It took me close to a decade to finally attend the east coast's biggest anime party. I have heard nothing but positive remarks about Otakon from my diverse network of friends and followers. Flying in from New England would be a breeze – or so I thought. As I've been learning the hard way, Jet Blue night flights from Boston Logan will get you delayed. I was planning to arrive sometime before midnight, however, my flight got me to the Days Inn at 2AM Friday morning. It was not my first choice to celebrate my birthday at Boston Logan, but I was definitely ready to tune in for the evening and get what sleep I could get.

Location – Good Morning Baltimore
Stepping outside dressed up as Eternal Sailor Pluto, I met the wall of Baltimore humidity that the legends warned me about. The Days Inn was right across the street from the convention center. However, the convention was so big, it was spread out around a few hotels. For example, when I had to pick up my press badge, I had to go all around to the Sheraton. While it was a short walk, it's also a walk in the humidity. However, it was also nice to be consistently reminded that I could get some iced cold water only for one dollar by the local street vendors. I did a walk around inside the convention center and it was huge – while not as large as the Los Angeles Convention Center during Anime Expo, but even for the first few hours of day one, it was wall to wall people traffic. Attendees were carrying blue balloons to celebrate Otakon's 20th. As I passed through the sea of otaku, I made my way to the other side of the convention center for the panel rooms at the Hilton. It was a bit of a walk, but well worth it for the cool air conditioning.

Convention Culture
While I have seen my share of "convention horror stories" at cons, it's not too often to see a panel that is about looking at convention going culture from an anthropologist's standpoint. The panelists covered the first geek gatherings – they were essentially a social experiment to see what happens if you gather likeminded eccentric types in a room and add alcohol. The panel covered some very interesting discussion points. One such topic was inclusivity and how it relates to how and why the Homestuck fandom has grown at a rapid rate. The panelists covered how the Homestuck fandom was inclusive and invites people to their fandom. They also talked about how anime conventions have originally stemmed from fantasy and science fiction events and have turned into "pan geek" events covering plenty of topics. I thought this was an interesting panel to kick off the con. I really felt this could have gone for another hour because there were plenty of discussion points and plenty of attendees who had their hands up to contribute. Overall, an intelligent discussion on why conventions exist and how fandom has changed and evolved in the past couple of decades.

Otakon Museum
I actually stumbled into this Otakon Museum as I was on my way to line up for opening ceremonies. There was a room in the Hilton that had displays from Otakon past. It was like looking at a time capsule - badges from previous years, programs, t-shirts, and timelines. It was almost like looking at a history of anime fandom and trends through the years. The Otakon 2000 had a couple proclaim, "I remember His and Her Circumstances! That was my favorite back then!" I took some time to check out the trivia they had listed –when Otakon was a four day con, what year it was the hottest, etc. This was a nice addition to the con and it made a first timer like me wonder why I have waited this long to check out Otakon.

Opening Ceremonies
It's a birthday celebration and everyone's invited! To warm things up, the audience was entertained by a Japanese taiko and theatre group. We got to see some dancing dragons and taiko set to "Gangnam Style." It was nice to still see that Japanese culture is still part of the con culture at Otakon. Like any opening ceremonies, we had our guest of honor line up. I really liked how they presented the guests. We saw a cute flash animation of the Otakon mascots prepare for a birthday party and they were selecting who to invite. The invitation list introduced each of the guests and what they were known for. However, what is a party without a little music? It also showed the mascots shopping for CDs – the crowd cheered when they saw Yoko Kanno, Homemade Kazoku, and TM Revolution's names displayed on screen. Not only we were introduced to Otakon's mix of Japanese and American guests from the anime industry, the current chair asked if they had someone in the audience who had a perfect Otakon attendance. Only one person who met that was in the audience. This was a nice way to kick things off and I really did admire Otakon's creativity in presenting such. Otakon had a diverse guest list that would make old, new, and in-between otaku proud.

Sailor Moon Photoshoot
You know it's a sign of the times when the Sailor Moon photoshoot eclipse's the Naruto photoshoot. At Otakon, most of the series specific photoshoots took place in the indoor fountains. I've seen these in photos – this was a popular place to take photos of cosplayers. Certainly, because of Sailor Moon's 20 year anniversary, there were a ton of Moonies present. I wore Eternal Sailor Pluto among the few, the proud, the Outer Senshi. There were a lot of Sailor Mars cosplayers present at the meet up. We did have the occasional Princess Serenity, but a few unique entries included human Artemis, Mistress Nine with the Holy Grail, Wicked Lady, etc. It was fun meeting other Moonies who enjoy dressing up from our beloved fandom. While I always get this impression at every Sailor Moon meet up I attend, it's good to know that the Baltimore crowd is just as friendly as Los Angeles.

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