Following 18 years at the Baltimore Convention Center, Otakon made its move down the parkway and into the nation’s capital for its first year at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center – and a smart move that turned out to be. From August 11-13, 2017, Otakon took over the venue as well as the attached Marriott Marquis hotel for three days jam-packed with concerts, cosplay, panels, gaming, and much more.

There’s a lot to be said about the venue change. While it certainly came with its share of hiccups, it’s ultimately the best possible choice for Otakon to have made. I loved going to Otakon while it was in Baltimore – it was my hometown convention and I took a lot of pride in that – but the Baltimore Convention Center could no longer adequately contain the show. The past several years of Otakon while it was still at the BCC felt crowded and congested; the BCC has a number of unfortunate choke points in the layout where it becomes difficult to just move around. In DC, Otakon finally has room to breathe. While I don’t think the actual amount of people changed that much from last year to this year (though, admittedly, numbers have as of yet not been released on that front), it felt simply more comfortable in the new space. Based on just chatting with people throughout the weekend, I couldn’t help but notice that staff and attendees alike clearly prefer DC over Baltimore in terms of the venue alone.

The places that I think benefitted the most from the new venue were the dealer’s hall and artist’s alley. In the past, both have felt extremely tight with relatively narrow aisles to walk through. Now, thanks to the expanded area for both, I had the ability to peruse booths without feeling crowded by other attendees. Simply having the breathing room in these high-density areas made for a marked difference over previous Otakons.

Panels and workshops were given plenty of space, as well, and the schedule proved to be pretty diverse. Unfortunately – and this is by no means Otakon’s fault – it seemed as though a lot of panels ended up being canceled. That seems to be the fault of people not showing up or checking in on time more than anything, but it’s still not great.

The big event that I chose to attend was Friday’s Anisong World Matsuri concert, featuring JAM Project and T.M. Revolution. The Matsuri has also taken place in Los Angeles and elsewhere around the world, and it was cool that it made a stop at Otakon. While having to pay an additional ticket fee to get into the show (which, on top of an Otakon registration fee, is not great) as the Matsuri is considered a separate event entirely, the show was spectacular. JAM Project brought their high-energy hard rock to new heights while T.M. Revolution finished his set with the nostalgia-inducing “Heart of Sword.” I’ve seen both of these acts at Otakon previously; T.M. Revolution was my first big Otakon concert back in 2003, and he’s still got it.

Of course, there’s hardly ever a big convention such as this that runs 100 percent perfectly. With heavy rain throughout the weekend, it led to a drainage pipe bursting in the part of the center that both the dealer’s room and artist’s alley were housed in. Photos of significant water flooding in from the ceiling could be found all over social media and the incident was the cause of much legitimate irritation from the vendors. Something like that happening is difficult to predict, though it seemed that both the con staff and the building management did everything they could to solve the issue and clean everything up as soon as they could.

This was also the first year that Otakon instituted a bag check procedure before being able to enter the convention, thanks in due part to incidents at other large conventions (such as the issue in Arizona). The first morning with bag checks seemed to hit a snag early, causing long lines to develop and frustration with attendees who wanted to get into early panels or screenings. However, by that afternoon, the process seemed to have largely worked itself out; I never ran into any issue with having a bag checked in my time coming and going from the show.

Overall, despite some initial reservations about the move down to DC, I thought Otakon was simply a really great convention this year. And, moving forward, it’ll only get better as the staff gets more used to the space and has more efficient setups. I had the opportunity to chat with some of the guests, including voice actors Sandy Fox and Jaime McGonnigal and Sunrise producer Hideyuki Tomioka, so be on the lookout for those in the coming weeks.

-Carrie Wood