NDK 2011: Day 1

Oh the cold is in the air, fall is just starting to take grip on us, I love this time of year for several reasons: Cooler temperatures, Halloween and NDK to just name a few. NDK has officially started and with this year being the 15^th annual it’s due to be the highest attended NDK yet. Record breaking numbers are expected and from what I’ve seen today I’m a believer.

Hotel rooms are increasingly harder to get, all the hotels in the area were completely booked, we booked a year ago and man I’m glad we did. Speaking of crowds the register at convention line was very long but moved fairly quick, those who per-register the line was super short and very well organized. Having a day zero on Thursday helped a lot this year. Overall well organized and and smooth running, I think NDK listened to it’s fan base and corrected known problems from the past. I’m really happy to hear that NDK is finally taking credit and debit cards, cash is not carried as often as it used to be.

Check in was nice and easy, in fact it was early and the lines were very reasonable. The hotel staff seem very entertained by all the costumes and craziness. Speaking of awesome, all the cosplay this year was astonishing, so many costumes and so little time. This years C&C should be interesting to say the least.

Opening ceremony this year was a great starting point to an amazing convention, this years guest lineup was sublime and the event schedule is jam pack full of enjoyable events and panels. This years band is Lemon Drop Kick check out their myspace HERE.

The Gust line up is HUGE! Guests in Bold we have interviewed this year and interviews will be published once they have been written up and edited.
-Chris Cason
-Clarine Harp
-Jamie Marchi
-Kevin McKeever
-Leah Clark
–Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
-Michael Sinterniklaas
–Patrick Seitz
-Ryusei Nakao
–Stephanie Sheh
-Steve Yun
-Todd Haberkorn
-Tommy Yune
-Tony Oliver
–Vic Mignogna

On day one we had an interview with Patrick Seitz one of the funniest humans on the planet, he is such an awesome guy and a fantastic voice actor, director and writer. His works range from video games such as Blazblue to anime series such as Hetalia and Durarara all the way up to feature films such as Summer Wars. This year Patrick visited Casa Bonita and became señor Seitz. Our sit down interview with Patrick is in the works, we will post it as soon as it is complete.

AnimeRoot approves of the new 24 hour VGR or video game room for those who can’t read acronyms; the room is big, the lighting is good, the temperature is ideal and the seating area for people is fantastic. Wait did I say 24 hour!? Holy cow that is awesome, and the guests seem to agree, or at least the late night crowd looking for a good game to occupy some time. Pwn s0m3 n00bs dud3!

J-Pop Dance, well it was ok when it was going, I honestly think it was the low point of my Friday, and many others seem to agree, this event had technical issues and was not really good to begin with. Some advice for next year, get a real dj or better music, pump up the crowd more, do more equipment checks, tune the EQ my ears are still fuzzy and maybe a theme say Vocaloid dance? The critic in me says fix it or ditch it, I’m not being harsh but what do you think?

Overall Friday was fun, it was busy, and it was an overall good way to kick off another NDK.

This Years Balcony contest was stepped up, both in prizes and scale, and I will talk more about that in Day 2. LINK HERE

Hallway featured Cosplay and some late night fun!