There are pros and cons to Otakon, mainly pros, but also a few cons. People will like the schedule app that Otakon has made. It had made it easier to keep a plan every day of the convention….however, once the schedule changed, it completely wiped what you originally planned to do. That happened a lot over the weekend.

Another con: POOR PLANNING. That can’t be said enough. The movie Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale was being shown in ONE room.  Otakon should have known tons and tons of people wanted to see it. By the time I got to the line…where a lot of people were waiting as well, it turned out there was a huge room of people waiting ahead of us in a room. Needless to say by the time the group from the room got in, the room was FULL.  The people ahead of me were like the next ones that WOULD have been able to get in. So…yeah poor planning on their part. What they should have done is either show another viewing at a later time, or the next day, or have another room for the rest to watch. Suggestion for the future: Go to the line at least an hour ahead of time. Bring something to read and just sit there. Otherwise you’ll be pretty much screwed.

Another bad thing was misleading panels; and in the future, those will have to be paid more attention. Sunday’s panel was Anime and Manga studies: What? Why? How? etc. Now…when you read that, you would automatically assume it was a panel on writing for anime or manga. It sort of was…but for academic purposes, such as journals. It was a tedious panel, and there were very few people listening in to that panel. Suggestion: read those panel descriptions very, very carefully. Or you’ll end up in a long, boring panel.

However, it can be said there was a huge variety of things to see and do at Otakon. As mentioned there were other things to see in the merchandise room besides the obvious.

There were three cars that sat in a row; surprisingly no one seemed interested in seeing the cars and how detailed they were. A lot of people tend to sit against the walls, or corners and just chill for awhile.

There was also a gaming room for those who enjoy a good game or two. From classic games, to the dancing games, Otakon had a mass amount of games that people could try. Friday, was not that crowded so that’s probably the best time to get a chance to play a game or two.

It’s best to use the Guidebook app, with Otakon’s schedule planner to create your own plan for the convention. Spread out what you want to do, and leave time to eat lunch/ dinner and all that good stuff. That was one problem I had this year; planning things and not thinking about lunch or dinner, etc. So definitely even out those wants and needs.

Despite the negatives of the convention, this was a new location for the staff, and so it should be expected that there would be a few issues. It will not be a surprise if there are just a few issues next year as well since Otakon has been in Baltimore for years and most likely used to the routine they had there.