An Announcement

Hey everyone, how's it going? Before I begin, I'd just like to say I'm very humbled with the positive response to the review. It means a lot to me. Personally, I'm just glad to be done with it! I was doing nothing but working on it for a week.

As you may have noticed, the increasing slew of posts of this summer slowed to a halt about a month ago, and it's all thanks to an ESY internship I've been chilling at. Lemme tell you, working with autistic kids for about six hours really brightens up your day, but it's exhausting work, and I haven't been able to really focus on the blog because of it. My final day is tomorrow, but right after I'll be heading down to Baltimore for....oh, you guessed it...OTAKON!

For those not in the know, Otakon is the biggest anime convention in the States, and it's basically just this gigantic three day party celebrating Japanese cartoons, manga (Japanese graphic novels/comic books), video games and various corners of geek culture. I was there last year, and I was completely bowled over by the enormous selection of things to do, all of which include costume meets, a gigantic dealer room (why people thought the selection was disappointing last year is beyond me), voice actor/anime director autographs, video game tournaments, announcements from various figures in the industry, previews for upcoming titles, and from my experience, an incredibly friendly crowd of congoers. One of my favorite moments is that I left a backpack full of purchased items in a theater, and came back to find a woman had held on to it for me in case I came back. Isn't that just fantastic? And we even crossed paths a few times after that (she was at my hotel!).

My goal for this year is to take in more of the sights. For example, I didn't get a chance to meet most of the voice actors last year, so I'll see if that's possible last year (I've read that the line are long for those.). I'll also be meeting up several longtime friends from cyberspace at the con, so I'll be on the lookout for you guys. Then there's the matter of cosplaying, a practice in which you dress up in costume of an anime/video game character. Last year, I was Ness from Earthbound, and lemme tell you, finding a shirt like his was surprisingly hard to find. Anyway, it was a really fun experience and I met some great guys (or rather, ladies) at the Earthbound cosplay meet. And who could forget the climatic battle between the Super Smash Bros./Gurren Lagann cosplayers? And what's this? Someone recorded it on video!



I'm the kid in the red hat next to the girl with the orange hair...and hey, we won!

I won't be Ness again this year, but this time I'll be in a much more elaborate costume in the form of Lloyd Irving from the spectacular Gamecube RPG Tales of Symphonia. As a huge fan of the game (one that you can expect me to go over), I'm incredibly excited to, like Ness, dress up as one of my favorite video games characters and meet fellow Symphonia fans. Interestingly enough, I only spotted pairs of Zelos and Sheena last year...let's hope the character count/variety from the game is higher this year!

So why am I telling you this? Because I'm going to be writing up my experiences, of course! I'm still conflicted as to whether or not write a massive one post review or a three-post one, but in any case, it's something I didn't get a chance to do last year and I'm pumped to do a write up. Oh, and of course, pictures will be included!

Otakon starts on July 30th, continues on July 31st, and concludes on August 1st. You can expect a regular writing schedule very soon after, and after I'm finished with this review, you'd better be on the lookout, because a certain pink puffball is aching for some screentime...