Otakon 2021: Con Adventures During Covid
The first convention I remember attending was Otakon, an anime convention that started in Baltimore, but has now re-located to Washington, DC. It started in 1999, and generally had the reputation as being one of the biggest anime conventions on the east coast. It hasn't missed a year since then, until that awful year of 2020 where most events with large gatherings were closed. Thankfully, this year, Otakon was able to resume, with covid protocols in place. I went there for all three days with one of my friends, and this was my first convention since Covid.
To start off, it was surprising how painless obtaining our badges were. It's become a ritual from past Otakons to wait in a long line in the heat, wrapping around from outside of the convention center. But this year, picking up our convention badges combined with our wristbands, took easily less than an hour. This may have been because there were less attendees this year, or it could've been my friends and I arrived earlier for badge pickup. Either way, I definitely did not miss standing hours in the heat to get my badge.
Majority of the times I attend conventions, I cosplay, and this time I went as Overhaul from My Hero Academia for the first half of Friday and Sunday, Vergil from Devil May Cry 5 for the second half of Friday, and Demi Fiend from Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne on Saturday. Demi Fiend was especially fun to try out since I've never done this cosplay before. This was my first time experimenting with body paint, and it was great for the summer considering it was just me shirtless with shorts on. For those unfamiliar, most conventions have photoshoot sessions organized by someone, where fans gather, who are dressed from a certain franchise (Marvel, Nintendo, or Dragon Ball Z for example), and take themed pictures for whichever series. While there was sadly, no photoshoot for Devil May Cry, there were photoshoots for My Hero Academia and Shin Megami Tensei. They were both enjoyable and I met some great people that shared the same passion for the series as I do (maybe even more so). The SMT photoshoot was especially fun, as I was one of the only people dressed from the game that was not Persona, so I managed to get some extra attention. There was also a special guest appearance by the voice actress Laura Post (Voice of Kasumi in Persona 5 Royal and Yuko Takao from Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne HD), who was attending panels and autographing for the convention. I even took a picture with her as she even complemented me on my Demi Fiend outfit!
Rich L w/ Voice Actress Laura Post
Many anime conventions I've noticed tend to have some type of dance event, be it a rave or a formal ball. Due to covid, Otakon couldn't do the rave this year. However, they were still able to put on the formal ball. I attended the ball with my friends, and I went dressed as Vergil. Due to the smaller room and covid concerns, not everyone could be in the ball at the same time, so we had to wait in line that took about an hour to enter. While this was frustrating, I of course, understood their reasoning. On the plus side, they did invite people who were dressed up to take a picture for the Otakon website while in line for the ball. I, of course, accepted the invitation.
Yakuza 0 OST - 79 Friday Night from KuroKazuma
Upon entering, they used an entry system I've seen at other conventions where you can wear a wristband telling other people it's okay to ask you to dance. The only challenge was noticing the wristbands on other attendees to see if they were with anyone and then going over to ask them before someone beat you to the goal. The second half of the ball picked up for us, as we wound up dancing the night away with other people that entered later. It would've been perfect if they took requests and played “Friday Night” from Yakuza 0.
Saturday, I spent my time in the dealer's room, artist's alley, and the game room. The dealer's room is where you can buy merchandise from various vendors that come to sell things like figures, manga, and dare I mention...mature content. The selection seemed to be the standard market faire, which was nice to see. Personally, there wasn't anything that I wanted to buy, except a $700 Berserk figurine I had my eye on, but it's always good to check it out, as I learned the details on other conventions coming up in the future. The artist’s alley was a similar scenario. Here, the area actually felt bigger. There seemed to be more to purchase as well as view art on display like custom anime cars, prints, etc. With the game room, it also paralleled the previous rooms as it contained a range of fighting, racing, and platforming games. The only difference here was that the staff encouraged attendees to wipe down controllers after they finished playing their games. Covid or not, I wanted to play, and I only wished all the games were updated with their latest DLC.
Panels are a staple of any convention, and to be honest I only went to two of them, on the final day of the convention. We attended a panel hosted by the voice actor of Yuffie Kusaragi (Suzie Yeung) and Sonon (Aleks Le) in Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Integrade (See Below). They talked about how they broke into the voice acting industry, stories of what it was like working for Square Enix, and what being part of Final Fantasy 7: Remake meant to them as fans. They're up and coming voice actors, so I was less familiar with them, but they both seemed like fun and personable people. Their passion and excitement had me looking forward to playing the Yuffie Episode in the series.
The second panel I went to was hosted by a associate of mine from college named, Dan Cattell, where he discussed Samus and Ridley from Metroid. For this panel, he was discussing his sculptures of sprites from 2D video games that he was creating since the early 2010's. He was showcasing his various pieces of pixel art, and was talking about how he started in the business, the process behind it, as well as what kind of projects he's been a part of with his creations. It was great to see him and I applaud his success as I was around during the beginning. Respect to this creator as this was the final panel and event we did at Otakon 2021.
Artwork of Dan Cattell
So, the big question is, ‘how did the convention handle this new normal?’ Overall, I would say very well. Masks were required of everyone, vaccinated or not. While most attendees were consistent with keeping their masks on, I would've preferred it if Otakon simply required vaccination cards even though I understand this would of been hard to regulate. Of course, due to the mask requirement, it was also hard to tell people's expressions and even harder to hear their responses at times, especially with the convention background noise. This has been a common struggle in the mask wearing world, and it was interesting to see how people integrated them into their costumes even though I was able to pull it off with my Overhaul cosplay.
Otakon 2021 Closing Ceremony
If I had any criticisms toward the convention, one would be the entrances and pathways. Those areas could've been handled better, but this is something Otakon has always struggled with, especially at both locations. Sometimes it can be clunky getting around the convention center, especially if you have to go outside for anything. One would think they would be a bit more flexible considering not everyone would have to use the same entrances and exits; allowing more space and causing less of a Covid concern. There was also the issue of misinformation at the info desk. My friend and I were wondering if it was true that we couldn't bring any bags into the formal ball, and they told us we couldn't, yet when we arrived, we saw other people bring bags in. It was an honest mistake, sure, but not being able to carry things in was an inconvenience, especially since I had no pockets and our hotel was not close by.
After going to my first real convention again after Covid-19, I think it went well. It still felt like Otakon despite the adjustments. It just goes to show that events can still go on as long as everyone is safe and masked up. Was it my favorite Otakon experience? Not really, but I'd rather take what we were given than to not have it at all.
