Lines started to grow early in the day as brave costumed cosplayers and noncosplayers alike braved the morning heat on a cloudless day to get into Peacock Theater. The capacity was expected to be high, but despite that, the queue to get in was well organized.

Once attendees were all seated, the musicians took their places and performed a series of themes from Demon Slayer’s first season, followed by a medley of themes from Demon Slayer: Mugen Train and finally the soundtrack for a preview of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.

During the program, voice actor Natsuki Hanae (Tanjio Kamado) came out to do some line readings for a couple of iconic moments in Season 1.

As a surprise, he was later joined by English voice actor Aleks Le (Zenitsu Agatsuma) for a scene in which Tanjiro restrains a dramatically lonely and insecure Zenitsu from bothering a young woman. The wild banter between the voice actors due to the alternation of two different languages elicited loud laughs from the audience and was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the performance.

Overall, the event was a great gift to participating Demon Slayer fans that simultaneously paid tribute to the series’ best moments while adding fuel to the anticipatory excitement surrounding Infinity Castle.

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SPOILER AHEAD! You’ve been warned! 

A Fun Tie to Ultraman

On hand for the event were series director Fugu Yamashiro and English voice actors for Abby Trott (Momo), A.J. Beckles (Okarun), and Aleks Le (Jiji). A discussion was first held about the inspiration for the awesome new opening for Season 2 in which Yamashiro revealed that many of the “villain” silhouettes for Season 1’s opening were inspired by the classic Ultraman opening, and that those silhouettes were hidden in Season 2’s opening as well. 

Voice Acting on Display for Dandadan Anime Expo 2025

Trott, Beckles, and Le also demonstrated for the audience live voice work for a scene from the ending of Season 1 in which Momo, Okarun and Jiji are having a fun talk on the train. The voice actors really seemed to enjoy each other’s company. Yamashiro complimented the work of the English voice actors and noted how much reaction they generated from the clearly enthused audience. 

Science SARU’s Experimentation with Animatics and Color Theory

The real meat of the panel came when Yamashiro went through an animatic of the Season 2 opening, which transitions between black & white and color to show audiences the transitioning of Okurun’s emotions each time he looks at Momo. The animatic itself is pure Science SARU – a wild mix of different styles that’s not only suited to deliver a guideline for detail when necessary but also for quick, highly exaggerated motion. 

The most intriguing behind-the-scenes look from Yamashiro revolves around the fight between a transformed Okurun and a transformed Jiji, who is possessed by a malignant force named the Evil Eye. Okurun’s actions are highlighted in red and Jiji’s in purple. As a result, whoever has the upper hand in the fight has the most dominant color presence. The scene really stood as a testimony to the thoughtfulness Yamashiro displayed when thinking about color can amplify the emotions of a character as well as a viewer’s reaction to it. The transfixed silence and murmurs of admiration from the attentive crowd were apparent to say the least.

A Request for Support and Some Notes of Support

Near the end of the panel, some surprise and heartfelt video messages were shown from Japanese voice actors Shion Wakayama (Momo) and Mayumi Tanaka (Turbo Granny). Tanaka, in particular, displayed a bit of salty humor that definitely was in line with the character she voices.

Director Yamashiro also concluded his thoughts by expressing his wishes for the energetic audience to continue to support Dandadan so Science SARU can continue to create the anime after Season 2 concludes.  Judging by the audience’s reaction, I believe he will get his wishes fulfilled.

Season 2 of Dandadan is now streaming on Crunchyroll.

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On the third evening of Anime Expo 2024, long lines formed both inside and outside of the JW Marriott. Anime fans excitedly waited to get their chance to participate in the highly anticipated world premiere of the Dan Da Dan series from the renowned animation studio Science Saru. Based on the manga by Yukinobu Tatsu titled “Dandadan,” the series is about a girl named Momo Ayase who believes in ghosts but not aliens and a boy she calls “Okurun” who believes in aliens but not ghosts until a fateful day proves otherwise for both of them.

Director Fuga Yamashiro, producers Kohei Sakita and Hiroshi Kamei, and voice actors Natsuki Hanae (Demon Slayer) and Shion Wakayama (Zom 100) were in person to talk about their experiences in making the anime series.

Yamashiro led the audience through the process of animating a pivotal action scene from the storyboard process to its final version. The artistry and hard work that was required to craft such a dynamic, colorful sequence was incredible to behold. Being that it was his first time in the United States, Yamashiro was incredibly encouraged by the audience’s very loud but very positive responses.

After some additional thoughts from the voice actors and producers, the screening of Episode 1 commenced. Without providing spoilers, I will say that it contained much of the studio’s signature fluid and wildly eccentric mash-up of styles that have defined past works. This includes “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl” and “Star Wars: Visions (Akakiri & T0-B1).” But more notably, the episode also contained subject material that felt more hilariously risque than those past efforts.

