August 8-10, 2008

This year's Otakon was a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful apart from the rain during Thursday night badge pick-up, we got a lot of great stuff, and met a lot of interesting people. This year we brought along my Asian Ball-Jointed Doll, Shuichi, who is based on the character from Gravitation. A few people recognized the character and it was fun to get his photo with a Shuichi cosplayer. It was also a lot of fun to attend the doll meetup organized by members of the Den of Angels BJD community - everyone was so nice and I loved seeing all the different dolls and meeting the other collectors (especially those that I recognized from the forum).

There were some minor frustrations this year, such as when two fellow attendees broke out into a mock fight right beside a line we were sitting in. When one of them jumped backwards he planted his boot right on me and didn't even notice. Although that wasn't great, I was relieved that he hadn't landed on my doll who had been standing just inches from me. It was also annoying to spend an hour in line for Yuri Lowenthal's autograph only to have the line not move and then get dissolved early. It wasn't so much that we didn't get an autograph that annoyed us, but rather the lack of communication to the attendees. However, it was really fun to attend Otakon again, especially with having already been once and knowing what to expect. We had completely overlooked the Artist's Alley the year before, and we really enjoyed spending time in the Otaku Cafe. And as with the previous year, the panels, Dealer's Room, overall atmosphere, and cosplayers were really great.

Memorable Moments

• Getting drenched in the Thursday pre-reg line
• Seeing all the cosplayers and some amazing Power Ranger costumes
• Yuri Lowenthal panel
• Listening to karaoke in the Otaku Cafe
• BJD meetup
• Discovering Red XIII and Cait Sith figures in the Dealer's Room
• Getting Alex and Lavie Last Exile blind box trading figures
• Visiting the Artist's Alley for the first time
• Kyo Kara Maoh and Get Backers merchandise
• BJD wig making workshop
• Dinner in the Inner Harbor at Pizza Uno
• Buying the Japanese double editions of the Yellow manga
• Seeing our first episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in a video room
• Getting a good deal on a Vincent Valentine figure after checking all the booths in the Dealer's Room

Photos