Our team left Orange County on Day Zero. By the time we arrived and checked into the Planet Hollywood hotel, you could not even tell there was an anime con in town. We did stumble into the Artist Alley area on the way from the casino to the hotel elevators. It was practically empty at about 8PM. The only signs of life were the info desk giving out discounts to the buffet and Starbucks downstairs.

Friday morning at 9AM already had signs of life. Artist Alley was already set up. I’m not used to seeing a con with this many early risers during the day. I was just leaving the gym and I ended up walking around Artist Alley before we got our day started.

Opening Ceremonies by Eri Kagami
Opening Ceremonies took place in the main events hall. Like most opening ceremonies, the chairs of the event introduced the guests of honor, the mascot, and promoted various events happening throughout the weekend. Though the theme of Otakon Vegas was “detective” it was not played out as much as typical Otakon fare. West coast is not really known for playing up themes. We met Lyra and the plush coyote as the convention mascots. We also were introduced to the various voice actor guests. Vic Mignogna went up to someone in the audience who revealed it was their first time in Las Vegas. Jason Miller played a country ballad of the Pokemon theme. “This is a song about being the very best,” he said as he walked out center stage. With a high five from the vice and main con chair, Otakon Vegas was on.

Autographs by Eri Kagami
I’ve noticed that Las Vegas is big on American voice actors, especially the more popular ones like Vic Mignogna. I attended two autograph sessions on Friday – Lex Lang and Sandy Fox. There were two smaller panel sized rooms that had actors stationed at each of them to do autographs. Lines were formed outside the room. It was very well organized. Fans brought in dvd’s, video games, and merchandise for the actors to sign. For the most part, autographs were free if you had a product that the actor was involved in. Actors also took selfies with fans as well. There were very rare cases were guests sold accompanying promotional merchandise to be signed. Considering the changing autograph market coming from the Comic Con business models, this is slowly becoming the case at anime events.

Maid Café by Eri Kagami
The maid café was tucked at the front of the tiny convention hall. The maid café had various service hours during the weekend – usually offering two. I have not attended an Otakon maid café in the past; there always, always a long line. Because Friday didn’t have many people in the early afternoon, my colleague and I walked right in and were taken care of right away. The maid café cost an additional $10 to enter. However, this included unlimited coffee, tea, and an assortment of snacks. Unlike Fanime’s maid café, it’s not quite a meal, but a simple afternoon snack to be enjoyed with the company of others. I had a pretty engaging conversation with the head of the maid café; she mentioned that most maid café staff are Baltimore area based. We did play a few games that were available with other attendees such as Would You Rather. It was a very quiet piece of programming and worth checking out if you are at Otakon Vegas.

Cosplay Photobooth by Eri Kagami
Otakon Vegas, much like Otakon in Baltimore, also has a cosplay photo studio set up in the convention center area. It was a smaller room compared to the Baltimore counterpart. An impromptu photo set up was made available to dressed up attendees. You can have an unlimited amount of photos taken and have them copied to a memory device for $30. Photography was simple; all you had to do was pose in front of a grey draped background. Additionally, you can also pose with various Otakon mascots including crabby and the coyote for Otakon Vegas.

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