The 25th annual Otakon convention returned to Washington, D.C. for its second year in the nation’s capital on August 10-12, 2018. The convention, focused on anime, manga, and Japanese culture at large, seemed to make better use of the space in D.C. in its sophomore year in the venue, which – while it held tens of thousands of attendees – somehow never felt crowded.

Guests this year included Johnny Yong Bosch (Trigun), Robbie Daymond (Persona 5), Josh Grelle (Yuri!! On Ice), Todd Haberkorn (Fairy Tail), Masaya Matsukaze (Sailor Moon Crystal), Max Mittelman (One Punch Man), Bryce Papenbrook (Attack on Titan), and many others. One of the big upsides for Otakon (and many other anime conventions like it) is that, unlike many pop culture shows, there’s no upcharge for getting autographs from the guests – the flipside to that, though, is that attendees instead have to wait in line. Some guests proved to be so popular that the wait for autographs lasted several hours, and while additional sessions were scheduled for them, the general vibe from attendees was that the line management in that area of the show floor maybe could have been handled better. We’ll have to see if any improvements will be made in order to streamline that process a little bit in the future.

The panel selection this year also looked to be a solid lineup, with a good mix of industry panels, fan panels, and various workshops. The folks responsible for making the schedule seemed to make sure that some of the bigger panel-type events (such as the Persona 5 event and panels featuring some of the more popular voice actors) were in the largest possible room as a “featured event” in order to accommodate the most amount of people. However, many panels throughout the show ended up still needing to turn people away at the door, as the room was already full; this is a fairly unavoidable occurrence at such a large show, it seems. It feels impossible to tell, with literally thousands and thousands of people in attendance, which panels are going to run out of room. But the Otakon staff does the best they can with the resources they have, and I’m not sure what more attendees can really expect.

The Friday night concert this year was a “Distant Worlds” show, which is a live performance of Final Fantasy music. While “Distant Worlds” tours nationwide, the show at Otakon was free for attendees – and series composer Nobuo Uematsu was also a featured guest, which made the show a real marquee event this year. This unfortunately meant that the demand to see the show was far greater than the amount of actual space in the Featured Events venue; the line to get in was cut off about an hour and a half before the show was scheduled to start. I’m not sure of the exact capacity of that ballroom within the convention center, but it’s likely far less than what they had available to them in Baltimore previously. Otakon, while it was in Charm City, made use of the Royal Farms Arena, a 14,000-seat venue that they often used for their big concerts. I’m not entirely sure what the solution is here; I’m a big believer that the cost of admission to a convention should include admission to everything inside that convention, but I also don’t enjoy the idea of waiting around for several hours just to get into certain events.

Overall, Otakon remains an enjoyable convention and one that I would suggest any anime fan attempt to go to at least once. While it’s not the largest anime convention on the east coast any longer, it’s still significant (within the top 10 nationwide in terms of attendance) and the new venue suits it so well. I know I mentioned it last year, but the venue has allowed the convention to make the kind of improvements in regards to artist alley/dealer’s room layout that it was never able to make in Baltimore. All of the congestion and choke points are gone, and despite the mass of humanity existing in the building, it never feels claustrophobic.

As Otakon continues to explore the options available to them in DC, it seems like it can only continue to get better from here. Next year’s show will be on July 26-28, 2019 – I’ve already marked my calendar, and you should too.

-Carrie Wood