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Lianne
Sentar's Adventures Through Otakon 2002
or Sanji Apron Cosplayer, Why Do You Mock Me So? Otakon 2002 was my first convention, as a fan or otherwise, and thanks to the unbelievably cool people who run the con I got to visit it as a guest--which basically equated to me cutting every single line, fantastic dinners with amazing people, and conversations (in my crummy Japanese) with directors and pop idols from Japan. The experience was beyond all of my wildest dreams, and thank you, thank you staff of Otakon for making it happen. This is a report to allow those who couldn't make it to the convention a brief glimpse of what it was like, and to give those who appeared as visitors a little peek as to what went on behind the scenes. I wish I had a few more pictures to show, but I'm afraid my camera wasn't great and most of my film was spent on cosplayers whose pictures appear elsewhere in better quality on the Internet; please enjoy what few pieces I have. Oh, and if you can't tell, the theme of my Otakon experience was One Piece (PG-13 review). Not only is the show unbelievably good, it's tastefully obscure enough to be what I kept my eyes peeled for over the course of the convention--and happily, my otaku cravings for it were soundly met. It's wonderful to be part of an industry you love. ^_^ Several links here are to articles from A Fan's View, so I send a big thank-you to its moderator. Thursday John Heaton, American Guest Relations Dept Head, and Mike Williams, Autographs Dept Head , took great pains to pick me up from the airport, check me into a hotel room, and make my Otakon stay as comfortable as they could. They did a fantastic job and were incredibly nice. I even had a friend of mine (Krithi) with me, who was working the Tokyopop booth, and they didn't hesitate to give her the same top treatment. In the middle of the day I met my other friends (who had traveled via van), including Amethist, NotHayama, and Bad Jew, who were the other three Tokyopop booth workers (see PG-13 info here), and Joel Baral, Brand Manager and Executive Producer at Tokyopop, who was Tokyopop's representative. Joel was great, both personally and as a rep of the company--sweet, funny, and with countless boxes of DVDs and manga to give away, he epitomized the fun and topnotch material that Tokyopop's all about. When he left the booth for small periods of time during the con I wasn't quite sure what he was doing; a week later, his picture and his words were smeared all over the Internet, as he had been a key member in many important panels. The man certainly got around. ^_^ Anyway, the convention didn't begin until Friday, so Neal Leyendecker of the Otakon staff showed me around the massive Baltimore Convention Center while it was still only manned by staff. Gophers sat in droves in the main hall stuffing bags in the stifling heat--I really admire their determination, as the place was fiendish without the air conditioner. I was taken out to my first Guest Dinner that night, where I chatted with great Otakon staff members about everything from past conventions to Shaman King and was fed fabulous Baltimore crab cakes. The restaurant was highly fancy and we had a private room all to ourselves, so it was very exciting. One of the tables held many of the Japanese guests (including Para Para singing idol Yoko Ishida), but for some reason, Tatsuo Sato, the director of Martian Successor Nadesico and the writer of the Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His and Her Circumstances) anime script, ended up at my table across from me. I don't know why. He was the only Japanese-speaking guest at our table besides his translator, so I'm not sure why he was there ... but there he was, wearing a wicked pair of glasses with thin-wire red frames. I spoke to him a bit in my simple Japanese, with Sato-sensei's translator and Neil Nadelman, another one of the Otakon guests (he translates anime professionally--he translated all of Fushigi Yuugi for Pioneer--and man, is the guy an expert on anime and manga!), helping me out here and there. It was embarrassing but fun. Sato-sensei is a total sweetheart, and before I left the con I bought a copy of the first Nadesico DVD and had him sign it for me. I really liked the man. ^_^ |
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Friday I spent my morning at the Tokyopop booth, where a game of "toss a playing card in a bucket and win a Tokyopop DVD or manga" was going on. No joke--toss a playing card in a bucket and win a Tokyopop DVD or manga. This further goes to prove my thesis that Tokyopop is the greatest company ever created, as Joel had about 10 or 15 boxes of Tokyopop manga, DVD's, and Sailor Moon novels that the booth had to give out before the end of the weekend; hence the little games that were easy to win and the hordes of fans who showed when they caught wind of the plan. After giving out Tokyopop stuff for a few hours, and after realizing I was going to be late for Opening Ceremonies, I bolted through the Convention Center like an idiot to make it in time. All the guests were congregated backstage, so I got to shake a few more hands and say a few Japanese words to Yoko Ishida and her Para Para dancers. I said some things to the crowd, got cheers from the back when I mentioned the Sailor Moon novels (whoever you people are, I love you!), and encouraged male Fushigi Yuugi cosplayers to say hi. Sure enough, after the ceremonies and Yoko Ishida's amazing mini-concert, a teenage male fan came to ask me about Wendy Lee's cancellation-due-to-injury (one of my biggest disappointments as I'm a huge fan of hers). After we talked about her a bit, he gave a little smile and mentioned he had planned to cosplay as Suboshi. Cool cool. ^_^ |