Momo and Okurun’s Personalities

The wildly supernatural narrative of the story, as well as the clashing, distinctive personalities of Momo and “Okurun” will, without a doubt, keep viewers engaged in future adventures to follow. Momo is strong-willed and not someone who wishes to conform to social or familial traditions. “Okurun,” while being meek and incredibly nerdy, is someone who can be expected to do the right thing no matter what the situation is. The characters seem to be magnetic to Yokai and aliens… and possibly to each other but were completely fun to follow.

Dan Da Dan Feels Like It Will Be an Inevitable Anime Hit

Judging by the raucous laughter of the entertained audience around me, Dan Da Dan strongly feels like it will be an inevitable anime hit. That is if the succeeding episodes follow in Episode 1’s quality. Not only is the animation from Science Saru dynamic yet thoughtful, but it was easy to feel that the people who made the series had a lot of enjoyment crafting the series frame by frame. It also feels uniquely weird enough to distinguish itself from other anime series by not having a similar set of rules. We are all along for the ride to discover whether other adventures will reveal more.

As a long-time follower of Science Saru, I have to say Dan Da Dan is the most exciting project they’ve embarked on in recent years. This an an anime series that I’m looking forward to continuing when the first three episodes are released in North American theaters.

Dan Da Dan will be in theaters as Dan Da Dan: First Encounter on September 14, 2024. The rest of the series will be released on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu sometime this October.

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That being said, any doubt about the spirit and enthusiasm of attendees being dampened by the aforementioned factors fell to the wayside as I witnessed cosplayers enthusiastically pose for photographers indoors and convention attendees find more time to chat with vendors and panelists than they normally wouldn’t otherwise, The more spacious isles of the Anaheim Convention Center exhibit hall also made wandering around much less chaotic and more relaxing than bigger conventions and in this author’s personal opinion, also a better convention to bring friends and family who have never been a comic book/fantasy convention before.

And while the star power was felt much less than in previous WonderCons, there was still plenty to see. 30 Years of Gargoyles: A Celebration for Fans featured creator Greg Weisman and key players of the series’ staff, all of whom provided great behind-the-scenes stories. Unfortunately, no questions were allowed about the rumored live-action series.

The fully packed X-Men Fandom panel featured most of the voice cast from “X-Men ‘97” and provided a lot of insight into the development of the series’ voice casting. Lenore Zann, who is the voice actor for Rogue for both “X-Men ‘97” and 30 years before that, “X-Men: The Animated Series,” had a particularly inspiring personal story – after losing reelection after a 12-year stint in Canadian politics and losing a niece to cancer in 2021, Zann felt lost until Disney called and asked her about auditioning again for a character she made so iconic.

But what makes WonderCon stand out in California has always been its ability to highlight upcoming comic book projects, as well as highlight comic book culture as it is now without being too distracted as much by the glitz and glam of Hollywood projects.

Bad Idea, a comic book company whose mission is to provide a high-quality comic book reading and collecting experience that involves eschewing doing trades and digital versions of their stories, not only previewed some gorgeous artwork for upcoming projects like “Tankers” and “Megalith”, but also gave attendees a WonderCon exclusive – the 4th-anniversary version of their Hero Trade, copies of which are going for hundreds of dollars on eBay.

Comic Culture in Museums: Pop Culture on Display! was an amazingly informative talk from industry and education professionals who have run exhibits like the Comic-Con Museum. Patrick Reed, who has curated some major exhibitions for Disney and Marvel, led audiences on a journey on what it takes to set up such exhibitions and preserve comic book art, as well as what makes comic book art collecting so different from fine art collecting.

It’s hard to tell whether WonderCon next year will be more or less the same as it was this year, but one thing was made clear this year – rain or shine, nothing is going to dampen the resolve of attendees to dress up and have a great time, and for speakers and panelists to connect with their fanbase in a more intimate way bigger conventions can’t provide.

WonderCon is produced and operated by Comic-Con International, the fans who organize San Diego Comic-Con, the largest comic book and popular arts convention in the world, according to Guinness World Records.

WonderCon’s 37th year will return in 2025 and will be held from March 28 – 30 in Anaheim.

The post WonderCon 2024: Is the Smaller Sibling to San Diego Comic-Con as Wondrous Anymore? appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

I ventured through throngs of Yor Forgers from Spy x Family, an army of Gerudo vai from Zelda, squads of Star Wars stormtroopers, and a vast variety of Genshin Impact characters in the LA Convention Center to better understand what motivated those in the cosplaying community to do what they do, as well as how they felt about being in a community that has seen explosive growth the past couple of decades.

Many cosplayers talked about how empowered they felt by being the characters they were portraying. Andrew (cosplaying as Rem from Re:Zero) and Paul (cosplaying as a “general lolita character) have cosplayed for two years and love how cosplay gives them “the freedom of being comfortable while looking ridiculous”, as well as living a fantasy at the same time.

Seasoned cosplayers also expressed similar feelings about Anime Expo letting them be other characters but also reflected on the growth of the community over the years. 

