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The author of his site went home with a new mascot drawing and a few more cosplay books than he had expected to take with him. The weather forecast for the Tekkoshocon weekend started scary, with a prediction of an inch of snow that would fall at the same time the author was finishing his trip to Pennsylvania. Thursday night's weather radar showed blobs of green over West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. So the author was apprehensive when he hit the interstates for the trip to the Pittsburgh area, expecting to encounter bad weather and slow going at the end of the trip. When the author crossed into West Virginia, a few snowflakes fell and he figured that was the sign of bad times ahead. But...that was it. There were very light snow flurries and nothing else, so the roads stayed fast and dry for the final hour from Wheeling to the western suburbs of Pittsburgh. Several times during the weekend, the clouds bore down and released flurries, but nothing stuck to the ground - thankfully for the author, who still shivers at the thought of sliding home from Ohayocon on snow-covered highways. Tekkoshocon's Marriott home in 2004 was a few miles up the road from their 2003 hotel. Fans who recall the hotel housing the first few Sugoi Con events would be familiar with the Tekkoshocon layout, with meeting rooms attached to an atrium. However, the Tekkoshocon atrium was much larger than Sugoi Con's more than big enough to hold the artists' alley and art show. It was from an artists' alley table that the author watched much of the convention, looking at enthusiastic fans as they oohed and ahhed over binders full of sample cosplay pictures from previous events. On the other hand, the fans didn't buy any copies of the cosplay book, on a weekend when most of the other dwellers of the alley didn't seem to sell much. That just leaves more copies for fans to buy at Anime Detour, the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention and Anime Boston. (While sitting at his table, the author ordered online the supplies to print more books.) Disappointment on the books was replaced with delighted surprise when a costumed fan popped up with her drawing of the Yaya Han-designed mascot, drawn this time to look more like a cat. It was one of those kind, unsolicited meow-ments that makes convention going more than worthwhile. Then there was the young woman on Saturday night who turned up at the author's table, skimmed through the binders of sample pictures, and said that she didn't know about Tekkoshocon until she saw the listing on the convention schedule page at this site. Another kind compliment that keeps the author heading from event to event. Interesting cosplayers included the young woman who, figuring something with a winter theme would be proper, made a Haibane-Renmei costume with cold-weather wing covers. Then there were the chance encounters of the three versions of Rikku from Final Fantasy who happened to be in the atrium at the same time. In its second year, Tekkoshocon stayed small, although it seemed to be bigger in 2004 than in 2003. It's hard to make a direct comparison because the first Tekkoshocon was only a two-day, Saturday and Sunday event, while the second event was a three-day show that started on Friday. The difference could be seen on Saturday evening, when the crowd quickly overfilled the room for the costume contest. More importantly: that contest started at an early 6:30 p.m. and, with its 17 entrants, was finished around 8:30 p.m. The "halftime" judging gap was filled by an Otaku Duet concert and a "Yatta!" dance led by an unsuspecting Greggo, who must have had half the audience on stage with him at one point. The Marriott was a far nicer place for the convention than the previous year's location, and the hotel staff was far more accommodating and accepting of anime fans. It's too bad that the hotel doesn't have a few thousand more square feet of space for the largest events. The same old situation: small cons don't stay small for long because the word gets out and more fans show up. Yes, Tekkoshocon's fans seemed to be younger in 2004 than in 2003, and the younger fans were accompanied by parents - who seemed to approve of the situation. There were more than a few fans at the Pennsylvania event who also had attended Ohayocon, two months earlier and a three-hour drive from Pittsburgh. One fan said she had driven five hours from Maryland to get to Tekkoshocon. Another fan said he was seriously looking into the possibility of starting an anime convention near Detroit in the next couple of years. Actor Bob Bergen missed the convention's first day because he had a Friday morning recording session in California. He made up for that on Saturday with some pleasantly pointed panel comments on how actors have to be very, very good to get a dub job nowadays, and an appearance on one of the Greggo's Saturday game shows. Too bad the author didn't catch up with the "red hat club" of senior citizens who stopped at the hotel for lunch on Friday. Dressed in red and purple, the women's group was more colorful than some of the costumers. Much younger was the cosplaying fan who brought her two pets, a turtle and a Super Dollfie. (That doll cost more than most of the author's camera stuff.) So why didn't the author go to No Brand Con in Wisconsin? The Pennsylvania trip was two hours shorter than a drive to Eau Claire. And why weren't there trips to the previous weekend's Anime Overdose in California, or the Yoshiyuki Tomino event in Texas? The author chose to spend each weekend making some extra dough, at an indoor auto race and an extra work shift. Don't worry, though, because the author plans to get to several conventions over the next few weeks. And the author somehow talked Anime Boston into letting him run the photo booth that was discussed in some quarters for 2003, but never happened. There's an interesting irony in the anime convention schedule for 2004. It'll be another 50-convention year in the U.S. with eight or nine new events, much like 2003. However, some 2003 events probably won't take place in 2004, and many of them are in the nation's largest markets, Chicago and New York. The small Shoujocon and the large Big Apple Anime Fest are probably off the 2004 schedule, most likely because of the cost of staging events in the New York area. The same fate will happen to the Chicago-area Kazecon and C-Kon, about an hour's drive from Chicago. It's also fascinating to note the number of events which are drawing on anime fandom to get more tickets sold. The Megacon held the weekend before this trip and the Wizard World Los Angeles on the following weekend were promoted to anime fans as much as to sci-fi and comics enthusiasts. |
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