Alright, the fifth convention of the year for me is done! What a whirlwind Emerald City Comic Con was, I very much feel like Dorothy after she wakes up after visiting Oz. I still can’t believe all those amazing things are over and I already want to go back!
This year I went with an amazing set of new friends, all of whom I made when I was at Anime Washington. There was also an insane amount of new friends that were made at ECCC this year, all of whom are some of the best and coolest people I’ve gotten to meet so far. I just had a blast with them all, no stress, all fun times. But first, I have to come clean with you all. I did not go to a single panel, and I know I had high hopes of at least going to one a day. Or even one throughout the whole weekend at the very least, but I was having too much fun just experiencing the convention.
Friday and Saturday ended up being my absolute favorite days of the con, pretty much made me not want to leave the land of Oz. Friday was just a great day for cosplay and it really seemed like people loved my friend, Rachel and I’s versions of Gojo and Nanamin from Jujutsu Kaisen, we were totally slaying it. We ended up taking lots of photos the whole day, only stopping to have a brief medical emergency when she had an allergic reaction and we were running around to make sure she would be ok (I feel so bad!). Afterwards, we were able to laugh at it because Thursday was my mess up day (I ripped my jeans during a shoot, and could not stop laughing), then her with the nuts (but she won against them!).
Saturday was a whole other experience, as we cosplayed My Hero Academia and did a big meetup. We finally checked out artist alley and the exhibitor hall, saying hi to friends and taking lots of breaks (we were pretty tired that day for some reason). We headed out a bit early to start getting ready for the Emerald City Comic Con Prom that was being held that night, sadly skipping dinner…but, I would say the end result of how our prom cosplays turned out was well worth skipping dinner.
I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun at a party hosted by a convention before, ECCC has had some misses in the past. This prom though, was definitely a night to remember and seemed to be a big hit with everyone who went and showed off their best dance moves (and party cosplays). Again, my friend Rachel slayed it as a disco Gojo (from Jujutsu Kaisen) and had a light up hollow purple with her that was very eye-catching (if they voted for a prom queen, I would have demanded she win, after all even the staff were taking photos of her like crazy). We also pulled a few other familiar faces into dancing with us and not working, definitely looking at you Kyle (Ken_Imagery, who had been running around like crazy and doing a great job in covering everything at the convention). Seemed like he had some fun and showed us a few moves or two…the night ended in some of the most messed up wigs (I still haven’t even started brushing out my wig I used for my Misa cosplay from that night) and running into Dante Basco (Prince Zuko himself!) at almost 2am.
This night also led to our other friend Shawna grabbing pictures to cut and edit, which they had been doing all weekend (to add in our friends who couldn’t be there). It was the best running gag the whole weekend, that has now created a monster in me. Since I learned how to do it too (I’ve made so many photo edits that are absolutely bonkers).
The best part of the whole Emerald City Comic Con experience was seeing all the cool cosplays, and the friends made because of cosplay. I can’t tell you how many times I was running into more people I knew from online or other cons, made me feel like the community in the PNW has really grown closer. I feel like I could keep going on about ECCC, but I’ll stop for now and bug you all with my other articles about what all went on at con (and after). For now, I’ll let you all go while I start working on my cosplays for Sakura-Con (the next big convention in my area!).
Were you at ECCC? What were your highlights? Feel free to leave a comment below or chat with us on Twitter/X at @TheConCollectve, Threads at @theconventioncollective, or Bluesky at @theconcollective.bsky.social
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