Otakon this year came and went in my whirlwind August. It is the first stop for this eventer choo-choo…uh, did you know Otakon has a train theme last year? This year the theme is “30” because technically it’s not yet the 30th anniversary but just 30 years? Anyways, I have Anirevo next week, Spirit of Japan in Miami after that, and finally staying home for AnimeNYC before ending the month at Anisama. So yes, it’s recap really rapid-time.
This year the guest list is actually impressive. So impressive that I know I won’t have them to see them all. I actually missed out on most of the male seiyuu cast members from Blue Lock….most, because I was at the autograph area for some of their signings so I was able to see them from afar. For the josei seiyuu fans, this year’s lynchpin is Uchida Aya. Some friends flew in from all over the country just for her, and why not? She is fun and cute, and definitely entertaining.
Ucchi was pretty open about all of this which made both of her panels pretty fun. The second panel was kind of just her travelog recently at the big JP theme parks and a few onsens in Gunma. Plus the Slam Dunk seichi junrei which she clearly is a huge fan of, out in Kamakura.
Her first panel was recapping her career as a seiyuu and fans got to ask the usual questions, albeit only for about 20 minutes. The second panel with the travelog was cut short due to some technical issues and we only got like 12 minutes of Q&A, in which everyone just asks for more recs because they are going to Japan. The ironic humor aside Ucchi took it like a champ, and Livers are cringe as usual.
There was one additional activity, which was that Ucchi did go around the con to visit various things, like the idol space on Friday and other relevant things. It’s pretty cool she is so engaged.
A local friend decided to do a flower stand and banner at Otakon, but they stowed it at another friend’s booth, which I guess worked but it means it’s really just the usual pain in the butt. I am still kind of mixed on US cons and flower stands, but it would be nice if more cons made allowances for them instead having to rely on individuals.
The hubbub at Otakon this year is the autograph again and some means of dealing with the Funko Pops people who will go through hellfire to get those autographed. Yes, this means acrylic window on shikishi, or staffers confronting people trying to get around those rules. It means unhappy Funko people and equally unhappy fans who were bumped because of said people, and everyone is not happy about the crush method Otakon employs. Sure it’s not the worst, but some cons have improved over the years so Otakon’s method is getting to be left in the dust. I don’t wanna beat this dead horse but it is a problem especially for folks like myself who spend quite a lot of time at the free JP autographs at these older big cons. Here’s a friend ranting about this issue for 3 hours which goes into more depth.
Other than Flow, I would say this year’s Otakon is kind of like the last two. There are some notable guests but far majority were kind of just ~okay~ in my book. Hirasaka Yomi is probably that guy this year, but it isn’t much we can do with introverted light novel authors at an anime con. It’s fun to see these guys getting a taste of the event as their first time overseas. The guy who created messed up stories like Haganai, Imosae and Hensala came to mostly to shill Gifu at his first panel, and I wasn’t able to go to his other one due to conflict. I wasn’t able to go to the Yurucamp season 3 panel at all, which is a bummer.
Who else? I got to see Korean cover song youtuber Studio aLF a bit, took some selfies. Got to talk to Yoshi of Orange and met his animator superman and it was fun getting that autograph. I went to the Uki Satake cheki event and talked to the organizer who’s doing all this idol space stuff. Speaking of which I owe her a review. The cheki event was fun but basically it was like, we go there, we take the cheki, and we sat around having snacks and soft drinks while trying to decorate your cheki. I suck at this so Uki did it for me? We tried to have some banter but yeah, it didn’t go so far lol. Basically it was Uki Satake shooting fish in a barrel. Last but not least the Flow concert is banging and a full house sold out, including the freebie seats. I also attended the VIP event but had to leave half way.
Overall, this year Otakon made some small changes to facilitate the dealer room and AA entry by opening up both sections for transit, with a delay in the AM for about an hour to route the crowd through the dealer room far entrance. I get it, but it kind of just adds unnecessary walking that can be avoided if you don’t have an early autograph session to line up for.
There is more attendees than last year, something north of 46k+ attendees. A few thousand more, but it didn’t feel that way with barely any lines for entry and exiting the con. Staying at the Marquis, the only sign of the added volume was the longer-than-I-remember elevator lines. I was able to get a table at the hotel bar Dignitary on Saturday night for a weirdly unplanned board game event…? Anyways, I got updated with some more seiyuu name jokes from a friend, so I’ll try to pass it on later this month to those who enjoy that kind of things.
I wasn’t able to catch the AA this year, but I did manage to walk the exhibit hall. It’s bigger and more full than ever. The quality is less I think, partly because there were no real standout corpo booths, and a lot of the vendors are just selling adjacent lifestyle stuff which it’s not really my thing. Maybe more so than ever there are more of those types at Otakon, which may be an overall plus. The only real nag was the Otakon merch booth with only 4 registers, which is not enough with all the cool 30th year merch they had in stock. On merch, Otakon finally has some parity with other cons.
Which is kind of my feel about Otakon 2024, this convention needs some updating. The way autograph is run is heroic but unnecessary once they put in some drastic changes: protip, use the internet. The way things are done today is perfect for 2008 but not acceptable for 2024, and it’s not because “don’t fix what ain’t broke” but because times change and what used to work doesn’t anymore. The guest list really can be spruced up, which I mentioned before. It’s about time some splash guests give Otakon some pop.
I saw, but didn’t go into the Otakon 30th exhibit space, because I know what I will see in there (I’ve seen earlier versions of the Otakon museum and I’ve been to each con since except 2021 so…). But more importantly I would have been reminded how Otakon used to be so great but now just mid. It’s not easy to run a great con, but this con needs some renewal.
PS. I went to both Thursday night and Friday night anikura from the Aniparty/Aniwaza folks. Good times, and the venue is in a bopping part of town. Super excited to finally go to Aslin beer finally…
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