Anime Finds You – Part 2B

While at another event, during my Florida trip, I encountered more anime out in the wild. Though I did expect to see more here than I did at the Disney parks, there were a few surprises for this vacationing otaku.

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Although discovering anime at a convention shouldn’t count as an unexpected find, I had embarked on our Disney vacation assuming to be fully surrounded by Western animation, leaving little time for anything related to blogging or anime. As luck would have it though, we discovered the Tampa Bay Megacon just days before our trip. In this sense, I could argue that out of the smoldering heat of Florida, where masses flock to immerse themselves in Disney fandom, anime managed to find me.

It was your typical fare as far as cons go, catering to the superhero hype surrounding comics and DC/Marvel movies (which I am admittedly a fan of). What set this con apart was the considerable area, an entire floor of the convention center, reserved for vendors, artists, and celebrity autographs. Because the entrance led right into this area, it took me awhile to find the panels being offered; turns out they were on another floor entirely. While wandering through the maze of artwork, graphic tees, and other geeky goods, I had ample time to browse some of the cool offerings.

Wall scrolls a plenty. Kimmie liked the artist’s work on the right.

Always with the plushies

As our host explained, the Tampa Bay Megacon is a newer, “little sister” version of the more popular Orlando Megacon. It felt smaller than the typical crowd cons like this get, and on top of that we were only able to fit in the last day of the con into our busy schedule. Still, a fair number of anime fans were in attendance as I captured in the pictures below.

As I mentioned, there was a lot more catering to games and comics, along with some great cosplay all around. Below are a few of the pictures I managed to get of anime cosplayers (when I wasn’t waiting in line for something or checking out a panel)

Lucoa from Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Naruto and One Piece characters

San from Princess Mononoke

Some Akatsuki kids

A Pokéball

Cosplay tap-dancing group Noise Complaint

The last several images were from an “anime only” costume contest (which had an entrant dressed as character from Halo). There were only a handful of contestants though, which is a shame because we didn’t get to see a lot of the great cosplay I saw on the showroom floor. Also the photos aren’t the best because they kept participants moving pretty quickly making it hard to get a good shot (also I’m not a Weekend Photographer).

There were also some guests cosplaying as Fire Emblem characters. While this is also not technically anime, it’s my well kept secret that Fire Emblem Heroes has taken over my life, so I was pretty excited to see some of these characters. I’m F2P btw.

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The Azura also managed to participate in the “Anime Only” cosplay contest. Despite the theme of the contest, her costume was very impressive. Even though we didn’t stick around long enough to see who won, I hope Azura took first place.

While I admit to purchasing my fair share of comic related memorabilia, I also came away with one nice piece of anime merchandise. Passing over the manga that we usually load up on, I snagged the last print that one artist brought of this lovely Dragon Maid art. Unfortunately she didn’t give me her card, which is a shame because I am impressed by her art style. Ah well, thanks mystery artist!

That’s all I had for the con and “surprise” anime finds for this trip. Let me know what you thought in the comments and if you typically see a lot of anime stuff at the cons you attend.