The annual anime and sci-fi convention known as Zenkaikon celebrated its 10th anniversary April 1-3 at the Lancaster Convention Center in the heart of downtown Lancaster.
The show is a celebration of all things geeky and offbeat, and the halls and panel rooms were thronged with people eager to play, watch or talk about their favorite games, cartoon shows, comics or other pieces of pop culture ephemera (preferably from Japan).
But by far the central draw of the show is the cosplay -- the chance for attendees to dress up as their favorite fictional characters – the more elaborate and homemade the better.
It's perhaps the only place in central Pa. where you can see Spider-Man (or Spider-Men as the case might be) rub shoulders with Naruto, the Blues Brothers, Pikachu, Darth Vader and assorted characters from the Disney show "Gravity Falls" and the cult video game "Undertale" (easily the two most well-represented titles at this year's show).
Cindy Esme Gutier of Harrisburg and Kristen Brusstar of Lancaster were dressed in outfits modelded after characters from the cartoon show "Avatar: The Last Airbender."
Gutier estimated that her character's costume, Princess Yue, took about 100 hours to put together and incorporated items she acquired from various thrift stores, including a wedding train and some curtains.
For Gutier and others, Zenkaikon offers the chance to indulge in your inner fandom win a more intimate setting than San Diego Comic-Con or theOtakon show in Baltimore.
"It's a nice, smaller venue, more intimate," she said, "It's not as overwhelming. It's a nice starter con."
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