Otakon is an anime convention that used to be held every year in Baltimore, Maryland. With the amount of people growing in attendance, the convention was moved to Washington DC this year. When it comes to anime conventions, Otakon was the first one I’ve been to; and that was last year. It was very crowded and actually hard to move around in, and as a slight claustrophobic, the move was a great relief to me. Last year I went basically Saturday and Sunday, so really, I didn’t see much of the panels; pretty much the cosplay and dealer’s room. This year was amazing. I found out they had brilliant professional photographers, so I decided to experience it myself. 

Otakon this year had required a bag check, which upset quite a few people. Not that I am saying all of Washington, DC is a violent area, but with people who cosplay a character with a weapon, there is a small chance someone could try to sneak in with an actual weapon. But their bag checks ran really smoothly and people were happy!

The convention center itself seemed as though it was TWICE the size of the Baltimore convention center. It was a bit sad not to be in Baltimore, because the convention center was in a perfect location. It was in Inner Harbor, and it was definitely walking distance to the Baltimore Aquarium, hotels, restaurants and shops. So there was always something to do. It was a great location in DC, but some of the restaurants were a bit far to walk to.

I took a fair amount of pictures of cosplayers, and I would really like to post them here. It was way too hectic to ask for peoples names for credit of their pictures. It was rushed just to ask for pictures. So in this instance, if you see an image, please let me know so I can either remove it, or give you credit! And also apologies for blurry pictures; it was a brand new camera and unfortunately I am still not used to it…and the fact I tried to rush so people weren’t held up from doing their own thing.