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The annual tradition of applauding and complaining! Although I have more complaints than compliments listed, I want to start by saying how great this convention really is. I've been coming back for more than 20 years for a reason! I really appreciate the effort the volunteers are putting into it. The Good: Otakon did a really good job this year of managing crowds. I hardly ever encountered lines, especially since I didn't have a bag and could use the quick entrance. Only place I really encountered backups was the escalator in front of the gaming hall entrance. I re

The Good: As many have said already, the crowd control was great this year. I do kind of miss the camaraderie that came with waiting in long lines and getting to play games while waiting, but it's really nice that things overall were moving at a good pace, especially when waiting outside in that heat. The new attendance record was great to see IMO. Large crowds wear me out, but it's nice to see Otakon growing and I really wasn't expecting it to go up that much this year. It's exciting to see. Even though I didn't get to go to all the guest panels this year, it was great to s

I thought most of the con went pretty well, but if I have one request for next year, PLEASE bring back at least a few official autograph sessions for dub VAs next year. I had to pay more for 2 autos and a pic with Justin Cook this year, than I did for 3 autos and a pic total from Steve Blum and Beau Billingslea last year. I get that a lot goes into determining how those sessions and prices work, such as appearance fee vs guarantee, and dealing with agencies etc. I just don't want Ota to turn into an expensive autograph show when it comes to dub VA signatures.

I like the lenticular badges but I miss the old mascots and the good 'ol days where you could pick your badge design from a variety of anime and game titles.

The food court in the convention center near the Marriott entrance has been remodeled and is open again. It must be on an event by event basis whether or not it's used now. The dining area now has a long window that overlooks the main hall (what in the past was the Artists' Alley hall). I got some pictures of it open at last winter's auto show. https://ibb.co/jRc9YNn https://ibb.co/0nsptxh

That is a load of BS.

Again, the idea that the unvaccinated and the vaccinated spread COVID-19 at the same rate is simply untrue. Here is a link to a study done during Omicron: https://www.news-medical.net/amp/news/20230103/COVID-booster-shots-cut-Omicron-transmission-in-closed-environments.aspx The relevant passage: “In adjustment analyses, the Poisson regression model estimated that index cases vaccinated with ≥1 COVID-19 vaccine dose had, on average, a 22% lower risk of transmitting infection than unvaccinated index cases. Each additional dose further reduced the risk of transmission to close contact by an

If you require vaccination then by definition you’re getting people who are more responsible and likely to keep up with their boosters. Yes, someone can technically show up with just their primary series from two years ago, but that doesn’t mean everyone would. By the way, “the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission” is a completely false anti-vax talking point. It literally does prevent transmission, it’s just not foolproof. But it’s certainly better than walking around unvaccinated (again, assuming people are keeping up with their boosters). Ultimately I don’t feel super strongly abo

Put back the vaccine requirement at least. Last year was overcrowded as hell, and the vaccines were the main thing preventing any outbreak. On top of that offer refunds and transfers. Do you want your reputation to go to crap after years of acclaim?

I really wish this board would get popular again. I miss the old days when this was a booming place. Social media pages are a mess (especially Facebook since 90% of my feed now is ads and clickbait). The BBS is so much more organized. Is there something that can be done to increase interest (advertise the BBS more on the social media pages or make it easier to find)?

It has now been 6 weeks since Otakon 2023 came to a close and the Otakorp Galleries for the event have not yet been added. The galleries for 2021 and 2022 were up within 3 weeks. Can we get some assurance that the galleries are still a work in progress and are planned to be added sometime soon? People have been asking about them and looking forward to seeing pictures, particularly those who got their pictures taken at Lyra's Formal Ball or Masquerade participants who got photos taken at the photo booth the night of the masq.

I think the off year and Discord caused traffic here to take a hit. That's just me talking. I don't know anything about anything. I remember the old mailing list and how that fell out of favor as the board and then social media came in.

Yearly reminder on things to bring with you. An umbrella Cell phone charger Your medications Your vaccine card (if not using the applet) Masks 2 pairs of shoes (let one pair air out between days 🤣) small water bottle ear plugs (personal preference based on volume levels these days) hoodie and/or pants (if you are prone to getting cold in air conditioning) [can't tell you how many ladies in their light Summer dresses folding their arms over tightly to try and keep warm in the grocery store] No spelling or grammar errors this time, I hope

Just found out about this. Thought someone would have posted it already in the Announcements area. https://www.otakon.com/info/hotels/

There's only a few of us (probably less than a handful), left who were there at the time.

A little before Otakon, I gave up seeing the boards, after many times of waiting 4 minutes each, and it never loaded. A little after Otakon happened, I tried again and it worked great, saw lots of people's comments about attending Otakon, hotels, etc. But after that, the boards sometimes load right away, sometimes not. I hope people don't give up coming here, since loading has been so moody. 🙁

They will have to break out the Bean Bandit, Lum, and Ranma standees again, and set up the Dealer's Closet.

