A-Kon 26

Happy Monday, y’all!

Saturday, June 6th, I attended A-Kon 26 in Dallas. The last time I attended A-Kon was in 2007 and was severely disappointed then. Disappointed wouldn’t be the right term for my experience Saturday, but more astonished and surprised.

Let’s start with the pros.

1. Hilton Anatole is a beautiful hotel. There were plenty of areas to sit, rest, eat, and drink.
2. The academic conference, Fandom and Neo Media Studies (FANS), was highly intriguing.
   • The Art of Translating and Editing panel was presented by a veteran translator/editor, Jake Tarbox. Jake briefly introduced himself and then opened it up to questions. The questions ranged from degrees of adapting a title to “How would you…?” situations.
   • My highlight of the day was the Q&A session with the President of Production I.G., Mitsuhisa Ishikawa.
   • Antarctic Press 30 year introspective was highly entertaining and informative.
3. Some great looking cosplay. Saw a couple Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, a few Touken Ranbu characters, a handful of DMMd characters, a lot of My Little Ponies, a few Free! genderbent characters and some Assassins.

Now for the cons.

1. The walk from the self-parking lots, located over by the Renaissance Hotel, was extremely dangerous if you weren’t paying attention and 3/4 of mile walk from Hilton Anatole. That short of a distance doesn’t bother me, but I heard a bit of complaining from other attendees.
2. Registration lines. I was astonished that A-Kon didn’t have pre-registered and on-site registration separated. It was all through one line, which made my perceived 10-30 minute wait-time turn into 2.5 hours. From what I could tell by looking at the people queued in front of me, it looked like 1-2 out of 10 people were pre-registered. Logically, pre-registering means faster pickup when you arrive at a convention, so I found this mind-boggling.
3. Crowded! I’m enochlophobic, fear of crowds. I knew going in that A-Kon is huge, so I was ready. But I still had 2 close calls of suffering anxiety attacks. My attacks are triggered when I see no way out, which made the walk to the dealer room torture.
4. Staff? A-Kon just felt understaffed. I rarely saw A-Kon staff doing crowd control or didn’t see any staff at all until I got around entrances to a room or saw an Info Desk. I guess I’m too used to seeing staff within the crowd semi-controlling the chaos.

Over the years I’ve said to myself, “You need to give A-Kon another shot.” I now have, but I may not attend again and just focus on other conventions like AnimeFest and IKKiCON, where I feel more at home.

Onwards to pictures! I didn’t get any cosplay pictures this time due the crowd, but here are some items I got.

Did anyone else go to A-Kon past or present? I’d like to hear what y’all think.

Wishing y’all a wonderfully beautiful day!