Waicon 2014 Perth Australia

WAICON IS PERTH'S PREMIER ANIME CONVENTION THAT HAS BEEN RUNNING NOW FOR 10 YEARS

Waicon was created by PAniC (Perth Anime Convention) who also run the event. Being held over two days, the event aims to bring Japanese Culture - specifically anime and manga - to the general public.

Each year, the event brings guest presenters who speak at the conference and also run workshops. 2014 saw English voice-dub artists Tiffany Grant (Asuka - Neon Genesis Evangelion) and Bryce Papenbrook (Kirito - Sword Art Online) take the long trip from the USA to attend and provide some Q&A sessions as well as running workshops on voice acting, script adaptation and provide insight for those wanting to pursue a voice acting career.

Since Traders also attend the convention, a trader's hall was set up at the event to provide attendees with plenty of souvenir opportunities. Specifically, Australian Anime DVD distributors like Siren Visual and Hanabee were present with stock for purchase.

For those a little more "action" oriented, a gaming area was set up for non-stop playing of video games and card-based board games.

But more than that... Siren, Hanabee and Madman had concurrent screenings of the latest anime productions they had on offer in three separate video rooms from 9am-6pm on both days! Having been a fan of the original series, I personally dropped in on Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (ひぐらしのなく頃に解).

However, even with all the excitement of the Traders, the non-stop Gaming room, and two days worth of video screenings, the big focus of the weekend was the Cosplay Competition which ran for 2 hours in the middle of each day. While I was unable to catch the second day's competitors, I was able to obtain plenty of photos of the contestants from day one and you can see a selection of those in the photo gallery below.

And to prove that Cosplayers are normal people, the final contestants stole the show with a surprise marriage proposal. Fortunately, the answer was "Yes!".