After months of fundraising, planning, and preparations, Stockon’s Anime Club hosted its very first anime convention, MisagoCon! This event ran on Sunday, April 19, from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M., in the John F. Scarpa Building on Stockton University’s Atlantic City Campus!

For special guests, MisagoCon invited diverse faces. There were Peko-P and MonochromeMenace, two rising vocaloid artists; vocaloid involves utilizing voice synthesis software alongside their singing.

Another guest was Wildspice, a cosplayer with 20 years of experience who brings energy to the scenes and her work as a VTuber, a content creator that uses a virtual avatar for a persona; she is currently part of the VTuber agency, SolarStars.

The convention also guest starred Hannah Chapin, a content creator of her own and talented voice actor, who helped co-host MisagoCon. MisagoCon partnered with restaurant Tacos al Carbon for mealtime, who brought their own food truck for the venue.

Each attendee was given a voucher to redeem for one dish of their choice! The convention also had an Artist Alley, occupied by vendors that displayed and sold custom artwork, stickers, trading cards, and much more! The cloudy and rainy weather kept the attendees engaged on the indoor event.

After registration, the convention started with panels, regarding The Rise of The Metal Hero Franchise and another about anime trivia; the latter of which was hosted by Stockton students Christian A. Lopez-Lopez, Kenji Mercado, and alumni Noelia Cruz. Many other panels took stage: social-focused panels like Speed Friending, where attendees were prompted with question sheets for breaking the ice, hosted by Anime Social Nexus, and Lorex’s panel focusing on 4Kids, a TV channel famous, or infamous, for censoring and watering-down some anime to make it watchable for American children aged 7-11, especially since certain titles, like One Piece, are targeted to 13+.

WildSpice hosted her own panels, including Cosplaying Before It Was Popular and VTuber 101. Peko-P and Monochromemenace hosted a panel presenting their own original songs and performed for panel attendees. There was also a quiet room for attendees to break from the lively venue.

For many attendees, inside and outside the University, it was an exciting day for them, and it opened social avenues. “My favorite part about any con is just meeting cosplayers and getting to meet new friends and people in general. I don’t find myself going to panels because I find myself just immersed in talking to people…I’m really happy I just went to Speed Friending[…] and got to meet new people!” said Gabi Trzepizur, a Stockton Alum of 2024.

“So far, I’ve met a lot of new people…with similar interests as me. I haven’t seen that many of those people in this area [before]. It’s really great for my first time!” spoke Rayyan Khan, 18, an attendee from outside Stockton University.

Khan also stated he was eager to see Monochromemenace perform during her panel. Even as popular anime is, makes connections based off the medium still has some turbulence; however, this leads to creating social bridges becoming more important in these communities.

Many attendees took to the scene dressed as a variety of characters from inside anime and beyond, like Giyu Tomioka from Demon Slayer, Naruto, Symboli Rudolf from Umamusume, Mario the Plumber, Junko from Danganronpa, Joker from Persona 5, Rapi from Nikke: Goddess of Victory, Twitch from League of Legends, Hornet from Hollow Knight, a train conductor from Thomas & Friends, and the main crew of Chainsawman with characters from the manga’s Part 2, like Asa and Yoru the War Devil.

There were other attendees who didn’t cosplay, but they brought much life to the event, too. The convention also hosted a cosplay contest judging and walk, which concluded with prizes.

With MisagoCon’s debut, the attendance rate was higher than what many organizers and staff could’ve anticipated. “We had a better turn out than I thought we would. I was expecting 100 people tops […] we ran out of lanyards, so I want to say maybe 300…for a first time convention, this is turning out pretty good!” said Madeline Gauthier, who was a check-in staff and is currently an e-board member of Stockton’s Anime Club.

“The former President [of Anime Club], Anna came up with the idea[…] this is just to basically finish what she started…I wasn’t expecting all these people to show up. I thought it’d be something fun for the club to have their name on it…in the aftermath, I got nothing but good compliments about it!” said Demetrius Letson, Stockton Anime Club’s President and Misagocon’s head coordinator.

The convention ended soundly and successfully. Misagocon 2027 will most likely occur, for those who enjoyed this event or missed it this year, bringing more attention and energy to South Jersey. For this convention and the many others in the future, http://www.animecons.com is one of the most reliable sources beyond social media.