Ohayocon turned out to be the sort of small convention that fans say they want to attend. The only rough spot seen by this author during the two days he was on hand was the crowd that spilled out of the room that was used to screen the music video contest. Everything else went well, and Ohayocon was the best of the first-time conventions held in recent months.

The Iron Chef-flavored opening ceremonies were fun. The charity roast combined the right blend of silliness and sentimentality. The entry of 31 groups for the costume contest showed that the new convention had some strong appeal for fans. And the hotel staff took the collection of oddly-dressed strangers in stride.

The guest list for this first-time convention was as good - if not better - than the guest list for established events. The author didn't have the presence of mind to ask those who attended, but it looked as if there was an even split between those people who attend most events east of the Mississippi and first-time attendees.

If the organizers can build on the inaugural event's success, they won't have a small convention for long - unless there's another World Wrestling Federation show in town on the same weekend.

Wrestling-and-anime fans were in ecstasy over the weekend when they learned that the WWF was performing at Gund Arena on the convention's Friday night. It got better when they learned that some of the federation's performers were staying at the hotel. The most ardent 'rasslin otaku were seen to wander the halls in a blissful daze, murmuring "I saw the Undertaker," and "I was in the same elevator with Steve Austin."

For the hard-core costumers and others who followed the "best of show winner wore a skimpy, topless outfit" link from the pictures page, saw that the overall costume contest winner was a guy dressed as a grown-up Jariten from Urusei Yatsura, and wondered what happened, there's an explanation.

Yes, there were more elaborate costumes in the contest (there were a lot of compliments for the Galaxy Fraulein Yuna costumes). But no one had the stage presence of Kevin "Ranma" Bolk's monologue about an adult Jariten who lamented about how he was once the biggest star in anime, lost it all and was reduced to living in a box in the parking lot - all because he wouldn't wear clothes. You had to see that act to appreciate it; it was one of the cases where this page's format of still pictures can't convey the best part of the presentation.

Imagine the greater dilemma that people felt in Cleveland, the home of the new convention. As Ohayocon wound down on Sunday night, people on the south shore of Lake Erie had to decide if they would watch the Super Bowl, 936 miles away, and cheer for the Cleveland Browns.

You're wondering if the author lost his mind, because the big football game featured the New York Giants and the Baltimore Ravens? The NFL calls the AFC (former AAFC) team the Ravens, but everyone in Cleveland knows they're really the Browns, the team that was moved from Ohio to Baltimore because Art Modell, the owner, wanted more money than anyone in Cleveland was willing to pay. No one was fooled in Cleveland by the dark blue/purple uniforms and the bird on the helmets; they knew the team is really the Browns, the team stolen from them - but they didn't know if they should cheer for them (because they still love the old team) or against them (because they hate Modell with a passion).

Baltimore fans were happy because their Colts were swiped and smuggled to Indianapolis, so they stole the Browns. The Giants weren't much better. They had "NY" on their helmets, but they hadn't played a game in New York in years; home field for the Giants is in New Jersey. At least Ohayocon was in Ohio, that state's first anime convention. (Last year's Sugoi-Con was in Kentucky, a safe distance from Cincinnati.)

Final score: Cleveland Browns 34, East Rutherford Giants 7. Cleveland shuddered at the sight of Modell with the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Cleveland had one suprise for anime fans that Cincinnati didn't. On the final day of the convention, the Plain Dealer ran a New York Times story about anime, with the headline "Wave of violence is engulfing childrens' programs." The writer concentrated on the fight scenes in anime and noted the increase in Japanese animation shows on U.S. television, but it got its genres confused. The story took a wrong turn when it said that "Pokemon...is considered the major catalyst for the type." Of course, comparing the toy-driven Pocket Monsters kids' show to the more violent forms of anime is like saying that The Smurfs led to NYPD Blue because they're both shot on film.

The big question about the inaugural Ohayocon wasn't the attendance or the number of guests: it was the weather. January in the Midwest means cold weather at best and snow at worst. Ohayocon was seven miles south of Lake Erie, one of the bodies of water responsible for the beloved phrase "lake-effect snow." 

At the end of the week leading to the convention, snow popped into the weather forecast for Friday and Saturday. "An inch or less of snow accumulation," read the forecast. That's a light dusting of snow for the south shore of Lake Erie.

The weather arrived on schedule, and dropped a couple of inches of fresh snow on Cleveland from Friday afternoon to late Friday night. By breakfast time on Saturday morning, most of the accumulation had been plowed and shoveled from the major roads and sidewalks. There was nothing to hint that the snow had any impact on the convention, other than people who got snow on their shoes while walking through the parking lots.

The weekend's weather had another sad, ironic impact.

One of the author's friends was found waiting in the lobby on Saturday afternoon, lamenting that he wasn't going to be able to get home to Oklahoma City because the airport was closed due to an ice storm. As fate would have it, he was lucky to have to stay in Ohio for another day. That same storm, which covered most of the U.S. from the Rockies to the Southwest, was the weather in which a King Air crashed on Saturday afternoon in Colorado, killing two members of the Oklahoma State basketball team and  team officials who were headed back home from a game.