This past weekend was the Annual Otakon at the Baltimore Convention Center. I attended this three day event with a group of friends this year. It was August 8th, 9th, & 10th. This was my first experience at an event like this and it was very interesting. There were about 35,000 people at Otakon.
For those of you who who may not know, Otakon stands for Convention of Otaku Generation. An Otaku is term for someone who either draws manga (Japanese graphic novels), or someone who is very invested in reading manga or watching anime (Japaneses cartoons).
At the Convention:
There were a lot of different activities to do at Otakon. There were many panels and guest speakers, there also a lot of anime viewing sessions. There were opportunities to get autographs from voice actors and actresses, as well as Maid Cafe Performances. There was a very large Game Room with a plethora of video games ranging from, Smash Brothers, to Just Dance, to tables set up for playing Magic The Gathering and other card games.
One of the biggest attractions however, may be the Dealers' Room. This is an immense room filled with any kind of otaku and gamer merchandise you can think of! There were posters, plushies, stuffed animals, costumes, DVDs, books, comics, wigs, key chains, pillows, t-shirts, and so much more.
Saturday The Big Cosplay Day:
[Cosplay is when you dress up as a specific character, its a combination of Costume and Role Play]
These two pictures below are one example of just how many people not only attended Otakon but also how many of those people actually dressed up! There were all kinds of different costumes as well. If you look through these photos you can see there were people as Elsa, there is a TinkerBell, there were people from video games such as Final Fantasy and Halo, there were Storm Troopers and Disney Villains and Princesses. There were also people dressed up as people from more well known animes such as Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Fairytail, and many more.
Here are two examples of some amazing costumes. One the Left is a very nice Elsa costume, she even has a little Olaf doll. To the Right is my friend Hannah, she found a picture online and decided that she really wanted to make a costume for; and right there is the beauty of Otakon. You can dress up as anyone you want. You can express your creativity like Hannah did or you can be that Princess you'd love to be like this Elsa cosplayer did.
So, if you have any questions about Otakon or want to see more pictures just leave a comment and let me know!
