WasabiCon, northeast Florida’s largest pop culture convention, happened last weekend and it was absolutely wondrous! This ever expanding convention reached a total of 11,000 attendees this year, and will be returning next year as a three-day con. At WasabiCon there’s always a chance to meet your favorite voice actors, check out the Itasha, catch amazing cosplayers, and more!
Previously, Florida Comic Cons gave you “3 Wonderful Reasons to Attend WasabiCon” Now, we’ll give you 5 reasons we found it wondrous!
Wondrous Reason #5 Guests
WasabiCon brought in an outstanding line-up of five incredible voice actors who guests had the opportunity to interact with throughout the weekend. Voice actors participated in panels such as Q&A’s and themed panels based on their respective shows.
Maile Flanagan
Maile Flanagan voices Naruto Uzumaki in the Naruto series and Piggley Winks in Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks.
Josh Grelle
Josh Grelle voices Fumikage Tokoyami in My Hero Academia and Armin Arlert in Attack on Titan.
Aleks Le
Aleks Le voices Zenitsu Agamatsu in Demon Slayer, Manjiro Sano “Mikey” in Tokyo Revengers, and Seijuro Akashi in Kuroko’s Basketball.
Natalie Van Sistine
Natalie Van Sistine voices Yor Briar from Spy x Family and James Bonde in Moriarty the Patriot.
Kira Buckland
Kira Buckland voices Jolyne Cujoh from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Misturi Kanroji in Demon Slayer, along with 2B in NieR:Automata.
Wondrous Reason #4 Cosplay Competition
Fourthly, WasabiCon had a magnificent cosplay competition featuring characters from shows and games like Attack on Titan, Dead by Daylight, DC comics, and even original characters! Each year WasabiCon hosts a Costume Contest where cosplayers can showcase their hard work and devotion to their craft. The cosplay competition can be watched here. Down below you can see the winners.
Beginner runner-up: @Sheasama Judges Choice: @Bri_kindell
Wondrous Reason #3 Vendors
First, Fantasy Chibi is an anime and game merch shop based in Orlando, Florida. Their items include anime/game inspired pins, keychains, wallets phone charms and soon to come Ita bags! Chibi wants to give under-rated characters the love they deserve by making items from niche sources. Fantasy Chibi opened shop in 2020 and began doing conventions in 2021.
- Favorite con: Megacon. It was Chibi’s first convention and holds a special place in her heart.
- Favorite anime: Fruits basket and Horimiya, Chibi is a big fan of shoujo-based anime.
- Favorite characters: Izumi Miyamura (Horimiya) and Chuuya Nakahara (Bungo Stray Dogs)
- Chibi’s favorite Otome character is Belphegor (Obey me)
- Favorite video-game character: Zhongli (Genshin Impact)
Chibi’s upcoming conventions include Cutie Con and Holiday Cosplay Tampa Bay.
ChottoBonita
In addition, ChottoBonita is a partner-owned company in Coral Springs, Florida, that sells an array of anime related merch and some original creations. Some examples of products they sell include adorable pins, plushies, socks, key chains and air-fresheners, with more to come! Because this store is partner-owned customers are able to chose from a wide range of stylish products.
This store’s adorable name and logo comes from the owners dog Bonita. In Japanese “Chotto” can mean little/small and in Spanish “Bonita” can be translated to cute. Also taking inspiration from their Venezuelan heritage and with their love for anime this name perfectly suits this company!
- Favorite con: Otakufest and Anime St Pete. ChottoBonita says these conventions host a good atmosphere.
- Favorite anime: Fullmetal Alchemist
- Favorite character: Miss Kobayashi of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.
Wondrous Reason #2 Itasha Cars
Additionally, Itasha are cars decorated with characters from anime, manga, or video games. WasabiCon had the Itasha showcased in the exhibitors hall. The showcase was presented by Anime Cars of the World. The featured cars featured shows such as Bleach, My Hero Academia, Fire Force, and Naruto.
Wondrous Reason #1 Cosplayers
WasabiCon? More like Wow-sabiCon! Check out some of the stunning cosplayers we saw around the convention.
Couldn’t Attend WasabiCon This Year?
Finally, don’t worry, if you couldn’t attend WasabiCon, because they’ve already started making announcements about next year. The three-day event will be on October 13-15, 2023.
Also, you can watch Florida Comic Cons At-The-Con report for WasabiCon below!
Need Help Finding Comic Cons in Florida?
Currently, Florida Comic Cons provides the Con Calendar — a curated calendar of upcoming comic, anime, horror, science fiction, fantasy and pop culture conventions in The Sunshine State. Furthermore, event listings include con info as well as helpful links for things like buying tickets and registering as a vendor.
