Otakon 2012 pictures from Friday

So, Otakon was two weeks ago, and I haven't gotten around to uploading any pictures yet.  That changes now.  I took a ton of pictures, and handed my camera off to other people during the photoshoots I was in, so they took a ton more pictures, so all in all, I've got 843 images.  I haven't gone through all of them yet, and I'm sure some at least are pretty blurry.  Anyway, let's go in order.

Thursday

We arrived Thursday afternoon, around 4 or 5.  By far the earliest we've ever arrived.

Our hotel room, once we'd brought all our things in.  The whole left wall in this picture was lined with boxes for my friend's costumes.  It took several trips with multiple people to get everything in.

After unpacking, we went and got our badges and met up with some other friends, then wandered around a bit more before coming back to the room.  All night, we (well, one of my friends and the girls we met up with earlier) worked on making a bow and arrow for someone's costume for the next day.  It was a cheap prop, but it worked well enough, I suppose.

Friday

Since we had picked up our badges on Thursday, and we were in the Hilton (which is connected to the Convention Center), we were able to walk right in on Friday morning.  After putting on our costumes, of course.

This is my friend's Canti (from FLCL) right before we left.  He has spent the better part of the last 6 months working on it.

Some people from Full Metal Panic on the way over.  I don't really know the show, but I liked the giant... mouse?  It squeaked with every step, too.

Friday morning crowds.  Nothing compared with what would come later.

We met a second red Canti, so my friend had to get some pictures together.

Kid, from Chrono Cross.  I always like seeing the lesser-done shows and games that I know.

The fountains were off all weekend.  I don't know why.  Maybe someone got in trouble last year, or maybe they were under maintenance or something.

The line for preregistration was 3 or 4 hours long in the morning.  At-door registration was probably about the same.  Glad I didn't have to wait through that in the 100+ degree weather.

The line for the Dealer's Hall was also stupidly long.  Well, it was just stupid.  They kept opening it and closing it, telling people to disperse and come back later (very few people did).  It seemed like no one really knew what was going on.  Apparently, the line was too long for fire codes or something.  Hopefully they'll figure out how to organize it better for next year.

You're not an anime girl!

My Little Pony was popular this year.  I haven't watched the show, but one of my friends was in this shot, so I got the picture anyway.

Canti vs Castle Crashers.

White mages are always classic.  I think I made his day when I asked for his picture and not the picture of the two (much fancier) costumes next to him.  I'm not sure, but I think the other two were from one of the newer Final Fantasy games.  I'm not that familiar with the latest ones.

My friend (middle), our friend (right), and her friend (left).  We split up shortly after this picture so I could get autographs.

While in line for Gen Urobuchi's autograph, the people just behind me started playing the game from Steins;Gate (which I haven't watched).  It looked interesting.  Simple game (I still remember all the rules), but complex strategy.  Like chess.

Nagisa!  Clannad is still my favorite show ever.

Dr. Wily.  Not a costume I expected to see.

Tomoya from Clannad.  Too bad I didn't see him with the Nagisa earlier.  I also didn't bring my Tomoya cosplay this year.

Final Fantasy VI seems to be gaining in popularity over the past few years.  It's become increasingly common to see characters from it, especially in large groups.  This is Terra/Tina Branford and Relm Arrowny.  VI is still the best Final Fantasy.  And video game.  Ever.

Here's me.  I'm dressed as Arc from the DS remake of Final Fantasy III, in his Freelancer (base) job outfit.

Guarding the escalators.  The closer one is one of the characters from Heroes of Newearth.  I haven't played it and don't remember the character's name, but the person in the costume said he's actually a developer for the game.  Pretty cool.  They were standing there for at least 10 or 15 minutes.

Then they got in a fight.

Not from an anime, but still a cool suit of armor.  He didn't make it himself, though (I asked).

Lucia from Lunar II!  I loved that game.  I keep thinking one of these days I should go as Hiro.

Marle from Chrono Trigger.  She has the crossbow on her back, too.

Some of my friend's friends dressed in Black Rock Shooter cosplays.

Shortly after we returned to the hotel room for the night, we looked out the window and saw a fireworks show some two or three hundred feet away in the baseball stadium.  I guess someone won.  We recorded most of the show on camera.  It lasted a little over 10 minutes, which I think is longer than the 4th of July fireworks I saw.

I'll come back and post stuff from Saturday and Sunday sometime later.  If you see yourself in here, feel free to post a comment.  If you saw me take a picture of you, and it's not in here, send me a message and I can send you the photo(s).  I have far too many to post them all in a blog.