I went to Matsuricon 2023, and it was a crazy weekend. Between my orientation to go to Wright State University and Columbus Girl Scouts setting up next to a drunk Eggman cosplayer, Matsuricon 2023 will go down as one of the most eventful anime conventions I have been to.
Before the con
The story begins before the weekend of the anime convention. Like most weekends, I was working at Kings Island before coming home for the convention.
This year was a little different than in years previous because we were not getting a hotel for this convention. The city of Columbus is about 30 minutes from my house, and we were trying to save money at the time, so we decided to commute there. While we did end up saving money, there were a few issues that ended up happening due to this decision.
Leading up to the convention, I received an email from WSU asking me when I wanted to schedule my orientation. I had just graduated from Clark State College and was transferring to WSU with my associate's degree so that I could become an education major.
I had decided that I wanted to schedule this for the Thursday before the con because I would be in town, and I did not think it would last that long. This would come to bite me in the butt later, as it did last pretty long.
Thursday
Thursday morning, I woke up bright and early and started doing some of my makeup for my cosplay. At noon, I had my orientation to start at WSU. From WSU, we were supposed to be able to have time to go home and finish getting ready so that we could go to the badge pickup/pre-con day.
I wanted to have a head start on my makeup because I knew the character that I wanted to cosplay that day had a lot of things going on.
I ended up in almost full cosplay makeup before I had to leave for orientation. My first experience as a college student at WSU, and the second time I was ever even on campus, was in this makeup. Orientation went off without a hitch, but by the time it was over, I had realized that it had lasted longer than I thought it would.
No big deal, my mom is already there to pick me up, and I am already partially in cosplay. Except it was a big deal because we were extremely behind schedule, and we still had to go home and get the rest of the group ready before heading to Columbus during rush hour traffic. Additionally, once we had all gotten our costumes on and hopped in the van, we got behind a three-car pileup and sat in line for an additional 2 hours. Needless to say, it was stressful for the first few hours.
We did not end up getting to the con until about 7:00 p.m. We were able to get our badges just fine and go to one or two panels, but besides that, there was not much to do as most of the con was still being set up. So, we did what we do best at conventions: we people watched.
It is common for people at night at anime conventions to get drunk and act like fools; it is also just as common for people to sit around and watch said people get drunk and act like fools. While it was Thursday, and a lot of the attendees would not be coming until Friday, there were still some people watching that could be done.
We did not know it at the time, but this convention would be split between the convention center because there was a Catholic Church convention on the same weekend. The people of the Catholic Church convention rented the convention center space smack dab in the middle of Matsuricon, meaning if people wanted to go to the artist alley they had to walk on the other side of the Greater Columbus Convention Center to get to the artist alley.
This ended up posing a lot of issues later on throughout the weekend, but on Thursday, people were mainly just curious about what was going on with the convention.
After some people-watching, we returned home to get ready to be in Columbus bright and early the next morning.
Friday
Friday is the first official day of the convention. We all got dressed in our best costumes and got ready to leave. Originally, we had all decided that we were not going to wear wigs on the way there to protect their style, but this is not how that ended up turning out. This ended up in some pretty funny interactions going into the gas station on the way to Columbus.
Once we had got there, we finished getting ready in our car and let loose in the convention. For the most part, Friday was pretty uneventful until the evening. I went to a few panels, I met a few of my favorite voice actors and got their autographs, and just generally enjoyed the con atmosphere.
Most conventions in Ohio are pretty strict about daytime cosplay because of the idea of children walking around. After it hits about 8:00 p.m, a lot of these rules loosen up, and people start coming out with more scandalous costumes. That was the case with this convention.
One shocking costume we saw was Sonic the Hedgehog in Nazi paraphernalia. While security quickly stepped in, they still were able to walk around while intoxicated to ask seemingly offensive questions to different tables.
We decided to pack up and leave the convention at about midnight. We had already been to all the panels we had wanted to go to, and the night was just getting crazy, so we decided to call it. On the way home, we got Sheetz. This entailed all of us getting out in our costumes and walking into the Sheetz in the middle of nowhere, where we were awarded a few stares and some light chuckles from truckers.
While Friday was fun, Saturday was when the Catholic Church convention and Matsuricon attendees would have their issues.
Saturday
Due to us staying out so late, it was a rough start in the morning. We managed to get out by 11:00 a.m, stopping for coffee on the way. Once we got to the convention center, we faced a problem that we did not anticipate. There was not any parking in the main parking garage. It is well known that Saturday is usually the busiest day of a convention, but we thought that we would be able to get a spot if we got there earlier. This did not happen.
