In January of 2008, I went to my very first anime con. I didn't know what to expect, but having wanted to go to an anime con since I was a freshman in high school and discovered such things actually existed, I was extremely excited. Eight of us went up together on that first trip. We made a lot of mistakes, had a lot of stress, and were completely unprepared for the insanity we encountered--but we had an amazing time.
That convention was Ohayocon.
Ohayo holds a very special place in my heart. It's where I first got close to some of the people I hold dear to me to this day, and it's also how I truly discovered the amazing, wonderful world of cons. I've driven through ice storms to get to Ohayocon. There is nothing that can stop me from going back year after consecutive year.
This year, I even had the pleasure of exposing not one, but two con virgins to Ohayocon and this world that I spend so much time and money placing myself in. They were both excited, both disappeared for hours at a time at the con, and both had such an amazing time that they've already got me keeping them on alert for the next one. I couldn't be happier than I am knowing that I helped expose them.
That doesn't mean, however, that I don't have criticism for the con. I can find something to complain about in everything, and Ohayo certainly did not disappoint me for things that I could see needed to be fixed.
First of all, I was severely disappointed by the formal. It was only scheduled to last an hour and a half, and then attendees waited half an hour for it to open. On top of that, at one point while I was in there they played a fast-paced techno song. I'd rather see things like that reserved for the rave.
Secondly, there were a LOT of schedule problems. I work in programming, so I understand how hard it is to get everything straight. All of that aside, whoever thought running two Hetalia events at the same time was a good idea really needs to spend some time around Hetalia fans. Utter disaster.
Finally, I've been a panelist for over two years now. I have never in my life been told that panelists are responsible for ID checking their own 18+ panels. I was told that just an hour or so before my Geek Chicks After Dark panel was set to run. Thankfully, I had a group of friends who were happy to stand at the two doors to the room I was in and check the attendees as they came through. Event staff barely peeked in the door for an instant and didn't even bother to double check ages themselves. I can see that giving this con a lot of trouble if they aren't careful.
Overall, though, I loved Ohayo just as much as I do every year. I'm already planning things I'm going to put in to programming for next year. Look for the video blogs soon!
