By Zoey Joyce
Multimedia Editor

On Sunday, Sept. 20, Philadelphia held a local convention for fans of Anime, Japanese cartoons, and Manga, Japanese comic books. The convention had been held the year before in 2014 and had 2,000 attendees. This year they had a crowd of over 2,500 attendees.

The convention is run by a local comic book studio, J1 Studios. The event includes a cosplay competition. Cosplay is a portmanteau of the words costume play. Fans of TV shows, movies, cartoons, and Japanese anime and manga will dress up as these characters and attend cosplay contests, photoshoots and music video events. J1-con also had guest appearances from voice actors and popular cosplayers in the community. Some of the guests of honor included Kyle Hebert, Greg Houser, and Meng Ai.

The staff was not prepared for an event held before the convention to run later than expected, causing thousands of attendees to stand outside for a little more than three hours in the heat with no food or water. Some were afraid to leave their spots in line to grab a drink at a nearby store because of the fear of having to go to the back of the line and to wait even longer.

One member of the crowd was pulled out before the con closed and was asked if anything had stood out in his mind when thinking back on his experiences during the convention. “The entire day was an experience that stood out in my eyes.” Jose Pantoja continued, “Seeing old friends and meeting new ones, or just hanging out around the con taking pictures. It was very enjoyable.”

The con was officially slated to open at 2pm but attendees didn’t start entering the convention till around 4pm. Besides all these issues, most attendees had enjoyed themselves. J1 Studios plans to move the convention to a larger convention space in 2016 to avoid further issues as the community grows around it.

Photo credit: Zoey Joyce