MetroCon IX Pictorial & Review

The first thing that comes to my attention when arriving Friday at around 1:30 PM is how crowded it is. Even for a Friday afternoon, attendance was very high and people were everywhere.  If I had to guess there was at least 3,000-4,000 already in the building at this point and the number continued to grow. Speaking of the crowd, I noticed the energy was mostly positive.  Everyone for the most part was pretty friendly including the staff. However I noticed one or two of them that I talked to did not seem to be completely familiar with where certain events were or where I could find specific rooms. However the staff members were at least cordial when it came to trying to help and even assisting some of the panelists. The only gripe I could say about some of the attendees is that I noticed a lot of them openly talked during some of the panels and at times it got a little obnoxious. On Facebook, one panelist claimed that a group of attendees who yelled and talked during his panel ruined it.

When it comes to the layout, it is spread out across three floors. However this is not as big as you would think it is. The first floor consists of long “L” shaped hallways and holds the bulk of the convention down to the game room and all the panel/event rooms. Taking the escalator up will bring you to the smaller second floor which is essentially just a large artist alley. Speaking of the AA, since it was taking up an entire floor, it consisted of at least 40 tables if not more. The third floor which is even smaller and at this point isn’t really much more than a narrow strip leads to the main events room.

If you are into taking pictures, MetroCon offers a lot to work with. Not only do you have three different floors, but the convention center also has a sun roof. There are also several places outside with scenic areas and backgrounds such as a parking garage, fountains, a water bay area, a shuttle train station and different high spots. On top of having such a diverse venue, there is even a studio set up on the second floor which was free for anyone to use. The downside is that you will always be fighting the crowd who may inadvertently get in your pictures. Also taking pictures in the first floor hallway is not particularly recommended as this is the most crowded area and does not get as much light exposure in comparison to the other two floors.

Now when it comes to the cosplay, this improved a lot from the last time I went. The only time I had ever gone to MetroCon was back in 2009 and I remember not being too impressed. This year there was a lot more talent. While Hetalia and Vocaloid still ran wild, I noticed an interesting diversity ranging from BlazBlue, older FF games, Kingdom Hearts, Persona, Marie Antoinette, Shadow of the Colossus and even Disgaea. There was even an awesome Monster Hunter couple with one of them cosplaying as this huge dinosaur from the game and allowed people with foam bats to whack at his costume.  Since the theme was Monster vs Hunter there were a few zombie cosplays and some of the staff members were dressed as guards from Resident Evil.

So far this sounds pretty good, but this is where I’ll address some of the more criticized parts of the convention… the actual content. Some of the panels I saw were pretty good and then there were some that did not seem as well-rehearsed. At times, it seemed as if some of it had to do with the actual room setups or the people organizing the panel were disorganized. I remember one particular event I sat through some of was Trucy’s Magic show. Initially my girlfriend suggested it to me and I had some interest since we thought it had something to do with Phoenix Wright. After getting seated we quickly realized it wasn’t particularly what we expected with some of the other cast members were dressed from other series such as YuGiOh. Essentially it appeared to be a magic show similar to something you’d see at a children’s birthday party, but now with some type of narrative. Giving it a stretch of the imagination this is fine, but I noticed they botched some of the “magic tricks”. I also noticed one of cast members kept having some type of wardrobe malfunction while doing her magic trick… which I am just going to leave to the imagination here.

The one event that impressed me the most was actually the Metro Star Party. This played off as a silly rumble between Nintendo characters with a narrative storyline and even musical acts. There was the chess match which MetroCon is best known for. While the Chess Match is one of their most hyped and even most budgeted events, I didn’t think it was as good as the one I saw in 2009. However if you had never been to it before it certainly is something any attendee should try to catch at least once.  I have never seen anything like it.

Speaking of never seeing anything I forgot to mention the MetroCon Fire Show. Now I saw this in 2009 and it was pretty awesome. Basically in the outside area there are a couple of cosplayers doing chirographer fights while swinging around lit torches. This year it was so crowded that I honestly couldn’t see any of it. There was literally nowhere for me to watch it from and I even got there a little early.

