Immediately arriving at the convention, some things changed. There wasn’t a huge line for the Thursday’s pre-registration pickup, but there were lines at almost every main event. The process of the pre-registration pickup was sped up with printed out barcodes to be scanned and approve the attendee which with that many people at the convention, a few seconds per person expedited the pickup process. Another change with the convention from last year was that the terrace on the third floor of the convention center was finished and added a lot of scenery in a small area. Even though the weather was still humid, some parts of the day was tolerable for the outdoor photo shoots or a walk to the local food joints. More precaution for the convention attendee showed throughout the weekend, including prepared EMS services located outside the convention at random times and contracting security team from CES Security and the Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore Special Police.

During the evening dances, there were more DJs playing at the convention this year. With more DJs there were of course more people. It was to the point where the amount of people inside of the dance floor was capped and a long line was formed. The line would occasionally stretch from the entrance of the dance to the registration (measuring about 300 feet or so).

The people cosplaying at Otakon did a good job with the quality and the variety of series out there. Anything from Angel Sanctuary to Vocaloid, it was all there. There wasn’t much of a majority either at Otakon for one particular series, but there were groups of Vocaloids, FFXIII, and Touhou noticeably wandering around the convention. There was partying with the usual Pedobear and Domokun walking around partying with random cosplayers.

In particular with partying, randomness is a tradition at Otakon. There was the usual pointing and shouting of “Buttscratcher,” a noticeable amount of boomboxes, and instruments (looking at you flash mob Trombone).

Down to the main events of the convention, there were plenty. From the concerts to the masquerade, there were quite a few things to do. Musical guests included, Homemade Kazoku who made a few works for Bleach and Eureka Seven, Yoshida Brothers who came to fame from a little bit of Nintendo (with their classical Eastern mixed in with some modern western), and of course a little of X-Japan (quite literally little). The Yoshida Brothers and Homemade Kazoku had their own events scheduled during the convention; however, X-Japan only had two of the members to do some acoustics at the end of the Masquerade. For those who will be in Chicago August 8th, check out X-Japan at Lollapalooza.

With the masquerade itself, it the entertainment was a bit better from last years. With about forty skits in line for the masquerade, there was a lot of dancing, pokemon, and less skits. Things have changed over the years from actual acting skits to more of a musical on stage.

There was no mistake that a large event like Otakon was in town from the fire evacuation that happened Saturday afternoon. After the alarms went off, it took a while for people to evacuate since people unsure of what was actually happening. After a while security and staff started to evacuate everyone from all parts of the convention center. No matter the circumstances, people will enjoy the convention in or out. One moment near the Charles St. lobby, technicality played a role since people were ordered to be pushed back 20 feet from the building, oddly someone had a measuring tape to help with the moving the mass of people. Light Street was completely blocked off at times with attendees since people were again ordered back even further from the convention center. During the time there was the usual wondering, at the same time there were jokes with people carrying around dry erase boards with, “Con’s closed due to aids” (4chan reference). The heat also helped the local venders on the streets by buying a lot of fluids from them.

In the end the convention ended as normal with many goodbyes from attendees and a vocaloid miata parked out front of the Charles Street lobby.

Official Attendance (Including Staff and Dealers): 29,274
Next Year’s Date: July 29 – 31, 2011

I will be updating the site over time with photos and a another general post of the con.

With another Animazement over, it’s hard to see a convention where the nearest one is three hours away end because it’s home to many. Being the thirteenth year for Animazment, it was a fortunate lucky number for them. Even though stories of changing roles and a lot of mishaps prior to the convention that is best kept underground, many continued to support the convention.

Many changes happened to this year than the rest, one of the noticeable changes was the lack of twenty-four hour convention, line system at the masquerade, but the better was the amount of people attending Animazement.

For the guests of honor at the convention, many known faces were back after the swine flu epidemic that resulted many cancellations from the Japanese guest last year. In the list of Guests comes, Chika Sakamoto who voiced for a few shows such as My Neighbor Totoro and Sailor Moon Stars; Kazuhiko Inoue well known for roles in Gravitation, Fruits Basket, Junjou Romantica, and more; Keiko Han for Mobile Suit Gundam, “Pocket Monster,” and a few others; Noriko Hidaka shows up for both old school and new school fans ranging from Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha, to Death Note, and a lot more; Yusuke Igarashi comes with his skills being an artist and musician; Richard Ian Cox for American roles in Mega Man, Gundam 00, Hamtaro, and others; Trish Ledoux who is a Magazine Editor / Voice Actor / and Translator who worked with Animerica and other works; Chiho Saito, the Manga Aritsts / Author who is known for a well known work in Revolutionary Girl Utena and many other works; Spike Spencer, an American Voice actor or many shows from Nadesico, Evangelion, Battle Angel, and a ton more; Kiochi Tsunoda who worked as an animation director or classic works of Galaxy Express 999, Yamato Forever, Star Blazer, to name a few; Cristina Vee a voice actress, Kappei Yamaguchi a voice actor also in Gravitation, Cased Closed, Ranma 1/2, and a crap ton of others; another returning guest is Yasuo Yamaguchi is is a producer for a some classics like Ge Ge GE no Kitaro; Toshifumi Yoshida who is a producer / Translator for different works and companies such as Ranma 1/2, Negima, Eureka Seven, and many more.

