Final Fantasy Con, I mean, Otakon 2024 took place over the weekend of August 2-4 in its now usual spot in Washington, DC. For it’s 30th Anniversary Special, there was a clear focus on inviting guests from various Final Fantasy games as there were many voice actors and industry guests from the likes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI, and Final Fantasy XIV such that this year’s Otakon might as well have been called “Final Fantasy Fest”. Fans of the FF franchise were simply eating good this weekend.

Going to be a fairly short write-up. The Otakon anime convention was back during the July 28-30, 2023 weekend in its now familiar location in Washington, DC. Despite it feeling as though there were less attendees this year due to less congested hallways, Otakon actually surpassed last year’s record 40K attendance numbers with an estimated 42K this year. This speaks volumes to their improvement in managing the crowd and lines versus the near-catastrophe that was 2022.

Last weekend from July 26-28, 2019 was Otakon’s third year in the nation’s capital. Since moving to Washington, D.C. from its longtime home of Baltimore, Otakon has been able to better serve its attendees the anime goodness that was sometimes lacking in Baltimore due to its over-crowded nature. Besides some minor hiccups Otakon ran pretty smoothly and was a great time for everyone.

The 25th annual Otakon anime convention was held this past weekend from August 10-12 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.  This is the second year that Otakon has called our nation's capital its home since relocating from its longtime residence in Baltimore.  With a year of experience under its belt, Otakon was able to improve on certain areas to make things run more smoothly while also running into new issues and bumbling mistakes.

After 18 years, Otakon has finally left Baltimore behind to find a new home in our nation's capital.  With spiraling attendance numbers and increasing discontent about the crowded and antiquated Baltimore Convention Center, Otakon is looking to open a new chapter in its history by moving to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center which they claim boasts five times the square footage.  The DC debut took place this past weekend from Friday, August 11 through Sunday, August 13, 2017.  I'll be completely honest to say that leading up to this event I had a sense of anxiety and doubt about how Otakon will fare in this new location.  But to summarize in case you don't want to read the entirety of this lengthy report to get to my verdict: I was impressed.  Very impressed.