Tokusatsu at FanimeCon 2014

By Destini Johnson

Photography by Toubun Photography


Chatting with ‘tokubros’ online is one thing, but what happens when you put a gaggle of us in Northern California? Lots of fun! Here’s an overview of the tokusatsu presence at this year’s FanimeCon!

With tokusatsu being more of a niche fandom, I was initially skeptical about there being a large turnout. I began to follow the official Super Sentai/Kamen Rider Gathering thread on the FanimeCon forums, and was surprised by how busy it was.

I was even more surprised at the actual turnout of supporters! At least two times more people than those who were active on the forum thread appeared, making it a huge gathering! To add, there was a nice variety of series represented.

On the Super Sentai end, Kyoryuger had the largest presence. Not only were cosplayers of the main five rangers there, but several of the secondary/tertiary rangers as well!

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Also exciting was the amount of ‘suited up’ rangers at the gathering! The Godfather of Sentai – AkaRed – even made a sudden appearance, resulting in a huge roar of excitement from the crowd!

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Other fan favorites, such as Gokaiger, Go-Onger, Megaranger, and Jetman appeared as well.

On the Kamen Rider side, Gaim had the biggest turnout. There were so many Gaim cosplayers that a seperate Gaim gathering was held later in the day! Even though Kazuraba Kouta was a popular cosplay choice, many other characters were represented as well, making it a well balanced group.

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Following Gaim’s popularity was Kamen Rider W – another fan favorite! There were several cosplayers of the series’ main Riders and side characters.

Veteran Kamen Rider Super-1 appeared too, much to the joy of attendees. There were also the New Kamen Rider NEXT, Kamen Rider BLACK, and Hyper Kabuto in suit.

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Finally, there were also GARO cosplayers! Wearing costumes from the Yami wo Terasu Mono series of GARO, it was truly exciting to see a series that’s not a part of the “Big 3” tokusatsu giants as a part of the gathering!

The dealers room also had its share of tokusatsu merchandise, from Belts/Drivers to figurines and everything in between! While handsomely priced, the array of items available was surprising.

All in all, FanimeCon did prove itself to cater to the tokusatsu fandom a bit, which was very comforting. I look forward to going to the next FanimeCon and seeing what fun its tokusatsu gathering brings!