Saturday was our big panel day. Our group was running three panels at Otakon Vegas. By the end of the con, we concluded this is a good testing ground for future panels. While the attendee numbers grew on Saturday, people attending informative and educational panels on the history of anime not so much. However, most fan run programming consisted of “Ask A…” Q&A wherein cosplayers act out as their respective characters. These tended to draw more people into the panel rooms sealed off in the back.

All New, All different Lupin III by Jared
This was my second panel of the convention and it looked at the long history of Lupin the 3rd.  The panel was an overhaul of my older ‘History of Lupin III’ panel with more focus on what was available now and how the popularity of this nearly fifty year old series is growing.  The panel concluded with an exploration of the video games and some clips from my runs on the Lupin famicom, Superfamicom and Game Boy games.  However, the audience seemed to get the biggest kick out of the Filipino Lupin live action series.  After the panel people came up to ask more questions on where to find Lupin and where to begin with the series.

Carl Macek: hero or villain by Jared
This was my first run of this panel.  It looked at Carl Macek, one of the founders of Streamline Pictures and the man behind the loved/hated series Robotech.  The panel covered his early days and his movement into the anime industry.  Then the panel explored Streamline pictures and the strange stories that came out of their studio.  The final part of the panel looked at the various controversies that came up in Macek’s career.  The only problem with the panel was one person in the audience who kept being disruptive, but everyone else seemed generally interested in learning more about anime history.

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: The 90s Panel by Eri Kagami
While part of me can already hear the complaints of “there were too many Sailor Moon panels!” I wanted to bring back a 90s anime television series that went over localization in the early days of anime from a worldwide perspective. There’s been heresay about Fred Lad being “the ruiner of Sailor Moon;” this panel covers the complications of broadcast standards from 20 years ago. This is much like our older Moon Prism Poptarts panel were we go over Sailor Moon fandom in the 90s, but this time, we covered how much had to be changed in other versions of Naoko Takeuchi’s manga series. We covered what changed and did not change in various countries. We had a very humble morning audience.  To end the presentation, we played clips from the 90s Canadian dub and moments from the original Japanese series. The 90s panel seemed to be well received.

Masquerade by Eri Kagami
When cosplay veterans are running a masquerade show, you know it’s going to be good. Otakon Vegas’ masquerade was very small in contrast to other smaller 2,400+ cons. There were about 15 entries in the main show. Such entries included Love Live, Dragon Age, Vocaloid, League of Legends, Undertale, Full Metal Alchemist, Sakizou, and others. Contestants are judged based on performance and construction. From those I spoke with backstage, a majority of entries were in the novice category. Some of them mentioned that this was their first time competing in masquerade. The green room vibe was very chill; there was no sense of competition. One of the Undertale cosplayers wanted to form a circle of support similar to what she usually does in her drama club.

Halftime was presented by Otaku Dreams Cosplay Café. This is a performance group that is based outside of Las Vegas. They typically run maid and butler cafes at Rocky Mountain regional events. For the most part, they did a glowstick giveaway and they danced to various Vocaloid tunes. Additionally, they also taught the audience how to dance to “Pon Pon Pon” by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Additionally, the Senpai of the group also told the audience an inspirational story on how she used anime to help troubled youth.

The awards were handed out shortly after. Prizes came from various forms of anime swag and Funimation subscriptions. Judges gave awards to acts that stood out. Division awards were given to the best in each of the novice, journeyman, and craftsman categories. Best in Show went to the Sakizou angels group that used custom embroidery on their gowns. Top honors also went to Dragon Age, Full Metal Alchemist, two Love Live groups, among others.

Saturday events also included the ballroom dance and the rave that followed after. The ballroom dance was a formal affair; cosplayers were all welcomed, but non-cosplaying attendees had to adhere to a dress code. This was the first year it was being ran. Other events that were going on during masquerade were Haikyuu Q&A, Sailor Moon Crystal, a

d a Love Live Q&A. There were comparatively more night time events at Otakon Vegas on Saturday night than Friday, however, most attendees were ready to call it a night after the cosplay show.

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