Is Otakon a con you oughta go to? We once again attended Otakon with our good friends from Weekly Shogakukan Edition, Sakaki and Jecka, and we’ve got a lOTA KONversation on this year’s event, because boy was this Otakon eventful! This was THE most attended Otakon ever, and there was good reason for this to be such a big Otakon, because there were some big guests and features at the con this year! With guests including famous voice actors like Toshio Furukawa and Shino Kakinuma, production staff like the Studio Trigger team and Studio Orange’s Yoshihiro Watanabe, great fan-run panels from our MangaTwitter peers, big industry panels from companies like Denpa and Discotek, and premiere showings of the dubs of Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Kaiji, and Gunbuster! 

In addition to attending panels and hanging around the con, we also conducted interviews with Mariya Ise, Furkuawa & Kakinuma, Yoshihiro Watanabe, and Studio Trigger! I’m including the audio of my interview with Mariya Ise before the main discussion of this podcast, and the interview with Furkawa and Kakinuma with an upcoming Lum Squad podcast episode! You can read the transcripts of all our interviews on our website MangaMavericks.com as we continue to publish them!

With so much to do at Otakon, there was so much for us to talk about, and a lot of discussion for you to listen to! So much so that we couldn’t possibly cover all the highlights in the conversation, so check out our Twitter threads live-tweeting most of the events we attended in the timestamps for even more details! So listen to our chat on all the panels, screenings, guests, interviews, signings, food, purchases, moments, and the LINES that make Otakon 2022 one of the most memorable and most attended Otakons in history!

Con you believe it? Well, you Ota! 


Download here!! 

PODCAST BREAKDOWN:

00:21 – Intro & Overview

02:41 – Community Shout-Outs:


04:40 – Mariya Ise Interview!

22:40 – Otakon 2022 Report!

23:52 – The LINES
25:31 – The Autograph Lines, Especially
31:13 – Jecka getting a Detective Conan volume signed by Toshio Furukawa & Shino Kakinuma!
34:00 – Staff & Management
35:52 – Health Mandates
37:37 – Line Management, Security Checks, & Covid Wristbands 
41:18 – Communication with Attendees, Guests, and Press
42:50 – Toshio Furukawa & Shino Kakinuma Q&A, Panel, & Interview
50:50 – Convention Layout
53:45 – Studio Trigger Cyberpunk Edgerunner Screening, Live-Drawing Panel, & Interview
1:11:13 – Mariya Ise Interview in the Marriott Hotel
1:13:43 – Dealer’s Room Thoughts & Purchases
1:26:13 – Food & Water Offerings at Otakon
1:33:20 – Mariya Ise Q&A Panel
1:35:10 – Studio Orange Panel & Yoshihiro Watanabe Interview
1:38:05 – Kaiji Dub Premiere
1:48:34 – Miyazaki Before Ghibli Panel
1:49:06 – Artist Alley
1:57:00 – Sports Anime You Don’t Know & Japan’s Vanishing Landmarks
1:57:28 – Denpa Panel
1:57:58 – Project A-Ko 2 Remaster Screening
1:58:09 – A Century of Japanese Stop-Motion: Rudolph to Rilakuma
2:00:04 – Azuki Panel
2:01:12 – Phone Power Scare During Furukawa & Kakinuma Interview
2:01:47 – Gunbuster Dub Premiere 
2:04:45 – Discotek Panel
2:09:10 – For Boys By Girls: The Women Who Make Shonen Manga Panel
2:10:05 – VLord building Sakaki a PC over the Weekend
2:13:30 – Sakaki & Jecka’s Sunday Dealer’s Room Experience
2:15:30 – AMV Contest
2:19:13 – Gudetama & Genki Dama
2:21:03 – The Enthusiasm of the Discotek Panel Crowd
2:24:51 – Motonobu Hori Q&A Panel
2:29:11 – Harumi Fujita & Takahiro Izutani Panel
2:30:17 – My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Panel
2:32:12 – Internet Connection in the Convention Center
2:32:55 – Panel Room Sizes
2:34:06 – Folks we met at Otakon
2:38:28 – Press Operations
2:42:00 – Final Thoughts

2:50:25 – Wrap–Up 

Enjoy the show, and follow us on twitter at @manga_mavericks, on tumblr at mangamavericks.tumblr.com, and on Youtube! You can follow the hosts on twitter at @LumRanmaYasha and @VLordGTZ and special guests Sakaki at @kiirobon and Jecka at @Jecka1021! If you’d like to help support the show financially you can pledge to our Patreon and receive some awesome rewards like our Patreon-exclusive Bonus pods! If one-time donations are more your speed you can donate to LumRanmaYasha’s Ko-fi here, and if you want to support LumRanmaYasha’s art and other projects you can donate to their personal Patreon. Don’t forget to also like and subscribe to us on Youtube and iTunes and leave us reviews to help us curate the show and create better content!

Music Featured:

“Tell Me” by Mariya Ise
“Puni-chan Song (instrumental)” composed by Naozumi Mabuchi, Naoya Osada. Presumably arranged by Shinji Miyazaki
“Active Heart” by Noriko Sakai
“Butchigiri Battle Hackers” by Toshiya Igarashi
That Country Song from the trailer of The Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds performed by The Last Longhorn Band
“Kokoro Mo Jump Shite! – Natsu No Intro” by Satomi Fukunaga

Check out more of our Otakon 2022 coverage, including interviews with Yoshihiro Watanabe, Mariya Ise, Toshio Furukawa & Shino Kakinuma, & Studio Trigger! 

LINKS:

About The Author Siddharth Gupta

Siddharth Gupta is an illustrator, animator, and writer based in Minnesota. They graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Animation from the School of Visual Arts, and have worked on projects for the University of Minnesota and the Shreya R. Dixit Foundation. An avid animation and comics fan since childhood, they've turned their passion towards being both a creator and a critic. They credit their love for both mediums to Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball, which has also defined their artistic and comedic sensibilities. A frequent visitor to their local comic book shop, they are an avid reader and collector, particularly fond of manga. Their favorite comics include The Adventures of Tintin by Herge, Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed, and pretty much anything and everything by Rumiko Takahashi.

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