Of course there’s the musical guest Uchuusentai Noiz returns to Animazement to blow people’s ears out. Animazment is known for bringing guests back and they did with Noiz. This year they came back being louder than before with people from the artists alleys (one room over) saying their merchandise were bouncing around. The stage was a little different with the lack of extending out to the crowd, but there could have been reasons why; however, the most interesting part was the déjà vu where most of the people who were at the Noiz concert last year were back in almost the same location relative to the stage. Truthfully last year I was taking pictures of the concert and I survived about two to three songs being at the front of the room; however, this year I could barely even hold being up there for one song, show how much they can rock on.

With the new site up for Animazement, they kept with the theme of “Horror” since it was the 13th Animazement. There were hints about the theme; however, there wasn’t much notice.

This year with the amount of people, there was a lot more cosplayers than last year. It could have been that more people wanted to cosplay, recessions took a turn, or whatever, it was just a buffet for all the photographers at the convention.

Along with the cosplay, Animazment kept their promise (or most of it) to run the escalators, but at your own risk. Each of the escalators there was a caution sign about using the escalators at your own risk.

Down the masquerade (Cosplay event) it was really hard to say. Sure the cosplay relatively on time this year, but the performance was almost lack luster. There were notable ones from the Pokemon PETA moment, Turks employment, FMA, and a few others that kept people from completely falling asleep. For the event itself, it was strangely different for many people who have attended Animazment in the past and other conventions. There were few categories and few awards for the performers, such as Judge’s awards, or fan favorite.

Before the masquerade a noticeable change was noticed where the line system changed from the last couple of years. What use to be the Anime Expo line system where people would be able to get a group number earlier in the day then line up 30 minutes prior to the event and enter, went back to old school where a line formed at a certain time. This caused some confusion where people lined up in front of both Ballroom A and B, but the line officially formed IN Ballroom B about 5:45 Saturday evening. In Ballroom B people immediately saw the problem with the line system since the line started off being in a zig zag formation to uncertainty towards the end. It was a good way to get people out of the hall; however, the old system seemed to have worked better.

Returning this year was the Cosplay Chess with the theme being Old School vs. New School. In the packed room that possibly broke nine hundred people (amount of people that attended last year); many verbal fights broke out in a fun way. The two players on the Shrek board threw out old and being too young jokes to hype up the audience, with words of Apple Sauce, and telling each other to hurry up made the game quite interesting. In the end, the new school team beat the old school.

Back in the game room it was pretty much the same except a little more spread out from last year, but it still had all the same games. The room even had an eight player Bomberman towards back of the game room.

Through out the convention there were flash mobs with mobs from time to time. One would be able to catch them coming down from the left stairway in the lobby, or someone may dance on the walkway / bridge above the right escalators in the lobby.

Ever since the beginning of time, conventions always had panels run by fans for fans. Every thing from Vocaloid to classic anime, people were coming in. Some of the room seemed empty before Friday; however, after time people filled up the rooms.

For the dances, Animazement does not do the formal, but keeps with the tradition with having two regular dances. Friday night catered towards the regular folks; but then came Saturday with DJ Speedycake to bring out some music that makes people go, “Oh man they played ‘x’ song.” Both night seemed to be a success and Saturday people were there until early in the morning when the convention had to shutdown for the night.

Overall the convention was another success with a few minor things to fix from the line system, cosplay judging, informing staff members on critical information of what things are happening and how, and there are probably other things that may show up on the forums; things worked out this year and hopefully the best will come for next year, since Animazement is moving out of the “lucky” number year.

For me it was a one-day event just to see what the big hype was about; however, the hype was pretty big. There were thousands and thousands of people pouring into the National Mall and surround areas. The metro stations were just packed around the monumental areas.

The festival celebrates the peak blooming of the Cherry Blossoms that were originally given to the US from Japan after the US supported the Japanese in the Open Door Policy dealing with Manchuria.

