In one word Akicon 2011 rocked the house

By Dan Morrill On October 10, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Anime, Conventions

akicon2011

We spent the weekend at Aki-Con a cross over anime and Japanese culture convention at the Bellevue Hilton and had a riot. What was cool to see though, was that there were so many different kinds of cross over’s that just about every kind of pop culture was represented. From Poison Ivy to Doctor Who, to hard-core anime, this was the show to be at this weekend. Yes, Geek Girl con was going at the same time, but we were not able to go due to scheduling conflicts that revolved around Aki-con.

I swear this weekend was all about “when panda’s attack Bellevue”, but in many ways this is where I think many conventions are going to go. A central theme, but everyone welcome. Vendors and participants really brought out a lot of very cool costumes, designs, contests, and photo opportunities. Of course, for me the highlight of the show was a robotic dalek over in artist’s alley by Netsuma/ChibiTsubi (links to her DA site). I will be posting some seriously awesome glamour photos of the dalek later on in the day. However, seriously a remote controlled 14-inch robotic dalek just simply made my day.

They also had the slants, and they were a good band, early Sunday morning they did an acapella set out front at 7AM that simply rocked the house. Seriously, anyone who can sound that good after putting on a late night concert with hundreds of screaming fans is an awesome band. From the vendor viewpoint, most vendors did fairly well, but as with all conventions, some do awesome, some break even, and others wonder why they went. That is the nature of Anime; it is so very difficult to pin down what is hot or not this week. Anime is a very dynamic field, and of course, the kids were looking for things that can only be found in the USA via Bootlegs, or not at all.

Have to ask the question in hopes that anyone can answer it, why do anime fans focus on trying to find the most obscure never heard of objects out of some of these anime shows? There is no way unless the person went to Japan that they would find them, and odds are highly likely that the price of those items would be insanely expensive. It is a tough call for the vendors and for the participants in a show.

Overall though, and in talking with others, this was the best Aki-con so far to date. Everyone had a blast, good stuff to do, awesome vendors this year with a ton of cool stuff. Some very neat to see cross over’s between Japanese Anime and Doctor Who, and other characters in the DC/Marvel universe. You need to go next year; we already bought our booth so expect to see us having a riot and doing very cool stuff. It looks like next year will be in a new location as Aki-Con was crowded this year, thinking some 2000 people went to the show. This show was totally worth checking out, and if you see us, stop by and say hello.