Otakon 2024: it's the dealer's room. three anime are out of print and you can only save one

The dealer's room hasn't significantly changed in the last few years, and as such I already know who my dealers are. They’re Discotek for their best-in-class blu-rays of classic anime, and Retro Saikou for their affordable, well-curated random treasures from across the years. These are the only guys I really spend money at anymore. There’s Otaku Joe’s for classic anime, but I can’t afford him anymore. (In a moment of Priss-induced madness, I nearly spent $45 I only barely had on a Bubblegum Crisis concert poster.)

I pretty quickly spent my dealer’s room budget as I ran into the worst hostage situation in at the very first table (Discotek, of course): three out-of-print blu-ray box sets, of which my budget only allowed me to buy one. Maybe two. Ultimately one.

The titles were the remaster of the underrated classic cyberpunk action OVA series Cyber City Oedo 808, the infamous-on-multiple-levels (and extensively covered, by me) Angel Cop, and the GOAT, the god, the how-have-I-not-bought-it-already, Charge Man Ken. All of these titles are out of print, available only for scalper prices on Ebay ($100 range), and stuff I’d really want in my permanent collection (yes, even Angel Cop, considering I’ve basically studied it.). But I can’t go poor on account of Discotek blu-rays, much as I would like to do so in a perfect world.

I picked Oedo. Hoping to get a chance at Charge Man Ken next time I see them. Maybe I’ll send someone in during Anime NYC. (Edit: since I wrote this Anime NYC came and went. I didn't send anyone in.)

I said this last time, but if you’re looking for something from Discotek that’s out of print, it’s often lying in plain sight at their booth at conventions, at retail price.

Sure enough, over at Retro Saikou I found something I couldn’t refuse: the final laserdisc volume of Aim for the Top! Gunbuster, my forever-favorite anime. Anime dealers stateside have been (very profitably) reselling LDs, which are cheaper than dirt in Japan and not really good for much other than display, as collector pieces due to their big, beautiful covers. The cover is a beautiful piece featuring Noriko’s tears of joy from the very last moments of the series. If I look at it I’ll cry too, so I’m gonna frame it and put it up on a wall or something.

As far as the rest, the anime con’s dealer room has homogenized a bit as a result of the current age of global accessibility. Anime goods used to kind of be secret treasures, but that age is over. Anime is normal and everyone’s getting the same boxes of merch.

Every dealer has pretty much the same product, and the smart ones have figured out that it’s all about cheap UFO catcher figures— casual fans can’t tell the difference between a $25 prize statue and its high-end $200 cousin, nor do they care, at that price— and hard-to-ship plushes with high profit margins. (I wish I had sold the first Pochita UFO catcher plush ever made when it was still going for $100+.)

(What is the difference between the $25 UFO catcher figure and the high-end stuff, you might wonder? In my experience, it's a matter of quality and of crispness, like the resolution of a digital image. The UFO catcher figure and the high-end figure don't look too different from 20 feet away, but get up close and you'll see that the cheaper figure's finer details are often muddy and poorly defined, with cheap paint jobs. A really good high-end figure will have sharp, well-defined details and a nuanced paint job that highlights the form.)

The only stuff that really breaks out as unique is the “culture” stuff, but as a dude who has been “otaku culture” blogging for twenty years, I gotta say I can’t stand the modern “weeb culture” sold at cons. I want to call it "ahegao culture" instead. Screams “guy with his hand in his pants at the comic shop.” Ugh. Hate it.

As far as culture goods go, I passed on the mahjong all-over print button-down shirts, assuming at least ten guys at every tourney or meet I played would be wearing them.

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FLOW and the concert

Once out of autographs it was pretty much directly off to see FLOW. If you’re not familiar with the band, they’ve been regulars in the soundtracks of major series (Naruto, Code Geass, even Dragon Ball) for the last 20 years and thus have a playlist a mile long for an anime convention.

Especially fitting for anime openings, FLOW sing soaring pop with two vocalists. You’ve probably heard one of their songs if you’ve watched a major anime series in the last two decades. This (COLORS from Code Geass) is the one that’s actually an internet meme (“Jibun wo…”).

Lining up for the concert had started hours ago, and it wasn’t essential that we made it in, so it was more like a last chance line. A lot of people’s plans for the night depended on whether they were able to make it into this show. And like last time, this involved hanging out right in front of an area that staff didn’t want us to be. In fact, the entire floor was hovering in circles around one escalator as one staffer very politely informed every single passer-by that no, they could not go up the escalator to get into the FLOW show right now.

Exact same story as last time, except this time we barely made it in. Close to the back of a massive ballroom, we were in the last 50 people or so to be let into the show.

The gimmick FLOW were touring under this time was that they were only playing songs from anime (they are a pretty successful pop group as well!); they even got voice actors from the various series represented to record narration and in-character dialogues for the audience.

Without translation this went flying over the majority of the crowd’s heads. The Code Geass intro was particularly fun to watch happen, because if you understood any of the language it was clearly the narration setting up Code Geass’ premise. But if you didn’t, you had no idea what was happening until suddenly Mamoru Miyano’s Lelouch spoke up, and that was when the crowd really blew up, even if they didn’t know what he was saying.

I don’t have a lot of attachment to too many of the series FLOW was singing theme songs from, but at the same time, these songs were the 2000s in anime. If you were into anime during this time these songs seeped into your pores. You knew them. I knew easily over half of the songs I heard that night without necessarily knowing where they were from.

And the energy from that crowd, especially at the songs from Naruto, was so intense. During the climax, “GO!!!!” from Naruto I was repeatedly reminded that the floor of a massive ballroom is not necessarily flat as concrete, moved by the sheer force of thousands of jumping, screaming nerds, waved and rippled beneath my feet. I did not feel like I was in the back of that room.

Then we got dinner at a Wawa and returned to our room for the anime scene’s most exclusive room party, at which we drank the official beer of Bravern, screamed at videos about medal games, watched Orson Welles’ guide to gambling at Caesar’s Palace, and eventually kicked all those people out and went to bed.