"The con is what you make of it, so make it a good one." This has always been my running mantra of convention going. I was the one member of Scarlet Rhapsody to attend Otakon Vegas this year. I wanted to give the con another chance. I've always enjoed how Otakorp ran their cons. Though the past few years has been rough for Otakorp with a drop in attendance in their main east coast show (Otakon 2016 was ranked the fifth largest attended anime event in North America) and a struggling Las Vegas show. Otakon Vegas 2017 does have a few shinning moments, but several rough patches it has to mend before it can move forward being a premiere west coast event.

There were a few competing events four hours away in Los Angeles - Anime Impulse and Con Excitement Something or Other. The former banked on cosplay-by-the-likes guests at an existing trade show (Asian American Expo) and the former promised a $10,000 cosplay contest reward with a few B-list celebrities on their guest roster. Otakon Vegas had a few American voice actors, a prominent Japanese director (Yasuhiro Imagawa), Hiroshi Kitadani, and more. While this might not mean much to the average geek, it does show that Otakon Vegas is trying to get more A-list Japanese guests as part of their main line up. I would have loved to have seen more guests from the far east.

I also had a problem with how programming was handled. Before the con, there was little to no promotion on recruiting panelists. A colleague of mine suggested they should ask previous year panelists to return. I noticed there were chunks of time gaps in the programming schedule. Most of the panels were geared towards the tween audience. The best part of fan oriented programming would have been the workshops. While I do know the cosplayers that hosted these how-to hands-on workshops, I felt they were some of the most valuable information I ever leared at an anime con in terms to upping my crafting game. Panels felt they were in the "Ask A" range and I really wanted to have seen more brainy panels like Otakon prime usually has.

Otherwise I do like the vibe of Otakon Vegas. While it is a young audience, it does have the feel of a con from the early 2000's. Everything is small, but that's a good thing. People who attended the con were generally friendly. Regardless of attendee age, you could strike up a conversation with someone random. I really miss this feeling. No one was out for self promotion or fame, it really did feel like a community. This is a feeling that I've been missing for the past couple of conventions I attended. This was a breath of fresh air.

Otakon Vegas has very strong main programming such as the maid cafe, concerts, cosplay events, etc. The staff puts in a lot of hard work and effort to make sure things events are run smoothly and benefit the attendee experience. I really took advantage of all main events present. I wish I was able to check out the Yasuhiro Imagawa panel had it not conflicted with masquerade. Any panel that was run by a guest or if it was an official con sanctioned live event, were run very top tier.

It is hard to say if Otakon Vegas will survive in the strip. The Las Vegas strip is where anime cons usually die off. Most of the local cons are held off the strip. I do love the Las Vegas community and envy its tight knitted-ness and togetherness; this is something that's been missing from the SoCal scene that I have been accustomed to in the past year. I would love to continue supporting Otakon Vegas as long as it is alive and maybe I'll also check out other Vegas events as my schedule permits. Otakon Vegas is a good con for the tweens.

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