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NEWS: Madhouse to Animate Otakon Video

Not to be pessimistic, but I've gone to Otakon for the last few years. The first few years were great, then I was highly disappointed when they cut the tier pre-reg and group reg (and then using the high end price), though the con was ok. Then last year in my mind was a wreck. And now I look this year to see they've raised rates. They say they want this year to be the biggest ever, well besides the fact that every thing (not just cons) say that, I'll hold off my judgment. I'd almost hope that Madhouse was donating the video for free (which I doubt), cause this doesn't seem to justify the rate hikes of late. Don't get me wrong, I think the video could be cool but I think money could be better spent elsewhere. I definitely hope there is more to come in Otakon's pipeline to justify everything.

Madhouse isn't donating the video. It's part of our promotional planning, and yes, it's something a little special for our anniversary year, but it's also something we'll be able to use for a few years.

It is FAR from the only surprise we'll have for you this year.

As for worries about fan creation, we have two things up our sleeves for that, but they'll have to wait a few weeks, after I'm back from Tokyo.

What waste of money and labor. Not to mention discouraging. I do respect Madhouse for its titles and quality, but this doesn't feel right. I wonder this Otakon video is just a promotional animation for Otakon convention. If it is, then I have no problem because it's just a business promotion.

If it tries emulate Daicon films, I think it undermines the creative spirit of amateur animation production. Is Japanese animation a special artistic realm where foreigners view themselves inadequate to draw its "style"? What happened to creative and talented individuals who can make interesting animation? Or is American fandom is so full of bias that we're not good enough to create stylized animation? Or are we used to copy & paste method of video editing that we are too lazy to create things from scratch?

There are tons of animation students in this continent who would die for the experience. It would be much more wiser to set up a contest for students to make anime-style animation. Thus encouraging young people to be creative and experience fruit of their labor.

Daicon has a special place for anime fans because these amateur, yet creative, individuals called Gainax pooled their talents and resources together to make their fun short films. It's just wrong not to offer similar opportunity to amateur film makers.

No offense but Otakon is an anime convention so getting a HUGE anime studio like Madhouse to animate something like this is a huge deal for the anime fanbase and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't excited. If they got some amateur to do this than nobody would care. At least I know I wouldn't care in the least.

[sarcasm]Also, while we are at it, I think we should totally forget about great musical acts like L'Arc en Ciel in 2004 or JAM project for this year. We should only have amateur bands that would get nobody excited. Also, how about the great japanese and american voice talent that we are so used to hearing? I don't know about you, but I would much rather have amateur voice talent from some local university as a guest.[/sarcasm]

Stop being so butthurt, it's an anime convention, have fun with
it.

I do apologize for my intention being skewed off. I was trying to express my concerns and not to downplay Otakon/Madhouse deal by using "WHAT IF" situation. I'm glad that it was never the Otakon's intention to emulate the spirit of Daicon films. Someone's mentioning of "Daicon" set me on fire. Personally I hate to hear from people who might give the same reverence to Otakon promo video as Daicon films. That's how much "Daicon" films mean to me and other animation lovers. Also I'm surprised that a US anime convention managed to gather enough capital to come up with a professional quality animation.