One weekend every year, over 5000 people will converge in a small hotel in Bloomington Minnesota. For up to a year before, people will prepare. Carefully planning outfits that will make or break their time at the hotel. Packing various supplies vital to the coming three days. Every April, the Bloomington Doubletree hosts Minnesota’s largest anime convention, Anime Detour.
“It’s nice meeting people with similar interests, we get to be nerds the entire weekend. My favorite part is the dances, and being able to buy things in the dealer room that you can’t find anywhere else,” said Senior Emi Wagner. Wagner dressed as Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy 7, and her own personal coordination for the rave later that evening.
Anime Detour is a weekend Convention, and recently celebrated its tenth year running. Many features that draw people from all over the surrounding states and Buffalo High School, include AMV and writing contests, a masquerade, a dealers room, an artists alley, guest of honor signings, a gaming room, panel discussions, a charity auction and a dance. The festivities aren’t always strictly anime related, the convention also celebrates US and overseas pop culture.
A handful of devoted BHS students will be joining in the yearly trek to “Detour”. Many attendees ‘cosplay’ or dress as their favorite characters from pop culture, as a creative way to show what sort of media their into, and show support for the show/game/comic/books/ect.
“First you have to decide what to dress up as, there are so many shows to pick from. when its narrowed down, how have to figure out what you’ll wear on each day. Saving money is a big part of preparation too,” said Senior Becca Bzdok. “It’s a party, its so much fun. the people are so friendly and willing to talk.” It is Beccas third year attending the convention, and she dressed as a female version of Alfred Jones from one of her favorite anime, Axis Powers Hetalia.
Besides cosplay, there are small meetups for “fandoms” or groups of people interested in the same thing within the convention, where people hang out, talk about or draw related things. The spring/summer season is usually referred to as “Con season” by the BHS students who also attend other local conventions in the summer like Animinneapolis, CONvergence, Metacon and Anime Fusion, and count on these yearly gatherings to strengthen their love of pop culture.
