NDK 2022: Panels and More

Like all years the morning of the first day started off crazy before leaving the house making sure that everything we would need made its way into the car. Pulling in to the long driveway of the Gaylord and seeing again just how big it is caused my feet to have phantom pains knowing what was to come. We had no trouble finding parking, but we got there at 10am which helped. Once we entered the building I was surprised to see a water station. At least some improvement from last year was nice to see.

After picking up our badges the con for the most part felt like a normal con, neither good nor bad. 

Panels:

This year they didn't use the tickets, but just had people line up. For the panels this year we didn't have any issues around ADA. One of the volunteers was extra helpful and amazing. She even got me a chair at one point when I got to a panel super early. I do still miss them having chairs by each panel room, but it was still an improvement over last year. Some of the panels we avoided because of bad experiences in the past (the make and take crafts). I didn't get to as many panels as I normally try to cover, but there will be more covered in Mommy Geek's look at the con.

Japan On American TV 

Presenter: Dr. Alisa Freedman

Description: Based on Alisa's book Japan on American TV, this panel explores how TV comedies from the 1950s to the present have reflected how Americans have felt about Japan. Japan on American TV offers a gentle means to approach racism, cultural essentialism, cultural appropriation, and issues otherwise difficult to discuss and offers new to apply fan knowledge.

Overview: As always, Dr. Freedman put on both an educational and entertaining panel. 

Hentai: A History

Description: Have you ever wondered how modern hentai came to be? Now's your chance! In this panel, we'll be discussing the international laws, cultural views, and history of hentai!

Overview: The information in this panel was good, but was presented in the most boring way. I was very interested in this panel going in, but during it I found my mind drifting off because it was just not very engaging.

Aging w/ Cosplay

Description: Missing from guide book.

Overview: I really liked this panel a lot. Personally I stopped cosplaying a long time ago because of how not only competitive it had gotten, but also because of all of the bullying. She did go in to this a little, but there needs to be some major cultural shifts again in the community before everyone can feel safe doing it again.

Cosplay

As always there were many amazing cosplays. This year the anime I saw the most cosplays from was Demon Slayer with My Hero Academia running a close second. This was one of my favorite this year.

Model Make and Take

This year it was much better organized and they were much more careful about people trying to cut the line. I will admit that I was a little overwhelmed by the kit I grabbed this year. I'm normally really fast with them, but this one was harder then I expected, mostly because of all of the stickers. I decided to speed up the process by skipping most of the stickers and leaving it for when I got home. I was very proud of Mommy Geek this year. She seems to be catching on to how to do them and only asked one of the volunteers for help once. She also grabbed a more complex kit, she just really wanted one of the Pokemon ones. I would recommend this event to people, but remember that they only have so many kits and seating is limited. Even if they have enough kits for people it can take a while to get a place to work on it.

All of the panel descriptions came from the program for this year's con.