When it comes to getting to events early, I noticed a lot of the events I wanted to attend had long lines and some of them even started late. The Trucy’s Magic Show I mentioned earlier actually not only ran an hour late, but developed a huge line that ended up filling the entire room prior to opening.

Another event I enjoyed, despite being delayed and thrown in a lengthy line, was the Humans vs Zombies event. I have to commend MetroCon for putting on such an event because any other con would of seen this event as a hazard waiting to happen. Everyone who goes in picks to be either a human or zombie and put at opposite ends of the room. When you’re a human you use either your hand or a prop gun and pretend to fire at the zombies when they move towards you. As a zombie, your goal would be to take down a human player. If a human player gets touched by a zombie with both hands twice they die with the option of becoming a zombie. It was painstakingly troublesome for the staff to coordinate the event by constantly yelling “No running! Be quiet!” or trying to instruct the attendees on what to do. Once the game got going it was a lot of fun and worth the wait.

The Cosplay Contest, which is actually the skit contest, was… ok. My personal favorite was an FFVI one, but a majority of the others consisted of some type of music/dance act with a lot of them not being all that great.

When it came to the Costume Contest the immediate gripe was the fact it was on Sunday as opposed to Saturday. The reason I read as to why it was on Sunday was due to the fact it required too much time and effort to judge and put both the cosplay and costume contest together. Therefore this allows more time and care given to both. The problem with this is that Saturday is the most attended day and the day most people would want to wear their best costumes. Not to mention how some of those cosplayers would have to either get an extra day at their hotel or find ways to get out of their costume before driving home. However the costume contest itself ran fine and there was certainly no dispute amongst who won. Yaya Han, who was the host this year, did a good job. Though there were a few awkward moments. After the initial walk on part, they played a slideshow of the pictures submitted for the Picture This! Contest. They kept having problems with the slideshow and had to restart the video three times. When announcing the winners for Picture This!, one of the winners from the audience fell when trying to get off stage, but the staff was very responsive and cordial when they were taking care of her.

I suppose the last thing I’ll touch on is the quality of everything else. Game Room/Lan Room was pretty good; outside of popular games, I loved seeing older games on display such as Rival Schools and Japanese games like FateUnlimited Codes and Taiko No Tatsujinn. Though the big downside was no DDR or even Pump which is a shame considering the last time they went they actually had a DDR Extreme machine. The dealers was also good albeit maybe a little overpriced at times, but it seems a startling trend has developed with the disappearance of video game dealers. Artist Alley was great too, but prices seemed to of fluctuate from fair to “… maybe just a little too much.”

The rave I honestly thought was fine because it feels more like a real rave as opposed to a con rave. It has great visualizations, crazy lights, and even a smoke machine. However many people have been knocking that the DJ’s choice of music and beats were overly repetitive.

As far as the guests, they were all pretty nice and it was good seeing some of them enjoy the con outside of their panels. I got to have a small conversation with Scott McNeil and he told me how much fun he was having. Crispin Freeman was also pretty cordial. I thought the inclusion of Terrance Zdunich was an interesting choice, but I didn’t get much of a chance to speak or see him.

Now comes the question, is MetroCon worth it? With its steep weekend pass price and hotel room fee it really depends on what you are looking for. If you are a cosplayer or photographer and you networked with others who plan to be there, I don’t have any doubt you’d have a great time. However if you’re more casual and your idea of a great con is an awesome dealers room with top notch content, then it may leave something to be desired. Personally, I had a great time, but the flaws of this con are certainly visible. It does not have the organization of a larger con like AWA, but it does offer something unique that makes it stand itself apart from anything else in the region. This is where I have to commend MetroCon for being a convention that is willing to take a lot of chances and try ideas other conventions wouldn’t put the effort to do.

Pros: Large friendly crowd, great venue for photos, excellent cosplay, a decent game room that didn’t feel like a sauna for once, excellent guest selection, large and very unique variety of panels and events, Metro Star Party!, Chess Match, friendly staff, a variety of food vendors on site, large artist alley

Cons: Paying to park, pricey weekend pass and hotel, some of the food vendors were a little pricey,  technical problems during events and panels, so-so skit contest, LONG lines, overcrowded at times, events running or starting late, hard to find events and panels at times.

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Review and Photographs by Kenneth Davis