & stayed with me to the end…whether they thought it was crap or not is another story ~.~
The Sengoku Era, Anime, & You
This panel went really well & was my favorite of the 2 for this con. However, the major difference between this one & A & W is that I actually remembered to do all the preliminary switching & adjusting of the disclaimers to match the con in the A & W panel, I forgot to do a lot of the major tweaks for this con (like change the freaking title -_-). It doesn’t ruin the panel but it’s annoying when you thought you made all the necessary changes, only to realize that you didn’t when it’s far too late. However, despite this minor trepidation the overall panel went well.
Although it wasn’t as well attended as my first one, I had way more fun with the audience; granted, they both were screwed over by server issues & not listed on the pocket guide & almost not the Guidebook. Thanks to a certain bro I was able to catch that issue.
General Experience
Well, how could I possibly say anything negative about a con that gave me another chance to see my all-time favorite J-Rock band, T.M. Revolution??? Overall, I had a great experience. It was my most complex cosplay line-up to date (see here for details/pics & here[V. Baldren], here[Ieyasu], & here[Shin N.] for the individual cosplay progresses), saw my first concert, was finally able to present panels at Otakon, & found some cool swag in the Dealer’s Room.
Of course, with the good comes the bad…
This whole “family friendly” crap that some cons, like Otakon, do is absolutely ridiculous. So, are persons 18+ not a part of the family? In what b.s. logic does this make any sense?? How are programs specifically labeled as 18+ where a special wristband is required is f’ing up your s**t??? This is mind-boggling to me b/c it’s absolutely ludicrous but cons think this is perfectly fine. How do you think the little snot-nosed bastards can afford to go in the first place?! Well, those 18+ individuals, that’s who ~.~ Otakon, & any other con that does this, please stahp. It makes no sense, it’s a generally s****y excuse to avoid having more 18+ panels, & you’re f’ing over the other paying attendants to your convention. Do these people not count to you? If nothing else, don’t put known popular 18+ events in rooms smaller than what they had the previous year & feign ignorance when you get complaints that the room wasn’t big enough. Well, no, sh*t Sherlock, are you really surprised, you put it in a smaller room X/
Besides this frustration, there’s the issue where the con’s clearly starting to out-grow its premises. However, the solution for this is to move to the D.C. convention center in 2017. It has better handicap accessible facilities & is bigger in general…but think about the Hell on earth it’s going to cause on the Metro…I shudder to think what that’s going to be like (oh, kami-sama, I can see the Homestucks now DX).
I also seemed to have a hard time finding interesting panels this year. I know this is always a subjective complaint that the con can’t necessarily do anything about, but I feel like every other con I go to has way more interesting programming than Otakon. I don’t know, I couldn’t possibly come up with a “solution” to this “problem” so I’m gonna say it’s relatively minor & I can deal.
All in all, I had a relatively pleasant experience. I’ve had better years but I also had my first real run-in with finishing an ornate cosplay at the con, which kinda made wearing it a pain & put a general damper on things but I have a great base to work with for future cosplays. Anyway, still looking forward to next year, it’s just that nowadays, Otakon isn’t at the top of my list when it comes to favorite cons I’ve attended.
One more thing, due to one particular person’s…complaints in the feedback session (quick tangent, I always recommend people go to the feedback sessions of cons; best time to make your voice heard & to hear other complaints), never go to a con knowing full well you can’t afford it! Then just sit this one out b/c nobody’s going to feel sorry for you if you b*tch & moan the whole weekend about how you wish you had the $$$, such-n-such is too expensive, & any other kinda b.s. complaining that could have been easily avoided if you just cut your losses & avoided the convention altogether. It’s called being responsible & practical; you can’t go to every event & you sure as hell can’t go if you don’t got the $$$ ~.~ Stop making excuses & sit this one out X/
F*ck Everybody…The Life of a (Slight) Misanthropist 