Otakuthon 2012 - A Convention Report

[Haruhifan]

Otakuthon 2012 in Montreal August 4-5 shows (travelled on 3rd and 6th) at http://www.otakuthon.com/

Welcome to my Otakuthon 2012 convention report! Otaktuhon was another success topping over 10000 people from all over coming to the grand anime event. The events room of 200 was normally full including standing room, with the late night Saturday room filled at 300 plus seated and about another 50 standing while rotating in and out of the room.

Here are a few of the in show highlights this year:

*League made its return to Montreal. We had special guest “Mountain” Savage Bandito ( http://www.youtube.com/user/domainfilms/featured) for this 2 part Saturday show that had a traditional show then the League Format. It featured everything from chain smoking unicorns that got depressed at times (callback during props) to 3 lone wolves, with me being hungry and reciting wolf themed songs like Hungry like a Wolf and Bad Moon Rising.

*League scenes went from myself being Justin Bieber being run over by the Delorean by Doc Brown and Marty McFly, to becoming a mom shot in the eyes by her son who was aiming at his new cute monster that previously eaten her and spit her out.

* I once more got to give a Press conference where I was Sean Connery with a sex change. Other regular show moments from the other shows that weekend included Emotional Objects that got madly lusting, the opening act of being Schwarzenegger about how to kill doctors, a French Film Dub, a Survivor retelling of Axis Powers Hetalia with guns, emotionally unstable Japan, and plenty of pasta and seppuku.

*Sunday’s finale also had Murder Telephone of Aerith at a disco with musical spoons which featured Donald Duck trying to guess the crime. “Bill Cosby” showed up during party quirks then in authors/characters with a texting gal, while I was guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives talking about a fish story. The Dating Game had me as a survivalist prepping for the end of 2012 with a pregnant gal who had the contestant’s baby and a turret from portal. A movie director made a Twilight film remake with were cats, anthromorphic furries, musicals and a gay lead on a gradually hot set. Living scenery had the cast get on their audience participating as horses going off to battle.

* Other funny moments saw Random Lines from Aurora Tourism that included: “No your Grace” leading to Pope being in the next door town and me wearing the hat tightly, and a “French Drop” to end the scene. A lot happened during First Line (not a thief but a treasure hunter) and Last Line (I will be the shadow to your light) from a robbery to surprise thieves appearing. Props saw fans lend the cast with San’s spear from Princess Mononoke, a fan and Jack Skellington skull which I wore to become Kate Moss, to re-enact a Shakespearian scene to “alas poor yorick in America”, bowling like in the movie Mystery Men, and seeing the skull of Celine Dion being puked out after eating at her new purchase the famed Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal. Freeze Tag led to having a 3 headed disease patient needed to be cut down with a chainsaw by his doctor to end the finale.

There was lots to do as well at the convention. I had a lovely Sunday brunch with the guests Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt and Scott McNeil talking about their current shows, some future projects, and even being filmed and photographed a few times by other attendees while we pondering the serious things in life like Fruit Loops and The Legion of Superheroes.

I also saw the video rooms on my free time, as well as the video gaming area in a much larger room now which was a great place to try some games like the new Naruto Ninja Storm game, Street Fighter X Tekken, and even some old school Power Stone 2. The upstairs Cosplay Cafe was a nice rest stop while being able to play Rock Paper Scissors hosted by Naruto Road to Ninja’s Hinata Hyuga, which I got to do and lost to a Pokemon in the finals – Pikachu needs to be checked for his speed! It was all in good fun as was seeing some of the AN Idol where one of my friends got to the finals.

FINDS from the Dealer’s Room and Artist Alley:

*Another hard to find Mahou Sensei Negima figure, this time it’s Asuna I found to go with Makie from Conbravo and Ako I found last year at AN.
*An older Zoroark Pokemon package that had 3 boosters too for the CCG.
*Various Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and also the Gold Series Haunted Mine box.
*Some neat magnets from the Artist Alley of Durarara’s Shizuo, FMA’s Al and Soul of Soul Eater.
*More Hi-Chew, I’m hooked on it bad!
* Oh and not a find but I highly recommend to keep cool at the con slushies and smoothies (strawberry is my flavour of choice). I had some from their version of Mac’s Milk and some from the Chinatown where I had some great BBQ buns too.

There are a ton of videos posted by users like at http://www.youtube.com/user/AriusChambers with videos starting at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axM3_sIWm9k and http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxBatinaHat who has 2 videos posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v26RX_kdtvw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkE6qEAib48

As always, all videos of the Eastside shows and more can also be found on a playlist at:

Older First Set - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2940D4CF10ED601B
The Current Ongoing Set of Videos - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA0B3C6356020E27B
And a different playlist for various convention videos mixing conventions I’ve been to and others I liked seeing online: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL219D2649FE1180BE
Finally, check out this regularly updated photo album at: http://www.crunchyroll.com/showphotoalbum?id=10061028

It was fun getting to act at this convention and we even got some guests on stage like Savage Bandito (http://www.youtube.com/user/domainfilms/featured ) some of the Basement Kids (http://www.youtube.com/user/basementkids999/featured and The Nostalgia Critic (http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/vid...talgia-critic/ ) too at the last 2 conventions we were performing at.

Merci!