Otakuthon 2014 Post-Convention Report

[Haruhifan]

Otakuthon 2014 Convention Report – August 22-24 from Montreal, QB at http://www.otakuthon.com/2014/home/



The first day was our travel day so we arrived at the hotel to rest up for the big days to come on the weekend. There were 3 big shows from The 404s this year: The Lost Episodes show, the infamous Last Pants Standing Late Night show and the Good Times at Otakuthon Finale show. The first show had a full packed standing room at a point cap of 250 or so people. The Late Night show in the theatre fit 1000 people and that was just about full. The final show seated about 300 of the 350 capacity. The overall convention had 17 650 attending, and that was impressive considering this year another convention was being held at the same time sharing the space of the Palais des Congrès, The International Society of Experimental Hematology, ISEH for short. http://www.iseh.org/ Meeting 2 of the professors during a meal at St. Hubert’s was good for an exchange of both their research and to explain to each other what the other’s convention was all about.

The crowd got to sample a bunch of scenes in the short form versions of The 404s shows. There were sound effects at an Amusement Park with Balloons, clown reveals and bird shooting. There was a commercial for the Greatest Hits about Pokémon in Tall Grass done to the sounds of Reggae and ABBA. The Bartender got to sing to aid several people from a person obsessed with plushies to Captain America who wanted to find love after being frozen for years. The classic 1930s PSA Hey You down There helped a couple of people work on their scrapbooking even if a bit of blood was spilled. There was a lovely Slideshow of a vacation to Anime North that involved dealing with a protesting group while in cosplay. Murder Telephone helped solve the case of Krillin from Dragonball who was killed in an airport washroom with a pizza cutter. A party even occurred that had all sorts of funny characters like some who had narcolepsy to a ghoul who wanted to eat humans.

There were lots of fan submitted lines and scenes used throughout the weekend. Some of the Scenes from a Hat including What Snake from Metal Gear Solid does in his box where he was shown playing cards, When Bronies Attack turning into a slap-fest, new Star Wars Characters by Disney including Sora from Kingdom Hearts with a lightsaber or Mickey Yoda, and What Pikachu is really saying is he hate everyone. Random Lines were used in swimming scenes to fix a computer so the kids “Don’t Let Mom Find Out” about a water-logged hard drives that lead to the “Super Cute” punishment, fending off that “Death Approaches” and cries of “don’t you die on me! Damnit!” because one has to “Believe in the me that believes in you!” Even when opposition was announced that “his power levels were over 9000!” the heroes prevailed on stage when told “you must listen to your heart.” The crowd was very appreciative and lively to get into all of the action of each and every show, as they too showed a lot of heart when also called on stage or asked for suggestions for the scenes.

This was the first year too that Otakuthon fans got to witness the Long Form Improv show dubbed the Lost Episodes. 2 long scenes were done. The first was the anime Free but with fan suggestions it was instead based on a Golf Club where apparently France became a haven for learning golf instead of Scotland and a group got to find their way to become a team again through putting and crazy antics. The second episode was the lost episode of Final Fantasy that got the suggestion of occurring in an Aquarium against a psychotic moogle named Mog, as the hero had to overcome a fish mermaid mom and other obstacles underwater.

There were some other fun events too. The most intriguing one was the Con Turnabout, a simulated court case from the video game Ace Attorney done with a cast mixed from the video game and a choice anime done in English or French so people can choose which to see. The English Kill La Kill one perked my interest and I was not disappointed. It was a fun-filled even with emotional pleas by Athena to defend her client Gamagoori of a murder he didn’t commit of Iori. The Judge kept the pace going nicely while adding some nice improvised lines between deliberations as 3 audience members got to participate in aiding Athena with the case. The convicted prosecutor Blackquill played quite a strong fearful role, while the cast that came on stage fulfilled some great role-playing by Ema Skye, Mako, Satsuki, Nonon and Nui. The added little touches from Satsuki’s bright backlighting intro to Athena’s emotional light amulet and screen added to the scenes that were also shown on screen like in the game.

The gaming rooms got changed to different locations but there was still plenty to play. Got to play my first Magic the Gathering Commander game where my Elves fought Slithers in what was something out of Lord of the Rings. For video games while only getting to play one game it was the one I had wanted to play for a while on the PS3: Disgaea D2! I still play the Disgaea series for levelling up and this version lived up to my expectations and addictive JRPG tabletop style turn-based fun.

Probably the most rewarding time again was returning to have Shabu Shabu (Asian Hotpot) with a bunch of The 404s fans who had invited the group again. It was at Kagayaki Shabu Shabu in the Chinatown and it was a wonderful time off to chat with friends and fans while having the meal between the Saturday 404s shows. I chose to have the mixed meat dish again along with some Grilled Negima Chicken skewers and some clams on the side. I also got to eat at Tong Sing for some Dim Sum dishes at www.tongsing.ca and found some BBQ Pork Buns, packs of Strawberry Pocky, Lychee Hard Candy and slushies/smoothies from within the area so there was a lot of good eats in the area of the convention as always.

Here is this year’s bounty of finds:

-A new Chi from Chobit plastic cutout art piece from Catherine Bulot at Katsuke.does.it
-A Sakura from Naruto Shippuden keychain from Carta Magica at http://www.cartamagica.com and a bunny keychain from A.T. Schmit at http://aaronschmit.tumblr.com and www.windowcomics.com
-Some promotional stickers from Crunchyroll who had their booth there to promote their anime and manga site at http://www.crunchyroll.com
-A lovely The Little Prince (a classic French work by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) notepad made by artist alley’s akiyama at http://akimiyajun.tumblr.com/
Most other art from there were postcard-sized art like a Mako/Ryuko from Kill La Kill piece along with a Nudist Beach button from www.sabrinasalamon.com and a different Mako/Ryuko artwork from http://bd-ghis.deviantart.com , and two done for Ryuko/Satsuki and the Inner Sailor Soldiers of Sailor Moon from http://lolisoupbby.tumblr.com/
I also got a Warrior cat keychain from http://sapphireluna.deviantart.com a pair of Disgaea pins of Flonne & Etna along with 2 magnets of a Prinny and a Final Fantasy moogle from http://www.winddrifter.com/ and a set of stickers of Kill La Kill’s Aikuro, Mako, Nonon and Satsuki from http://alexisneo.storenvy.com/
-I bought a few packs of Pokémon Furious Fists and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Alliance from various dealers and was happy to pull in particular both a Heracross EX and the Mega Evolution of the card!
-A brand new Fire Ferrets from The Legend of Korra series from www.sanshee.com
-Got photos from both Droo Photography whom I got to hang out with for once later at other events, and from a new photographer Renaud Carpentier at http://renardxp.deviantart.com
-2 new mini-figures in Konoka from Negima, and Toriko from http://navitoworld.com/shop/

Thanks for reading and do come back for the next convention report!



As always, I collect all videos of the Eastside 404s shows that can be found on the current ongoing Video Play Set at: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...uObMY2lv72Shcb

Check out this regularly updated public photo album of my convention photos (the newest photos are at the end pages of the album) at: http://www.crunchyroll.com/showphotoalbum?id=10061028

The latest events and links to The 404s can be found as well at the main website at: http://the404s.com/ Enjoy!