Zenkaikon 2018 Cosplay Gallery by Adam Etheridge

Zenkaikon, a multi-genre convention which celebrates anime, science fiction, and general pop culture, returned to the Lancaster County Convention Center for its 12th show. Held on the first weekend in May this year, this is the latest in the year that the convention has been held since moving to the Lancaster venue in 2013.

The fair May weather led to many attendees taking some time to meet up, relax, and take photos outside of the convention center, which was a literal breath of fresh air in comparison to some previous years when the sometimes frigid March/April temperatures kept most attendees indoors.

The convention offered plenty to keep fans entertained throughout each day of the three-day event. First and foremost, Zenkaikon offered a large and varied lineup of panels throughout the convention, which ran until around 1 a.m. on the first two days of the con. Panels covered a wide variety of topics and genres including science fiction, comics, anime, music, and much more.

Speaking of music, one of the major events of the weekend included a concert on Sunday held by the Triforce Quartet. This traditional string quartet, which played in front of sold out shows at a number of conventions, entertained fans with a variety of video game-related melodies.

While celebrity guests were not a main focus for the convention, Zenkaikon did have a number of voice actors in attendance at the event for fans to meet and greet, including Phil LaMarr, Quinton Flynn, and Jessica Calvello.

Cosplay of course had a huge presence at the event (as you can see with the large variety of cosplayers in my photo gallery), and Zenkaikon offered a number of activities geared specifically toward these attendees. This included the always popular masquerade, a cosplay dating game, and a hall cosplay contest.

Although I’ve only been able to budget a day trip once every other year or so to the long-running convention, it has always been an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for me. If you’re looking for more thoughts on and photos from Zenkaikon, be sure to check back soon on Nerd Caliber with more content coming from KBV Photography & Cosplay, who was able to attend multiple days of the event.

Fans looking forward to next year’s event will have a shorter wait than usual, as Zenkaikon will return March 22-24, 2019.

Cosplayers in this gallery include RyAxion, Futagocosplay, Ryn Chan Cosplay, Bfarve Cosplay, MyCabbages Cosplay & Design, Sakuraharunogirl, RachniQueen, Up in Smoke Productions, gc_chan_cosplay, ch.fuyu, silygrl, sabyr_snikt, truenorthr, _sinkai_, ignis_animations, gunsmoke_cosplay, and many more.

Photo gallery tips: Once the page loads the images, you will see the Forward and Back navigation arrows above the image, in case you want to scroll faster than the preset. And to see the entire gallery as thumbnails, click on the gray four-box square next to the navigation arrows.

If you are pictured in any of our galleries, feel free to download the images and use them non-commercially on social media, with appropriate credit.

[divider]