|
Ohayo-Con 2008 Convention Report by:
The-Real-Link
For my 5th Ohayocon, I was again looking forward to that great feeling one gets from not only spending time with family for the holidays, but also the first real chance there is to see so many friends on the convention circuit. It is one thing to attend and feel an event is the “same old same old” deal, but another to remember that for people there, this in fact may be their first convention ever.
Aside from a solid schedule of personal photo shoots, I again was able to take in the sights, sounds, and excitement of a traditionally extremely enjoyable convention hitting the greater Columbus area right after Christmas and after this weekend, I can rightfully say that this year was in fact a very pleasant experience. From any courteous staffers I ran into to the heart-pounding drumming featured during opening ceremonies to an excellent masquerade, I would suffice it to say that this year featured much of what made previous Ohayo-Cons so worthwhile while at the same time offering unique events for attendees whether new or seasoned.
As I primarily roamed the halls and convention center during this event, there are only a few panels and events I can personally speak of as to the quality of their execution. Before getting to that however, I wanted to touch upon what I did find in the halls. In terms of the cosplay and costume scene this year, Naruto, Bleach, and Kingdom Hearts continued to reign supreme along with quite a few niche or obscure cosplays making the rounds. Examples of cosplays that were both well-received and obscure (yet all nicely crafted) included a fully-leather constructed Vash cosplay from Trigun, a glowing Thomas Bangalter cosplay from Daft Punk, a neat Curse-Feel Kiminaro from Naruto, a Bubble Gum Crisis Hard-suit, and an amazing Zora Armor Link from Twilight Princess, amongst so many deserving others.
Of the panels and events I attended, the Zelda Panel, the Masquerade, and Opening / Closing Ceremonies were all fun and enjoyable. The Zelda Panel discussed everything from inconsistencies in the games to story-line, to general observations of the past and future of the franchise. The Masquerade seemed to go exceptionally well and the skits were enjoyable despite seeing an overabundance of dancing and Naruto skits this year. Honorable mentions included a slow-motion piano laden Naruto skit that was poetic yet entertaining, an extremely talented Yo-Yo master, a Trinity Blood skit with many complex costumes and wings, and just about every walk on showing off lots of hard work into the costumes presented. Further information regarding skits, awards and such may be gathered from Ohayocon’s websitem YouTube, DCM, etc.. The Closing Ceremonies featured all the VAs and GoHs coming up to the table and speaking of the wonderful times they had.
Overall, I don’t know if it was something internally that was fixed or people spreading the word but the horrible problem of 10+ hour long registration lines from last year were a thing of the past and it felt like attendance was up significantly from last year. The halls felt crowded and no instances of problems were made known or seen at least to my knowledge.
In closing, it felt like Ohayo-Con made some much needed changes this year to ensure that the fans were happy and from what I can tell it’s worked fairly successfully. Sure there are more things they could add such as more events and varied guests, increase the dealer’s room size even more down the road (the current ballroom is very large and is comfortably full), and hopefully expand enough to start using more of the main convention center but these things will come in time. If this convention continues to keep focused on the fans despite all the internal changes and configuration concerns from year to year, then I don’t see why it won’t continue to do well or even better in the years to come. I know I don’t speak for everyone but whatever it is Ohayo, keep doing it because from what I was able to tell, most people had a pretty good time and isn’t that the point after all?
Grade: B / B+
|
