Ohayocon 2012: My First Anime Convention! - Day 1
Greetings!
This past weekend (January 27th - January 29th), I attended Ohayocon 2012, my first ever anime convention! Until now, I had only seen the major anime conventions (Anime Expo, Anime Festival Asia, etc.) through Culture Japan and through the posts of other users here on figure.fm. Now, I had the opportunity to experience an anime convention of my own firsthand. And to think: a year ago, the thought of attending an anime convention of any sort would have never crossed my mind. Oh, how things change over time. At first, I didn’t know that Ohayocon even existed, let alone any anime convention in my neck of the woods. But we have the Internet, and what a powerful tool it is!
So, a few weeks ago, I was using Google-sensei to see if there were any anime/hobby-related shops around my college. Finding none at first, I kept searching until I came across a link to something called “Ohayocon 2012.” Following that link, I discovered that not only was Ohayocon 2012 an anime convention that was coming up in a few weeks, but it was also being held not far from my college. From there, it was a matter of reading up on the different panels, reassembling my Eiji Seiun cosplay, and reminding myself not to go overboard with purchasing merchandise at the convention. Since I had classes for the majority of the first day of the convention, I decided to save my cosplay for Saturday and use the first day to explore everything that the convention had to offer.
Here are some of the photos I took on January 27th, the first day of Ohayocon 2012.
(Some of the images have white dots, which I can only guess is from my camera's age. I apologize for that.)
Down in the basement of the convention center to go get registered and obtain my badge. There were people and cosplayers everywhere!
Entering the convention floor, I was literally floored by how many people there were and how many different booths and dealers there were. I was not expecting this at all.
Oh look! There's Sailor Moon!
There were several booths selling swords, katanas, Airsoft guns, and other miscellaneous prop weapons. This was the biggest one...so many swords. At one point, they even held a raffle!
This wall scroll caught my eye as I wandered around the convention floor. I wonder where I could find this for sale...
Perched above one of the booths were these stuffed turrets from Portal. Aren't they cute? Even their eyes light up!
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this and other booths like it: scale figures, figmas, Nendoroids, and everything in between. I was not expecting to find these things here, especially considering some of the figures I saw. I swear, a lot of the figures they were selling had been sold out online for months!
How did they end up here?
Overlooking the convention floor was the Artist's Gallery, where local artists could display and sell their artwork. Not all of it was on paper though; some artists displayed plushies, accessories, and other miscellaneous items.
Looking at the convention floor from the Artist's Gallery. There's so much going on down there!
Another view of the convention floor from the Artist's Gallery. I cannot tell you how impressed I was at how much anime-related stuff they squeezed into this space. Truly a sight to behold...at least for me anyway.
Moving away from the convention floor, there were plenty of things going on all around the convention center: group cosplay photo opportunities, cosplayers going around in character, and lots of panels on everything from Vocaloid to the art of Japanese flower arranging.
Let's take a look at some of the cosplayers I photographed around the convention.
Here is the first of many Link cosplayers. Though I think the shield is a little too big for him. Perhaps he needed additional defense in order to take on Ganondorf?
The first of several groups at this spot near the stairs. They were all holding what looked like light-up pens/laser pointers, but I couldn't figure out who they were. Do any of you know what this group is?
Even though this was an anime convention, there was bound to be some Team Fortress 2 cosplayers. Here, we have a female Soldier wielding a Direct Hit, a Pyro with his trusty Flamethrower, and a female Engineer with a good, old-fashioned wrench.
Yay! Hatsune Miku! This was one of several Miku cosplayers I saw. They were everywhere! There was even a male Miku running around!
The Puella Magi Madoka Magica girls, minus Homura. Fortunately, I did see a Homura running around later in the day.
A well-executed Soldier cosplay, complete with the Black Box, a favorite weapon of choice for many TF2 players.
What do we have here? The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time cosplayers! From left to right, we have Princess Ruto (holding the Zora Sapphire), Zora Tunic Link, Navi (with a "Hey! Listen!" speech bubble), and Saria.
Two of the main characters from Steins;Gate. I watched the first few episodes of the anime, but it got thoroughly confusing very fast. The mad scientist guy on the right stayed in character quite well.
A well-executed cosplay of Harley-Quinn from Batman: The Animated Series. Look at the grinning grenade!
Panel break!
The first panel I attended was on Hiragana. We also learned some basic greetings and other phrases as well. Unfortunately, we didn't get through the process of writing out every single hiragana (we got up to "to" when time ran out), but it was great nonetheless.
I suspect Danny's "Moekana" series will be much more effective.
Now, on to more cosplay!
Not sure what this group was about. I see a Sentret on the left, right next to a Pikachu, but it seems that this must have been people that came to the convention as a group.
One of several Celty Sturluson cosplayers. The flash really reflected off everything for some reason...I apologize for that.
