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Ikasucon - Author's Notes - 2005 Ikasucon was an easy trip for this site. Only 1,672 pictures taken (we took more on a single day at Anime Expo, two week earlier). Only one costume contest (some days at  Anime Expo had two or three). No interviews, only two and a half days in the artists' alley taking pictures and selling prints. Heading to Comic-Con International in San Diego would have been too expensive, so we rolled off to Ohio for the third Ikasucon. It was the kind of small convention that many fans say they prefer...but it wasn't as small in 2005 as in 2004. The Clarion in Blue Ash, Ohio where the convention was held was booked pretty much solid for the convention weekend, along with the less expensive Red Roof Inn across the street where this writer stayed. So many people showed up for the convention that organizers had to announce, at least twice, that fans should be careful where they parked - because owners of neighboring businesses were having cars towed from their lots. The sign of additional attendance was the length of the registration line, which snaked around a corner for most of the daytime hours on Friday and Saturday. That line was insignificant by Anime Expo standards, but it was big by the standards of the small Ohio convention. The Cincinnati-area weekend was busy. The Kings Island amusement park, just to the north, was busy; the Reds had a weekend homestand; and there was a powerboat race on the Ohio River. That race was tempting us to head south to Newport, Ky., but we chose to hang with the convention. Ikasucon's conquering hero, a convention tradition, was the costumer in the seven-foot Tama turtle costume from Love Hina. When the turtle entered the main events room during the costume contest halftime, the crowd burst into applause, then insisted by acclamation that the turtle be added to the halftime game show. Most of the license plates in the Clarion parking lot were from Ohio, but a couple of plates came from Kentucky, Michigan and Indiana. The parking lot find of the weekend was a four-door Citroen 2CV sedan, the French answer to the Volkswagen Beetle that remained unchanged for decades. The Citroen had a reputation for being underpowered at best (motorcycles of the time had larger engines), and we wondered how its driver felt in the relentless 80 mph traffic of Ohio interstates - especially when the rain fell. In 2004, we were able to post constant updates to the web site from the Clarion because of the hotel's free WiFi access. That worked for most of the 2005 convention weekend, but the wireless access was hit and miss on Saturday. We'll guess that so many people used the WiFi that the system was overloaded and shut down a few times. In any case, we managed to get just about everything uploaded during the event. Apologies to those who showed up early Sunday afternoon, looking for pictures, and weren't able to buy anything because all of the equipment had been packed away. Ikasucon is close enough to home that we were able to hang around for a couple of Sunday hours and still get back home in time for work, but the deadline still arrived and we had to strike the set and hit the road. Ikasucon Main Page