August 7, 2006
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Artists’ Convention
From August 4-6 was Otakon 2006, the annual anime convention in Baltimore, MD’s inner harbor. It was enjoyable, as usual, but as the years go on I start going after different aspects of a given convention, and this year was quite different. For starters, I don’t even keep up with what’s current. And I don’t have as much of an interest in keeping current unless I see something that really strikes me as good (and there have been a few now and then). Also, I passed on a hotel; I decided to drive in for an hour there and back each day.
As for the convention itself, well, there were two big changes.
1) Lunar Panel
For starters, myself and three other long-time Lunar fans got together to host a panel on our favorite RPG series. Surprisingly, the room was packed, we got to talk a lot about what we enjoy, and it appeared to get a great reception (despite not being able to show a 10-minute animated short, based on part of the series–licensing issues). And, those same folks on the panels are people I’ve known for years (since 1997-1998) online, and finally got the chance to meet in person.
2) Artists Alley
It wasn’t so much the alley, as the fact that I spent 95% of my time there. Ended up that I knew 5-6 of the folks running tables (2 off the Lunar panel, and 2-4 friends since college).Enough with that. I gotta continue with previous convention conventions and post up some photos. Not a whole lot of incredibly impressive costumes this year, but there were some ones that stood out real well:
We had Dark Link. A Red Link was walking around, too, but I was a bit afraid to approach him. What with the pyromania and all. 
Frog, from Chrono Trigger. There was a Lucca running around, too, but I didn’t manage to catch up with her. 
And pirates! 
And winner for originality goes to the Shy Guys. Err, Shy Girls. With the key. …no Phantos, though. 
Well, that’s it. I’m doing a write-up for the Lunar panel specifically over at LunarNET, but that won’t be done until perhaps Wednesday or Thursday this week (hopefully). KF
