The Con Kumoricon The Anime Convention
The Place: Portland Hilton Hotel

Kumoricon is the Annual Anime convention in Portland Oregon over the Labor Day weekend. This year I took my big Chococat around the convention space. Like my big Hello Kitty last year, he was a hit. During to convention I met up with few fellow furries and one fursuiter Independence  got a lot of good attention.

Friday:
All I did was to wait in line more than two hours just to get my badge. The wait was the low point of the convention and I dare say unnecessarily long.
Saturday:
I had to get in early for the panelist meeting from there I picked up a ticket for seating in the AMV (Anime Music Video) contest. I spent the morning taking in the atmosphere and caught the last of Funimation sneak peak event, and went out for lunch. At 13:30 I went to start my panel Otaku over 30, a panel for older anime fans. I start this pane because I notice similar issues between older fans in Furry subculture and Anime fandom: it is hard for older fans to fit in a young person’s culture I only expected around 12 persons I been told there was up to 25 to 30 people. I received plenty of great feedback. It is safe to say the panel was a rousing success and met the needs of older fans. I will bring the panel back next year.
Latter as I promised at Mewcon, I attended the Often Renamed panel until seating for the AMV contest. The AMV contest had entries from around the world. The judging is both a panel of judges but the main contest is a view’s choice where we the viewers vote on best of category and best in show. The rest of the evening, I stayed for part of the after AMV contest AMV show and I spent checking out the video room before going out for dinner.

Animeman73

 Fellow Panelist at the Otaku Over 30 Panel.

End of Panel

 Toward the end of the panel

Sunday:
After the mad dash from church, I attended the part Religion in amine panel before I attend Tiffany Grants Hello Kitty panel. Tiffany Grant is one of Kumoricn Guest of Honor best known for the English dub voice of Asuka in Neon Genesis Evangelion. When she spoke she did reminded me of Asuka She also has adapted English dub scripts for Hello Kitty Animation Theater and voice acted some of the characters. I brought along Big Kitty for the event and even got a picture of her holding it. The rest of the evening was cruising the convention or video room before going to the off hours AMV viewing (more risqué AMV viewing) before calling it a night.

Hmong Attendees

Monday:
I definitely not a morning person I missed some events because I slept in. I got another picture with Tiffany Grant and went to “Does Anime Conventions Have a Future” panel before heading out for lunch and enjoying the convention until the closing ceremony.

The Good:
The convention itself

The Bad:
The Hotel, while they have improved how the staff handles attendees and the ventilation was better. Still I give the Hotel a C- for lack of lounge space and cramped convention space. I feel Kumoricon did not convince me that we had more space than the Doubletree. Furthermore, unlike the Doubletree, tree the hotel did not provide cheaper options in their restaurant. Finally, I felt putting the Dealers den and game room in the garage was not cool. The lost of executive tower was the final straw for me.

The Ugly:
The two hour wait for will call tickets was unsatisfactory, the need to improve. I China can have a convention with 400,000 attendees and get upset if attendees wait more than five minutes, we need to do better; no excuses.

Over all I had a great time and will attend next year, perhaps doing a furry in anime and after ton con panel; Lord willing.

Gallery Click to Enlarge

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