On Saturday, Nov. 18, and Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023, Springfield Expo Center hosted the first Anime Festival to occur in Springfield, Missouri. This event brought thousands of fans into the community to share their love of anime. 

Throughout the weekend the festival hosted a variety of vendors selling all sorts of goods, eight celebrity voice actors, and a three-part cosplay contest. 

While each of these brings in a crowd, the cosplay contest is without question the main event. The first part of the contest is the Kids contest. This is designed for all the kids to dress up and participate. 

The next section is called the Masquerade. This is for adults that want to dress up for some fun. There are no rules for these costumes, they can be handmade or bought off Amazon. 

The last part of the contest is for the hard-core cosplayers. It is named the Craftsman round. There are rules for those who want to enter this part. The main rule is that 60% or more of the cosplay must be made by the cosplayer. 

Before the cosplayer signs up to enter, the three professional cosplayer judges must inspect the outfits and listen to the cosplayer explain everything they handmade. All of the many cosplayers had such amazing costumes. There were cosplayers as a variety of characters including Misty from Pokémon, Whitebeard from One Piece and Santa from The Christmas Chronicles. 

There were still a large number of fans in cosplay that did not participate in the contest and an even larger number of fans wearing shirts or other kinds of icons to show their love of this culture.

While the cosplay contest was the main event this weekend, there were a number of other events. Each celebrity voice actor did a Q and A with their fans. These celebrities included Cam Clark, Brianna Knickerbocker, Anne Yatco, Ian James Corlett, Adam McArthur, and Kyle Herbert. 

Not only did they participate in the Q and A, but they also had tables set up for fans to get pictures, autographs, and answer more questions throughout the weekend. Both these celebrities and their fans enjoyed participating in these events. 

Along with the tables set up for the voice actors, there were dozens of vendors set up around the room for fans to get their favorite merch. The variety of vendors brought a lot of life and color to this Anime Festival. The fans could also participate in panels hosted by the cosplay judges and more. Locals also had the opportunity to host a panel to talk to other fans about a variety of topics. 

Joey Mills, the EMCEE (the master of ceremonies) for Springfield’s first Anime Festival, is very passionate about sharing his love for this event. 

Mills has been hosting Anime Festivals in the area for eight years and was thrilled and honored to bring this event to Springfield for the first time. “My favorite part of this is watching the connections that are made at these events,” Mills states, “It is the best part, hands down.” 

He also commented that he sees many meets for the first time at one of these events and stay in touch for years after. Mills said that he sometimes sees those people years later at another event acting like best friends. 

Springfield’s first Anime Festival was a big success. Those who participated had the opportunity to connect with celebrities, meet other fans, and just have fun. This event really brought the community together to share in their love of this culture. 

Featured image by Leila Ehrichs.