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.
- Hilton Anatole is a beautiful hotel. There were plenty of areas to sit, rest, eat, and drink.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
