With Anime Expo 2024 behind us, it's time to head over to Montreal, Quebec for the one Canadian anime convention on our schedule. Otakuthon 2024 is one of the premier anime conventions in Canada and it heavily features bilingual content as the event is conducted in both English and French, Canada's two official languages. The venue is at the Palais des congrès de Montréal in Downtown Montreal right in the heart of the International District surrounded by other historical sites.
After visiting multiple conventions this year, you'd think we'd get used to seeing lines form for registration. We can safely say the lines were not any smaller than in previous years, which bodes well for attendance at the Otakuthon. As we were provided with press badges, we headed over to the Media section of the registration line and picked up our badges and goody bags, then entered the convention.
This year, we also managed to schedule an interview due to the kind staff at Otakuthon. We'll discuss that more later when we release the interview. Otakuthon also had the added benefit of using RFID-enabled badges, which made entering and exiting a breeze. The badges were also used for ticketed events as you could buy event tickets directly online and have them linked to a badge. This made it much easier to just line up for ticketed events such as the various paid concerts throughout the weekend.
As usual, our first stop was in the Dealers' Hall and the Artist Alley. It was as crowded as in previous years with some slight improvements to the area. Some of the Dealers' area was wider and gave more room for people to walk through, which was a nice improvement. It also helped that the bigger booths had more space, making it less crowded as line control was better.
The Artist Alley still had its share of issues, however. They improved the space between some of the aisles, but there was still a lot of crowding at certain booths and the middle areas. I'm not sure if there is an easy solution that doesn't make it more difficult to get through this entire area, but it was annoying nonetheless.
One thing you'll notice about conventions is that not everything runs smoothly between things that might happen and working with vendors, con-goers, staff, and everyone else to get things back on track. It's a large and important part of any convention to have backup plans upon backup plans. In previous years, you could tell there were issues with autographs and other such problems. Over the years, Otakuthon has been doing a better job at this in many areas. They make changes dynamically and try to anticipate problems that may arise and resolve them.
The autograph area was better spaced out this year, but the guests were not as busy as in previous years. They had a lot of space and it worked well for them. In future years, it might not hurt to take back some of that space for the Dealers' Hall and Artist Alley if that would give more space between some of the still tight aisles.
Speaking of some minor issues, Yostar had a booth where their merchandise was unfortunately delayed. This had to do with some of the shipping issues and weather at the time. The good news is they had a sign printed to let con-goers know. Their goods did arrive eventually and I feel for the staff that had to deal with the issues there.
As stated before, there is more space for some of the larger booths such as Yostar where they have a photo area that is something they bring out for every larger convention they attend with the latest Arknights event characters. It's a nice touch and I know some fans really loved it.
The atmosphere at Otakuthon was very unique in the sense that it is truly a melding pot of many cultures and languages. It was such a good atmosphere and sometimes you didn't even notice that both French and English were officially used at the convention. People gathered from all over the world to attend this convention and it really reflected that in the vibes you felt.
This carried over into the evening events as well, including the rave/party that featured some great Japanese DJs who were featured in Bemani games. On top of that, there was also a great guest list almost every year that ranged from Vtubers to Japanese guests. Truly a reflection of a modern anime convention.
That's not to say there weren't also fan-run panels as well. They are still a large part of the heart and soul of an anime convention. Certainly, some of them were better than others, but the fandom is still alive and well. We visited a few of the panels throughout the week ranging from the fan-run ones to the official guests ones and had a good time at the majority of them. The only issue we ran into at some panels was the lack of time management in that they went over time or were just running extremely far behind schedule. Unfortunately, that was ultimately on the presenters and the convention staff could only give them their time warnings and hope for the best.
Line management was something that was heavily improved this year with more space in the autographs area as previously stated. It might actually have had too much space for once, but after some of the past years, nothing to really complain about here. The ticketed event lines were also run much better than the previous years with most events being let in ahead of time or near the start time. Having a full room to line up in ahead of time and an overflow area really helped in getting people moved into the venue quickly, too. Well done on that front.
Overall, Otakuthon 2024 was a delightful convention experience. Just being able to visit Montreal, Quebec is a real treat, and being able to experience an anime convention is the cherry on top. Otakuthon has made improvements over the years and they are still being felt on an annual basis. That's not to say everything was perfect, but the overall experience was well done here and that went to show how caring and attentive the staff and volunteers were.
Do we plan to attend again next year?
The vibes are excellent as usual and we can't wait to see what Otakuton 2025 has in store.
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