Dealers Hall by Eri Kagami
The dealers hall this year was in the same place it always was - the same white lighing in the same basement. Otakon has a nice mix of industry booths (Viz, Aniplex, Crunchyroll, Discotek, etc) and vendors. One of the complaints this year was that there was not enough variety and anime merchandise in the dealers hall. From my observation, there were plenty of figure booths, costuming odds and ends, DVD / BluRay box sets, Pokemon plushes, etc. You really had to look deeper if you were looking for some hidden gems to take home. Jared the Greek found a rare Kantai Collection figure and I ended up going to the Kinokuniya booth and found two Love Live artbooks that were hard to find stateside. Otakon has a very medium sized dealers hall comparable to Anime Central and Anime Boston. It will be interesting to see how the vendors and industry booths will grow in the new space in DC.

Otakon Photo Suite by Eri Kagami
One of my favorite things about Otakon is the Photo Suite. While several other cons have a photo studio set up, nothing is much more efficient than the Otakon Photo Suite. Getting your photo taken is free, but add ons will cost you. You can purchase your entire shoot for $35 for low resolution. Higher resolution will cost more. This year, they started selling larger prints to be shipped out as soon as the con was over. I ended up doing a shoot in my Cyber Nico cosplay. I purchased the full set of low resolution and a larger print for myself. Shipping was very fast; I recieved my print within a week after the con. The nice thing about photo suite is that they're open to feedback and suggestions. Because I've always had a positive experience at photo suite, I'm not sure what else I can add.

Right Stuf Industry Panel by Jared The Greek
While Otakon isn't generally considered an 'industry' convention it does have a couple industry panels. The one I saw this year was the Right Stuf panel where they sadly had technical difficulties. Despite the setback the list of upcoming titles like Galaxy Angel was discussed and prizes were given away. It was a fun panel and people were glad to hear about upcoming BluRay releases and have their questions answered. It was a nice short panel that didn't really feel like an industry panel.

Otakon Financial Status by Jared The Greek
This is the kind of unique panel that sets Otakon apart from other larger conventions. Having the integrity to be transparent with their financial status is something that all larger conventions should aspire to do. The beginning of the panel is very dry as it is a listing of the corporate structure of OtaCorp and the monetary results of last year's event. Once that is established the panel goes into where the money goes and finally moves into questions from the audience. This is a great way to learn more about how a convention is run and to have a better idea of why the staff of Otakon makes certain decisions. It is also one of the few panels where you can ask questions of a major staff member directly to learn more about how a convention is run.

Nautical Nonsense by Eri Kagami
"Who here loves history?" A few hands go up. "But who here has a legit hard on for history?" More hands go up for the audience. One of my favorite panels at Otakon was Nautical Nonsense, - this panel looked at anime that pays homage to Japan's rich nautical history. While there was a brief lecture on the Japanese navy in the beginning, the panel focused in on a few shows and feature presentations such as Momotaro and the Divine Sea Warriors, Space Battleship Yamato, Strike Witches, Appregio of Blue Steel, and of course, Kantai Collection. The main highlight of this panel? The Yamato theme goes with everything.

Sci-Fi Video Games by Jared The Greek
This was a different kind of video game panel that looked at obscure and generally forgotten games that had a sci-fi setting or theme. The titles were from a variety of systems and included games like Colony Wars, Unholy War, Dreamweb, Snatcher, Enemy Zero, and Rebel Star. The big surprise at the end was the fan loved import title Metal Wolf Chaos, which brought on many cheers while clips were played. It was a fun panel, but the presenter's partner couldn't make it so it wasn't a fully complete list. It was a good panel and hopefully it will come back to introduce retro gamers to more forgotten classics.

Yaoi Inferno by Li Mei
This was my first yaoi panel! My roommate and I ate a late dinner and then ran back to our room to change since we wanted to cosplay as casual Kageyama and Hinata (from Haikyuu!!) for the panel. We had to sprint back to the con from our hotel to make it to the booth that distributed the 18+ wristbands in time. We made it just in time, huffing and puffing, and a staff member joked, "So, this does close at 1am!" Once we got our wristbands on, we ran to what we thought was the panel location, but we went way too far in the Hilton. We were aggravated, but also excited, and we had to go back the way we came... and we got stuck in a crowd. Luckily, when we got to the panel, there was no line and we were able to find seats in the back. The panel started late, so we didn't miss anything, but the panel also had to end early. The Yaoi Inferno panel was set up as a casual guide to the seven layers of yaoi hell, but we didn't get to see the worst layers. The panelists presented the materials in order from the first layer and progressed to the later layers, and there wasn't much commentary. They introduced a layer and showed a series of video clips, and then they introduced the next layer, et cetera. Most of the material was subtext (a lot of sports anime: including favorites like Free! and Kuroko no Basket), and comedy. I wish the video clips were labeled with which animes they were from since I would be interested in seeing some of these animes. Many looked outrageous and funny! The only ones I recognized were the animes I had already seen, such as Ouran High School Host Club and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Toward the end of the panel, some of the clips were from actual BL and yaoi. There was even a segment showing clips of fujoshi!

Pictures are copyright by Scarlet Rhapsody . If I took your picture, feel free to use it on your site or cosplay gallery. While you're here, do sign the guestbook. This site was brought to you by the font Brown Fox. Many thanks to Dream Host, Adobe Bridge, MS Photodraw, Picasa, and Dreamweaver for making this site design possible.