The Old School Otaku Lounge

Oh no, I certainly wasn't thinking the big shows, like Otakon, when I was writing that. Admittedly, most of the anime cons I've been to in recent years have been well below the 30,000 mark, if even reaching the 10,000 mark, so maybe my views are a bit skewed. I was at last year's Katsucon for a panel, but that was only one day out of a weekend. Matsuricon 2015, although I don't know the attendance numbers, to me had a feel of late 90s, early 2000s Otakon.

To Akage, your experiences you mentioned, I actually find upsetting - it's disappointing that anime conventions have gotten to that point, after the nerd dollar, as much as SDCC or Wizard World. But, I can't say I'm surprised, either. I'm not sure how this "it's cool to be a nerd (but not really)" social trend came about that led to this explosion of (in my opinion, at least) empty, corporate, non-fan-orientated pop culture "conventions", or however long it will last; it looked like Wizard World was about to collapse, but now it seems like they are surviving, if not actually thriving. I would still maintain, however, that you are more likely to find a group of folks who are just as into the subject matter as you are (a genuine interest, as opposed to the social aspect of it), regardless of size, than you would be at a SDCC, or a Wizard World, or any of the pop culture expos like the type that Dave mentioned in his post.

Looks like im AWA bound this year, I got my confirmation email on the panels I submitted and all 3 went through. I got the material for two of them, and ill spend the next month or so working on the other one. Karageko you gonna make it to AWA still?

DKop wrote: ↑Fri Jul 06, 2018 12:39 pm Karageko you gonna make it to AWA still?

Yep I still plan on being there!

I got wait-listed for everything I submitted to AWA :/ I'm a little bummed out by it. I will probably still make a trip up, at least to say hi to everyone.

I'm going to get them done regardless because I can submit them to the one or two other shows I plan on attending or if I (hopefully) get called up in the next couple of rounds.

I thought for sure i'd be waitlisted for either all or 2 outta 3 of them, but the fact that all three got approved is pretty amazing for me. I hope that changes Drew, i'd like to see what you got. If not, I can always come up the con you help run in February, and just re-submit mine there too.

Yeah, SeishunCon is always a good place for my content; one of the topics I submitted to AWA has kind of an expiration date on it, and SeishunCon is close to the edge of that. Plus, by the time that show comes around, we'll have a ~4 month old, so I will probably be doing the "show off the baby" tour rather than the panelist circuit.

Would like to make the panelist's list for AWA this year - I've missed doing panels the last couple of years there but I am sure there is a lot of good content they have to pick from. Fingers crossed for everything coming back approved at the end of August/early September.

I'll be at Otakon this weekend! Happy to meet up with anyone else who'll be there.

Unfortunately, I had something pop up at the last minute and had to miss Otakon this year (thankfully, brought to my attention before the 24 hour deadline to cancel hotel reservations, though). On track , as of now, at least, to hit Katsucon, though.

How was Otakon, this year?

Drew_Sutton wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 9:00 am I got wait-listed for everything I submitted to AWA :/ I'm a little bummed out by it. I will probably still make a trip up, at least to say hi to everyone.

So, took a few more weeks than anyone expected but the AkibaRen crew (Richard and myself) are booked for all four panels we submitted - at least, I have a soft confirmation as such, still have to get the hard confirmation, schedule time and make sure my badge code goes through.

So, crunch time to finish prep for the show now. Looking forward to seeing Dave, Dkop and Karageko and whomever else from here there!

Yea they sent me my confirmation email a few days ago and I got my free panelist badge ready to go. I just need that schedule to figure out when I gotta be there. I finished one of my panels the other day by fine tweeking it so im good to go, which works since I've been working every day since Tuesday and I won't get off till next Tuesday between my weekend gig and my substitute teaching job.