Lindsey, who has been cosplaying for 6-7 years and was working as a vendor while also impressively cosplaying as Nezuko from “Demon Slayer”, thinks that despite cosplaying taking a hit a few years ago due to Covid, the community has grown to be “way better” since then.

A similar sentiment was also echoed by Aiden, who dressed up as Yor Forger and has been cosplaying for 7 years. “The anime community is so diverse now and it’s amazing. So many more people are into it and it’s become even bigger and I love it,” Aiden said enthusiastically. 

Ish, who hilariously cosplayed as Seńor Pink from “One Piece”, has been cosplaying for more than a decade since witnessing how passionate other cosplayers were at his first anime convention. He says his “favorite part is meeting other cosplayers and networking, especially in the One Piece community. All the cosplayers are supportive and it’s just a good, big family.”

Najee, who cosplayed as Katsuki Bakugo from “My Hero Academia”, was also inspired by the passion of cosplayers and started cosplaying 5 years ago – he remains inspired today. “It just gets me into the spirit by actually seeing my favorite characters in real life,” said Najee.

Cosplayers who were also relatively new to the cosplaying scene talked about how supportive the cosplaying community is. 

First-time cosplayer Samantha, who cosplayed as Daisy Mae from “Animal Crossing”, thinks her experience with the cosplaying community thus far has been great, with everyone being “so helpful with giving me tips and tricks. People are just so nice, complimenting my hard work I’ve put into this cosplay.”

Sai, who dressed up as Ashley Graham from “Resident Evil 4: Remake”, has been cosplaying for over a year and got into it after going viral as Makima from “Chainsaw Man”. She relishes the opportunity to “dress up as somebody else for the day and look in the mirror and it’s like, ‘Oh wow, I look so different!’” and also noted how accepting everybody is.

There were also other cosplayers who took Anime Expo 2023 as a chance to do more ambitious cosplay projects than they did in the past.

Les cosplayed as Ruji from the “Zelda” games franchise; although she has cosplaying for 3 to 4 years, this is the first major cosplay where she’s made everything herself. When asked about what she most liked about cosplaying, she said, “I really like the community so whenever you come with someone who knows which character you are you really can make that connection and have a conversation and just nerd out together!”

Vanessa has cosplayed for 8 years and also decided to make her costume – an earthy tribute to Studio Ghibli’s “Princess Mononoke” – from scratch for the first time. 

An artist by trade, she observed, “I’ve noticed a lot of people just taking a lot more liberties with the designs, making their own interpretations of it rather than sticking to the store-bought, Amazon-shipped (costumes)… they actually put some thought and creativity to their cosplay and that’s what inspired me to do my own version of the Forest Spirit.”

Eric and Sean, who cosplayed respectively as the Gundam Aerial Rebuild and the Gundam Schwarzette from “Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury ” caught a lot of attention with their larger-than-life mecha suits. “I want to push the limits of my ability to make things. I want to see what I can do, and I want to make things people say I can’t do,” Eric said. 

Sean, who just recently got into the cosplaying community, loves how he can talk shop with other cosplayers, some of whom he considers his heroes. “Even if you do some simple cosplay to some big sale cosplay, it’s all really appreciated. It just feels really inclusive and a lot of fun to jump right into it.”

Eric, who has cosplayed for 10 years, summarized it all the best, noting that cosplaying “has grown a lot over the years. As it’s grown, so has the commercialization of those things. So things are different.” 

But as he also adds, “The thing that hasn’t changed, is that in general, the cosplay community has always been super welcoming, super open, and super kind to each other. And very supportive of each other.”

The post Anime Expo 2023 Cosplay Gallery and How the Cosplay Community Has Grown appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

As such, Anime Expo ‘94 occupied a small portion of the Anaheim Marriott Hotel and Convention Center and its number of vendors would be easily dwarfed by the endless rows of vendors in today’s LA Convention Center exhibit hall.

But I was very young and tired of being the only kid in school who was into anime, and therefore excited to see what other anime fans were like for the first time. So walking into the Marriott was definitely a moment.

And then I saw him.

Confidently striding through the hotel’s carpeted halls was a big, bearded dude barely squeezing out of his Sailor Jupiter uniform.

Shocking as it was for a kid like me, it was nonetheless a great introduction to cosplay as well as an important lesson about it: anyone can be anyone.

In the years since then with Anime Expo growing massively in size, so has cosplaying, becoming more reflective of a fanbase in this country that is getting more diverse and dedicated to their craft. There are cosplayers who aim to be the best version of the character they’re portraying, while there are some cosplayers who just want to make others laugh or do something fun with their friends. Either way, it takes a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of passion to cosplay.

Like so many people who roam in and out of the convention center with cameras in their hands, I’ve made it a hobby to capture these cosplayers in whatever element they’re in. And it’s great to see all of them not just be immersed in their characters, but feel empowered to do so and share. So if you do take a picture, please remember to be respectful and thank them for their time!

Here are some of my favorite snaps at Anime Expo from over the years:

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