I woke up on the morning of August 8th (my birthday of all days), without my voice and feeling a congestion coming on. I apologize in advance if I got anyone else sick. I did my best to not use my voice. In spite of having laryngitis prior to Otakon, I still had a very memorable time. I was able to room with friends from the west coast. For us, it was our first time to Otakon. Late night evening conversations comparing the west coast and the east coast were had. However, while Otakon is just one convention, there are dozens of other east coast cons to fully talk about the differences of con culture. "It felt like Fanime, but with 30,000 people," said one of my hotel mates.

I really do feel Otakon is in a class of it's own. My hotelmate squeed over all of the shoujo cosplayers. I was very happy to see fans of 70s and 80s anime that still continue to attend Otakon. I'm so used to seeing people close to my age retire and quit conventions because they're not what they used to be. However, I really did feel a sense of nostalgia perusing through panels and reminiscing of what cons used to be like. While Otakon continues to grow, it has that otaku spirit I don't normally see as much anymore on the west coast. I'm happy to see that people are very proud of their fandoms and wear it on their sleeve. I'm happy to see people not ashamed about being an otaku, but still acting like a socially decent person. My hotelmate and I also discussed that there's a much more mature atmosphere about Otakon. Aside from the bubble attack on the fountain (I learned about this after the fact), there seems to be a greater appreciation for culture here.

Otakon has a very friendly environment. I enjoyed the Type Moon shoot because I was able to meet some likeminded costumers that enjoyed the same things I did. In my experience, meet ups feel very rushed, we really don't have a lot of time to get to know each other. Even though I did the Sailor Moon shoot on Friday, I wish I did the Moonie dinner meet on Friday evening, yet I promised friends I'd do Lounge 21 with them. One of the few problems about this con is that there's so much to do and so little time. I liked that Otakon offers a variety of programming – there were a ton of really interesting panels. I really wanted to attend all that interested me, but so much to do in so little time. I cannot say if Otakon would benefit more if it turns into a four day con, I'm quite happy it's a nice three day con in the summer.

Otakon had a lot of unique programming. I liked that there was always something to do – burlesque, MST3K, panels, fan parodies, dances, and so much more. I liked that programming was kept close to Japanese pop culture without meandering too far. Just going over the panel schedule shows a variety programming for all generations of otaku.

The other problem I had with Otakon was traffic flow to certain parts of the con. For example, you could not exit the main entrance for registration. You had to go up a set of stairs only to find yourself going down another set of stairs. It was the same exit procedure for the dealers hall and artist alley. For events that took place inside in the evening, certain doors were blocked off where you had to go outside and go around. It was pretty inconvenient having to go around to one entrance when your destination require you to go a roundabout way. I really did not like traffic control this year. People complain about Anime Expo traffic control being bad, it's far worse when entrances are blocked off and you have to go around in the humid heat.

Otherwise, I had a total blast at Otakon. This experience really solidified why I still go to anime cons. I really enjoy meeting cosplayers from the same series that I enjoy; we don't care about how many Facebook likes we have or don't have, we care because new friendships can be formed. I felt really bad because I had lost my voice. I really did like the otaku environment here. I highly recommend Otakon for anyone that has any type of fascination with anime. While Otakon may be huge in numbers, don't let that stop you from attending. This con has a nice mix of stateside and international guests that are worth their salt in the anime industry. I love that Otakon can have fan culture and anime industry founders come together at the crossroads of sharing and exchanging ideas. It's what I always hoped Anime Expo would be – fandom based panels and insight to industry all together at once.

Special shoutouts go to Outer Power, Inner Beauty for letting me be Rei Hino in their Sunday cosplay group. Shououts to Rene Hwang for the Lisa Lisa photoshoot on Sunday. Thanks to Anime Jam Session for the hotel room at the Days Inn so I didn't have to scrounge around for a room. Thanks to IAX for making this trip to Otakon possible. I really did enjoy this year's con and I look forward returning in 2014.

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