Otakon, Part 2
The main highlight of this year’s convention was supposed to be the L’Arc~en~Ciel (yes, that is the official spelling, with the “~” signs) concert. L’Arc~en~Ciel is a popular J-rock band who have sold something like 33 million albums in Asia alone, and have done the opening theme songs for various anime like DNA^2, Great Teacher Onizuka, and most recently Full Metal Alchemist. Those were the only songs that I was familiar with by the group when I went to the concert, and I think it would have helped if I had known more. I had to wait a LONG time to get into the 1st Mariner Arena, where they were playing, and unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the event, since they tightly enforced the no-camera rule. But I can tell you about the gigantic line that stretched from the Convention Center, across the street, around the Federal Courthouse, and two blocks away into the arena itself. I waited about an hour and a half under the blazing sun and started to feel a little dizzy by the time the line started moving in earnest. Fortunately, once the line began moving, it moved quickly, and after starting in the line at 3:45 PM, I arrived inside the venue at 5:15 PM and waited 15 minutes for the concert to begin.
L’Arc~en~Ciel are a respectable rock band–few keyboards, lots of crunchy guitars, decent songwriting. I tried to evaluate them not as an anime fan, but as a music lover, and while their brand of 90s rock isn’t usually my taste, they played the songs that I knew pretty well. The crowd, being full of anime nerds, was surprisingly lacking in energy. The band took almost 10 minutes between the first set and the encore, because the cheering for the band to return to the stage was surprisingly sparse compared to other concerts I’ve been to (including last night’s Curiosa festival). The band also tried to play to the crowd, not always successfully. “I AM EVANGELION,” the lead singer announced. “GOING BERSERK!“ That got a rather lukewarm response, an indicator of how far Eva fandom has fallen; I hardly saw any costumes this year from Eva, for instance. Not to mention the hoariest of rock cliches: “ARE YOU HAVING A GOOD TIME? ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?“ Though perhaps the most bizarre moment came when, prior to the start of the encore set, the guitarist came out wearing some mask and asked the crowd “Who am I?” No one guessed correctly, and I was too far away to see (I had nosebleed seats high up in the stands), and I couldn’t understand his answer at all. Then he started throwing bananas out into the audience–the band did this several times–and then they began playing their more familiar tracks, to a better response from the crowd.
There was a friend there, Shine, who was familiar with most of their music–he was a fan of the band before he even knew much about anime–and he had a great time. The lucky man was able to sit up front, very close to the stage. That’s the best kind of concertgoing, when you know the songs and are close to the stage.
Anyways, back to the pictures!
In the evenings, there was an Otaku Rave. Much J-pop is heavily synthesized and electronica-based, so naturally there was going to be a techno-oriented dance in the evenings. Do not imagine that this is a dance filled with hipsters, though. Amid the glowsticks the distinct, pungent smell of nerdish human sweat filled the air. I spent just a few minutes inside to snap some grainy photos, as I’m no dancer.
That’s the DJ hunched over the turntables in the back. I tried to get a picture of the DJ without using flash, but it was hard. I got a slightly better picture of the space outside the rave.
This year, I decided not to buy anything from the dealer room aside from the official Otakon T-shirt. Most of what I want anime-wise are DVDs, and DVDs can be had for less money online. It was actually rather hard to get a good, evocative shot of the dealer room, but here are a couple of interesting shots. I have no idea who the people are in them.
Viz had this “Manga Money” booth where you enter and air blows all this play money inside. The object is to catch as much money as possible, and exchange it for manga and other goodies at the counter. It was perhaps the most amusing thing this year; there weren’t any crazy antics like last year’s ADV stunts.
Finally, no anime convention is complete without cosplay. (I neglected to explain the term last time: cosplay is short for “costume play,” basically dressing up as your favorite anime or related character. The term was invented by Japanese fans.) There were some truly atrocious costumes–you can get the full regalia over at Fansview.com–so I decided only to take the more tasteful examples. Here, for instance, are Spike and Faye from Cowboy Bebop.
And here is the rest of the Bebop crew.
Finally, I know some of you have been waiting for this one. There were plenty of girls in sailor outfits. Oh yes. Here’s a whole gaggle of them!
I still don’t like dyed hair though.
That wraps up the pictures from Otakon 2004. As you can see, my photography skills are rudimentary at best. Hopefully, next year, I’ll have more and better pictures to share! I thought it was a fun con, filled with plenty of activities for the anime geek like me.
One final note: as we were about to leave the hotel on Sunday morning, I noticed several androgynous looking Japanese guys, their apparent girlfriends or companions, and some others standing outside the lobby. Sure enough, based on my memory from the concert the day before, they were the members of L’arc~en~Ciel. I decided not to approach them, take pictures, or talk to them though. They had decided not to have an autograph session at the con and were getting ready to leave anyway. But you can take my word for it, if you so choose. 
I got to see them up close!
Next time: Curiosa review, alas with no pictures. (The camera phone sucked . . .)