The Campaign Builder's Guild

[note=Otaku Dictionary]
AMV - Anime Music Video; basically, someone takes a song and syncronizes Anime to it.
Anime - The Japanese word for any kind of animation; outside Japan, however, it stands exclusively for Japanese animation.  The correct plural is "anime."*
Bishi - Short for bishounen, which literally means "beautiful youth."  Anime that include "pretty boy" or "metrosexual" characters are all bishounen.
Fan Parody - Where someone takes one or more anime (usually just scenes from therein, and redubs it (i.e. does their own voiceovers) to either make something funny or crap.
Hentai - Literally "pervert," more commonly used to refer to "Anime Porn;" like live-action porn, it provides for a number of fetishes, some of the more stereotyped (but not nessecerly common) being BSDM, catgirl, tentacle, etc.
LARP - Live Action Role Playing
Manga - Japanese comic books, sometimes called Graphic Novels in the US.  Most are kept in the Japanese custom of panels and pages being read from left-to-right, instead of right-to-left.  The correct plural is "manga."*
Otaku - In Japanese, Otaku carries the same stereotypes as "geek" or "nerd" in English, and can apply to any interest; in English, the meaning is generally considered less derogatory and usually only applies to anime.
Pocky - "[Highly addictive] chocolate covered biscuit sticks."  Wikipedia has a decent article.
Yaoi - Comes from the Japanese phrase "yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi", meaning "no climax, no punch line, no meaning" (in a literary sense).  Unlike Yuri, Yaoi is usually more pornographic.  Yaoi is one of the most unique forms of literature in the world, because it is made for women by women, and exclusively deals with homosexuality.
Yuri - Literally means "lilly;" a relatively common female name; in anime: "any attraction between girls, whether sexual or romantic, explicit or implied." (often in the US, it is limited only to pornographic areas, but this is not the case in Japan.)

*Aside from pronouns, there is no real difference between singular and plural words in Japanese.

Questions?  Feel free to ask.[/note]

As I sit, munching on the remains of my last box of Pocky (I bought 3), I feel as if I should let you guys know what I saw at Otakon this year.

The First Day (or What a Guilty Concsience Will Make People Think):

The Cinema Fiasco or How I Watched Princess Mononoke and Learned to Stop Caring About Bad Projectionists:
The first thing I did was to go watch Princess Mononoke, which was being shown on a 35mm projector.  For those who don't know, Princess Mononoke is one of the most beloved anime films of all time, and is about a prince who is cursed by a demon and he then... just read the Wikipedia article damnit... you know you want to.

Random Crap 1:
Me and Raelifin were supposed to meet up on the first day.  Even though I didn't write it down, I went to the correct part of the building.  Unfortunately, the LARP contest sign-up was being held in the same area, so every cos-player and his/her mother was in the area, meaning that I couldn't find him.  After about 20 minutes I figured that both of us would like to do something, so I left.

Random Crap 2:
A little later on, I met up with some friends.  From last year, it was pretty obvious that they were going to be in or near the (massive) Video Game Room.  I found them pretty quickly.  After a bunch of unimportant stuff, they thought their hotel room was getting raided.  From what little they told me, not only did they have alcohol sitting out in the room (all of them were under 18), they also had a supply of marajuana in their room.  Obviously, not the best idea...

I found out later that they hadn't been raided.  Probably just housekeeping or something...

Random Crap 3:
I met the guys who make the Chugworth Academy webcomic.  I bought their book, which contains most of the panels from 1-248 (the illustrations are excluded), along with some bonus stuff.  They even went so far as to sign the book, with a silver Sharpie no less.  Pretty cool guys.

The AMV Contest:
After aimlessly walking around for hours, which you're bound to do at a con, I decided to go the AMV contest.  (See the Otaku Dictionary, above.)  Unlike last year, I was not bombarded with endless J-pop, but instead I got the Beatles, Evanescence, Duran Duran, Offspring, Paul Simon (wtf...), and DVDA (the creators of South Park's band).

All in all, pretty good.

Friday Night Fan Parodies or How I Walked out of Video Room 1.
Let me preface by saying this is the night when all the new fan parodies premere.  Let me finish by saying the first two were crap and I walked out.  Any questions?