During the festival there were tons of events for the tons of people, from the scattered concerts around the mall to workshops and presentations in the Smithsonian. Keeping with the whole Cherry Blossom Festival, there was bound to be some anime related event at some point, especially with the random emails I received from Otakorp and the DC Anime Club about the events at the Freer Gallery.

The freer Gallery was just oozing with Asian art since it is an Asian art gallery of all things. There were some Anime Marathons, Sakura Cupcakes, and what seemed to be an informal Masquerade (out of all things) in one of the auditoriums.

Of course there were the blooming trees themselves surrounding the tidal basin and the East Potomac Park. Several free shuttles and metros served the areas, but again most of the time people walked all over the place.

Being that this was an informal event I attended, I was not prepared for anything. Fortunately, there was not a specific goal in mind to do anything; however, next year things may change in terms of planning.

By the time of the convention, the roads were clear enough to drive on; therefore, even though many people were warned to not come to the DC area, there were troopers who made it to the convention on the clear highways of Maryland and Virginia.

Katsucon really did show that they could push through and keep an anime convention running by dealing with many mishaps. The major issue for the convention was that the badges for everyone attending the convention did not arrive on time. Because of that, there was no Thursday night pre-registration pickup. During the following Friday, everyone from attendee to staff were given paper vouchers as temporary badges to enter some of the events going on Friday morning until the actual badges made it in. This caused some issues for the registration room because those who have already waited in line for their vouchers had to wait in line again to get their badges. It did not take long for the staff to realize this and made a separate line for those with vouchers to pick up their badges.

The venue itself was one of the most unique of the anime conventions of the Mid-Atlantic. In the National Gaylord Hotel and Convention center, it was a sight to see just entering the hotel. Live classical music, an Atrium full of vegetation, dancing fountain, and just things that are just classy. For the convention side, Katsucon took up two floors of the convention center, being the first floor (Atrium Level) and the third floor (National Harbor rooms). This seemed odd for the layout, but it seemed sufficient. Some of the issues of Katsucon and the convention were that some of the events that are not in the exhibit halls were quite cramped. Some of the events were closed due to capacity and others were going on with some security having to help out with the crowded rooms.

With some of the problems of rooms, there were also some issues with scheduling too. For the most part, the convention went on as planned; however, the Temp concert was moved from Friday to be combined with Saturday due to the band being a no-show. This caused some of the Saturday events to start later, in the expense of some of the events for Friday to start early.

Even with the scheduling, the events did go pretty smoothly. From the maid café to the dances, everything seemed smooth. Like many conventions, the formal was a big hit as many people showed up in formal wear for the formal dance. Following the formal was the more upbeat portion of the night with the rave. Oddly with Katsucon being known for their rave / dance music, this year seemed a little disappointing with the music. There was people dancing, but the results from many people seemed disappointing.

Down the maid café made an appearance at Katsucon inside the Gaylord National. Sadly the sports bar was taken over for the maid café and the nice burgers were put on hold for the weekend in place of extremely expensive food. Prices ranged from $3 for a drink, $9 for less than a handful of chicken skewered, $6 for two small onigiris, and more money to play games with the maids. The maid café itself was a mixed result for many people, some people adored the scene, others…they were not so impressed with the atmosphere, adding on with the food, and the list can go on. One thing the maid café did do pretty nicely was first, they offered reservation with a maid prior to the convention (via katsucon.org) and second credit card is a form of payment.

So the food at the maid café was pretty expensive, this doesn’t mean food around the hotel was any cheaper. The National Gaylord is in National Harbor, Maryland, where the nearest McDonalds is a drive away; so all that are nearby are restaurants on the National Harbor grounds. Some of the restaurants ranged from Pot Belly where you could get a sandwich for a decent price, to $15 burgers at the Cadillac Grill, $20 meals at the Mexican restaurant, and of course there were the restaurants in the hotel. Food in the hotel ranged from $12 burgers to $30+ buffet. The hotel at some point did offer food services throughout the days in the atrium and in the Ballroom level portion of the convention center.

After filling up on the food, there are the main events. The usual components of an anime convention filled up the schedule, including the AMVs, Artist competitions, and concerts. For the concert, the band Unicon Table was making an entrance to the Mid-Atlantic with their JRock / JPop. During Thursday night, you would see people walking around advertising for Unicorn Table and asking people to attend a single release party offsite from the hotel.

