Beyond Seguin Borders is a column written by Seguin Daily News staff members. We all love Seguin, but we also know it’s normal to travel outside Guadalupe County. This is a lifestyle feature column exploring our staff’s adventures Beyond Seguin Borders.
Community comes together in many forms. At the San Japan – Anime + Gaming Convention, attendees find many ways to express this. From bonding over a shared love of artwork to geeking out over cosplay, the community defines the event and keeps it strong.
This past Labor Day, I took a three-day weekend and attended the convention with my sister –– it’s an annual tradition at this point, and we had some much-needed fun. I’m always on the lookout for a story while I’m there, and this year I felt the community the convention builds was the standout factor.
According to my sister, Cat, the discourse online is that many large conventions have started to take on a Coachella-like feel, where influencers run wild and regular attendees’ experiences get pushed aside for those who can make the con look good online.
“So I saw a TikTok where they were talking about anime conventions becoming the new Coachella,” Cat said. “Not only in pricing, but also in the way people act. It’s very influencer-based, where people don’t want to interact with others unless they have a good follower count. But I’ve never gotten that vibe at San Japan. I posted my cosplay lineup online in one of the official groups and had originally planned to do a different cosplay on Friday, but people commented that there was a meetup on a different day, so I changed my cosplay days. I ended up changing my lineup to fit with the meetups because of the encouragement of the community around me. Maybe other conventions aren’t like that, but San Japan is still so supportive. I love it. It feels very welcoming.”
San Japan, as large as it is, is nothing like the Coachella atmosphere some might paint online. You’ll see lots of photographers snapping photos of the cool cosplays, but the convention itself feels like a huge family reunion.
This first became apparent to me during a cosplay meetup. My sister dressed as the main character, Frieren, from the anime “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” and met up with other people cosplaying from the same show. When they all came together, the energy was electric. Compliments were passed around on costumes, questions were asked, hugs were exchanged, and it truly felt like these people had all met before –– all because they shared a love for an anime.
The meetup organizer, Armando Salcido, dressed in character with his family to enjoy the convention and shared what inspired him to host the gathering.
“I organized this meetup because I didn’t see anyone online posting a Frieren meetup,” he said. “As my family and I all cosplay as Frieren characters, I figured why not try and get something together. One reason we did this is that we all enjoy anime. My family and I enjoy it together, go to movies together, and cosplay at the movies together. It’s a fun time and a good way of relieving stress from your day-to-day life.”
Besides cosplay and more art than you can imagine, there was also a car show, which was a hub of activity. But this was no normal car show. It was an Itasha car gathering, with automobiles of all shapes and sizes decorated with bold anime character wraps. Itasha roughly translates to “painful car,” a reference to the sometimes garish artwork adorned on the vehicles. But Itasha, like cosplay, is more than decorating something and showing up at a convention. I met Itasha car owner Isaac Nunez and a couple of his friends who explained how the car community around these “painful,” but often beautiful cars brought them together.
“When I first got into this, I just got the truck and didn’t know what an Itasha was,” Nunez said. “Then I started going online and stumbled across one of these cars and thought it was pretty cool. So I started talking to some people and started making friends. I live in Florida, and they live all the way in the Carolinas, so I took a trip to Georgia to go to my first convention, and that’s where I met even more Itasha owners. Seeing all the cars, the wraps, the community, they all welcomed me and encouraged me to do it. So from there it was history. I got my first Itasha and started meeting people from all over just by talking online. My friend here in the red Tacoma came to visit me in Florida, and we became pretty good friends after that. I also have some best friends in Georgia, and they all came together because of this community. And these are now people I talk to almost every single day.”
This sense of community extended to every aspect of San Japan, whether it was cosplayers, Itasha owners, or even the artists selling their wares and doing stamp rallies with each other to help boost sales.
The community even extended to the long lines for different parts of the convention this year. Lines were prohibitively long in several cases, and we even missed a few things we wanted to do because they were so long, but people chatted and made friends while waiting, which is better than standing in line mad. But still, if I had one critique of this year’s event, it was definitely the lines. They were just too long; the line to get badges on Saturday took over an hour of standing inside and outside in the sun. It was miserable. But as I said, people remained in mostly good spirits despite this one issue.
Downfalls aside, San Japan was an incredible experience. I had so much fun exploring the convention with my sister and friends that long lines almost didn’t matter. We shopped, played some Magic: The Gathering, gamed in the retro arcade, and even went to the anime-themed rave Saturday night. So if you’re thinking of attending San Japan next year, know it will be filled with a positive atmosphere that will bring a smile to your face, because the community behind the event truly makes it something special and worth checking out.
Photos by Lizz Daniels