The Second Day (or Why Gendo Ikari is a Pimp):

Initial D (Live Action):
A Hong Kong (I think) remake of the classic Japanese manga/anime about underground drift racing.  From what I remember of the manga, it was very close.  I liked it so much, I bought the DVD right after I saw it.  (I'm not kidding... I walked right down to the Dealer's Room, found one of the two import DVD sales places, and bought it.)

Random Crap 4:
I found Jesus...

...outside of Video Room 2.  Literally...

Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ (ã'¹Ã£Â'"まã'"~ã'šÂ¬Ã£Æ'¼ãÆ'«ãÆ'ȋÆ'ŸãÆ'¼ãÆ''žÃ£Æ'ȋ'šÂ¬Ã£Æ'¼ãÆ'«~)
I think I have found the manga/anime I will be wasting my money on next year.  The only bad thing I can possibly say about this is that I only got to see 4 episodes.

I saw one of the many fan-subbed version.  Currently only the manga is liscened for US distribution, and will come out in December.

I have to say this is a must see whenever it comes out... or if you can get your hands on a fan-sub.

On an OCD-like note, from what I already know of Japanese, many of the characters, including Hazumu himself, use male pronouns when refering to him, even after he has turned into a girl.

[spoiler=The Plot (or a Spoiler Properly Used!)]Hazumu, a very feminine high school sophmore tries to profess his love for, Yasuma, the only girl he has ever loved.  When she rejects him, he runs away from his home and friends, to the mountainside where he first met Yasuma.  However, an alien spaceship that was observing Earth accidentally crashes from the sky and lands on top of Hazumu, destroying his body and (obviously) killing him.  Out of mercy, the aliens ressurect Hazumu, but encounter a problem.  The new body they created for him is female.

Hazumu's friends, Tomari and Ayuki (they're both female... Japanese names are strange, I know...) teach him how to be a girl, and he learns that it is a lot harder than it looks.

As the story progresses, a love triangle develops between Hazumu, Yasuma, and Tomari.  Tomari presented as a slighly homophobic tomboy, becoming embarassed and angry when some other girls tell Hazumu that Tomari once recieved love letters from girls as well as boys.

And that's where episode 4 leaves off...

Oh yeah... if you're not yet interested in this:
A: You should be.
B: Jailbait lesbian softcore.
C: You need more than B?![/spoiler]

Again, this is my favorite anime for this year.  You'll want to check it out.

Addendum: One thing I've learned... no matter how "girly" an anime is, unless its bishi, no one thinks if a guy reads it.  Don't be afraid to try new stuff!

Saturday Night Fan Parodies:
This night, nobody walked out... at least until they were about to fall asleep from sheer exaustion.  It was the old classic fan parodies, and everybody loved them.  Not much else can be said... they are fan parodies, after all.


The Third Day (or Shit!  This is how they did days in Zelda: Majora's Mask!):

My Stash:
I bought $15 dollars worth of Pocky today.  That's three packages, or 11 oz., or 1 and 3/4 days supply of Saturated Fat.  The stuff is addictive.  I ate all of it today.

Sunday Afternoon Fan Parodies:
More classics, including probably my favorite quote from anything, anywhere.  (Check my sig.)

Conclusion or How I Learned to Shut Up:
In all, I lost around 12 hours of sleep, one hundred dollars, and had a great time.  More people should come next year.  I'm sure someone does LARP, and we probably have someone in to bishi (its possible...), and I'm sure someone who doesn't even like anime could be dragged in to comming along.

__________________________________________


Comments, questions, concerns, jeers, gratuitous vomiting, fan letters, and cash donations are all welcome.


But mostly cash donations...

Ok... you don't have to give me cash donations...

Hey, are you sure you went on Friday? The lobby was fairly bare when I was there. Oh well! I had a great time anyway! Here's a draft of my blog.