The Masquerade is a must at any anime convention (alright maybe not Sugoicon) for the cosplayers to put out some talent. In exhibit A of the convention center housed the event, where a good variety of genres showcased. Darth Vader did not stay to host the masquerade, only to the kicked off by two Dead or Alive Beach Volley Ball cosplayers to host the event. Can’t really go wrong with that since they did do well hosting and on the spot photo for twitter. Again each entry showed that the masquerade doesn’t have to be boring, from mocking Anime convention staff, YMCA parody (YAOI), to singing sensations. Guess the only problem was 1) Part of the audience could NOT see the stage 2) Another year where they shove press into a pit on the concrete floor with half of them being blocked by the judges (not cool).

Katsucon also had a big emphasis with maids, from the maid café, to the professional maid cosplayer.

The hotel proved a good environment for the cosplayers as the atmosphere on all parts of the hotel added to the cosplays. From the marble floors of the ballroom level, to the plants of the atrium, everything seemed nice. The cosplays where even coordinated, as there was a lot of group cosplays to go around.

From the oddity of an Anime Convention at the National Gaylord, other events happened at the same place at the same time. Raytheon had a seminar through Thursday, a Military event happened (which some seemed to have made their way into the rave Saturday night), “A weekend to remember” marriage conference gave a nice mix to the scene. There were a lot of open eyes from those who were not attending Katsucon.

Overall, this was another success from Katsucon. Even though staff didn’t seem to know each other, it seemed everyone got along with each other. The excitement was there even though Valentine’s Day came around and many singles were around.

Come one MSNBC, keep it real and at least report about cancer about or something.

This all started with Bandai/Namco releasing Ace Air Combat 6 and along with some Microsoft points for the XBox 360, you can have your very own IM@S jet with one of the characters from Idolms@ster. One thing I will admit is that this model was just impressive with the colors and design and well guess that’s why many people bought it.

A positive about the kit was it uses silk decals that are a lot nicer in terms of looks after it was applied. It was s fairly simple level 2 build similar to the Revell F-15E; however, like the Revell forward section of the plane was a pain to attach to the body because the canopy was hard to align. Like with any other model, gluing the pieces together was painful, since the wing was not set on-top of support for drying, and the vertical stabilizers looked like it could repositioned from zero-degrees.

Another thing I didn’t like about the model was the silk decals. It took a few tries and a few mess ups to finally understand how to use them. Typically with models you buy in the US, you’d have to apply a layer of MicroSet so it could absorb the decal. DO NOT DO THAT with this kit. Using thinner or MicroSet will immediately make the decal stick once you apply the decal.

1) Dip the decal in water for 10 seconds
2) Let dry, apply some water to the surface of the model where you’re going to decal
3) Apply and quickly put it into place. These decals do not play very nice
4) Let it dry for a bit then apply water or thinner to make sure the decals are flat on the surface
5) DO NOT TOUCH or ACCIDENTALLY TOUCH
…n) Once EVERYTHING is finished (minus putting the canopy on the plane), spray the whole plane down with a gloss coat.

Once the decals were dry there are the most fragile thing in the world. Another thing about being fragile, these decals are typically applied over uneven surfaces, so there’s a guarantee that it will tear. The plus side to the silk decals is that “Silvering” will not occur.

Some of the things I noticed when I got to the decal part, was some of the decals were going to overlap each other, overlap over uneven surface (as mentioned), and overlap parts that stick out of the model. When some of the decals were going to overlap a stuck out portion of the model most of the time they’re through clear parts of the decal, so the easiest thing to do is to cut out the clear parts or break up the decals. Most of the time, it was the “765″ and the stars that are towards the nose of the aircraft.

Other times, cutting up decals then applying then was just easier to deal with. Notable ones were the vertical stabilizers (decals #102, 103), the decal of Chihaya (decal #9), and the decal that goes around Chihaya’s hand (decal #15). Because of the delicacy, decal #9 had the arm tear off as I was trying to slide the decal off the decal sheet onto the model, fortunately it was an easy fix.

Another issue I ran into while making this model was actually reading the instructions. Since the decal instructions are like any other kit instruction, they show you an orthographic projections of the plane and decals. I completely messed up some major parts due to this because of the overlapping issue and lining up issue.

Here are some advices:

1) Look at it carefully and see what overlaps what (not a hard thing to do). Aligning the decals was the hardest part of the project, because the instruction set can be misleading at times.
2) Build the plane up to the point WITHOUT the afterburners, hardpoints for the weapons, and the horizontal stabilizers.
3) Work from the rear bottom towards the front of the plane, then away from the plane.
4) For the top, also work from the rear of the plane towards the front, and then away from the plane. Don’t let some of the bigger decals scare you.

Other than that it was a fairly straightforward project to put this model together. It’s a good topic to talk about with friends who’ve never seen Ace Air Combat 6 with these planes in them because, it would suck to be beaten by a girl, or a plane with some anime chick on it.

Few more photos during the project.