The 15th annual Animaritime convention is on this weekend at the Fredericton Convention Centre and Crowne Plaza Hotel.
The event features guest speakers, a vendors’ lounge, a gaming room and more, and it’s a gathering place for fans of anime, comic books, video games and science fiction.
Shelby Mercer, Animaritme’s guest team lead, believes it’s also a way for people to get back to the playfulness of their childhood.
“But then it’s celebrating who we are,” Mercer said. “Celebrating, kind of, our nerdy side and being a little bit geeky. This is where we all come together as a community and celebrate the things that we love through cosplay, through panels, through all sorts of different things.”
Cameras are everywhere for people wanting to take pictures, and those wanting to be in them.
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“You’re like a Disney mascot,” said Abigail Morrison, who participated in her eighth Animaritime. “You get to walk around and people get all excited to see you and take your picture.
“You feel like a star.”
Others see it as a positive outlet for people with social anxiety.
“I find with a lot of cosplayers, it helps that when you wear the mask and you wear the head you’re somebody else,” said Corey Leblanc from behind a Star Wars-themed cosplay mask. “So it helps you. By wearing this other persona, it helps you actually come out, be social.”
Animaritime is billed as the biggest anime and gaming convention in the Maritimes. This year’s event was expected to draw more than 2,000 people from throughout the region.
Stephanie Anderson and her husband brought their five- and three-year-old sons to the convention.
“It’s just fun,” she said. “The kids love to dress up and we’re passionate about the anime itself so we all have fun, we get to dress up and we get to see everybody else, and enjoy it.”
And, of course, it’s a big business opportunity. Vendors from around the Maritimes sell everything from used games to artwork and jewellry.
It’s “very good for business,” said Lauren MacLeod of Big Pfeiffer Collectible, a Halifax-based vendor.
Animaritime 2019 is scheduled to run through Sunday.