QuoteOtakon 2006

Well, itâ,¬,,¢s a groggy Monday morning the day after Otakon. After leaving the convention hall I had a 9-hour car ride to look foreword to, thankfully there was much to discuss. During the weekend it seemed like time ran in slow motion. What would have blown past as just another weekend lasted for subjective years, all filled with more costumes than Halloween. For any of you that arenâ,¬,,¢t aware, the primary event at anime conventions is cosplay. Cosplay, a compound of costume and play, is both incredibly fun and quite disturbing. Walking around the convention hall, you can see a horde of nekomimi (catgirls), male sailor-scouts(Sailor Moon) and even Leeroy Jenkins. Last yearâ,¬,,¢s Otakon was filled with Cloud and Sephiroth (FF7) clones, but this year was a bit less Square (heh). I now present, for the first time ever, Raelifinâ,¬,,¢s Cosplay Awards!

Most Prolific Costume: State Alchemist
Aside from the half-costumes of cat-ears and Naruto headbands, the most common cosplay choice this year was probably Generic State Alchemist (Full-Metal Alchemist). This is most likely due to the premier of the Full-Metal Alchemist Movie: The Conqueror of Shambala. (Note: I did not see it.) In fact, there were so many State Alchemists that I didn't bother to take a picture of one. >_<

Most Accurate Depiction of a Character: Captain Jack Sparrow
Always in character, whoever wore the Captinâ,¬,,¢ Jack outfit had it all down, even the swagger. My camera simply refused to get a decent picture of this guy. This is the best of three pictures.


Most Awesome Costume: Purple Tentacle & Green Tentacle as Link & Zelda
Seriously! These two went from being odd to the most kick-ass costume there. Cosplaying as a tentacle from the bowels of LucasArtsâ,¬,,¢ gaming history is weird and a bit obscure, but throw a link costume ON a costume! Brilliant! The addition of Green Tentacle cosplaying as Zelda was the icing on the cake. Go meta costumes! ^_^


Runner Up: Dark Link
Though the costume is hardly unique, the overall presentation is probably better looking than any of the others. This is my favorite picture.


While at Otakon, I was also subject to the mighty aurasâ'žÂ¢ of several â,¬Å"celebritiesâ,¬Â such as Michael Terracciano (Dominic-Deegan) and Fred Gallagher (Megatokyo) and I took pictures of many others. Here is my collection of photos:
[spoiler=Celebrities]
Michael "Mookie" Terracciano - Dominic Deegan


J. Jacques - Questionable Content


Caroline "Carmen" Curtis - 9th Elsewhere


Matt Boyd & Ian McConville - Mac Hall


Scott Ramsoomair - VG Cats

[/spoiler][spoiler=Cosplay]
Brian - Family Guy


Gambit - X-Men


Dr McNinja


Ark & Kerrigan - Legendary Frog


King of All Cosmos - Katamari Damacy


Cosplay Battle - Sega & Nintendo


Mountain Dew Knights


K'NEX Cross Punisher - Trigun


Pantsman - VG Cats


Pikmin


"ORLY?" Owl - Internet


Team Magma & Team Aqua - Pokemon Ruby & Saphire


V - V for Vendetta


Jack Skellington - Nightmare Before Cristmas


Blue Maromi - Paranoia Agent


Wario & Waluigi - Nintendo


Turnip-head - Howl's Moving Castle

[/spoiler][spoiler=Misc]
Fullmetal Alchemist Statues (Near life size!)


Bowser Plushie


Crowd

[/spoiler]

Updated with pictures! ^_^

Limetom, you forgot yaoi in your dictionary! :P

Ok.

The "Sad Puppy" is a blue-colored version of Maromi from Paranoia Agent.

Sweet, thanks. Can't keep up with everything. ;)

Ack! Is that... SUNLIGHT I see in some of those photos? What is that blesphemy? I demand a smoke machine.

you met dr. mcninja? dude! and you lived to tell? were there pirates? i bet they didn't make it, eh? eh?

QuoteAfter a bunch of unimportant stuff, they thought their hotel room was getting raided. From what little they told me, not only did they have alcohol sitting out in the room (all of them were under 18), they also had a supply of marajuana in their room. Obviously, not the best idea...

I found out later that they hadn't been raided. Probably just housekeeping or something...

"Dude we're being raided! they just came in and took our sheets! They're putting it all on a cart! OMG, now they're going to the next room!"

Pretty much...  :D