Otakon 2024: A View From The Show Floor (2024)

Introduction

Over the past three decades, Otakon has been a fixture of the East Coast anime scene. Countless fans have walked the halls of its various venues, to the point that teenagers who had attended the con in the ‘90s and early 2000s now return with families of their own. With each passing year, the convention has prided itself on providing an experience for everybody.

This year proved to be no different. As with previous events, Otakon 2024 was a massive, vibrant show that could satisfy even the most fickle of anime fans with a staggering slate of activities to capture peoples’ imaginations. Panels about Cells At Work!and anime fandom in the Philippinesran alongside marquee events like concertsand live drawing exhibitions. Meanwhile, the Dealer’s Room offered fans a chance to find that one item that’s eluded them over the past year, and Artist’s Alley gave them a chance to meet their favorite fan artists.

Over the convention weekend, we covered the entire length of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center several times over, and attended nearly two dozen events, from panels to concerts, to everything in between, and wanted to share our report on our personal highlights of the convention.

The Ota-Museum

As part of their 30th-anniversary festivities, Otakon’s staff brought their Ota-Museum back in a grand fashion. This year, a massive, neon-colored tori gate welcomed attendees to a spacious room, bathed in a soft light. A path on the floor led attendees on a chronological tour through the convention’s history.

Each display featured an array of artifacts from a given year’s conventions, which were lovingly arranged. Badges, shirts, and program guides were set up alongside plushies, replica awards, and other relics. Each display was flanked by poster-sized signs that highlighted the year’s chairperson, guests, and attendance, as well as a short trivia blurb.

Near the exit, the team erected a pair of memorial displays for beloved members of the community who are no longer with us. The first commemorated the memory of convention photographer Rob Williams, who passed away earlier this year. Williams’ camera and several photographs he had taken at various Otakons were arranged in a thoughtful display that celebrated his work.

The second of these exhibits was dedicated to Chuck Shandry, who attended the first-ever Otakon, and served as a staffer until he passed awayin 2021. Shandry had collected and preserved many of the items on display within the greater museum. A mannequin was dressed with his staff shirt, hats, and convention badges, with his Otakon 1994 badge prominently displayed at the center.

While walking through the room, it was impossible to escape the enormity of the event’s impact on fandom culture. Each display and every signpost served as a reminder that, for generations, Otakon has held a priceless place in the hearts and minds of anime fans across the country.

The Dealer’s Room

In the early hours of the first day, nearly a dozen members of the media met in the Otakon press room, where several staffers awaited our arrival. Within a few minutes, these team members escorted us down, through the convention center’s halls, to the still-closed Dealer’s Room. As we walked down the aisles, we couldn’t help but observe as vendors hurried to put the finishing touches on their booths before people flooded in.

There was a stillness in the air, a surreality that couldn’t be described, as we wandered the empty through-ways, and observed the quiet booths that would soon be packed with tens of thousands of people.

As we ended the tour, we were asked to line up near the entrance, if we wished to film the entrance of the first customers. We positioned ourselves and began chatting amongst ourselves, as we waited for the room to open. Two minutes passed, then three, as the anticipation built among us. The sound of the oncoming crowd suddenly swelled, as thousands of people hurried down the escalators and stairs before us. A steady murmur quickly replaced the silence, as more and more people filed in to explore the pristine booths that we had just passed moments before.

The Dealer’s Room would become a bustling hub for countless fans over the weekend, with thousands of people wandering within at any moment. Anything a fan could want was on offer for the right price, from toys to Blu-rays, to Japanese rental VHS tapes. And eager fans were more than happy to explore it all, as they pored over merchandise, looking for that rare item to fill their collections, or just a new manga to read on the ride home.

The empty pockets between aisles and at the edge of the room served as de facto meeting places, where attendees would pause to boast about their hauls, pose for a quick cosplay photo, or just take a load off and chat for a few minutes. For some, though, it became a de facto stage, as a cosplay duo put on an impromptu performance of Wham!’s Careless Whisper.

It was a joyful, chaotic swirl of people that constantly crackled with energy and life. From its opening moments until closing time, the sea of eager and excited fans never abated.

Cloak, Dagger, Kimono, Katana: Spycraft & Other Dirty Deeds In Anime

For more than fifteen years, Brian T. Price has probed the very depths of the anime abyss with his Bad Anime, Bad!panels. And while he brought his parade of horribles to Otakon this year, he also brought “Cloak, Dagger, Kimono, Katana: Spycraft & Other Dirty Deeds In Anime,” which dove into the realms of sabotage and deception as they appear in anime.

Price smiled as people settled in, and the introductory video from Bad Anime, Bad! 2016played as a pre-roll. As the clock struck 9:30, he picked up the microphone and glanced at the audience. “Unlike Bad Anime Bad, which is good, clean fun for the entire family,” he remarked, this is meant to be entertaining and educational.” A wave of chuckles rolled through the room, as he added, “I do recognize the irony of doing a spycraft panel in this city.”

Price continued, explaining that “Spycraft is basically criminality with sanction,” noting privateers as an example. He used this to transition into a brief explanation of terms like “tradecraft” (techniques employed as part of spycraft), before explaining the elements that make for good tradecraft in the context of entertainment.

It was here that he paused and asked the room what shows and films they felt were good examples of tradecraft in media. The audience was eager to oblige, chiming in with answers that ranged from The Man From U.N.C.L.E.to Burn Notice. One individual piped up with an excited “007!”

Price smirked and remarked he had an entire section on Bond. He looked over the room and asked, “So, how good of a spy is James Bond?” The audience replied with an emphatic cry of “Terrible!” Price cried out, “Yes! MI-6 are not spies! They are killers! His Majesty’s Favorite Hitmen!”

