Before attending Otakon, the only anime cons I’ve been to was, Anime North twice and CN Anime both in Toronto. Needless to say, I’ve never been a con held in the US, let alone, one outside of Toronto. So I was quite excited to make the long 8 and a half hour drive from Toronto to Baltimore. I wasn’t excited about covering the con alone however. But hey, there’s a first time for every thing.

Enter Otaku Aniverse

The original plan included leaving somewhere around 8AM. This would get us there, checked in our hotel and at the con around 5PM or 6PM. But as with most things in life, things never go to plan, and we ended up leaving after 12PM. Getting us there for 10PM. Okay no problem, the con is still up and running. However, it turns out the Press and Publicity department decided to go relax at this time. So we never got a hold of our press passes, that will have to wait until Saturday. Just the regular attendance badge we got on Friday. I didn’t think much of this; I have a long history of difficulties getting a hold of my press passes for the Anime and Gaming Industry. Since I had nothing else planned for the night, I choose to map out the convention, and see what’s there. This way I won’t get lost on Saturday. I figured this would only take a few minutes; after all, it took that much time to walk around Anime North and CN Anime. How wrong I was. Otakon, consisted of about three large floors (Four if you include that small section up top) took me awhile just to map out the first floor… then there’s the second and the third… Damn this place is huge!

On Saturday, I made sure to show up early in hopes of picking up the Press Badge and then examining the sights of this place and the Industry Panels. But before that, the legendary dealers’ room had to be examined. It was quite large with several booths around, from typical anime dealers to industry folks setting up shop. Quite a few good deals were found here as well. I have to admit, this has got to be the best dealers rooms I’ve seen thus far.

After the dealers room, it was time to head over to the Industry Panels. It’s bad enough I missed Friday’s, now is the time to make sure I don’t miss out on anymore. Here are just some of the many announcements made.

Bandai
-Gundam Seed in 2004
-Zeta Gundam to be a 2 part boxset release, something exclusive will be packed in with it
-Single volumes will be released later
-.hack//SIGN episode 28 will feature characters from .hack // SIGN and the PS2 game
-Volume 5 for .hack//SIGN will contain a box for the music CDs
-Volume 6 for .hack//SIGN will be a 2 disk set
-Bandai is also trying to get a bi monthly release
-Kikaider on DVD in 2004
-Big O 2 will not have a boxset or collection release. Will be released end of the year
-No word on Sabre Mariornet R or Clamp School

CPM
-Alien Nine: Emulators licensed
- Kuromi Animation Runner @BAAF


AN Entertainment
-Nothing new revealed other than that their interested in releasing Risky Safety empty box for free. Provided that the sales are good.
-AN releasing Manga isn’t out of the question

ADV
Anime/Live Action Licensed
-Divergence Eve
-Shinobi
-Cyber Team in Akihabara

Manga
-Crono Crusade
-Jenki Extended
-Kagura Nostalgia the new chapter
-Your and My Secret
-Aria
-R^2
-Desert Power
-Blue Inferior
-Louie the Rune Soldier

-FMP and Azumanga in September for $9.98

ADV Toys
-Will be doing original and releasing Japanese Toys

-Upcoming Noir extra is... well something that will hurt you mind :P

Pioneer
-Last Exile and L/R in November
-ROD TV, official name not revealed
-Not likely doing the next Tenchi OVA

During the middle of the Bandai Panel however, I had to sneak out to check out the Press Workshop. It’s a new thing the staff at Otakon was tying out. There were lots of new and young journalists covering anime. So members of other anime media got together to chat. Outlets including, New Type USA, DVD Vision Japan, Protoculture Addicts and Ted Kelly and Steven Kinne who are working a XM network J-pop station -- And of course Otaku Aniverse. Overall the workshop was pretty good; it was the first time something like this was run. We spent much of the time listing to the story of DVD Vision Japan’s rise, and how the New Type workers get paid more than us. :P

After that and the Industry Panels, I found my self running outside into the heat… the A/C started to get to me. Plus I was hungry. Afterwards, we rapped up the night by checking out the Artist Alley. And then, oh yes, the Video Gaming room, a room, our friends at Gaming Media wished they were in. And a room I wish I knew existed earlier on during the con. I’ll let the pictures here explain why.

But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. We went back to the hotel to get some bed rest. Yeah, the con still goes on until Sunday, but my Sunday will be spent making the long hull from Baltimore, back to Toronto. Overall all however, despite only spending much of our time there on Saturday. I enjoyed my self a lot, next year I plan to enjoy my self even more by spending more time there and getting more interviews done as well. (Since I was by my self we had to cancel a few) How will I have time for this? I’ll travel to there, with something called... an Air Plane. 8+ hours in a car isn’t good for my neck anyways.
 

-- Eddie Hicks, Otaku Aniverse