So another year has come and gone and another NDK has been attended by me. So here is what I thought of the convention this year. This was definitely the most eventful convention that I have ever attended. Plenty of things happened to make the convention more than just me watching panels, spending too much money, and getting drunk. First there was the fire alarm that went off.

That by far was the funniest thing during the weekend. It has been the first time that I have ever had to evacuate from the building for an alarm. Most of the time I just wait it out. I have to say that the alarm was not all that surprising though. I barely heard the alarm and that made me a little confused on if it was actually going off. too bad this turned out to be a black mark for NDK this year. Not because of the alarm, but because of the fact that because of the alarm it was discovered that someone parked in the fire lane. I hate that about our group, one small tiny thing can black list us.... well the fire chief or whatever wanted to personally scold the person responsible so he went ahead and made a lot of noise. With an over the intercom threat to tow. The funny thing about that was the fact that the ticket probably cost as much as the tow. Lucky for us the issue was sorted out right before the storm hit.

That was a close one, but an amusing thing. Now that everyone has a smartphone all of these alerts are beamed straight to our phones. Which makes me laugh because most everyones' notice went off at the same time. So for a minute there we thought that there was another fire alarm going off in our panels. That was just funny for me because I am not one to really know what to do in that situation. Sadly mine did not go off with the group. Then it was all just stress an annoyance because of the fact that the flooding was not too far from my place. However it was amusing hearing the alarms go off all day saturday. Anyway who cares about the fond memories I made right, onto the content.

So I am a super huge fan of Guidebook the app. I love it so much, it helps me remember things like on Saturday morning I was reminded to get out of bed so that I could go to the a panel. I have to say this year was kind of interesting. On one side of the spectrum I had the usual panels, you know Industry panels, anime fight panels, dating game, green screen. Then on the other side we had many other really intellectual panels. Where those panels always there I wonder? Well regardless, I went to all of the really intellectual ones and I have to say I hope that NDK keeps that part of the event up because those panels made the day go so much faster and made me feel like I was accomplishing something. The only panel that sucked was the Media Blasters panel. Sorry I love the industry and I love industry panels, but the guy who came didn't really want to be there. He had nothing prepared and only took questions. What is the point in doing that? The panel lasted a whole 5 minutes, I am not joking. The only industry panel I go to and it flops. Well I hope next year he tries to do more.

Then there was the video room. The video rooms had a wide variety of anime out there. The problem is that I have seen most of it. I like the fact that more recent stuff is coming up and that more recent stuff is being shown, but you know it is getting kind of annoying not being able to watch new anime. I am also really annoyed with the trend of watching Subs despite the fact that the dubs are out. You know, I like the Japanese as much as anyone else, but seriously why not just show it in English? I do not know, I just want it to be better or something. There is not much that I can do other than hope that more dubs get shown next year. Plus I do like to use the conventions to see what animes are coming out in the US now. Watching all the stuff I see on crunchyroll again gets kind of annoying. I want to be able to buy a physical medium, it helps to see them being played on DVDs so that way I know the anime is out in America.

I am also glad that NDK is cracking down on line control a bit. That is something that was sorely needed. Every year they pack this hotel to the brim and it is just chaos without someone to tell people that they cannot sit in a line if they are not in the line or that they are taking up too much space. So that was a good thing, even if it meant there was almost always a line to the dealer room. Having the lines defined for us and having people keep the chaos in order was a great thing this year. That did not stop people from just stopping in the middle of the walk way or help people pay attention to when a line was moving BUT it was still an improvement.

Anyway, this convention is still a great convention that is worth checking out. Everyone should come to this one. I really think we need more people to come so we can finally get out of the Marriott. That is where we struggle so much is the space. This con could get so much bigger and better if only we could afford a larger venue. Even if it means giving up the luxury of staying in the hotel where the convention is being held. Oh well, the con is still improving and that is a good thing. Even better I am still wanting to go for more than the fact that it is one of two local cons around. So yeah, another great year NDK, even if there are chunks of Saturday night that are missing from my memory.