METROCON Review: Not All Cons Are Created Equal

I think in terms of conventions I was born with a silver (or at least, like silver plated) spoon in my mouth; every con I’ve been to has been pretty large in scale and incredibly impressive. When I lived in Richmond, Virginia, Otakon and Katsucon were two of the most accessible to me and therefore were the two I attended. Since moving to Orlando, I’ve felt the tremors and sweats from Severe Con Withdrawal and decided I had to find something near me. The “something” nearest to me is Metrocon, a annual fandom convention in Tampa, Florida. Again, maybe I was spoiled by all of the nice, big cons I’ve been to but… damn, Metrocon was a disappointment. Let’s go back in time to the distant, long-gone days of July 21-24, 2016.

Thursday This was the only day of the con that I got the whole day off for. When I got there, however, there weren’t any panels or shows that stood out to me, so I checked out the Vendors Room. Other than the absence of a huge Crunchyroll centerpiece (which had seemed to me like a con staple), there wasn’t anything that stood out to me as different from what I would see (or not see) at any other con; there was no shortage of video games, manga, and normally dressed con-goers casually holding life-sized body pillows like it’s nothing (which…I mean, it’s a nearly naked 15-year-old anime girl on a pillow you’re going to be cuddling with all night, so, like, that’s definitely something ). While I wasn’t particularly blown away by the Vendors Room itself, the co…