Holiday Matsuri is one of the coolest cosplay shows on the North American calendar. Taking place in Florida in December, the location means that instead of shivering inside a convention centre somewhere freezing their asses off, attendees are instead free to hit the pool, and the timing means we get to see a bunch of neat holiday-themed takes on costumes.
The 2019 edition (which we covered in early 2020) was one of the last before the pandemic hit, and while the event returned in 2021 it wasn’t until the most recent show that things really got back in their stride.
In this gallery you’ll find both a music video and collection of photos of the 2022 event, all taken by Mineralblu. Each cosplayer’s social media, character and series details are watermarked on the image.
THIS IS SWIMSUIT COMIC CON HOLIDAY MATSURI 2022 HOLMAT COSPLAY MUSIC VIDEO VLOG ANIME EXPO FLORIDA
The 2022 edition of the LACC went down at the Los Angeles Convention Center between December 2-4. Why are we only posting it now? I’ve been on vacation, give me a break!
It’s comfortably one of the biggest nerd shows on the calendar; last year’s event drew over 126,000 people through the gates over those three days, and because a huge number of them were cosplayers, the video and pics you’re about to see are of the highest order.
As usual everything was shot by our friend Mineralblu, and as usual you’ll find each cosplayer’s character, series and social media details watermarked on the image. You can see some video highlights below, or click through for a gallery of some of our favourite photos.
THIS IS LOS ANGELES COMIC CON LACC 2022 MASHUP BEST COSPLAY MUSIC VIDEO BEST COSTUMES ANIME EXPO CMV
New York was able to hold its biggest Comic-Con since 2019 last month, and fans certainly turned up for it; around 200,000 people went through the turnstiles between October 6-9 at the Javits Center, many of them cosplayers.
In this gallery you’ll find a collection of some of our favourite cosplay from the event, with highlights ranging from people wearing costumes to people wearing enormous costumes.
First, though, this video recap of the event by Mineralblu! And after that, clicking through the slideshow will be a collection of photos (also taken by Mineralblu), in which you’ll find each cosplayer’s character, series and social media information watermarked on each image.
THIS IS NEW YORK COMIC CON 2022 NYCC BEST COSPLAY MUSIC VIDEO BEST COSTUMES ANIME CMV NYC MANHATTAN
We’ve featured German cosplayer Maul a ton of times on Kotaku, maybe more than any other individual cosplayer, and there’s a very good reason for that: just look at these photos.
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While he’s best known for his recurring takes on Geralt of Rivia, ranging from “being Geralt” to “being Geralt skateboarding in LA”, Maul has also done a ton of work—both paid (like this, this one’s an ad for PlayStation) and personal—on series like Dishonored, Cyberpunk and Metal Gear Solid as well.
Today, though, we’re looking at his latest shoot, an incredible take on God of War’s Kratos for the release of Ragnarok that sees Maul (and his team) nailing just about everything, from the costume to the weathered leather to the bodypaint to the muscles to the beard to…more muscles (which, despite Maul’s considerable size IRL, are in this case a suit)
Yes, the axe is cool. Sure, the fights are tons of fun. And I definitely enjoyed exploring every nook and cranny of the large worlds you get to visit. But what kept me glued to my PS5 for nearly 40 hours was the story of a son becoming a man and a father trying to figure out how he feels about that. I probably could have enjoyed this story a tad more with about half as many puzzles and skill menus, but even so, I found myself smiling, feeling satisfied, as the credits rolled. As I said at the start, God of War Ragnarök is very good.
Thousands of people headed to the Halifax Convention Centre this weekend for the return of Hal-Con, dubbed as the biggest sci-fi convention in Atlantic Canada.
The popular convention was put on hold in 2020, and significantly scaled back in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers couldn’t be happier to see it revived.
“For me, Hal-Con is the community,” said spokesperson Jarrod Peckham.
