On Labor Day weekend I got to see thousands of real-life anime, comic, and gaming characters being cosplayed, from down the streets to a packed convention arena for San Japan, South Texas’ largest anime and gaming convention.
San Japan 17, held in downtown San Antonio at the Henry B. González Convention Center, had a final tally of 37,587 attendees for all three days.
I attended with one of my closest friends, Jackie. We had previously attended Corpus Christi Comic Con 2026 together, and our mutual interests in anime and cosplay had us excited as we counted down the days to San Japan.
We prepared our cosplay and props for weeks prior to the convention. I planned to go as Misa Amane from “Death Note” alongside her huge golden scythe as seen in the manga. One of my favorite parts of cosplaying was creating a huge and noticeable prop to go with it.
When I finally arrived at the event, I saw miles of people cosplaying lots of popular anime and gaming characters. Some of my favorite cosplayers were Denji from “Chainsaw Man,” Inuyasha, Freddy from “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” and a rainbow Pyramid Head from “Silent Hill.”
I also saw a lot of group cosplays such as the Sailor Guardians from “Sailor Moon,” which caught my eye; they smiled at me and told me they loved my cosplay.
For every 10 attendees I saw, there was always one or two people cosplaying, which made the experience feel surreal and exciting.
Jackie and I arrived inside the convention around 4 p.m., due to most of the parking lots being full, so we were grateful to just experience even half of what we saw. We visited the Artists Gallery, one of the most crowded places and had some staff and people coming up to us asking for photos, which made us very happy.
We also got to enjoy the “Dance Dance Revolution” games and Japanese arcade games set up alongside each other. I would recommend any gaming fan to check this convention out, especially for the diversity.
As the sun started to set, our joyful experience was coming to an end for my friend and me.
I hope to attend San Japan next year just to experience this all over again.
