Crittle went to this con, cuz it was about 40 minutes away from my house! And also...cuz Mike Sinterniklaas was there for the first time lol. Let me just say though, that even though it was awesome to see Mike again so soon after Anime Next...this con wasn't really all that great. Oh, I bet you guys all thought I was gonna be like "this con was awesome cuz mike was there!!!" didn't ya? WRONG. This con seems to obviously be popular, because it gets an average of 20 some thousand a year! Though the people who attend must be attending for different reasons then I.
I don't know about you guys, but I attend cons for the guests. If I see a con with guests I'm not really interested in, I won't go to it. If I see a con with guests I'm interested in meeting, then I'll go if I can afford to. I wanted to go to this con because I wanted to be there with Mike for his first Otakon since I didn't live that far away, plus Miss Clinkenbeard is always an awesome guest experinece as well lol. And though Vic and Aaron of Fullmetal Alchemist get fangirled to death often, I have to say they're both pretty great people as well.This convention though, has too many people, and is too disorginized considering the amount of people that come to it!
I understand that sometimes some things can't be helped, like for example the fact that Mike's first panel on Friday had to be pushed back because his plane was delayed. Understandable. The WHOLE weekend though, different panels kept getting switched with other panels or canceled altogether with no warning or reason as to why. Alot of panels also started very late, like the Shin-Chan one I wanted to attend, because Colleen and her other guest (whose name I forget,forgive me) didn't even know they were supposed to be there! What's up with that? They were half an hour late, came running in saying they were sorry, they were never told they were supposed to be there, no one told them! I think the staff needed to make the guests more aware of things they were supposed to be doing! Aren't they supposed to give their guests a little list of things they're supposed to do every day? Also...they need to make it a little more obvious on the schedule made for fans, who is going to be at what panel. I was only aware of 2 things Mike was doing Friday, and 3 things he was doing Saturday, and NOTHING on Sunday! If he did MORE then just those things, they should have put below each panel who was running it, like they do at Anime Next! And if he WASN'T doing more then just those things, THEY NEED TO LEARN TO USE THEIR GUESTS BETTER!
This applies to ALL guests, not just Mike of course! They paid to bring the guests here, shouldn't they use them more then 2 or 3 times a day? I mean, I know they can't be over used and drained out and everything, but....ya know? Its almost like it was a waste of their time...though I guess it was more like a mini vacation to alot of them heh.
Well, that was my little rant/review of Otakon this year...not much to do in the ways of panels, they didn't use ANY of their guests very well, and their scheduling was VERY disorginized. I don't plan on going back next year, even if Mike DOES come back, unless I look at the schedule first and see that they are using their guests better, giving them more things to do a day!
I suppose it wasn't all 100% horrible though, I had some interesting moments/conversations with my boyfriend, my friend Ash, and of course Mike lol My friend Ash has some pics that I'll post as soon as she hands them over to me. Also, I have the most awesome voicemail message now XD So, pics soon!
And there you have it!
