After Otaku no Video, Jeff found Kim. She was dressed as Sailor Saturn, glaive and all. That explains the wallscroll Jeff bought. He didn't have it with him, although he did take a picture of her and a friend she had, dressed as Sailor Pluto.
At 2:00 was a Bandai panel I wanted to see. I split ways with the rest of the guys and headed to panel room 3. Bandai mostly covered their current plans and future releases. They announced Char's Counterattack on DVD sometime in 2002. I was going to ask a question on Zeta Gundam, but someone got to it before I did: no plans to pick it up yet. Damn it. And I was hoping for Zeta before Char's Counterattack came out. I stuck around until the end, listening to what Bandai had to say. I'm glad that I did, since I received a free The 08th MS Team dog tag for attending their panel all two hours.
I was supposed to meet Jeff in video room 2 for Macross TV 1-4, although that had been cancelled in favor of Getter Robo: Armageddon 1-4. I sat through the entire thing and was very impressed. I get the feeling everyone else was lost, so I explained it to someone next to me exactly what was going on. For those who haven't seen Getter Robo and/or Getter Robo G before Getter Robo: Armageddon, it's like watching a bunch of seemingly random events and strange/really pissed-off characters fighting in stupid-looking mecha for reasons unknown. Believe me, there is a story behind all of it, you just need to understand why everything looks and plays out as it does. So, other than Getter Robo: Armageddon turning out to be very cool, I really had nothing to do until 9 pm when "Mystery Anime Theatre 3000" showed and the must-see music video contest immediately afterward. Thus, I went in search of Jeff.
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Of course I didn't have a chance finding him. The convention center was way too huge to find anyone. I visited the art gallery and was going to browse the dealer's room, only to see a line a mile long. OK, dealer's room later.
I found Jeff and the rest of the guys from Pennsylvania had made it. We had a few of them wait in linefor us for "MAT3K" and the music videos. At about 8:30 I joined them in line to avoid the "stairway and escalator guards." After a short wait we were shuffled into the main events room and claimed some pretty good seats toward the front.
Here are some general things I noticed about otaku-type crowds:
- The number "2" is bad, the number "42" is good, and "69" gets a standing ovation
- Pokemon are great to throw around to gain crowd reaction
- EVERYONE WANTS CHAIR!
- Nobody really cares if Samurai Showdown (in a badly done English dub) gets used for "MAT3K" material. Video games really do make bad anime
- Watch out for spoilers during the music videos (quote from fan: "S__ dies?!")
"MAT3K" was hilarious. The music videos were great to watch as well. I just love the fact that the anime community is the only one to show creativity and artistic expression like this. You never see movie buffs or sitcom fanatics do fan-made music videos, do you? Cowboy Bebop, Trigun and Revolutionary Girl Utena seemed to be popular choices for music video content. In fact, cosplay was also full of these anime. I must have seen at least twenty Wolfwoods walking around, although some had better crosses than others. =)
"MAT3K" and music videos ended around 2:30 am. We headed back to the hotel room and got some sleep.
To be continued...
Also read 2001: An Otakon Odyssey - Part I and Part II.