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That afternoon I met Andrea Hui, her boyfriend George, and many members of the Discussion Board from A Sailor Moon Romance (surf with caution). They were great! Andrea's basically the catalyst for unlimited Sailor Moon fanfiction authors to get into writing including myself, so I owe so much to her. She also came to my "Getting Published" panel that day, where I introduced her to the small crowd as an excellent example of online publishing. Then Fred Perry, the artist/writer/sometimes colorist of Gold Digger and Legacy from Antarctic Press, spoke on becoming a published comic artist, Gilles Poitras (the man who wrote "The Anime Companion" and "The Anime Essentials" books) spoke on nonfiction, and I discussed fiction while general text-publishing techniques were covered by both Gilles and I. I thought it was a really informative and fun panel, and Tokyopop gave me Sailor Moon novels to hand out and sign when it was over, so thanks to all of you who came and I hope you got something out of it. ^_^ Most of the things I discussed on the panel are available here as well, so feel free to check out the link if you missed the show. Dinner that night was unforgettable. I sat next to Fred Perry, across from Mike Williams, Autographs Dept Head staff member (who's a really great guy), beside Doug Smith (artist from Studio Ironcat and actor of the dub voice of Kintaro from Golden Boy) and his fiancee, and slightly down the table from Largo of Megatokyo and his new wife Ruby. I discussed writing at length with Mike and Fred, had a mini-conversation about Weiss Kreuz with Ruby (she apparently did the fansub of the OVA a few years ago, ^_^), and listened as Largo talked about the webcomic king that is Megatokyo. It was really interesting to hear about how the comic works behind the scenes, and Largo's a really intelligent guy who had some very insightful things to say. Largo and his wife even walked me back to our hotel that night. Oh, and since I didn't have my camera that day, I missed out on taking any pictures. *grrr!* Friday also happened to be the day I met The Sanji Apron Cosplayer, which is an incident that has haunted me since, but there's a longer story behind that which can be found at the bottom of this report. Saturday I had met mangaka Piro of Megatokyo briefly during Opening Ceremonies, but I finally got to hang out with him and his staff in the special guest room known as the Green Room on Saturday. Piro promised me a sketch (which we both ended up not having the time to fulfill, but it was so cool that he even offered *squeals*), as did Fred Perry, who even said he'd mail me a sketch if he didn't find the time to draw it. (Let me take a moment to speak on Fred Perry--the man is amazing, not just because of his fantastic drawing, coloring, and writing ability, but because his work ethic astounds me, his words inspire me, and his personality had me in a little puddle. He is so nice, he is so sweet, and he is so worth meeting if you ever have the chance.) |
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Most of the rest of the Megatokyo staff--Dom, Asmodeus, Ukyo, and Patchmonkey--I also got to meet in the Green Room, and they were a very entertaining lot. Dom is hilarious, Ukyo's a sweetheart, Patchmonkey's tons of fun, and Asmodeus, also a great guy, turned out to be one of Amethist's old acquaintances from RIT. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them, and Amethist, Krithi, and NotHayama got into the Green Room (NotHayama had my Associate Badge ^_^) and joined in. As an added bonus, Dom was cosplaying as Taishi from Comic Party, an action so cool it blew my mind. |
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In the late morning I had an interview for M.D. Productions, a television production group in Cleveland, Ohio. They asked me questions on camera (which should be shown on some cable public access in Ohio), and afterwards I chatted to them about the convention and the JET program and anime in general. My interviewer, the producer, and the two cameramen were really great, and I'm honored to be a part of their show. Plus the interviewer spent a lot of time in Japan and really liked One Piece, thereby putting herself on my Highest-Level Otaku list. ^_^ I wish I could remember her name properly ... when I receive it again, I'll put it up here. Sorry. ;_; After a booksigning at the Tokyopop booth, more giving away of free stuff (this time, Tokyopop held drawings for fans who filled out surveys), and meeting two people from the ChibiAnime.com Forums (stuff there can be very adult so kids steer clear; the ChibiAnime guys were wicked nice and I was thrilled they came to see me), I joined Joel and a really cool translator for Tokyopop named Amy on the Tokyopop panel. There was quite an audience, and serious things such as the Initial D Name Change Issue were discussed, but Joel showed GTO clips and trailers and gave away tons of free manga and novels so I think people had fun. I mentioned Blue Monday (a great, though ADULT, comic by Oni Press) on the panel, and despite the fact that no one seemed to have ever heard of it, a really cool girl came to me afterwards and said she adored