Another Anime Fest has come and gone. It was fun but ultimately uneventful. There wasn’t much to do besides hit up the dealer room and chill out in the viewing rooms to watch anime I’ve already seen (Natsume Yuujinchou, Haruka Nogizaka and others). No big ticket items this time around, which is a first for me because I usually splurge for a figure or artbook at every convention. The Noizi Ito Guren and Kaen artbooks tempted me but were $55 each. Ouch. No thanks. I’ll use my better judgment and look for those online. I really hate how so much con merchandise is extremely overpriced. So like I said earlier, Anime Fest was fun… But uneventful. Onto the spoils of war!

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With the festivities winding down today, so ends another chapter of A-Kon. There were cosplayers, internet celebrities, furries, 4channers, and regular fans all gathered together for the sake of anime. Sure the smell was… unique, but it was certainly fun. There was a group Caramell Dansen in the dealer room earlier but alas, I didn’t bring my camera for the final day.

Picked up one final item, the Kotobukiya Shana swimsuit version for a cool $30 plus tax. I couldn’t resist Shana’s siren song after all. I also saw the cute Max Factory Kotori Shirakawa, but then I realized that while I like Da Capo, I don’t like it that much. Some of the dakimakura covers were tempting too, but I wouldn’t be caught dead with one of those.

Anime Fest is spaced far enough from A-Kon to give my wallet time to recover, and for better or worse, it’s a much smaller convention.

I don’t think I’ll go to A-Kon next year, but I’ll be shooting for either Anime Expo or Otakon in 2009, because it’s time to see and experience something new. I’ve really wanted to go to both of those conventions for a long time. I should start looking for a group to meet up with since I don’t know anyone out there, and it’s doubtful I can persuade any of my friends around here to travel that far.

This year’s A-Kon journey has come to an end. Well it’s not officially over yet, but Sunday is more of a wrap up day to haggle for dealer leftovers. The Rebel XTi went on its first convention tour-of-duty and there are plenty of pictures, but what I have doesn’t even begin to encompass the massive amount of con-goers and cosplayers that were there. I meant to take more but fatigue (and laziness) set in.

This was my first real outing with the camera. I know the photos aren’t great, so I have to keep practicing to get better. You can find all the pics at the Photobucket link below. My favorite pics and goodies are after the jump.

A-Kon Photos

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The shadow of A-Kon 19 is looming overhead. I just spent the last 3 and a half hours standing in the vicious pre-registration line. It’s discouraging that my morale is so low before the convention has even started. Over the next few days, I’ll brave the dangerous crowds to hopefully attain some much coveted goodies, all the while taking pictures of otaku in their natural habitat.

Survival gear, camera, checklist, hazmat suit, autographed picture of Donna Summer… All systems green. I’ll be back in a couple days.