Well I suppose it was a day like any other day, except for that weird feeling I had about what was going to happen. You see it was like the feeling you get that first time you go to class for the year. You know what is going on, where to go, you even know what the teachers are going to be like, yet you still feel somewhat nervous and maybe even excited about things. That's pretty much how I was feeling that day. I say it like it was some crazy long time ago, but it was in fact only yesterday. You see I finally decided to go to an anime con, and I have to admit I had no real idea what to expect except what I had heard from other people or read online. The experience was...unique...to say the least.

For this first venture in to the relatively unknown I decided to go to the "local" con held in my state. I say "local" because it is about 60mi from where I live at the moment which is, really, not that bad all things considered. The con was Denver, CO's Nan Desu Kan or NDK. It is a medium size con, I guess, with this years estimated number of attendees around 7,000 or so. I decided to only go for one day, Saturday, which in hind sight was probably a mistake since I didn't really get to do everything I wanted.

So here I was driving up to this convention all the while wondering if I would have a good time, or whether or not this was just going to be a big waste of money. By the time I got there, which was about 9am or so, I had to do the old "Where the hell am I going to park?" thing. Once I had finally found a spot I proceeded to walk inside and get going with things.
Now being that this was my first con, I really had no idea what the lines were gonna be like, so I ended up spending about 40min in the registration line that wrapped around the lobby, like, 4 times. Needless to say registering in advance would have been the better thing to do.

Once out of the line and finally able to walk around freely, I pondered the schedule of events and tried to decide what I wanted to do first. Unfortunately since I ended up spending to long in line I missed out on the first half of the Gundam 30th anniversary panel which I had wanted to check out. So with no panels that I wanted to go to for a while I decided to go check out the dealer's room.

This event was held in a relatively good sized hotel, but I gotta say, it really needs to get moved to a bigger venue. The place was packed everywhere, and the dealer's room was certainly no exception. On a side note, I really have no problem with people in general, even people who chose not to, uh, maintain personal hygiene, so long as they keep their stank confined to their local area. However in a room as closely packed as that damn dealer's room was there where a few people who really should have chosen to bathe or at least spry themselves down with some ax or something. Anything. That aside though, I was able to find some good deals in there, and it was, for the most part, fun walking trough and seeing the various deals. And I swear I have never seen so much pocky in my life, but I guess that's a normal thing, at least that's what the people I was hanging out with later said.

After spending some time in the dealer's room, walking around enjoying some of the cosplay going on, and grabbing some lunch, I decided to head for one of the main events the AMV contest. The contest lasted about 2hrs but was rather enjoyable. Coincidentally enough I had managed to see some of the entries up on youtube before the con but it was still fun.

Once the contest had ended, I needed to kill some time before the next panel started, and having learned from the lines in the morning, I decided it would be wise to start lining up about an hour before the panel started. So I grabbed some beer at the bar and had an early dinner and got in line for Todd Haberkorn’s Q&A panel. Trying to kill time in line can often be rather difficult, but as it turned out I was lucky. People were beginning to line up for the cosplay contest being held later, and it was a good time to see some of the more creative costumes people had. I do wish I had had a better camera with me, sadly all I had was my cell phone which doesn't take the best pics in the world, or hold very many for that matter. The few I took can be seen in the gallery but thy aren,t the best quality, sadly the only one that turned out looking okay was the Gundam vs. War Machine pic I took earlier in the lobby.

So I made it in to Todd's panel after about a 45-60min wait. It was fun and everyone had a great time, lots of laughs, lots of making fun of Vic Mctakeyourpic and his auditions for things. Interestingly enough he does seem make a good Captain Kirk as Todd had a pic of him cosplaying as the man ast some con they were at, which made all the fan girls far too happy. Chris Patton and Wendy Powel were in there as well which added to the hilarity. Todd was a very nice fellow, and I have to say the panel was far more fun than I thought it was going to be.

Once Todd had finished giving out free stuff and wrapped up his panel, I thought it would be cool to go check out the Funimation preview. However once I got in there, like in the dealers room, there were just to many...hygienically challenged...people in the room. I ended up leaving just so I could have a breath of fresh air again. (I must say if any of you reading this happen to be challenged in the way described above sorry if any offence is taken, but you may want to get it looked at...someone could get killed...)

After bailing on the Funimation preview I noticed a few people already starting a line for what was, at least for me, the best panel at the con. It was of course the Chris Patton Shares too Much panel. If any of you are familiar with this panel then you know what I mean. Let's just say it is pretty damn funny and dirty and all around awesome. I really recommend that all of you go see it if it is at any con you are going to. So since I had nothing better to do I ended up waiting for the panel to start for a few hours with some random people who also happened to not have anything better to do. Good times ensued and we all had a blast just killing time sitting there. For once waiting in line for a ridiculous amount of time ended up being a good thing, since by the time Patton and his cohorts were setting up, a line that went around the atrium and then back some had formed up behind us crazy early birds.

The two hour panel with that crazy man was some of the funniest stuff I've heard in a while. For those who don't know the basic premise behind the panel is that you can ask Chris anything, and he really means anything. It earns the 18+ requirement that is stated on the door. So after enjoying his panel it was about 1am and I decided it'd be wise to call it a day. And that was my first anime con.

Overall I gotta say that it was a blast. I had no idea what I was getting in to, but I enjoyed every minute of it (all except for the some of the more exotic smells of course). Will I go back next year? Probably, although if I do go back I'm probably gonna go about things totally differently. For starters I'm gonna register well in advance and hook myself up with a room to stay in for the weekend instead of driving 40min there and back again. It would also be nice to go with a group of people instead of being by my little lonesome and I think I might have to cosplay (another first for me) it'd be more fun that way. Although I'm not sure I am willing to take it quite that far. Maybe next year I will settle for just having the full pass and a room.

If you have managed to ready all the way down here, and you want more info on this particular con you can check out their site here. I hope you all enjoyed my shared views on what I did and hopefully it wasnt to much info, I certainly understand however if it was. At any rate enjoy the pics such as they are, they really are the best out of the 8 or so I was able to take before filling up my phone memory, a bit of a fail I know. Perhaps better luck next year.