This exercise formed the basis for the rest of the panel, as Price polled the room on facets of spycraft they were curious about. The audience was eager to oblige, chiming in with examples that ranged from building a cover, to counterintelligence operations, to disguise. Price would explain each of these elements briefly, before supplementing with a clip from an anime or a prominent TV work. For example, when discussing disguises, he queued up a segment from Riding Beanin which the character of “Percy” is supposedly murdered in a brutal shooting, only to reveal that the character was a nefarious agent who was wearing a disguise and changing her voice with a modulator.

Throughout the panel, Price showed a deep knowledge of the topics at hand, and an eagerness to share his own excitement with the audience, as he delivered explanations with an infectious eagerness. He guided everyone in attendance with a deft hand, as he pointed out the clear influence of Maurice Binder’s work in clips from Dirty Pairand Read or Die, or delivered a dissection of an exfiltration sequence in the Crusher JoeOVAs.

All the while, Price retained the anarchic sense of humor that makes “Bad Anime, Bad!” a must-see year after year. Whether he was cracking jokes about Netflix series Inside Jobor snarking about Mission: Impossible, Price’s ability to work a room shone throughout the panel.

By the end, it was clear that the audience was enraptured, and judging by the chatter of people leaving, more than a few attendees left with a newfound appreciation for the covert arts.

Since its foundation in 2005, boutique publisher Discotek Media has earned a degree of respect and adoration within the American fan community. Their dogged dedication to quality has led to the team performing seemingly impossible feats to present their library in the highest fidelity possible. They’ve scoured the planet for rare dub tracks and film masters, remastered video with experimental technology, and compiled long-forgotten extras to produce the closest thing possible to a perfect release of every anime they publish.

Within the community, they’ve earned a reputation as being the anime world’s equivalent to The Criterion Collection, with their vast catalog containing a celebrated selection of titles. Fan favorites like Urusei Yatsura, Project A-Ko, and Berserkshare the limelight with niche darlings like Giant Gorg, Symphogear, and Sgt. Frog.

As such, it comes as little surprise that the words “Discotek Day” are enough to inspire a level of excitement that’s typically reserved for Christmas morning among a specific cohort of anime fans. For the uninitiated, Discotek Days are the days when the publisher announces their upcoming release lineup. The core team, which includes Mike Toole, Justin Sevakis, Brady Hartel, and Logan Rebholz, among others, have quickly become the company’s de facto faces, as these showcases become celebrations unto themselves.

It comes as little surprise, then, that Discotek Media’s Otakon panel would attract a capacity crowd, many of whom had attended Justin Sevakis’ AnimEigo panel just moments before. For many in attendance, this was a reunion, as friends and acquaintances chatted and joked around as they waited for the show to start.

Before long, the screen faded to black, as the now-iconic refrain from To Live & Die in L.A. by Every Night (feat. Pierce)accompanied a new trailer. Fans sat in rapt attention as clips from Mazinkaiserand Digimon Adventure 02played in time with the music. As the teaser reached its end, the music faded out as Discotek’s motto, “Blu-Rays are forever, so are the classics” appeared onscreen.

Within moments, a trailer for a live-action show started to roll. A person in a blue robot suit was posing dramatically, as the subtitle “Space Sheriff Shaider!” popped up. A wave of cheers rolled through the room, as the realization had begun to set in. For many tokusatsu fans, Metal Heroes series Space Sheriff Shaiderwas thought to be unlicensable due to it being used as a part of Saban’s V.R. Troopers.

The acquisition set the tone for the evening, as the hosts unveiled one surprise after another, all of which were slated for release within the next few months. And with each new title, the energy seemed to build among the audience.

The room erupted when they showed off Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Kamen Rider V3, and Digimon Adventure 02, and applauded as trailers for Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerSand Dallosplayed in rapid succession. Licenses for classics like Space Musketeer Bismarkand re-releases for Giant Gorgand Great Teacher Onizukawere met by enthusiastic applause.

Though it seemed like mere minutes since it began, the panel’s allotted hour was quickly running out. Toole smirked, though, as he remarked that they had a couple of final surprises.

For the first, the audience was immediately reminded of a puzzle, as a trailer featuring a familiar gentleman clad in a top hat rolled. Loud cheers rose up, as folks clued in that the publisher had managed to rescue Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, a 2009 film based on the Professor Laytonvideo games. But, more than that, Discotek had also managed to pick up the rights to the English dub.

At this point, just a few minutes remained on the clock, and the team was giving a recap of what was revealed that evening. Toole paused with a grin, before remarking that he had just “one more thing” for those in attendance. The screens went black once more, and a familiar Dutch angle shot of a schoolgirl and a blue-haired man, both eating apples, appeared.

Immediately, confusion took hold throughout the room. “This is Kite,” a person behind me proclaimed. And, indeed, as the clips played out, Sawa’s iconic design was unmistakable. At the same time, people were asking “How?” The title was, as far as anyone in attendance knew, Media Blasters’ baby; they were selling copies of the Blu-Ray in the Dealer’s Room just hours earlier that day.

The surrealism gave way to excitement, though, as Sevakis, Hartel, and Toole confirmed that they had indeed licensed Kite, and began detailing their restoration process for the film. They confirmed that the disc would include all three versions of the movie, prompting applause from those in attendance.

Much like with previous years, this year’s Discotek Media panel was a block party for fans of a certain age, which allowed old friends and new acquaintances to bond over a shared love of the classics.

Galleries

Otamuseum

Dealer’s Room

Dealer’s Room Opening