MegaCon 2023 Day 2 Review
I came back to MegaCon 2023 for Day 2. It was way more crowded this time. Which makes sense since it was Friday.
I got a lot more cosplay pictures on Day 2 compared to the day before. It helped that I was in costume myself. Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne if you are curious. Naturally my costume got some attention and I might appear in a few blogs outside my own. And when I ran into a Sunbro from Dark Souls, I had to get a picture with them. Us Fromsoft fans have to struggle together after all.
I saw plenty more Genshin Impact Cosplays and as you can see above, I got lots of pictures of those cosplayers. But I also saw quite a bit of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Another Manga that I love. Saw more Marvel and DC cosplays but was surprised by how there were many less than two years ago. Perhaps superhero fatigue is real.
Additions to the Day:
Persona has become more popular over the years as the older games get remade and Persona 5 especially keeps appearing in other media such as Super Smash Bros. I hope that Shin Megami Tensei gets more love in the future too.
Props to the Kurumi Cosplayer. I love Date a Live and its a shame that so many people are turned off by the cringe parts of the show. There are some incredible story beats for those patient enough to go through it. Always happy to meet another fan of that story.
I saw some more Pokémon Cosplayers including N who might be my favorite rival in the entire series. Speaking of rivals, I also saw Azula and her two “friends” from Avatar the Last Air Bender. Group Cosplays are really hard to coordinate. Major props to anyone who can pull that off.
Genshin Trivia Panel
The first panel I went to on Day 2 of Megacon 2023 was a little different from the first days events. This panel was not hosted by any voice actors or celebrates. Instead it was a fan panel hosted by fans of Genshin Impact. And it went off a bit chaotically.
Still, props to those who hosted the panel. Its not an easy thing to do hosting something like this. Even more difficult when everything doesn’t go according to plan. And that is exactly what happened. The trivia part worked at least.
Although Genshin Impact fandom gets a really bad reputation due to some bad actors, especially on Twitter, I know for a fact that most of the fan base is filled with good people. It was a fun time where we all got to talk about not just the answers to questions, but also discussions about cosplay itself. I got the courage to try building a Dottore costume for a future Con. Given the character’s cruelty in game, I was afraid to give it a go initially.
Sonny Strait and Chris Sabbat Panel
The next panel I went to on Day 2 featured both Chris Sabbat and Sonny Strait. If you have watched Dragon Ball you have heard their voices. Sonny voices Krillin and Chris voices almost every other male character that is not Goku in the show. But they both are veteran voice actors and producers. I have seen Chris at almost every single MegaCon. This was my first time seeing Sonny though.
As they talked about all the different characters they voiced, the two also talked about the history of English dubbing. For those who want to know about Voice Acting, just like with Luci the day before, these are two people in the industry to know. Not only are they talented in their own right, but they have helped others reach their potential.
Something new I learned about Chris this year was how important voicing All Might from My Hero Academia was. He told us a heartfelt story about how it was perfectly timed given what was going on in his life at the time. Its amazing to learn just how much Anime has had a positive influence in their lives. People shouldn’t sleep on it.
Sonny Strait I knew a lot less about, but learned that he is also in countless shows. From Re Destro in My Hero Academia to Joker in Fire Force, he has also voiced many characters that I like. I have not watched One Piece yet, but he voices Ussop as well. Sonny is also a writer. And he had my attention as he talked about that side of his work.
Wrap Up:
Day 2 was way more crowded than the first. And there were some events I had to miss as a result. But that didn’t matter to me. I still had a lot of fun, learned a whole lot of new stuff, and had an existential crisis realizing how much more I could be if I just worked harder at my writing. Day 3 is next and reading that tickets had been sold out, I knew this would be the busiest day I had ever seen of MegaCon.