July 29 - July 31, 2011

As longtime fans of Johnny Yong Bosch (from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and then starting again with our very first anime Trigun), we were really looking forward to this Otakon when we heard he was going to be a guest. We once again stayed in a hotel to be near the con, and I brought my BJD Sebby with me. This year he had an adorable new cosplay as Chibitalia from Hetalia made by our mom. We got to see a few songs by Johnny's band Eyeshine at the Matsuri (we left early to go get our badges because it was so hot out) and got the band's autographs when we purchased their Tone of Echoes album after their performance. We asked if we could get a picture with them because we had seen other people in front of us get one, but Johnny asked that we return the next day to do that since it was getting late, although he let us get a photo of just him. They were troopers because they stayed until everyone in line met them and it was really hot out, especially for them after having just performed.

We saw Johnny's individual panel on Friday and it was very amusing to watch the songs he wrote up on the fly in response to attendee questions. Because we had to choose between Johnny and J. Michael Tatum's panel, we only caught the last two minutes of J. Michael Tatum's (since we had already seen him another year). Sometimes the scheduling doesn't work out in our favor, but we really enjoyed Johnny's panel and seeing all the Power Ranger fans asking questions. We ended up also seeing Johnny in the Durarara panel and also his Eyeshine concert and Eyeshine panel. It was a Johnny filled convention weekend! We did catch some other great panels, including Patrick Seitz's, which was really fun now that we've seen much more of his voice over work. As always, the convention was great and we really enjoyed the weekend. It was also a lot of fun to take photos of Sebby around the Convention Center and the Inner Harbor in his costumes.

Memorable Moments

• Getting autographs from Eyeshine
• Prussia in the Hetalia Model UN Conference panel
• Artist's Alley merchandise - Big Wind Up print, doll clothes, Day of the Tentacle postcard, Trigun standees
• Uncle Yo's Con Survival panel
• Durarara panel with Johnny Yong Bosch and Patrick Seitz (and his drawing of Crispin Freeman)
• A vendor in the Dealer's Room allowing us to trade our duplicate Japan Hetalia figures for Haruhi Suzumiya keychains
• Patrick Seitz panel
• Dinner at The Cheesecake Factory
• Eyeshine concert
• Crafts in Ota-chan
• Eyeshine panel
• Dealer's Room merchandise - Nabari No Ou artbook, Gravitation and Nabari postcards, Hetalia trading cards

Photos