Blue Monday. I love people like that--coming after panels to tell me stuff. ^_^ Shortly after the panel I joined a writing workshop, but when I saw there were already plenty of consultant writers there, I stayed about a half hour to talk to a girl very involved in fanfiction and a young man who was exceedingly prolific (he said he'd written a 170-page opening chapter of an original novel, among other things!), then left to check out Artist's Alley and the Gaming Room. Artist's Alley is one of the coolest places I've ever been in my life. Table after table of artists, fanzines, plush Pero Pero dolls, a really good Hakkai cosplayer with Hakuryuu curled around his shoulders, Piro and Fred Perry doing sketches, and the Artist Auction that basically made me want to cry the stuff in it was so good. After failing to win the bid on a fantastic framed fanart of Van from Escaflowne, I also regretfully didn't find Ian J. of RPG World, even though I was hoping he'd be there and really wanted to meet him. Amethist and my friend Adamus Prime had an art table where they sold fanart bookmarks Amethist had made, so I went to say hi--and met their really nice Japanese table-neighbor who was selling her original Japanese-language doujinshi on the anime/manga Whistle. She did a lot of shounen ai and yaoi stuff so I didn't buy anything, but her storytelling skills and art ability were really impressive, and it was fun to talk to her and her Tasuki-cosplayed companion. Plus, y'know, a Japanese-language doujinshi about Whistle? The delicious obscurity in itself was enough reason to check out her stuff. ^_^ Then ... ah yes. The Gaming Room. Hundreds and hundreds of otaku and gamers, girls mostly fixated around DDR and boys duking it out on every fighting game you can imagine, and the tournament I had been born for--Dead or Alive 3 on the X-Box. My friend The Machine (named as such because of his remarkable gaming ability) and I signed up for the DOA contest right away, thanks to all the special help Video Game Department Head Jason Greene heaped on me (he was SO nice and took SUCH good care of me--Jason, thank you so much!). As we waited for the contest, Bad Jew and Adamus Prime joined us, though they were late for tickets; about 15 minutes before the competition the loud speaker announced, "Would the kid who said he'd sing for me come to the front?" We all got a little smile out of that, but when Bad Jew vanished and came back five minutes later with an extra ticket I swiftly got that feeling, deep in my stomach, that he had gone and done something stupid again. His singing escapade is outlined in his very interesting con report here. Adamus Prime also ended up with an extra ticket, but both he and Bad Jew got stuck with unusual controllers and lost early on, and the same guy who beat The Machine in the third round beat me in the fourth. Considering there were, I think, only six rounds total, I'm happy with my placement, particularly since I was the only girl who entered and had to use my estrogen to its fullest. After the contest The Machine proceeded to sit on one of the free Dreamcasts and play Dead or Alive 2 until 1:30 in the morning, winning over 40 games in a row, so I think our group left a pretty good impression in the Gaming Room. Not including Bad Jew's singing. |
| I saw some of the Cosplay Masquerade/Skits that night, then went to the Midnight Megatokyo panel. Since the line for it was hundreds of people long, NotHayama and I decided to forget it and went back to the Green Room to relax--only to bump into the Megatokyo guys themselves preparing for the show. We went with them and got front row seats, a few spots down from Ian and Matt of Mac Hall (whom I'd met earlier in the Green Room and the Gaming Room), and had a fantastic time watching Piro on stage in a kitty suit. After that, I went back to the hotel, had a piece of pizza (the only food besides breathmint gum I'd had since 9 am), and went to bed with my new One Piece plushie nestled in my arms. |
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Sunday Another booksigning at the Tokyopop booth, more giving away of free stuff (this time to trivia), and some autograph hunting. I managed to track down Yoko Ishida in the Green Room, and since I'd purchased a CD of hers earlier I really wanted her to sign it. Hence we sat on the couch and spoke some very simple Japanese and English to each other (she speaks a tiny bit of English), using the translator nearby when necessary, and she signed my CD set. What was really cool was she noticed the Luffy keychain I had on my purse, and she asked, "He's from One Piece, right? What's his name?" I told her, then mentioned there was a One Piece song on the CD set she had just signed for me. She agreed, thought a second, then the two of us pointed to each other and said in unison, "'WE ARE!'" If you've never seen the One Piece first opening, I'm sure you don't understand why that's so funny, but I sing to that part of the theme every time. I loved Ishida-san and am thrilled we got to hang out a bit. I've never met a Japanese pop idol before. ^_^ Doug Smith was next, as I had really come to like him over the period of the convention--he's wicked nice, and multitalented, and his fiancee is really cool, too. We ended up hanging out quite a bit together, so before I left I bought the two Golden Boy DVDs (VERY ADULT!) and he drew little pictures of Kintaro on the covers and signed them. Like the Nadesico DVD and the Ishida CD, I treasure those Golden Boy