Reprint of older guide, previously published on theOtaku.com

Welcome to the Otaku Survival Guides, a series of guides that ventures into different aspects of the otaku lifestyle. Feel free to ask questions in the comments and correct me when I'm wrong.

In the first column, we’ll talk about how to get the most out of your first or fifteenth anime convention.

It’s like your first day of high school. Sure, you’ve got the program and the schedule of events, but where the hell are you actually going? And why is Vash making out with a distinctly female Miroku?

Welcome to an anime convention.

You’ve picked out the con, pre-registered, gotten a hotel room, sworn to your parents that they would not be hearing from the local authorities, and now you are finally standing on the threshold of a new part of your life.

Sooner or later, you’ll have to come out of the corner and interact. Hopefully you’ve brought some friends, maybe they even know what they are doing. So where do you go from here?

Let’s take a look at why you came to the convention. Is it your love of anime? Did you come along to socialize with your friends? Looking to put yourself in debt buying things you can’t usually find on this side of the ocean? Planning to educate yourself with panels? Or did you just have to meet that certain voice actor?

You never know what or who you are going to find at a convention.
Art by Zeda

Planning Your Weekend
All right, so think about those above questions. Does one of them strike you as your reason for existence at this mecca of anime?

Conventions are hectic and overwhelming, even for a veteran. So take a few minutes (or maybe a lunch break) and think about what you really want to accomplish this weekend. The Dealers Room can have long lines, as can the cosplay and AMV contests, not to mention if you want to get the autograph of a popular voice actor. Thus, we must create a strategy as if we were at Disneyland, trying to figure out how to ride on every ride in one day. If something is important for you to do this weekend, mark it. Personally, I like to bring different colored highlighters to mark up my program.

Maybe it would be helpful to go over what some of these common events are, so that you know exactly what you are doing or missing.

Registration
First things first, you need a badge to be able to get into all the events at the con. There are usually two lines, one for people who pre-registered and one for those registering at the con. The advantage of pre-registration is that the line should be faster and the price should have been slightly cheaper. Some conventions have started mailing out badges in advance, so if that happened for you, make sure you bring it. This is your passport to gain entry to everything you want to do this weekend. Have your ID ready, so you can prove who you are and your age. Even if your badge says you are an adult or over eighteen, you will still most likely need to show it again at adult events. This is to prevent minors from getting badges from friends.

So ends the first column, leaving you ready to start your first day at the convention. Next week we’ll look at what events you can participate in at the con.