One thing I sorely regret not doing was taking pictures of my trip to Otakon 2008 in Baltimore Maryland. Went there with a friend mainly just to see JAM Project but wound up having more fun than I expected. Met up with some other people at the JAM Project concert and had a great time with them and the panels and video showings we went to were great also. Most of the time my friend and I spent in the Dealers room which had a wider variety of stuff than expected but didn’t find a few things I was hoping to find.
Wound up blowing around $700 total in the three days I was there.
In the pictures above I got had gotten
Another Blood(Demonbane)
Revoltech Ami & Mami(Idolm@ster) I wouldn’t have gotten them if they weren’t on sale or if one was missing.
Haruka Amami PVC Figure from Idolm@ster Xenoglossia
MG Turn A Gundam(100th MG)
MG Crossbone Gundam Skull Heart Full Cloth
JAM Project No Borders World Tour CD
New Getter Robo
Collection 1 & 2 of GaoGaiGar
Collection 1 & 2 of G Gundam
Gravion Complete series
Char’s Counter Attack
Giant Robo
Combat Butler Hayate Volume 8
Not shown in the pictures are the JAM Project T-shirt and then the limited edition Chihiro Shindou dakimakura(Will talk about this later on)
2008 I could say was a huge change in my life towards anime and the Otaku culture. I had been apart of the online community Dannychoo for a few months by the time 2008 had rolled around so I knew quiet a bit about anime related good but never had gotten any besides a couple figures and some Gundam models. When I finally got my own debit card since I’m still in High School and living with my mom I was able to have more freedom on what to buy than I did before. Before this most of the money that was spent on anime relate stuff was spent on mangas and dvd boxsets but after getting it I started to buy more figures, and character goods. Two purchases that I made online and offline which I’m most proud of were the Chihiro Shindou and Hinagiku Katsura Dakimakura’s. They were the first non figure/manga/dvd anime related purchase I had ever made. When I saw the Chihiro Shindou dakimakura I thought “Must buy!” because I was a huge and still am Chihiro fan. I didn’t know at the time it was actually a limited edition dakimakura that came with the preorder of ef the latter tale visual novel.
My friend and family members think I have certain “issues” because of the amount of figures and character goods like Dakimakura’s I purchase.
Finally in the otaku world I experienced this past year was the creations known as Visual Novels. To most who do bare minimum research think that they’re Hentai games. To an extant that’s true as a lot of them do have H-scenes in them but not all are H-games. Over the course of 2008 I played both Demonbane Visual novels, Chaos;Head, Imouto Pet, ef the first tale, ef the latter tale, Wanko to Kurasou, Ever17 and Planetarian. The time spent on them was staggering. I remember thinking I’d be able to go through two routes in Ever17 in one night but they were so long it took me 2 days to do the two routes. Overall it was a great experience and I plan on playing more in the 2009 year.
Mizuki imagining Chihiro sleeping on a bench
