And it’s only one dollar.
Yes, for my third year in a row, I went down to Otakon in Baltimore, MD, and while it was packed to the gills with over 34,000 attendees, it was worth it. Throughout all of the years that I’ve been in a preregistration line, this one was by far the largest, with it stretching almost a good mile from the convention itself (not to mention the unbearably hot weather).
A lot of the cosplayers were in top form this year, also including the various meetups attendees had showing off pertaining to the same shows and likeness. From cosplays such as Assassin’s Creed characters and giant servbots, to entire Team Fortress 2 cosplay groups, the variety was staggering and very much welcome as always. The dealers room also never cease to amaze due to its sheer amount of stuff you can get from various gamer gear, to even traditional Japanese bento boxes.
Even among all of the things happening at the convention, the real meat of it all was from the various concerts and industry panels that took place across the weekend. Concerts from known Japanese groups such as T.M. Revolution, Home Made Kazoku, and Yoko Kanno, not only rounded out for most entertainment shows through the weekend, but also made for great shows to see the actual composers for music from great anime shows. Also, the industry panels this year was an overall shock to see from each of the industries that attended. Because of Bandai’s earlier closing down and ceased acquiring more anime titles, like Geneon, the titles they originally had are now up for industry grabs. This being said, known companies like Funimation and Sentai Filmworks have now gotten their hands on older and well known titles such as Code Geass and even The Big O. So now fans can look forward to major rereleases of these and other known great titles.
Yes sir, Otakon 20 really strut its stuff this year, and certainly it did not disappoint. While the attendee amount grown year after year, it just makes the con just better and better to go to each year. Only X more days til Otakon 21!
