Second! OTAKON!!!

The trip I have been preparing for all year! And now it has come and gone. Le sigh.

Otakon was so great! I finished Micah's costume literally the night before the con. Like...at his grandparent's house (we stayed with them) in Baltimore on Thursday night. Despite the last minute touches, it still looked awesome. He got tons of compliments and requests for pics. Unfortunately, neither of us won anything in the costume contests, but I still felt like our costumes were a marked improvement from last year's. Micah went as Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia, for those who don't remember, and I went as Robin from Witch Hunter Robin.

Outside of the cosplay side of things, the con was really neat. The dealer's room was huge this year! They had easily 150% of the space they had last year, and since a few major dealers were missing, the room seemed much bigger. I found some awesome deals on souvenirs and manga. I got Victoria the cutest little 'Hello Kitty' plushie, and for Ben I got a men's clothing set in blue and red. Steven I got a Neo (Matrix) style coat, which he claims to 'love'. I got Mom a really awesome souvenir from Vegas, and I didn't really find anything for her at Otakon, unfortunately. But she liked the Asian-style shirt I got her.

And of course, there was the anime. Unfortunately, it seemed like we always had something going on during the showings we wanted to see, but we did manage to squeeze in a viewing of the first four episodes of 'Genshiken', a really interesting anime about and anime/manga club at a Japanese university. I really enjoyed it.

The masquerade was rather disappointing. After last year's awesomeness, this year's masquerade skits were rather lifeless and dull. There were a few that were really neat, but overall the masquerade was rather 'blah'.

Then, there was teh ToS gathering on Saturday. Micah was one of three Lloyds, and by coincidence there were three Collettes, too! Of the Lloyds, I can honestly say (having also been told this by many many people) that Micah's costume was the most accurate, detail-wise. With all the work I put into it, it damn well better have been the best! Everyone loved it. There was a huge group of characters from the game - I don't think we were missing any of the main characters, and we even had an Undine (a summon; the girl's costume was amazing!) and a wonder chef. It was really fun.

I am squirming with anticipation for next year! ^____________^

P.S. Otakon Pics can be found at my Photobucket account: http://photobucket.com/albums/v490/mela_777/Otakon%202005/