AMV THEATER INFO AMV Theater is back in Room 202 (same place as last year). AMV Theater will be running all convention-weekend as-normal. 9AM-1:30AM Friday/Saturday, 9AM-4PM Sunday. ----------------------- IRON EDITOR Who: BecauseImBored1 tries to keep the streak alive against long-time AMV creator: Compbros! What: Two AMV editors spend two hours editing an AMV in front of a live audience. No pressure. There will also be plenty of audience participation events. How? Each contestant will be given 6 anime sources, and all 6 must be used. Each contestant is allowed

I would avoid it, its known for being a skethy hotel overall, in the past few years there have been reports of break ins and human trafficking there.

With regards to this year, I'd honestly genuinely say it was mostly fantastic. My only big complaint being put on the Discord instead in terms of management issues. I do however have one other complaint/comment that I was initially going to just keep to myself but I'm seeing more and more complaints about it and that is regarding guests. I don't know what goes on behind the scenes guests wise and I know it's very complex. I also don't want to discount/insult the guests who took time out of their lives to come or the work done by Guest Relations. On the other hand however, I must confess to fee

When i write these, I try not to ding the presentations as they are contributing more than I am to the con. I wish I could find the paper where I had some notes, but it's somewhere in the vacation stuff I haven't sorted yet. That being said... Anime Reboots, Understanding the Brotherhood Effect - Looked at reasons why series are being rebooted years, even decades after the original run, for better and for worse. Some of them being the same reasons why Hollywood keeps constantly bringing back properties. Demon Slayer Traditions: Exploring the translation of traditional art and music i

It's funny you mention that. I actually bought a Hampton pillow earlier this year after finding out how forgiving they were to my neck.

If you're able to pull it together for the con, I'm sure I'd be in attendance. For an anniversary year, it might be good to show the changes in some of the details in demographics and costs and such over three decades. I know many details are confidential, but it'd be amusing to see what certain types of costs were in 1994 vs 2024.

On an Otakon FB group I'm already seeing people reporting positive covid results. I did come wearing a mask, while I get they can't require masks forever I agree it was a mistake to drop vax requirements.

The Good: Line Management. The staff clearly learned the right lessons from last year, which was doubly important considering the dangerously hot weather this last weekend. Most of the time I could waltz right in through the front door, even with the bag check, and never get stuck waiting. I was absolutely incredulous to learn that attendance was another 2k higher than last year because it absolutely did not feel like that, not even at the height of Saturday. The choice to bring in some Spanish-language dub actors was an inspired choice and a welcome bit of variety as far as gue

The Good - I want to give a massive shout out to everyone running the photo suite this year. I know they were short staffed on photographers but they all worked really hard to make the experience good anyway, and were super transparent about how long things would likely take. Hats off to them. - Programming variety was much better this year (as was the panelist experience). There was a lot of variety in general, honestly, since the artist's alley and dealer's room also had good variety and weren't dominated by merch for the same 2-3 shows as it has been in some years. - Moving p

Just wanted to say thank you to all the staff, gophers, and everyone whom helped put together another Otakon for us. You do great work and deserve appreciation! 😀

There's a CVS across from the WEWCC and a Giant and Safeway each a few blocks away.

I just noticed that you can view the schedule (sans the Video room schedules) from the main page. I did my usual thing of making a list of panels that could be of interest to me, with alternates in case the room is full. Now I just have to figure out the gaps to go to the dealers room and artists alley, as well as returning to my hotel room to restock my supplies. (Usually this is related to which session of the AMV contest I attend.) So many panels, so little time... Notes: I noticed there's not RWBY photoshoot this year - not enough people? Did they go the way of most fandoms and s

I have noticed a lot of places are aggressively doing things to not accept cash. The local Lowes has 2 self check-out booths that are listed as "cash or card", but they are never turned on. The local Whole Foods used to take case in self-checkout, but stopped that as well. They want you to wait in the long lines with full carts when you only have 1 item, because you want to use cash. I was saying to @Revan that I'm getting a pre-paid card to take down there, because I expect it will be very difficult to pay in cash in a lot of places. One coffee shop near the convention center told me the

This weekend is supposed to be the hottest so far this year for Washington DC. Predicted temperatures for the convention are as follows: Thursday: 98 Friday: 98 Saturday: 97 Sunday: 84. We may hit the hottest temperatures for DC in the past 7 years (for the entire summers, not just Otakon). The values are so out of whack the heat index simply doesn't work (pegging the heat index around 117-118 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) This is a serious heat event. People WILL be removed from Otakon in an ambulance. Please be careful.