Otherwise, Saturday went as normal. I went to panels, went to the vendor's hall again, saw some more voice actors I wanted to see and met with friends I have online. Things started to get odd in the late afternoon.
As mentioned before, there was a Catholic Church convention smack dab in the middle of the convention center. Saturday is also the day that the cosplay competition happens, usually meaning that there are some pretty elaborate costumes walking around the convention. As my friends and I were walking to the photo shoot location that was closest to artist alley, we noticed some commotion going on in one of the side hallways. We decided to ignore it because it seemed like it was getting pretty serious.
Later, we found out that somebody from the other convention had let their kids mess with a prop for that night's cosplay competition, and the kid ended up breaking the prop. This was not a simple fix because the prop was made of a specific material that is very hard to fuse. The owner ended up being a mutual of one of my friends I was with, and they had left it with their book bag outside of a restroom because of how large it was and how small the convention center restrooms were.
The prop was big enough that it could just be sat on the ground without any issues, and, for good measure, they had their friends standing out with it to keep an eye on it. What ended up happening was that the parent from the other convention yelled at the friend for telling the kid not to mess with it after encouraging the kid to go up to it, and an argument broke out. While the argument was going on, the kid broke the prop.
Later in the night, my mom, my sister and I had just left a panel for anime voice actor J Michael Tatum. My mom ran off to go and grab the car so that we could go home because at this point, it was almost 1:00 a.m. My sister is disabled and, at the time, was having a flare-up that required her to sit more in between walking, so I decided to go with her.
We were walking down the main staircase at the convention center when we noticed a couple cuddling up next to each other under a blanket. It was very innocuous, as sometimes people will straight up sleep at the convention center instead of getting a hotel room. So, we just assumed they were asleep. It turns out that they were not asleep; they were drunk and doing inappropriate things under the blanket to each other in front of everybody.
We found out later that this ended up getting more intense with them having full-blown sex on the staircase in front of everybody. We realized that this was what they were doing, so we ended up waiting outside where we were promptly asked about our costumes by some random people in Columbus who were coming from partying at Short North, which was just down the street.
We ended up getting home pretty much unscathed, laughing about little things that happened at the convention during the day.
Sunday
On Sunday, we had got to the convention center late because of how late we stayed out the night before. Things fell apart pretty quick.
I was walking to a voice actor meet and greet when I was stopped to get a picture of. This person told me they enjoyed my costume and was dressed the opposite of my character, but from the same scene. The person's friend was chuckling as they were taking the picture, but I thought nothing of it. This was the moment when this person decided to try and kiss me.
Like anyone who has just been accosted in this way, I was very offended and started yelling. I was swiftly told to calm down and that he was just doing a bit for a character. Without my permission or consent.
This was the only day that I had decided to walk around by myself, and this was probably the day that I should have had a friend with me, as the idea of wearing a long dress at a convention ended up being a nightmare. I got stopped for pictures a lot, which is generally actually a good thing because that means that people like your costume.
I was not only getting stopped by Matsuricon attendees, but also a few attendees from the other convention. Because of the long dress, the shoes I was wearing, and the giant prop I was holding, by the end of the day, I was tired.
Not 10 minutes after the whole picture kissing debacle happened, I witnessed a fistfight. I do not entirely know what it was about because I did not know the person involved, but it had looked like one of the dads from the other convention got into an argument with an attendee of this convention, and it came to blows. This is the first and only time I have seen a fist fight at a convention.
Finally, I got to wherever I was going and ended up having a good time and really getting to know the voice actor that I was meeting and greeting.
Attending cons
After this panel, I met back up with my mom and sisters to go to the closing ceremonies. Despite all the hiccups of the weekend, it was still considered a very good convention, and the energy was felt in the closing ceremonies.
Matsuricon is always so fun to go to. We always have a great time every time we go to this convention, even in 2022 when my grandma died around the same time, and it is always really sad to go back to real life.
Despite how crazy they can be, anime conventions are a good source of community. The majority of my friends I have met at anime conventions. As someone who has niche and nerdy interests, it is always good to go to anime conventions and find my people.
There is a sense of belonging that does not come from the real world that you get at these cons. It is always nice to see people that you would never see any other time. So it ends up being sad when It is time for the convention to be over and you have to go back to your real job and your real responsibilities.
But like most good things, it comes to an end. The next weekend, I moved into my College Park apartment and started at WSU. Overall, despite their craziness, nothing beats a good anime convention.
