Anime Culture is set to take off

Billy Saccardi is a sophomore art education major with a love for Anime Cosplay culture. But anime conventions like Tigercon, Towson’s annual convention, provide a very special opportunity for fans like Saccardi.

At cosplay conventions, Saccardi participates in costume play, or “cosplay.”

Tigercon had plenty of cosplaying. The character Saccardi was at Tigercon was Duke Devlin, the badboy ladies man of the anime series “Yu-Gi-Oh!”

“It’s kind of like Halloween, but you actually take on the characters personality instead of just dressing up like a Dracula and walking around,” Saccardi said.

Since attending Baltimore anime convention Otakon in 2006, Saccardi has been an avid convention goer, attending local conventions such as Nekocon, Magfest and Katsucon, which all took place in Virginia last year.

“Everybody there is really nice. The same people start to go to the same conventions over and over again so you start to meet people and you make ‘con friends,’” Saccardi said. “You get to have a little camaraderie there with them.”

Video game cover bands, the Geek Comedy Tour, Web comic artists and Super Art Fight, plus video game rooms and merchandise vendors kept more than 800 anime fans occupied for the day.

“This year it’s more of a legit convention,” Saccardi said. “The big change is just the space that we have now. You can do a lot more with all the levels of the Union compared to just the second floor with limited rooms.”

A masquerade was also held, where skits with pre-recorded audio are created and performed by fans.

Saccardi’s skit, which consisted of him and Kyle Jones performing to The Lonely Island’s “Jizz in my Pants,” won Best in Show at the masquerade.