What good times were had...

NDK 2011 has come and gone but, when trying to recollect what happened this year, the memories are still pretty fresh on the mind.

One thing I will have you know about this year's edition of NDK was that it was the 15th anniversary of our con. Very impressive! And we (NDKers, as well as the con itself) have come a long way...

I remember when I first heard about this anime convention, it was 1999 and I was living in Westminster, Colorado at the time. Back then, you had to send payment for pre-reg away to California as registration was being handled there. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the con that year and I didn't actually make my NDK debut until 2002. As it was the first NDK after 9/11, it had a pretty large crowd as the 2001 NDK was deeply affected by the tragedies on the east-coast. Quite a few guests weren't able to make it that year but, in 2002, we had a gang of guests...As it was my first anime convention, I pretty much surveyed the situation to see the sights and to get my footing.

Flash forward 10 years to Nan Desu Kan 2011 the 15th anniversary...what a fun trip it has been, overall. Sure, there are some things about this con that are pretty frustrating to me but, all in all, I still enjoy it.

For this year, we (the OtaKrew) didn't spend as much time at the bar as we did last year. Saved a lot of money that way so that we could actually pick up some neat items in the dealer's room.

With Harmony Gold (Robotech peeps) back in the house for their 4th straight year, you just know that I went to any and all panels Robotech-related. We even got Zormaster to come on down for dinner with the Robotech crew on Saturday night right after their panel. (He missed last year's NDK due to a scheduling conflict) After finding him a pass (shhhh), ZM was able to enjoy the con with us for Saturday night and for Sunday. Saturday night saw my return as a judge on the "Robot Rumble" panel(from my view on the panel)
...it was also cool because one of the other judges on the panel actually reads this blog! How cool is that?

Below is just a sampling of the cosplay that I was able to snag pics of. I have a lot more that I may post throughout the rest of the year.

Below is an OtaKrewer who cosplayed as Bonta-kun from "Full Metal Panic" on Saturday night...

He was VERY popular...

Good times Bonta-kun, good times...

Below is an OtaKrewer with one of this year's Japanese guests...

This is Ryusei Nakao who is known as the voice actor for Frieza and Cooler from Dragonball Z. He has also done voice acting for Bleach (Mayuri Kurotsuchi), Armitage III (Rene) and Weiss Kreuz (Farfarello) among others...

As I said above, this was a very fun con. While there were some panels that I really wanted to see, I went to several that I was pleased with. "Olde Tyme Anime" (brought to us by the good folks at "Gimme Anime") was a blast like usual. Too bad I missed the other panels that they produced "Nan Desu Video" and "Mystery Anime Theater" which featured Tekken: The Movie...I heard it was craptacular (which is actually good in this case). I also missed the panel that I suggested a few years ago "NDK Late Night". Bummer...It was at the same time as "Robot Rumble"...

With the amount of fun that I had this year, I look forward to what the future brings for Nan Desu Kan.