“It’s the people you get to share your time with, and who understand you on a level that maybe some people don’t for the hobbies and passions that you’re interested in, whether that’s Star Trek or anime,” he said.
With about 200 vendors, Hal-Con hosts actors, authors, comic creators and cosplayers for workshops, performances and meet-and-greets. It’s where people gather to share their love for film, anime and sci-fi.
Because October 31 falls on a Monday this year, many of the best and most elaborate costumes are being shared today and through the weekend. Each year, I look forward to seeing the creative ways people incorporate new (or newly mainstream) media into their Halloween attire or cosplay! This year, I’m looking out for odes to Nope, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Northman, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Ms. Marvel, Turning Red, and Encanto. One artist on TikTok has already found a creative way to dress up as the villain(-ish) from the best-performing box-office horror of 2022.
21-year-old artist Robyn Ester recreated Jean Jacket! While the creature goes by many names, OJ Haywood (played by Daniel Kaluuya) calls the Occulonimbus edoequus “Jean Jacket” after a family horse that couldn’t be broken or tamed. From the dripping guts to the triangle flag banners attached to her thumb, I love everything about this! The final touch of spitting out a horse from the Haywood Ranch, or maybe Jupiter’s Claim, is brilliant.
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Ester’s “about page” on her artist website says, “So long as I have brought some form of bewilderment, confusion, or disruption to their lives, then I’m happy.” Her urge to create work that invokes these responses likely created a connection with Nope, and its themes. Horror and comedy (Jordan Peele’s wheelhouse) both foster these emotions.
It may be a bit early to declare winners of Halloween 2022, but she’s definitely a finalist.
So instead of making a big deal about Welcoming Everyone Back, I’ll just be extending a regular welcome back. Welcome back! And adding that, after 2021’s extensive pandemic-related measures, the 2022 show was a lot looser on the rules, resulting in a huge boost in attendance, up from 42,000 people last year to around 65,000 in 2022.
Below you’ll find video and a gallery with some of our favourite cosplay from the weekend, which took place last month in Atlanta, during which there wasn’t just a convention but also Dragon Con’s trademark, a cosplay street parade.
As usual, all photos and video are by the talented Mineralblu, and you’ll find each cosplayer’s details, including their social media handles and which character they’re cosplaying, watermarked on the image.
Also, after some complaints about loading times and sluggishness from having so many huge images on the one page, I’m testing splitting the images up into a slideshow instead. Let me know how that goes though, if the annoyance of that outweighs the load time stuff, I’ll switch back next time!
THIS IS DRAGONCON ATLANTA COMIC CON 2022 DRAGON CON BEST COSPLAY MUSIC VIDEO BEST COSTUMES ANIME CMV
We post galleries from major cosplay shows all the time, and they’re always excellent, but for the recent New York Comic-Con one photographer wanted to do things a little differently.
Wanting to try something beyond just taking nice photos, veteran photographer Andrew Boyle (disclaimer: I wrote the foreword for his book) thought that for this year’s show he’d try and make the cosplayer “the sole focus” of his work.
“After my cosplay photo book ‘Heroes & Villains’ came out in 2017, I thought I’d relax it up a bit with the subject matter, but it kept pulling me back; the effort, the enthusiasm and the sense of community amongst the costumed fans”, Boyle tells Kotaku. “I shoot in a uniform style inspired by the portraits of Richard Avedon, so that the sole focus is the subject without background distraction.”
“I also work in collage pieces and motion I wanted to integrate a unique hand made feel for each selected subject. For some, I used cut out pieces that referred to the character, others were repetition of shapes, or color blocking with paper and textures. It was a way to differentiate from other cosplay photography, all of which has it’s own approach, and take a different feel to celebrate all the effort and energy the NYCC crowd brings. Plus I love reading the reactions people have to seeing themselves portrayed in such a way.”
The result is this heavily-stylised gallery which, by removing the usual convention background, really lets each cosplayer, their outfit and their performance shine.
