Kumoricon was this past weekend and after it I needed a day and a half to sleep and get my brain back in working order. I do have to say I have never had so much fun at a convention with friends before. Kumoricon made it easy to have fun, meet new people, and run around with friends and do all the silly things.
I’m going to have to split up my convention experience into two parts, because I doubt anyone wants to read multiple pages in one go. So I’ll be covering day zero and day one in this half.
It’s always the best feeling to be ahead of schedule, especially getting ready for a convention or at a convention. The group I was in made it in hours before we had scheduled to, got checked in, grabbed our badges. I have to say getting our badges on day zero was super fast compared to the last few years, and the volunteers working in registration were amazing. I made some friends and got a ribbon for picking up my badge early and I got another one for making a wish…well, I guess I made a contract to get my wish granted (it has not yet been granted, but I’m holding out hope). The gang ended up gathering more people to our hotel and having a little pool party, and just making silly TikToks.
The actual first day of con was great, everyone looked so happy and pumped to be there. There were so many great cosplays, and a lot of the cosplays throughout the weekend were very interactive. Some you talked with the person or wrote on their board and got a ribbon, and the ribbons that everyone were handing out were so cool. The only convention I’ve gone to the past few years where the main thing for con-goers was handing out ribbons (and trying to get as many as you can) was Dragon Con. But I absolutely love that Kumoricon has joined in and that people were having fun making these and handing them out. I too would love to make fun funny ribbons to share at conventions.
My second ever panel that I’ve ran at a convention went okay, there were bumps along the way. But sometimes, stuff like that happens and you just have to roll with it and make a new game plan. I had a blast and really enjoyed all the people that came up afterwards to have a very in depth discussion as to why I said that Yuji Itadori could be labeled a villain in a different perspective. That caused a riot, and ended with about ten or more coming up to talk about who truly is a villain in Jujutsu Kaisen, which we did settle on Yuji (slightly because of what happens at the end of the series), Yuta (again the end of the series) more so than Yuji because of his actions/words, and finally what caused handshakes all around was Mei Mei. If you’ve read or seen the anime of JJK, I don’t really have to say much more. If you haven’t, well lets just say there is a very big reason as to why she’s classified as the villain in the series.
Walking around the convention center, there was not one place you could go without seeing groups of cosplayers making content. I got to walk by and join in on many photo shoots happening at Kumoricon, and it was so much fun. I’d have to say people get pretty creative with their environment to get a better photo (while also being safe, but sadly cold). I saw people crawling through the bushes to get a forest shot, and they looked very good. There was also a person lifting people up (with their permission) to film some scenes from popular anime and help other cosplayers get the right angle for a shot.
There was an all ages dance party, yes like a “rave”, but more PG13 and for all ages. A lot of people were excited for it, I know I was. Before the party could take place there were going to be the concerts beforehand, 0R30 and Lollia played first and then Nano played. I ended up being able to catch Nano and I kid you not, there was a girl who walked in and said “oh, that’s cool that they are playing Nano. Oh Shit! That’s actually Nano!” and took off running to get in closer. It was super sweet, and I caught her when the concert ended and led her to where they do the autographs/meet and greet with fans. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so happy, and I’m really happy I got to see something like that at Kumoricon. The dance party after it was a bit strange…the DJ was playing really long songs and it was uncomfortable around half naked people and then there were also underage people, it was a bad mix. I do think that there should have been separate parties for those younger and the older con goers, just to make sure everyone is feeling okay and is in a safe space (not that Kumoricon wasn’t a safe space, the staff did a really great job this year checking in with people and enforcing the strict clothing policy of what needs to be covered at all times).
As you can already see from how long this article is, there was a lot going on at Kumoricon that can not be covered in one article alone. So stay tuned for my next article in which I talk about day two and three!
Were you at Kumoricon? 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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