Otakon day three arrived. Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Li Mei was ready to take an uber from her hotel to the Baltimore Convention Center. Jared was carefully packing his suitcase and making room for figures. Eri Kagami did her final 5K on the treadmill at the Hilton gym. Otakon was coming to a close and neither of us wanted to leave.

Cosplay Lip Sync for Your Life by Eri Kagami
Based on the popular Rupaul’s Drag Race contestant elimination round, Cosplay Lip Sync for Your Life is a new Otakon tradition. Hosted by professional cosplayer, Jezeroth, cosplayers are called to go on stage and compete in a lip sync battle. Songs are announced right before Otakon. Such songs included “Pon Pon Pon,” “I Won’t Say I’m in Love,” “Moon Pride,” “Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” and more. A final battle between two of the top contestants were given a surprise song to duel against each other with. They had to perform to a remix of “Simple and Clean” from Kingdom Hearts. The winner was given a custom made crown by Jezeroth. This was a fun event and I had a great time participating in it. It was really cool seeing people volunteer and perform on stage for the fun of it.

Dealers Hall by Eri Kagami
The dealers hall was located in the basement level of the convention center. Aisles were fairly spread out; nothing too crowded. There was a good mix of industry and booths selling anime goods. Industry booths included Pony Canyon, Aniplex, Funimation, Viz, and more. This was a nice dealers hall to find rare anime goods. We were surprised to find Marmalade Boy dolls going for $100 a piece! Other goods such as wigs, Lolita dresses, cosplay accessories, alpaca plushes were also sold too. With so much to do at Otakon, it was a miracle we were able to make time for the dealers hall. This was one of our last stops during the weekend and we came home with a few new figures.

Building a better script – comics, manga, and more by Jared
This workshop was divivded into a lecture and a practicum, making it different from the usual writing panel. The first part was about the different problems that can come up with script writing and the importance of being clear about how things should be framed so your artist can make everything look ‘right’. The relationship between writer and artist was focused upon and ways of bringing things together for a shared vision. The second half was built around using a worksheet to reverse engineer the picture to descriptive text. This way those new to comics writing could learn just how complex comics writing can be. This was a great workshop and is helpful to anyone considering working in the comics industry.

Carl Macek’s Robotech Universe by Jared
This documentary covered the man behind Robotech and later Streamline Media. It covered his early years and how he was able to sell Robotech. Beyond that it covered how meticulous Carl Macek was with the details of his universe including getting proper performances from the actors and making sure that there were no continuity errors. When the show was over they showed a preview of the newest project Love, Live, Alive. It was an interesting peek into the history of how anime first came to the US back in the early 80s.

Art Auction by Jared
In the back of the artist alley on Sunday the art auction took place to sell unique pieces that ran up into thousands of dollars. Some of the art up for bid was very unique like engraved plates and sculptures, but most of the works were painting and prints. There were some nice items, but most of them were a little too expensive for the casual art fan.

Charity Auction by Jared
When the art auction was over the charity auction began. This auction had a very different set of merchandise than the art auction. Items included signed posters, shirts, signed games, and rare Otakon merch. Prices were far more reasonable than the art auction, but rare signed copies of Clannad and autographed import mangas fetched a high price. This is a great way to spend a little leftover money on some of the hard to find signed items for a good cause.

Artist Alley by Eri Kagami
Artist Alley brought in fan artists from a diverse amount of fandoms. This year’s alley had an abundance of Steven Universe fanart. If you were a Love Live or a (fujoshi) fan of sports anime, the alley had it all. Plenty of prints from these fandoms were very much there for the taking. Other places of note included independent comics and jewelry. Artist alley at Otakon always has a diverse amount of artists. This is a nice place to buy gifts for friends, decoration for your college dorm, etc while supporting fans doing what they love.

The Music of Asian Cinema by Li Mei
This was a fun panel run by Filmsmash on Sunday. During this panel, attendees had the chance to sample a variety of musical scenes from Asian films. There was a bit of technical difficulty at the start of the panel, but once things got smoothed out, the panel was rolling. The panel room wasn't full since attendees sat spread out in the audience, but the people present were attentive and enjoyed watching the video clips. My favorite video from the panel was a colorful Bollywood music number. It was very fun and over-the-top, full of liveliness and dance! There were memorable dramatic scenes when backup dancers had a singer's face plastered all over their torsos. (This could totally be a meme!) After the panel, I bumped into someone who goes to my college. It was a coincidence that we were at the same panel, and we both agree that the Bollywood song from the film Sivaji was the most memorable one. At the end of the panel, Filmsmash passed out handouts with the URL for the panel. Check it out here to see the videos they presented!

Otakon ended on a high note. Though the weather was extremely humid, we were able to walk from the convention center over to Phillip’s in Inner Harbor. We were fortunate to have dinner with the chair of Otakon Vegas and a few staffers from Pacific Media Expo at the famed Inner Harbor seafood restaurant. Our flight wasn’t until much later in the evening. We ended up taking our time down the Inner Harbor before boarding back to our home port of Boston.

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