Otakon 2009

By EricMesa

July 26, 2009 - 3 minutes read - 532 words

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“People came to Otakon from all around the USA”] [/caption]

For the first time since moving here, I found out about Otakon ahead of time. Unfortunately, the economics didn’t work out we didn’t buy tickets. But I did go to hang out outside Otakon on Saturday to get some photos. Lessons learned:

Remember what you learned in Hawaii and don’t be afraid to approach people. This is especially the case with Otakon. The cosplayers have spent a long time working on their costumes, sometimes up to a whole year. They want to show off their costumes. So go up to them and ask to photograph them.
With a 1.6x crop factor camera like the Canon 400D, 28mm is not wide enough. It’s very, very crowded at Otakon. They had something like 19 000 preregistered attendees. I missed out on getting some awesome shots of costumes such as this one where the girl on the left had an amazing bottom part to her costume, but I couldn’t fit her and her friend in without backing up a lot more
Buy tickets to Otakon! I missed out on a bunch of costumes because they were walking into the conference too quickly for me to intercept them at the door. So attend so you can see all the costumes

And now here is my photo essay on Otakon 2009.

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Lots of Pokemon trainers including multiple Ash Ketchums and Mistys. It can be hard to have an original costume at Otakon.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption=“People didn’t only cosplay from anime, they also cosplayed video games. In this case, it was Team Fortress 2.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption=“This was another video game cosplay - this time from Street Fighter IV.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“325” caption=“Goth Lolita is a very popular style in Harajuku, Japan and is often cosplayed at anime conventions. There were quite a few women cosplaying lolitas.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“A very unique cosplay came in the form of this group cosplaying Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“These women are cosplaying an anime called Soul Eater. Many costumes ranged from the skimpy to the elaborate and full-body-covering.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption=“A unique costume not only in its complexity, but also its subject. By choosing an anime that came out a while ago, one can get a better chance of being the only one cosplaying that character.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption=“This Iron Man cosplay was very, very intricate and he was constantly stopped to pose for photos.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption=“Phoenix Wright is a video game where the player is a lawyer. His signature catchphrase is on the sign.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption=“Yet another video game cosplay with this pair from Portal.”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption=“I wanted to finish up with a cosplay from my favorite anime, Ranma 1/2. It was a special treat to see this since Ranma is a pretty old anime so there is less of a chance of people cosplaying it. The characters are the heads of the Tendo and Saotome households.”] [/caption]