Host City: Sharonville, OH
Venue: Crowne Plaza Cincinnati North
Dates: November 1-3, 2013
Depending on which of my personalities you ask, SugoiCon was either my first or second convention experience ever, something like five years ago(the other possibility for Numero Uno being GenCon). Responsibility for initially making me aware of it, and thus exposing the world to my inner otaku in a big way, goes to the wonderful and talented owner of Sew Peach, who also provided me with the first home-sewn costume I ever wore to a convention, my trademark Giant Kon.
As my alma mater of anime conventions, SugoiCon is very near and dear to my heart. Being around like-minded folks is a great way to learn how to open up, and small conventions excel in that regard; they feature large groups of people, but not so large as to be as intimidating as, say, the 30-40k of GenCon Indianapolis in any given year. I attribute a lot of my own eventual emerging-from-my-shell(yes, I was shy once) to learning how to talk to people at cons, and SugoiCon was and still is an amazing environment for that. I've made a lot of good memories within its halls, so if I come across as wearing rose-tinted goggles, you should probably go with that feeling. They're actually rose-colored goggles with rose frames and earpieces as well - but you should still believe that SugoiCon holds up even without nostalgia.
So to that end, I'll move on to this year's experience.
SugoiCon has been around for fourteen years, making it one of the longest-running anime conventions in the area. It started as a tiny event operated out of a shoebox(probably untrue, but hilarious to think about), but has grown to be an excellent source of not only general otaku excellence, but guests directly from Japan. Among the visitors from across the PacPond to Sugois past are names such as Aki Misato, Hidenobu Kiuchi, Masao Murayama, and one of the faces who makes it pretty much every year, Shinichi Watanabe(a.k.a. "Nabeshin", if you've ever seen Excel Saga).
The con ran into some issues midway through the year, including but not limited to a loss of their consistent venue, the Drawbridge Inn, and for a time many people wondered if it would even be held. But the con staff powered through and held out, and against odds that might have slain lesser geeks, SugoiCon 14 began on November 1st.
Immediately, one had to take note of the difference in venue. One of the consistent complaints out there regarding the Drawbridge was that SugoiCon had outgrown it. Well, as the saying goes, ask and ye shall receive. There was some concern that the new location would also not be large enough, but it was more than ready to host this Elder Sage of Geek Moots.
So yer probably askin' "That's great, but what was there to do?" And if you are, you've come to the right place. From panels on Gundam, Studio Ghibli, Minecraft, the history of Japanese piracy, and even pumpkin decorating, there was no shortage of events. I'll highlight a few below:
Greg Ayres
Yes, I know Greg is a person, not an event. Shuddap. A good way to sum up this event would be "Be Awesome to Each Other." Greg is well-known for being a voice for anti-bullying, acceptance, and general Love and Peace among the convention circuit, in addition to being a pretty sick-awesome DJ. Much of the panel consisted of Greg sharing stories, both personal and retold, of both awful and great moments in the world of geek fandom.
For instance, the problems arising from two fandoms with a high number of younger members, Hetalia and Homestuck, occupied much of the discussion. If you're on, well, the Internet much, you probably know that Hetaliates(what I'll currently call fans of Hetalia) and Homestucks have developed a certain negative reputation. Every fandom has its bad eggs, though, so this reputation should by no means condemn all, or even most, of their communities. But fandoms composed largely of younger audiences are often the quickest to be judged negatively based on the actions of a few. However, did you also know that there has arisen a group of people who specifically seek out Homestucks at conventions for the sole purpose of terrorizing them? I'll not name the group here - I'd prefer to give them as little notoriety as possible - but suffice it to say that these miscreants have done things like throwing paint on Homestuck cosplayers, physically bullying them, and generally engaging in harassment. Another story involved a young Black Butler fan who, while cosplaying for the first time, was being bullied - to the point of being tripped and pushed down stairs - by a group of other Black Butler fans. And yet another dealt with a man who, because of an online argument in his fandom, went to a convention and actually physically assaulted a young woman by sucker-punching her at a water fountain, and then later bragged about doing so on the Interwebz. Apparently, "doing to each other what we have had to suffer at the hands of non-geeks our entire lives" is still as popular as ever among us geeks.
