Woke up bright and early for another day at Otakon. Unfortunately, I learned that I forgot to pack a few cosplay items for Saturday - the wig for Azusa and the cat ears and tail for Kaleido Ruby. Never mind that, there's a huge dealers hall right across the street that might have the right fix. As my roommates were getting ready to line up for concerts and the gijinka panel, I decided to go check out the con.
I Love the 80s
I started off the day going old school wearing Minmay from "Macross: Do You Remember the Love?" Anime News Network, the same group that brought us Dubs Time Forgot at Anime Expo 2013, held a panel that highlighted the best anime of the 1980s. The panel room was filled to the brim by people who grew up with anime during the time period – single men ranging in their 30s and 40s. Clips from the original "Macross" were played. Most of the clips shown were from mecha and post-apocolyptic themed anime. My favorite clips were the comparison and contrast between "Robotech: The Movie" and "Megazone 23." The panelist went over the history how Cannon Films wanted a happier ending for the Robotech feature film, so new animation had to been done to supplement the original "MegaZone 23" footage. For me, it was a nostalgia bomb of sorts. I really enjoy going to panels that highlight things from my childhood and why I got into anime in the first place. It's a kind reminder why we are all here at Otakon.
Gaming Hall (like whoa!)
The game room was located right by the cosplayer gathering fountains in the main hall. After donating to Ejen's new Cosplay in America project, I went over to the game room just to look around and to see what they had. It was all open spaces – nothing was too cramped. You could tell this could have been a dealers hall in a past life, but it now houses e-gamming. There were a diverse amount of consoles and several tournaments going on in the game room. There was even several Dance Dance Revolution stations set up. For the most part, it was nice to people watch others playing rhythm and fighting games. The nice open space allowed less fanboy funk. It was also nice to see themed pachinko machines set up. There was something for everyone in the e-gaming room.
Power Rangers versus Super Sentai
2013 is the 20th anniversary of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' debut in the US. The Power Rangers franchise utilizes footage from Japanese super sentai. Unlike our partner group, Plastic Ronins, this panel's thesis was that the original sentai, Zyuranger, is superior to the Mighty Morphin adaptation. I did enjoy seeing a panel room filled with super sentai and tokusatsu nerds. While most of us admit to enjoying the Power Rangers franchise, it was hilarious to see clips from the original Zyuranger. We saw this clip about this spoiled prince and his flying car. We also saw some clips from the original Dairanger where the white ranger was from. We saw that the white ranger was originally a perverted little boy. Of course, a discussion about what Saban may do to Gokaiger was brought up. Though I'm not too big on purism, I thought this was still an enjoyable and entertaining panel.
Cats! A Panel
Circling around one of the convention center, there was a huge line for the panel about cats in Japanese culture and anime. It seems very random to see a cat themed panel at an anime convention, but one cannot deny the presence of cats in Japanese anime. This panel covered how different cultures view cats – the Western world associates cats with witchcraft and scheming while Eastern cultures grant them divine status. In some cases, guardian cats exist in these old world religions and are later incarnated in anime such as Sailor Moon as Luna and Artemis. We also covered theories behind Kuroneko in Trigun – the points in the story where she appears and if she's an incarnation of Rem. We also saw some cat commercials and saw how revered cats were in Japanese culture and tourism. One Japanese train station is very much cat themed and the station captain is a cat. Another tourist attraction is better known as cat island – a while back, the island had rat infestation, so the cats were brought over to exterminate the vermin. Another attraction for locals is the cat café – urbanites usually cannot own cats in their apartments, so they visit cat cafes to play with cuddly felines.
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