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.

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 Otakon’s move to DC has opened up several new possibilities thanks to the new location. The bigger convention center and more vibrant location have a lot of potential. The fact that they were able to have a Shinto shrine at the convention while having more room for all the other events says everything about how much more that can be done with the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

I’m not exactly sure that the move contributed to the increase in premieres. In fact, I’m fairly sure it a completely unrelated fact but it was still greatly appreciated. This year we got to see In This Corner of the World and Eureka Seven – Hi-Evolution 1 before most people in the U.S. The Eureka Seven movie had not even been shown in Japan before this. That in of itself was amazing. On top of that, the Anisong World Matsuri really added to event cache this year.

Sufficed to say there were so many big events this year that my panel attendance was actually lower than it usually was because I just had so much to do. Otakon was already a convention where you often had to choose which of three panels happening at the same time you want to attend but now the event schedule is popping in more and more as something vying for your time. What a great position to be in.

Somehow there was even more to do at Otakon this year, but I was able to attend more events than usual. If that doesn’t show the advantage of the new space, then I don’t know what else to say about it.

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