DVD's because they make me think of Doug. If Doug or his fiancee (I wish I remembered her name! ;_;) is reading this, thanks for the great time! Probably my biggest regret is that I didn't manage to find Yasuhiro Nightow, the writer/artist of the Trigun manga. He was one of the main draws for me to the convention, and I didn't get to see his panel, meet him in the Green Room, see him at the Guest Dinner on Saturday (I skipped to see the con night life) or even get a glimpse of him over the entire weekend. I left the convention around noon on Sunday to catch my flight, said good-bye to Neil Nadelman and Gilles Poitras (both of whom I spent a lot of time with, and both of whom I was really pleased to meet as they were great ^_^), and boarded feeling really down about Nightow. BUT, halfway through the trip, on a layover, I called NotHayama on my cell and asked if she'd gotten to see Nightow at his autograph session. Not only had she made it, she'd gotten my Trigun manga print set (this really gorgeous folder with manga prints in it and a color shot of Vash with wings) signed in gold ink by Nightow for me. This is why, this is why NotHayama is my best friend and I kiss the ground she walks on. So I left the convention feeling on top of the world. ^_^ The Sanji Apron Cosplayer There is an issue that hasn't let me go since Otakon, an issue that still haunted me while I dreamt weeks later. You see, on Friday of the con, while I was manning the Tokyopop booth, NotHayama told me, "I saw this Sanji [warrior cook from One Piece] cosplayer, and he was wearing his panda apron!" I was very, very angry that I had missed this and brooded about it for quite a bit. A little later that day, probably only an hour or two after NotHayama had mentioned it, I turned around from going through the stuff in the back of the booth and ... there he was. I made this sort of squeak-gasp and grabbed him, shrieking, "Oh my God, there he is!" He was probably frightened of me, but you have to understand: this young man was cosplayed not only as someone from One Piece (which is quite obscure in the West), not only as Sanji (arguably the best person in the cast), not only in Sanji's pink Doskoi Panda apron (rock!), but with Sanji's sleek yellow sunglasses on, an accessory I'd only seen in magazine pictures. Like, has only been seen on TV and DVDs in other countries. This kid knew his One Piece. Good God, he knew his One Piece--and what a costume! We gave him free Tokyopop stuff, Amethist gave him one of her fanart bookmarks (with Sanji on it) and we showered him with praise. He was kinda a quiet guy, which might have been spurred by the fact that I still had big cartoon stars glittering in my eyes. When I asked him if he'd be wearing the same costume on Saturday (when I had my camera), he said yes, so I figured I'd see him again and take a snapshot. I never saw him again. This probably doesn't mean much to any of you. I'm betting 98% of you have never seen One Piece, or know Sanji wears yellow sunglasses in the Alabasta Arc, or could care less about what I'm talking about. But this cosplayer knocked me flat. I wanted a picture of him so badly, I wanted to talk to him longer so badly, but he vanished off the face of the Earth; I have gone through three thousand Otakon photos online and have still not found a shot of him. He is my white stag. I have made the decision that I will find him, no matter how many pictures I have to flip through or how many One Piece Mailing Lists I have to join, because this young man has been giving me nightmares about failing in life since I lost him. So if you know him, this Sanji Apron Cosplayer, or you are him, elusive Sanji Apron Cosplayer, please, please, e-mail me. Don't be frightened. I will not hurt you, I will not stalk you, but I will have a short discussion with you regarding how your costume changed my life, how my search for you has changed the way I make goals, and I will ask you where you get your One Piece. And then I may ask you to marry me, but feel no obligation to say yes. Oh, and a final note to the cosplayers: I love you all very, very much, particularly the two runners-up to Sanji Apron Cosplayer, namely Suzaku who on Sunday became Vash and who said nice things about those of us who worked the Tokyopop booth, and Raiel, the only Violinist of Hameln cosplayer besides a Flute I saw walking around and who made one of the best costumes in the whole place--including a three-foot leather piano on his back. Good God, man, had it not been for Sanji Apron Cosplayer, you certainly would have won my Most Wonderful and Obscure Cosplayer Award. You are awesome. |
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If you are any of the people mentioned in this report, or any of the people who posed for the best picture I got all convention which is posted to the left, please e-mail me. I would love to keep in touch. And also, thank you to all the other staff members who made my convention such an incredible one: Sue Monroe for leading the whole thing and helping me out so much, Jon Harmon for doing everything and being such a sweetheart about it, Brian Kern for being, like, my best buddy in the whole wide world, John Scofield for being my knight in shining armor, Sam Dang for being such a blast, Jim Vowles for being so helpful and supportive, and everyone else whose name I don't have here but you know who you are, I love you ALL. Thank you so, SO MUCH! |
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-Lianne, revised 9/12/02 |