But lest you think the panel was doom-and-gloom, think again. The Black Butler cosplayer got the last laugh: the bullies were told never to come back to that convention, while she was provided a paid trip to the next year's event by the con's staff. And the man who thought that punching someone and running was hilarious was caught on video doing so, and then later had his identity traced by diligent cyber-geek justice-bringers through the very posting activity where he was beating his chest about it; as it turns out, the police take assault rather seriously. So the takeaway there was, while no fandom is perfect, and there is still a lot of hate and negativity, there are also a lot of folks fighting the good fight and trying to keep cons - and geekdom in general - a truly safe place for all of us. That overall theme of peacefully co-existing with our fellow geeks, no matter their tastes or fandoms, is something that we need a lot more of.
Ty Jero, Josh Griffin, and Josh's puppet compadre Hector form the comedy group known as The Budget Cuts. The particular panel I caught featured Josh and Hector discussing the glories of their many adventures, as well as occasionally ribbing the audience in the way that only a man with a puppet can do. And they showed us an awesome video of Hector being Hector which, while not from SugoiCon, is entertaining and pretty representative of his antics:
Those who know me best know that I'm a little obsessed with League of Legends, henceforth referred to as LoL, these days. In addition to being a fun multiplayer game, it's got an art style to die for, which is actually what drew me to it in the first place. This panel was a gathering of LoL fans to talk about our favorite characters, our most hated match-ups, our most epic battles, and generally gush about this friggin' game that's done things for many gamers that have been unseen since our heydays in World of Warcraft. It was loud, and rowdy, and people talking over each other, and tons of smack-talk were had(so, pretty much exactly what happens in-game, too). And it was glorious.
So now that I've given you a little taste of the events of Sugoi 14, I'll toss in some random things of a different variety. You're welcome.
Nabeshin
No SugoiCon is complete without the antics of Nabeshin. If you're not familiar with this bloke, he's a director and voice actor most well-known for his work on the anime Excel Saga. Due to personal reasons, it looked as if Nabeshin wasn't going to make an appearance this year, but he made it after all. His events included "Let's Make a Movie with Nabeshin" and "Get Tied Up with Nabeshin"(whatever your brain went to on that one is probably true, from what I hear). Sadly, I was unable to catch more than a few minutes of Nabeshin's events this year, but here's a picture of him with a red skeleton on his back:
Super Happy Funtime Adventure in Volunteering: Security!
That's right. This year, in addition to working with the lovely Bardic Kitty as per usual, I put in a stint as an official con volunteer/staff member in the form of security. I've often wanted to work for a convention, and Sugoi having such sweetheart status to me made it a particularly attractive target. Things actually fell in place this year, and Yours Truly was trusted with the badge, radio, and responsibility of working with the security team.
No convention is without incidents of some sort, even if they're minor things like inebriated folks needing to be politely nudged toward their own rooms. SugoiCon was no different. There's wisdom out there that says that you shouldn't judge con staff before you know what kind of issues they have to face; that's a correct statement. Granted, my exposure to such issues was extremely limited - a security team member ain't exactly the Con Chair, for instance - but it was plain that a convention's staff has to work pretty darn hard to ensure that the rest of us get to show up, have a blast, and then head home in high spirits. I went into it with eyes open, but if possible my eyes were opened even wider, perhaps with toothpicks, as Warner Bros. liked to show us back in the day.
But it's important that I also make sure to point out that working the con, while work, was also just plain fun. After years of being the recipient of Good Times Had By All™, it was nice to be able to help provide said Good Times for a change. There are also usually quite tangible perks to such involvement - volunteering at SugoiCon actually provided a full refund for my badge, which was nice, as well as snacks in the Con Ops room to fuel my nuclear core. So the next time you're stuck lamenting "I want to go to HometownCon but can't afford it!" consider volunteering. It just might be one of the best decisions you'll ever make.
And of course, no convention post of mine can end without COSPLAY PICTURES!
So ends my adventures in SugoiCon 2013. I don't yet have the dates for this upcoming year, but you should follow the fine folks at SugoiCon to keep yourself informed. For now, this is Ro, signing off.
No comments:
Post a Comment