I did see another Celty with Shinra later in the day; they were hilarious.
More TF2 cosplayers, this time with some love for the BLU team. That BLU Spy was the only Demoman-related thing I saw through the entire convention.
Three Vocaloids: Hatsune Miku, Kaito, and another whose name escapes me.
Who is that third Vocaloid-esque character?
Not really sure what was going on here, but it was hilarious nonetheless.
Witch fighting?
A strangely-dressed female Scout trooper and a blue-armored Mandalorian. Boba Fett would be proud.
Aha! Here is one of several Sailor Moon cosplayers I saw running around the convention. Out of all of the Sailor Senshi I saw, the only ones I did not see were Uranus, Neptune, and the three Starlights.
I also saw a few Tuxedo Kamen sneaking around...
Now these were some awesome Mandalorians. One of them even had a speaker system built into his costume so he could talk with his helmet on!
Jango Fett would be most pleased.
There's Waldo!
Anakin Skywalker, before Obi-Wan left him for dead. I wonder where the 501st is? Shouldn't Anakin be raiding the Jedi Temple instead of running around a silly anime convention?
I think this guy was cosplaying as some guy that's part of an Internet meme or something. Either way, he was very funny!
While waiting for a panel on Kamen Rider and tokusatsu-in-general to start, I found a well-executed cosplay of Ankh from Kamen Rider OOO. I wonder how many Medals are in that booklet?
And finally, Black Rock Shooter!
I saw a few other ones, but this was the best of them all. At least there isn't a fire on her eye...if there was, I'd probably have to start running. There's no telling when BRS will go Samus on you with that blaster.
And that concludes the first day of Ohayocon 2012. I will have the second day's dose of photos up later this week.
They are all cosplaying, "The Doctor" a character from a British Sci-Fi show called Doctor Who. It's getting quite popular here in the States. Also a fun tid-bit, the light up device is called a sonic screwdriver in the show.
Also congrats on your first con! Was it an overwhelming experience for you? Anime conventions are pretty good places to find some real rarities in terms of merchandises, not to mention good deals on the last day of conventions since most vendors tend to do sales so that they don't have to carry stuff back with them.
Thank you Sinistra!
At first, I was a bit overwhelmed at how much stuff was going on. Just looking at the panel schedule for each day was enough to make my head spin. No matter what time it was, there was something happening somewhere in the convention center. Plus, I had never seen so much anime-related stuff in one place at one time.
I sort of felt like a kid in a candy store. It was so easy to talk to other people about Japanese culture and anime, not to mention easy to find good merchandise to purchase.
Overall, it was an amazing experience. And this was just the first day!
I think the group with the pikachu are all cosplaying pokemin gijinka, pokemon in a more human form, atleast thats what it looks like lol
The WTF look! lol
ooOOOOoooo Peace of candy.
Boots?!
Touhou Spell Card Battle?!
I would assume that is Akaito (where aka is Japanese for red), a fanmade deviation of Kaito.
Glad to see you enjoyed your first convention. I hope you will enjoy other conventions that you will attend in the future and eventually make your way to the larger ones that you mentioned early on in your post. Can't wait to see you as Eiji Seiun as well!
Also, in regards to the white dots and grain/digital noise, I think your camera's ISO is set too high. If it's a regular point-and-shoot digital camera, I would personally use the lowest ISO setting available to minimize noise.
Thank you CobaltTempest!
It would be awesome to go to Anime Expo someday. I wish I could have gone this past summer (with Miku's debut performance in the United States and all), but I had other things going on that weekend. Plus, it's a little far away from my neck of the woods. One of these days I'll get there. And maybe, just maybe, you'll see a more refined version of my Eiji Seiun cosplay.
Also, thanks for the tips on camera settings. Unfortunately, all I have at my disposal is a regular point-and-shoot digital camera that's five years old. I have little control over the ISO settings...it's more or less automatic, and if I didn't use flash, the pictures would be too dark. I'll give it a try though.
I've also been looking into getting a better digital camera; all I need to do is save up the necessary funds.
Great post! I love to see first convention posts and the like, because I almost become envious of all the amazing Otaku adventures and conventions that await, and shall always continue! I hope you enjoy it! ( ^ ^)/
Thank you GenshikenServo!
For my first anime convention, I really enjoyed it! And this was just the first day; the second day was even better!
Awwww Okarin & Christina! <3
I went to Ohaiyocon once. '06 I believe. It's a good con, but a bit far for me. I went to meet with a friend from FFXI though, so that was cool. Meeting internet friends is always fun. Looks like you had fun too!
Ohayocon* that is. I haven't fully woken up yet. :P
Thank you Usako!
Despite the fact that I didn't run into anyone from the dannychoo.com/figure.fm community, I had a lot of fun! The panels, the cosplayers, the convention floor...it was all beyond awesome!