The best time of the year has come and gone, and no, I’m not talking about Christmas. I’m talking about the weekend for the nerds, artists, and multimedia lovers. Wondercon is a three-day weekend event hosted this year (2025) on March 28th – 30th. A sister convention to San Diego Comic Con, Wondercon takes place in Anaheim and focuses not just on comic books but all sorts of storytelling media. Comic books, novels, video games, anime, and manga all gather together at this convention to create a wondrous place of fantasy and friendship. 

Cosplay is a huge part of this convention with the majority of attendees dressing up as their favorite characters from the media. Creative expression takes form in costuming; cosplayers pick a character they love and design a costume. They then learn all the steps to create this costume and spend many hours working on this labor of love. Cosplayers create costumes with different art forms; sewing and 3d printing are some of the major points for costuming, but we can’t forget about the people who embroider and craft foam designs. I interviewed and photographed some amazing cosplayers this weekend to understand why cosplay and conventions are so special to the community.

Juan Ramirez took everything he learned from engineering classes and taught himself how to design props and 3D print them with different materials. Pictured is Juan dressed as V from the game Cyberpunk, the costume is completely handcrafted by him, but the stand-out piece of the cosplay is his gun. The Militech Achilles gun opens and closes with a motorized engine and comes complete with lights and a sound board. I asked Juan why cosplaying in a place surrounded by like-minded people was so important to him, and he told me, “I think it’s just important to be able to detach now and then; current world affairs are a little bit complex, so it’s nice to just be able to come and turn off.”

Kristacorn_cosplay (Kristen) is a cosplayer on Instagram who is known for her anime/manga costumes. She’s shown above in her newest cosplay as Soifon from the anime Bleach. She combines costuming with wig design to put herself into the shoes of one of her favorite characters, and she does it seamlessly. I asked Kristen what she wished people knew about cosplay. She responded, “That it’s for everyone whether you buy a costume or make your costume, your height, size, or race, all that, it’s for everyone no matter what just enjoy it, it’s not a competition or anything, we’re all having fun, we’re all nerds.” Cosplay is an all-inclusive way of expression; anyone can be anything they want to be. Kristen struggles with her health and disabilities but continues to express herself and her joy through costuming. We all love seeing ourselves in stories we love and relating to characters, and cosplay is just another path to doing that. 

Jon Vash is cosplaying The Good Hunter from the video game Bloodborne, with over 7 thousand followers on Instagram he says his favorite part of cosplaying is the friends he’s made along the way. “It’s a way of meeting people, meeting great people like yourselves, almost all of my best friends right now, I’ve met through cosplay, ten years ago, however long it’s been.” After asking him what he wishes more people knew about cosplayers, he said, “The ease of accessibility, there is something for everyone, and even though you might think like, oh that’s all nerdy stuff, there is something for you, you will find something that you’re like oh that’s really cool and just dive head first into it and you never know, you might be like wow I’m really good at making hats, I’m really good at crafting this and that, there’s something for everyone.” Vash created a foam prop of the Saw Cleaver. It is able to open and close, relying on a hinge in the foam. He also learned how to make articles of his costume out of leather and foam, his hat is made from foam, and caplets were cut and hand-stitched by himself. Using online templates, he created an entire costume for himself simply because he loves and enjoys this character and game. 

People come from all over the world to Wondercon to enjoy everything it has to offer, cosplay is just one of the major highlights of this convention but it stands out by far. Creative people have a certain light in them while they show off their creations, and it’s amazing to see a place where it’s all accepted. From costumes of Jack Skellington to stilt walkers dressed as Konshu from Moon Knight, the range of media enjoyment is vast! Whatever media/storytelling you enjoy, I promise Wondercon has something for you! They even had a Disney Princess Day! Wondercon will return in 2026 on March 27th-29th. I’ll see you there.