Good news anime geeks! NDK is this week and the schedule, map, and guide are all out for us.
2017 NDK Program Book
2017 NDK Events Guide
2017 NDK Map
I hope you all will be able to make it out to the Sheridan this weekend!
And a very important note, at least to me. The Japanese Voice Actors are having a Q&A at 10:00 AM Sunday in Panel Room 2. This should be a must see panel. Without their hard work, a lot of the stuff we have enjoyed may have never made it state side.
We're at one week, or more technically eight days away, from the largest anime convention in the Rocky Mountain region. We here at the Gameslave are starting to prepare our schedules for coverage of this year's convention. NDK is celebrating it's 15th year, which seems startling to me. Mostly because I, ZeldaQueen, at least have been attending since 2000, so that'd be NDK number four.
In any case, NDK's main site has done their major update before the start of the con, which is very informative. If you've been before, there isn't too much new stuff, but enough that will catch you off guard if you aren't paying attention. Firstly, the Marriot is charging for parking. Paying for parking is not always ideal, but if you've stayed on location before, you know how terrible parking is in the Marriot lot. It's only $5 a day per car, which really isn't too bad considering the hotel is guaranteeing beginning room rates to not start above $100 the next 5 years. Thank you hotel staff and NDK for that. Hopefully more people will carpool and help let everyone have a spot. Woe to those who leave the lot as spots are hard to get back into. Second, there isn't the early dealer's room privilege for those that pre-register. No longer do pre-regs get in an hour to 30 minutes earlier cause we've finally reached the point where more people pre-register now than not. We do have separate lines though, for those who have props to check and those who don't, to hopefully keep things flowing along. Thirdly, the video game room will be going on 24 hours a day, much like the anime video rooms. That's a lot of gaming playing in a single weekend and tournaments if that's what you like. Lastly, we get to see how the attendance cap plays out this year. Each day is capped at 7,500 people. Unless NDK can get a larger venue, we'll have to get use to this new feature. There can only be so many people crammed into one building and trust me it's already been feeling seam-bursting.
If you are planning on attending or know someone that is and would like the heads up, direct yourselves to the main NDK page here at this handy link. There are PDFs of the Events Schedule and Program Guide so you can start planning out your time spent at the con. The list of potentials for us is long already and will need to be pruned as we can't be in three places at once and will need to do some dividing and conquering as well as passing up some items, for our coverage. It looks like it's another great year for panels and guests as many favorites are returning. (Darn you anime counting contest for always being during the costume contest! Why can't you be on Friday night!)
For those of you unable to attend or just want the highlights, is there anything you'd like us to check out and report on at this year's convention? Send your thoughts in a comment and we'll see if we can't take in the sights and answer the questions for you! Keep your eyes peeled for our coming coverage of NDK!
