Otakon is an annual three-day (or four if you count Thursday) anime convention that is held typically during late July at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. and is the largest anime convention on the east coast!
Oh!Press was given a great opportunity to attend and cover the event!
I would say this years’ Otakon goes leaps beyond the previous years, whoever was in charge of guests did an amazing job bringing a large variety of voice actors, directors, artists and singers. Like many other conventions, Otakon hosted an array of events and activities from panels and workshops to the maid cafe and K-pop concerts. Otakon reported that this years’ con has broken an attendance record with over 40,000 memberships, which is a huge increase from the past 2-3 years. I’d like to quickly commend Otakon with continuing its’ health protocol this year, it makes attending a convention stress free and with less worries. Line-con was definitely present this year but with record breaking attendance it’s not a surprise haha.
Is it just me or is everyone’s first stop after getting their badge the Dealer’s room and Artist Alley?? The floor was packed full of people and booths, you can find a whole range of merchandise; from figurines and keychains to art books and manga. The Dealer’s room is really your one spot to find the latest anime merchandise in person as opposed to online! One thing I would like to see more are industry booths, I feel like they’ve been dwindling over the past few years.
Otakon went all out for their usually concerts and brought out a line-up of K-pop artists for Friday night. The line up included American Song Contest winner and K-pop soloist AleXa, K-pop group Pixy, and Korean girl band Rolling Quartz. For the Saturday concert, all spotlights were on G.L.A.M.S, a Japanese rock band. What was great was that any fans of these artists were able to attend various events that were set up such as autograph/M&G sessions, Q&A panels, and even dance workshops!
Let’s not forget the cosplay, it’s what makes attending a convention super fun and seeing how everyone interprets their favorite characters. Check out some awesome cosplayers from One Piece to Genshin Impact at Otakon 2022 down below.
