Nan Desu Kan was an incredible experience to break into the Rocky Mountain nerd scene. It was not as large as I was used to but with a smaller crowd came a good amount of event control. The convention was organized and had plenty of helpful staff members that didn’t seem overly stressed by the chaos that comes with an overpopulated event. If you’re ever in town during this event, I highly recommend checking it out.

Main Floor

I attended Nan Desu Kan on Saturday where it seemed like the most was going on.  Picking up tickets is always the stuff of nightmares at these things. Thankfully there was several staff members that helped kept the lines organized and moving quickly. In no time I had my badge, the event itinerary, and was on my way with no frustrations.

Coming up to the Sheraton in downtown Denver had me excited as I saw the flood of costume wearing attendees walking back and forth between the Hotel, where the Dealers Rooms, Video Game and Board Game Area are located, as well as to the event center where the Viewing Rooms, Art Gallery, and Main Event Stage are all located. Not knowing a lot of the new anime, a lot of the cosplay was lost on me but that says nothing to the quality that was on display. People take the dressing up aspect seriously here and there were many creative costumes that had me gawking whether I knew the source material or not. Easily the most ambitious costume I saw was The Legend of Zelda Mask Salesman.

He had made this Mask Salesman costume himself

Mask Salesman’s rear, look at the assortment of video game masks!

I spent the first few hours exploring both buildings and every nook and cranny. In my travels I found a model making room, where many Gundams were not only for sale, but being constructed by some real pros. Some of their previous builds were on display and it made me recall all the ones I built in the past. Heck it even inspired me to take an unopened one out from the closet and start it up that very evening!

My personal favorite from Gundam Wing Endless Waltz

a nice collection of Gundam wing figures

The Art that was at the convention was incredible. There were plenty of pieces at good prices that ran from video games to a magnitude of different anime pieces. If you wanted to spend a little more there was a charity gallery where all profits went to charity. Speaking of spending money, the Dealers Room was a pretty decent size with so many knickknacks and swag that my palms were sweating. It took everything in me to keep my wallet firmly in my pocket and not spend outrageous amounts of items that would add to my already nerdy domain (talking about my room people).

the hardest thing to walk away from was a booth in the Dealers Room with so many Metal Gear Solid Play Arts Kia figures that I felt woozy from just the sheer amount of them on display. These figures go out of print so quickly yet here was a few complete collections on sale. I swiftly ran out of there with my wallet intact.

The viewing rooms for their 24/7 anime screens were smaller but were showing some pretty cool newer shows. I got to sit in on the first three episodes of the new Berserk series. As a longtime fan of the series I was very happy to finally get to see this reboot.  These conventions have a way of reminding me that there is plenty of great and new Anime out there, I just need to find it and be open to suggestion. A good example is One Punch Man was huge at the convention this year. So of course Saturday night I spent my time binging that show which was time well spent. If it weren’t for attending this convention I may have not been bitten by that Anime viewing bug again.

The Game Room called to me. I am always obligated to check out anything board or video game. While the board game area was not very large, nor was nothing on sale, the area was very populated. You could sit at a table, rent a game for a couple hours and really make an afternoon out of a variety of designer  board games. We didn’t spend much time here because the siren call of Dance Dance Revolution machines and other rhythm based games screeched from a nearby room.

I make haste towards the sounds and enter into a good sized area with free to play arcade rhythm based machines. I danced a few songs on the Pump it Up machine, headed over for a round of Dance Dance Revolution, played some drum game by Konami, and a few other machines I had never even heard of. Across the way were consoles loaded with fighting games such as Guilty Gear and Super Smash Bros. If I were in fighting shape I would have schooled some people in Smash but alas, I did not want to make a fool out of myself after being so out of practice.

paying my respects. Kojima forever

We wrapped up the day by attending the Anime Music Video Contest in the Main Event Hall.  Man these all brought me back. 3 hours of finalist videos that were all edited and synced up to music to perfection. I used to love digesting these back in the days of the early internet. I am talking Linkin Park, In the End with DBZ scenes focused on Vegeta type of stuff. That was OG to me. Here we had many standouts from Queens, Don’t top Me Now with a focus on One Punch Man, and even a hysterical Linkin Park, Crawling rendition that focused on the crappy animation of the new Dragon Ball Super. The whole room was invested and cheering along with the best videos, it was awesome to be a part of.

My time at Nan Desu Kan was well spent but very little. One full day is just a drop in the bucket for an experience like this. Next year I will prepare to do it the right way, with a room, a full weekend, and a costume. I love going to anime conventions, but lately some of the bigger ones have been so draining it leans on the side of draining more than fun. Nan Desu Kan is still in that sweet spot of size, control, and organization and it lead to an excellent time. Walking the floors and seeing all the costumes were the highlights for sure. I cannot wait until rocky mountain’s biggest Anime convention next year, and I hope to see some of you there!