A-Kon 21 Write Up

I haven’t been able to go to A-Kon, Dallas’s largest anime convention, since Gabe was born. This year’s con was scheduled the weekend after his birthday, so I planned to go along with my usual cohorts, Kay and Rin, and my friend Laura also wanted to go. She was a con virgin, so I was quite excited to show her the insanity that occurs at an anime con. The guest list was looking great, Rin and I were pumped about visiting Artist’s Alley as always, and of course, there is the greatness known as the dealer room.

And then the schedule for the con was finalized.

Most of the voice actors originally on the guest list had canceled, which left very few actors left for autographs and panels, and we didn’t know who any of them were. To make matters worse, the only voice actor panel was set on FRIDAY, the one day we couldn’t go due to work and flights. They never schedule panels like that on Friday because more people are able to go on Saturday. It’s just common sense. Also, only one panel was on the schedule due to the low count of VAs. There are normally two to three panels and sometimes a comedy hour in the evening. We looked over the schedule numerous times on Friday and we all came to one conclusion: there were no panels we wanted to see.

We spent all of our time in Artist’s Alley and the dealer room, which is fun, but that’s more of a shopping experience than it is a con experience. Going to the panels is the largest reason why I even want to go. Apparently something is going down at Funimation, the anime studio in the DFW area, and that was the reason for the missing actors and the studio’s unusual absence from the con. We all had a good time, but I was mostly sad that Laura’s first con experience was barely an experience. Sure she got to see the crazy cosplayers, fanart and anime goodies she normally would not have seen, but it wasn’t the same. I’ve heard bad things were going down in the world of anime licensing in America, but I had no idea how badly it was affecting everything. It’s just another example about how bootlegging is hurting the media industry.

I’m going to AWA this September, and I’m afraid it will be the same experience. But then again, if it is, it’s really not that big of a deal since AWA is just an excuse to go to Atlanta and hang out with Rin for the weekend. But if it is similar there, where Cartoon Network reigns, I will definitively know that something is rotten in Denmark.