METROCON is Florida’s largest anime convention and is held at the Tamp Bay Convention Center. The 2022 event finished with a record attendance of over 12,000 attendees. METROCON continues to grow every year with original entertainment like the Fire Show and the Anime Human Chess Match, as well as making sure there is plenty of room for the hundreds of panels and events that are submitted.
Previously, Florida Comic Cons, a convention news website, provided a blog on the “Five Sensational Reason to Attend METROCON.” Now, Florida Comic Cons will tell you a few reasons it was astounding!
Reason 1: Anime Human Chess Match
Every year METROCON chooses a theme for the convention to follow, and this year the theme was Weird vs Wild. The Anime Human Chess Match embodies this theme by having a team represent each part of the versus theme. The match includes a scripted performance and intense fight scenes with hand to hand combat, acrobatics, and weapons.
The Weird side, lead by Yuuji Itadori from Jujutsu Kaisen, needed to capture the Sukuna‘s finger, which the Wild team possessed. This team included characters like Sailor Moon, Zagreus from Hades, and Ekko from League of Legends. While the Wild team, lead by San from Princess Mononoke, wanted to take the silver crystal from Sailor Moon to save the forest. This team included characters like Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher, Morrigan from Dragon Age, and Tsukasa from Dr. Stone.
Watch this video of the Anime Human Chess Match to see all the twists in the story by Ryubladegemini2.
Reason 2: Fire Show
METROCON presents a fire show every year inspired by video games, anime, or movies. This year the fire show told the story of Demon Slayer. The show followed the Kamado siblings, Tanjiro and Nezuko, as they encountered demons and the leaders of the Demon Slayer Corps, the Hashira.
The fire show includes fire breathing, acrobatics, and fire dancing. There were also intense lights, music, and graphics to add to the performance.
Watch this recording of the METROCON fire show by Ryubladegemini2.
Reason 3: METROFEST
This year METROCON premiered its Idol Festival METROFEST. This is the first official idol festival at METROCON and it was hosted by Next Stage Festivals in collaboration with Charmoni. The festival had full groups and soloists performing songs and dance routines. The audience was encouraged to sing along and bring out their penlights for the full idol experience!
Watch this performance by Quartesque from Quartestofficial.
Reason #4: Cosplay and Panels
Every year METROCON gets flooded with requests for fan panels. Fan panels are hosted by attendees and cover a variety of topics. Q&A panels and skit panels are popular among fans where the hosts act like the character they are cosplaying. This is a fun was for the audience to feel like their interacting with their favorite characters.
Watch this video a Q&A panel for Doki Doki Literature Club by Soup.
Couldn’t Attend METROCON This year?
Don’t worry if you couldn’t attend METROCON 2022 because they’ve already started making announcements about next year. 2023 is an Exciting year for METROCON because it’s the 20th anniversary so they’re going all out with the theme Anime vs Video Games. The dates are also announced for July 14-16, 2023.
Watch this great recap of the con by great recap by Frame Forge.
Keep an eye on METROCON’s Vimeo account to catch more videos of the different events held through out the weekend.
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