Otakon Opening Animation 2009

Yes, it's true -- thanks to the warm reception of the opening created for our 15th convention, Otakon's celebrating its Sweet Sixteen with another opening animation!

Otakon 2009 will once again feature an original opening animated short, created by award-winning studio Madhouse. The animation will premier at Opening Ceremonies and be shown several times throughout the convention.

This year's segment is co-directed by Takuji Endo (Paranoia Agent, Highlander: Search for Vengeance) and Yoshinori Kanemori (Death Note, X); Kanemori also serves as character designer. The short will feature Otakon's mascots, siblings Hiroko-chan and Hiroshi-kun, who were the focus of last year's opener.

While once again Otakon's staff provided a number of possible gags and situations, Madhouse's staff was given free reign to improvise broadly. The inspiration is, once again, the much-loved Daicon IV openings.

Here's some teasers from the storyboard....

Otakon's Opening Animation

What it is

The "Otakon Opening Animation" was a brief animated short, intended to be used both for TV commercials and for the opening ceremonies for Otakon's 15th convention in 2008. It was produced by Madhouse.

How it came about

Back in 2001 one of our staffers, Chris Ochs, put together a 3D CGI animation for opening ceremonies featuring our mascots, Mecha Run For It found here.

Since then our staff started to consider the idea of producing a second animated short. Finally, in 2006, we started sounding out friends in the industry to see what might be possible and what it would cost.

As our 15th convention season approached, it finally felt like the right time. We approached Madhouse with the idea, and in 2007, Mr Maruyama told us they could fit it into their schedule.

At that point, it all became amazingly real. We put it in the budget and had to begin the real work. Otakon's got so much going on that we really wanted to put everything in, and that just wasn't going to happen. So we had an amazingly fun brainstorming session amongst our staff (ranging from people who just joined to those who were there in year one), put together a wish list and a lengthy list of sight gags, and presented this to Madhouse along with a basic framing concept. The inspiration was the old Daicon opening animations, done by the group that eventually formed Gainax. We wanted to capture that anything-goes, "all the stuff we love in a blender" feel, and yet we also wanted something that could be easily modularized, so we could more easily use some of it for commercials, or add to it in successive years. We wanted our mascots prominently featured, as well as Baltimore.

The pitch session at Madhouse's Los Angeles offices went very well, and coincidentally, a suitable director was visiting, and Mr Maruyama roped him in.

Snips from the 2008 Opening Animation

As of 23 July 2008

This past weekend, we were able to treat the Otakon staff to a glimpse of the animation, and it went over VERY well. In addition to a rough animatic, we also got some color samples. Madhouse has REALLY come through for us on this, and it's just amazing to see what they've done with it. I'm already scrambling to put together a bigger budget for next time...

The real deal will be ready for the con, but for now here a few more glimpses....