Kumoricon 2009 Review

I attended Kumoricon this Labor Day weekend. I had been planning on writing this review earlier, but life often throws random things in my path. Hence, I’m finishing this article today! For everyone unfamiliar with it, the convention encompasses anime and video games. It meets every Labor Day weekend in the Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, Washington metropolitan area.

I’ve attended a few years of this convention, seeing as it within a convenient commuting distance (Sakuracon, often held in Seattle, WA is too far away for me to comfortably travel out of laziness and cost). In past years, it has been a delight, often filled with random enjoyment and surprises. This year, however, the convention seemed to be a hiccup compared to the spectacular reputation they have built for themselves.

Does this look like it makes sense to you?

For full details on the epic fail that is Kumoricon ‘09, I’d suggest reading the convention forums. However, there were a few topics that were continuously being repeated by various attendees that can easily be summed up in a list;

• The Portland Hilton and Executive Tower was far too crowded for the level of participants, the floor plan was inconvenient for the setup necessary to run efficiently, and the fact that events were spread between 8 floors and 2 buildings (executive tower; lobby and level below. hotel; parking garage, ballroom level, lobby, 2nd floor, 3rd floor, and 23rd floor) made navigation in the convention space a challenge.
• There was confusion between the creation station workshop and the workshop.
• Hotel staff were increasingly unfriendly.
• There was a large number of transients who were aggressive outside of the hotel.
• With such a large, compact city location, there were no designated meeting places (such as a specific park in prior conventions) for attendees to meet up.
• There was quite a bit of confusion about what privileges the VIP attendees receive amongst the staff. Remember, the VIPs invest quite a bit of money into their tickets!
• Many minors who attended the convention were increasingly irritated by events that either were past their curfew or were designated either 18+ or 21+.

 

The map spanned almost 50 square blocks.

 The convention is scheduled for the same hotel for Kumoricon 2010, which has disheartened a large number of attendees (if the forums are correct). Rumor has it that the hotel may be attempting to back out of the contract, but since when are rumors correct? That is likely a rumor started by someone who really wishes the convention wasn’t going to be in the same place.

On a side note, I took it upon myself to keep mental tabs on some of the costumes I saw a lot of in the convention. Keep in mind, however, that I am subjective due to the fact I’ve been an avid Alice in Wonderland fan since early Jr. High and often find things unappealing if they are overdone. Here’s a list of costumes that I immediately noticed were in abundance; 

•  Alice from Alice in Wonderland. I suspect this is due to the upcoming Tim Burton movie. Sigh.
• Kingdom Hearts. This has always been popular.
• Nameless/random Gothic Lolita.
• Final Fantasy series. Again, this will always be popular.
• Haruhi from The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzimiya
• Naruto
• Skimpy costumes inspired by Pokemon
• Mario, Luigi, and especially Princess Peach
• Chi from Chobits

I was surprised by a decrease in Sailor Moon (they were around, but not as abundant as last year. The Final Fantasy 7 cosplay has seemed to progress to Advent Children’s versions, but I did enjoy the chocobo group roaming around! There was a well done human-version of a moogle. By far, the biggest single overdone character (not series or game) was Haruhi. I suspect it’s because her costume is surprisingly simple, however the character annoys me and thus anyone pretending to be the character annoys me even more.

Thus concludes my coverage on the Kumoricon ‘09! If you’d like to see pictures or further information, please check kumoricon.com and their forums!