I'm there for 30 seconds when I'm assualted by a somewhat disgruntled young lady. She muttered something about needing a better line of sight on a certain Scandanavian comic artist while I backed slowly away. Bandai's booth was a'callin' so I went over.

I took a look at the gaming consoles first. They have a new title out for Gamecube based on the old M.U.S.C.L.E figures that was very entertaining. They also have a new title in their line of Gundam games that actually looked good.

10:00 am: I left anime toy heaven (as I'd come to think of the Dealers Room) and went to catch a panel discussion called "Fan Club Summit."

This panel was hosted by Luke and Scott of Dub This! along with their friends that are members of the executive board of their college's anime club.

They had a lot of great advice for developing your anime club. Apparently, Bandai and Funimation have fan club programs to help build club libraries for reduced cost.

11:00 am: Time to meet Mr. Megatokyo himself...

Fred Gallagher was so much like Piro that I was stunned. He was a very unassuming man with only the vaguest inkling of how much talent he really has. Sarah was very sweet and very much like her own comic avatar, Seraphim.

I won't give away too many details, you'll have to check out my interview with the Megatokyo crew.

11:45 am: Back to the Dealers Room. (There really was a lot to see in her... I mean there.)

The screening room at Bandai seemed to be where it really was at so I flashed my press badge and got in to the next show.

To say that it was a 15-minute long commercial for their upcoming DVD titles would be doing Bandai's trailer a grave injustice. It was more of a textbook example of how to get ANY Otaku to drool. The list of titles was far too long to get into, but I'll tell you about two of my faves.

They gave a sneak peek at "Witch Hunter Robin" (coming in October) which was real eye candy. It loooks very promising. The animation and artwork was as good as "Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust" and promises to deliver on both action and story.

As an Otaku for many years, I've followed made sure to catch as many of the big titles as I can find. When "Ghost in the Shell" caused such a stir amongst my Otaku buddies, I had to get a better look at it. The upcoming sequel, "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex," looks like another tour de force of animation, artwork, and psychological sci-fi storytelling.

I needed time to recover from that breath taking look at things to come, so I decided to further peruse the offerings of the dealers.

Most of the vendors specialized in only one or two categories of products, but they always had great variety in their little niche. The manga vendors had tables that were creaking under the weight of hundreds of books. The DVD booths were worse. There were toys from Hello Kitty, Macross, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and even good old fashioned Transformers. Several vendors had cels for sale. There were even 5 or 6 cosplay costume vendors.

3:15 pm: I met up with a friend in the Dealers Room and we walked and talked about life, anime, and Maryland's Renaissance Faire whilst perusing some more booths.

After an enticing offer of lunch, we decided that I needed to get around to the rest of the con, so we hit Artists' Alley.

The collection of fan-made art was impressive. There were tables for some of the artists, but the real action was at the silent auction.

Hundreds of pieces were on display to be sold. You could pick up anything from fan-cels to a new bathroom rug. (I'm not kidding look at the link!)

3:45 pm: The game room sounded like just the thing needed to keep me from reaching for my wallet and maxing out my credit cards on toys.

Yet another huge room was dedicated to the game room. Dance Dance Revolution was well represented, as was Halo and the upcoming Soul Calibur 2. A little word about Soul Calibur 2 for Gamecube... everyone I saw using Link got their world rocked.

There were tables in the game room for players of Magic the Gathering, Yugi Oh, and all other forms of cardboard crack.

4:30 pm: Ouch! My aching ankles!

A word to the wise... Otakon is a lot of walking unless you're just watching anime in the video rooms. Don't go when you're recovering from ankle surgery, but I did it all for you guys.

I had to head home for the day to rest up for the last day and my chance to talk with the lovely and talented Kristine Sa.

Check out the final episode "My Otakon Diary Day 3: Dead Otaku Walking"

Article and photographs © 2003 MillionairePlayboy.com