Otakon this year put a song in my heart. A Fire Bomber song.
Otakon Otakon
Otakon explosion once again
Otakon Otakon
Every day every night everywhere
It was a Mecha Matsuri at Otakon this year and the crowning jewel was Shoji Kawamori. He is up there with Yoshiyuki Tomino and Go Nagai as names that have forever changed mecha anime. He alone could be a headliner for any anime convention but Nobutoshi Canna, Kanetake Ebikawa, and Tatsuyuki Nagai, the Studio Trigger staff, and the panel selection really sealed the deal that Otakon 2018 was the year of the robot.
From panels to guests to screenings to autographs, nearly any hour of the day during Otakon there was something mecha related going on. This mecha bombardment even showed up in some of the surprise licenses for the convention. (That Voltes V screening wasn’t just a fluke!) Classic and modern mecha were represented in good measure.
While that might sound overwhelming, Otakon is big enough to have a theme like mecha at its center, but still have plenty of variety. With seven panel rooms, three workshops, an expanded artist alley, the huge video game room, photoshoots, and various other events I had no problem taking a mecha break.
A Darker Shade of Magic.
Reverse Thieves 