Return from Eden

I have at long last return from the sacred realm recognized by humanity as "Comic Con."

As I previously mentioned, from the 21st through 25th I had been in San Diego to attend the Comic Con 2010. The event occurred each day from Thursday the 22nd through Sunday the 25th however I, and the rest of my party, only attended the first two days.

The party itself consisted of five other ronery otaku, all of which arrived (one lives) in San Diego. We stayed at a humble hotel named Comfort Suites not too far off from the convention grounds. As expected from pro American's top-notch service, our reservations were lost and we had to bunk in a temporary room for the first night. The hotel itself however was surprisingly pleasant, equipped with a giant pool, spas, and bathroom doors that don't lock for some reason (the things I've seen can no longer be unseen).

Thursday was the first day of Comic Con 2010. We had to take a 15 minute or so walk to the trolley station to get to the convention grounds. The trolley ride itself took about the same amount of time amounting to a total 30 minutes to reach the con. The outer grounds were populated with several upon several people waiting to enter. Newscast reporters, cosplayers, solicitors, the whole nine yards. From there we grabbed our passes (badges) from the distributors and entered the main building.

The main building runs perhaps the size of a football field. From one end to the other consists of multiple and various booths. Both big shot companies and the smaller, some even local, businesses all trying to take advantage of the sheer amount of sales opportunities. Most of the Japanese content lay on the right half of the building while the Western goods were on the left. The middle booths consisted of a mixture of both. Upstairs and higher floors had the conference rooms where special guests and companies made their announcements.

Most of our Comic Con experience was more akin to that of a cruel track & field course but with more media enthusiasts and moe anime figures staring at us. There were simply so many different yet interesting booths to check and people to see that we ended up running back and forth through the crowds of the entire building several times.

The cosplayers were legit. And by that I mean, what you'd expect. Many sucked. Many were cute. Many would be nice if the cosplayer wasn't a total sloth underneath. Nonetheless, I appreciate the enthusiasm the cosplayers projected and give props to all those willing to dress up and look either ridiculous or really hot in front of thousands of people. Shout outs to the near naked men from 300.

And here are the rest of the photos. I did not grab too much merchandise for myself besides freebies due to my limited budget. Among the literally thousands of figures displayed, I only net myself this nice Asuka figure for an amazing $10 from a Chinese lady. I also purchased a Touhou shirt from jlist just for their nice shopping bag and a copy of Suguri from Rockin' Android to support their localization of poverty doujin games.

With that, I'm tired but glad to be back home. BlazBlue Continuum Shift is out tomorrow so if I disappear for another year or two then at least you know the reason. Comic Con was a blast, and returning again next year for 2011 is definitely plausible. If you are attending and wish to meet or group, feel free to contact me.