Otakufest!
OtakuFest is a two-day festival that celebrates anime, manga, cosplay, gaming, comics, and more. You can dress up as your favorite character or come as you are, we aim to be a very inclusive convention. OtakuFest is new to South Florida’s convention scene, but its creator/show-runner Winji Mesadieu has been a part of Supercon as well as the South Florida convention community for over a decade. OtakuFest expects to bring in 4,000 people over 2 days for its first show in 2019. OtakuFest will feature activities and celebrities from the realm of comics, anime, animation, cosplay, manga, comics, gaming, and more!
It's also the day before Labor Day, so you can guarantee I'm getting all Socialist-y at this show. And you can get shitfaced and not have to worry about work the next day.
I did get word back on one OTHER new con, but I'm waiting for an announcement on them first...
SPEAKING OF NEW CONS...
MINI IWAI!
Mini Iwai was a blast as always, and the show was fun to put on.
However, my two favorite events of the day were the ones where I didn't play.
First up was "Cosplay Relay". which is a good concept that needed refining, and will be one to watch when Iwai: Rush comes around in a couple months. Basically, two teams of three work together to make a cosplay for a "model" (which I was) using a bunch of supplies provided for them. The catch is, every member is only given 10 minutes and can not communicate with each other. It's got potential, but it seemed like everyone only had a 80% grasp of the concept, so it needs ironing out.
Then came the 3000 Brigade Preview Show, which was just great.
As opposed to a preview show where our TOTALLY REAL BOY BAND B12 performed, it was Match Game where everyone was different charachters. We've done this before at other shows, and this time I was Tenya Iida from My Hero Academia because I spent $50 on a UA Gym Uniform AND GODDAMN IT I WAS GOING TO USE IT AGAIN.
Also turned out to be really popular. Huh.
MEGAPLEX AND AFO!
Same weekend, that started with Car Troubles: namely my car overheating a couple times and a hole in my tire. So I had to drive 50 miles on my spare, then wake up at 8 AM to get a new one the next morning. Then Sunday on my way home, my battery died.
ANYWAY, HOW WAS THE FURRY CONVENTION YOU ASK?
I had a good time! The night I got there, I caught Foxes and Pepper's Concert, which is the musical project of Fox Amoore and Pepper Coyote, two big musicans in the furry scene. If you're a fan of very folksy alt-rock, along the lines of say, Counting Crows.
The next morning, Fuzzy Logic had an escape room set up, which more cons should have. Escape rooms can do a great job of reinforcing the theme, get attendees to meet new people and are different than the usual fare. Obviously my team won, because Zero Escape vet here, duh.
I was lucky enough to secure a slot in the Artist Alley via their Lottery system (ALSO A THING MORE CONS SHOULD DO), and I did WAY better than anticipated. I think I sold more CDs there before a show than any other convention.
As for the show itself, tech issues made us start late, but I wanted an eager crowd, and I GOT ONE!
Definitely a great experience and I think there might be a higher cross over between furries and punk than with anime/gamers and punk.
SO ARE YOU A FURRY THEN?
...Let's say Thrash Panda was something of a "soft launch"
Then I went to AFO, and of course Tiny Waves killed it at the rave.
Though people asked me about Megaplex with the same tone you'd use to find out someone was in the hospital...
NEW SONG: "FUCK TERFS (BUT DON'T HAVE SEX WITH THEM)"
For Gay Wrath month! Got a lot of requests for it at Megaplex, so I figured, WHY NOT?
JAM OF THE WEEK: "We Are All On Drugs" by Weezer
The tech issues mentioned earlier were that my laptop died, so I had to use whatever backing tracks I had on Google Drive, and I didn't have the Backing Track of "Hunting Bigger Game" with "Magic" by Mystery Skull tacked on the end, so I requested house music, and this is what they came up with.
So basically this makes Jam Of The Week because a week ago I ran around shirtless throwing Magic The Gathering cards to this song.