There is (or was) guest Wi-Fi at the convention center, but it will be slow. No data plan on my phone, so I would load the schedule page on the hotel Wi-Fi and keep the tab open to hook up again to the convention Wi-Fi. It was easiest if you only loaded the page for the day of the schedule, so there were fewer mistakes in finding content. They also had digital screens with the schedule grid and a marker showing the current time. Used that a bunch of times when the Wi-Fi was acting up. Not sure if you can access the schedule on a Nintendo 3DS. Meant to try that, but Nintendo shut down the

Last few years, it has been slow throughout the convention. Never understood why, because the old guard are the ones who post for the most part. We do appreciate having the announcements on the board. I happened upon the hotel block release notice by accident. Logged in and saw a post that said it was opening the next day. Would have missed it completely otherwise. If they ditch the board, can we signup for an email blast of announcements? Good old Majordomo.

I do hope there is a program book and offline schedule. Not everyone has a phone. Not everyone with a phone has mobile data. Not every phone is compatible with apps. If there is no offline schedule or reliable public wifi at the convention center, I won't have any access to any online based schedule. The assumption that everyone always has access to a working online capable mobile device is problematic at best.

I don't think that schedule is final since they haven't made any announcements and haven't pushed the Guidebook public yet. Its almost a guarantee that panels will get shuffled around before the start of the con.

The video after that line was shouted was a Fist of the Northstar video to What a Wonderful World, sung by Louis Armstrong.

The DC Metro will be closing the Green Line stations between Fort Totten and Greenbelt from July 22 to September 4, so this will include the dates of Otakon. While the Green Line station for the Convention Center will still be open this will obviously impact people expecting to ride the Metro in from the North.

Yes, I know that a lot of people use the entrance regardless if they are staying at the hotel. I have a few friends who stay across the street that did that last year since it was faster/easier to get to photoshoots. I meant it more for people who stay at the Marriott so they do not ever have to go outside in the heat. That is why I personally stay at the Marriott so not being able to use the tunnel due to having a bag or prop would make me just decide to stay elsewhere next year. Sorry my wording was bad!

2023's theme for Otakon is trains, since I haven't seen a discussion thread set up for trains, let me start one if that's OK with everyone! A pretty recent development regarding trains in the US is there is a group known as the Northeast Maglev that is working with the Central Japan Railroad Company on an attempt to bring Central Japan Railroad's SCMAGLEV (SuperConducting MAgnetic LEVitation) train technology to the NEC (the NorthEastern Corridor). This high-speed passenger rail train line is proposed to go between Washington D.C. and New York City with an approximate one-way

You wouldn't happen to know if the... Moroccan(?), Mediterranean(?) place is still there? IIRC it was in the food court next to the Video Game area. They had something on the menu there last year looked interesting - rice, vegetables, hummus, etc. (I want to say chicken tagine, but I don't think that's quite it.), but I had already stocked up my meals for the con at the Safeway on Thursday. (I can't think of the last time I paid convention center prices for food. I still have money on a Visa gift card that I didn't spend when I went on vacation last year, so I might just drop the money to at l

Same here, only I had to settle for a $17 pizza, and that wasn't even any good.

I don't usually buy con food but on Saturday last year I didn't dare leave the building due to the lines and risk being stuck outside so I ended up eating a $15 sandwich lol. It was good at least.

Hi All! I know that Otakon (and other cons, too), tries to negotiate to get the best rates for their attendees, but I'm beginning to see prices that are really way up there. High hotel prices were the absolute reason I stopped attending Katsucon.

I'm going to wear my mask if I have to.

Let’s think about this rationally for a second. If I walk by a staff member entering a panel room or autograph session wearing my badge and the staff member checks it, I can’t suddenly not have a badge once I pass them. I either have a badge or I do not. On the other hand, I can be properly wearing a mask when a staff member looks at me walking into something and then not wearing one properly five seconds after I have been “inspected”. It’s just not the same thing. Truly vigilant enforcement of masking that would actually make a difference would require people to be constantly monitoring

The first 1,000 people to register can register for the full weekend for $70, after that registration will be $75. That's a huge price drop from last year's $95. Oh, and free badge mailing for everyone too.

As much as I like to drive, I decided to take the bus when both Katsucon and Otakon first moved to D.C, and later to train, when I saw just how hard and expensive it would be to bring my car over.

I am not from that area and only do shopping during the day. Never had any problems walking down from the convention center towards Chinatown. Highly recommend getting one of the folding maps they sell in one of the drug stores (maybe Wallgreens?). They have indicators for the train stops on those maps too. A decent compass is not a bad idea, either. Have been going to DC since Otakon moved there and only found the 2nd Dunkin Donuts this year. When waiting to check out from Otakon 2022, I noticed some courtesy printouts of the local restaurant locations at the Concierge desk. Will have to

Also adding Wallet (with monies) Some sort of picture ID Personally some other things I'm packing: 'bathroom slippers' not afraid to get wet (for use in the hotel room) Game charger(/s) Watch/FitBit I also using a bag (that I 'officially' started using last year) with general bathroom stuff...ie: toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. Includes travel size shampoo/soap cuz one fear I have is I get some weird skin reaction from the hotel provided soap/shampoo. (Hasn't happened to me yet but I've reacted to new stuff at home before)

Adding to the list: Food Change of clothes Soap Wild Bill mug