Conventions Are Back! Otakon 2021 Convention Report

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English Voice Actors posing for a photo at the Opening Ceremonies. From left to right: Kaiji Tang, Anne Yatco, Adam McArthur, Ricco Fajardo, Suzie Yeung, Aleks Le, Zach Aguilar, Laura Post

It’s been almost 18 long months since the last anime convention, but here we are at last! The COVID-19 global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns made the world grind to a halt last year and caused the cancellation of just about every major event. While the pandemic is unfortunately still ongoing, Otakorp made the decision to go ahead and hold this year’s annual membership gathering (a.k.a. convention) during August 6-8, 2021 and had just 78 days to plan and organize the event. The result was a resounding success.

While it was not exactly the first anime convention to be held since the start of the pandemic, Otakon 2021 was the first major anime convention to be held since then and the dubbed “The Con at the End of the Rainbow” was also the first major event to be held in its host city, Washington, D.C., in a long time. The economic boon that the nerdy event brought to DC was a shot-in-the-arm that the city greatly needed and was deeply thankful for.

The big contentious point in everyone’s mind of course was safety. How do you hold a convention in the middle of a pandemic and still keep it safe? Conventions are notoriously known for it’s “con funk” as it is a ripe breeding ground for the spreading of disease. For Otakon 2021, a mask mandate was issued that required attendees to wear a face mask at all times except when eating or drinking. Proof of vaccination however was not required but vaccination was strongly suggested (although some conventions being held later this year are in fact requiring proof of vaccination in order to comply with local regulations). The convention itself cut down on its operating hours to close early each day in order for the convention center to clean and sanitize the space overnight. Some high-density events such as the rave and Maid Café were put on hiatus this year due to safety concerns.

The safety measures put in place by Otakon may not have been perfect (namely the lack of a vaccination requirement, somewhat loose face mask enforcement, and lack of social distancing for seating in panel rooms), but in the end the event was held without any major issues and the city of Washington, D.C. also did not see any significant rise in COVID-19 cases as a result (based on DC’s Coronavirus metrics as of August 13, 2021). Although it is hard to fully judge the effectiveness or success of the safety protocols since many attendees come from outside of the DC area and therefore would not contribute to their metrics.

So how was the convention itself like this year? The Friday atmosphere was definitely a bit on the weird side at the start. Besides the new sight of face masks on everyone, there was a bit of apprehension and uncertainty with both the unique environment that we were in and also because people were shaking off the rust of not being at a convention for so long. However by the time Saturday came around everything was back in full swing (not to mention the return of the lines wrapping around the convention center to get in) and things just felt normal. Well, normal except for the face masks of course. It was truly impressive to be walking the halls of the convention center, Dealer’s Hall, panel rooms, etc. and just felt that things were normal as it should be despite the pandemic. This was definitely a magnificent feat by the Otakon staff to put together and pull off this show in such a short amount of time.

Now unlike previous years where everyone entering the convention center (either through the front entrance or via the side entrance through the Marriott hotel tunnel) were subject to a 100% bag check (albeit a quick and loose visual inspection), this year the convention center employed a contactless metal detector and only did somewhat of a random bag check which meant that most people just walked right through which made the lines move much faster. This was definitely a welcome change from an attendee standpoint. What didn’t change was that the cosplay photoshoot gatherings were still held in the ballroom in the Marriott hotel which has mood lighting that is just really bad from a photography standpoint, plus the room itself is a bit too small for larger groups. I hope they find a different location for the photoshoots for future years. Another gripe that most people have is the fact that the food options inside the convention center were ridiculously expensive given the small portion sizes (and in some cases, just bad food in general). It didn’t help that the Downtown food court where they used to hold Japanese/anime inspired food options was closed for renovation this year.

One final point worth noting which is more of a simple observation than it is a gripe, while the Dealer’s Room was fairly crowded with merchants this year there were definitely less booths in the Dealer’s Room than there were in previous years. Hopefully it’s more of a case where merchants couldn’t make it due to short notice rather than a more harsh reality of merchants having to close their business due to the lack of convention opportunities in the past year. In terms of industry presence there weren’t any major industry partners there besides Discotek.

Honestly though, besides the minor gripes the convention this year was absolutely a great and welcomed experience. The official attendance numbers for this year was 25,543 which is only about 3K less than 2019’s attendance which showed just how much people were hungry for the return of the convention scene. Hopefully by next year the pandemic will be a thing of the past and we can experience a truly normal convention.

And finally a small photo album of shots around the convention center:

Links to the photo albums of various cosplay photoshoot gatherings that I took pictures at:

And finally, a link to my YouTube channel where I uploaded my video recording of the Jujutsu Kaisen English voice actor panel and the complete recording of the Masquerade cosplay contest.