A new breed of horror convention called Sunshine City Scare is celebrating anime horror. The event is May 13-14 at the Coliseum and surrounding area in downtown St. Petersburg.
The new con is the first in Florida to feature anime horror as a main focus, which includes anime voice actors, an evil maid cafe, a frightening idol group, and lots of panels by guests and fans.
While most cinematic horror fans do not consider anime to be under the umbrella of the horror genre, the large numbers of good anime horror shows and their enormous audiences is making it difficult to dispute the emerging subgenre.
Sunshine City Scare is jam-packed with 4 anime voice actors who portray major characters from the most popular anime horror shows. For example, characters from Chainsaw Man, Demon Slayer, Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan, Dangonropa: The Animation, Parasyte, and more. In addition, there will be an evil maid cafe!
EDITOR’S NOTE: This blog has been updated to reflect the cancellation/rescheduling of voice actor Austin Tindle and the addition of voice actor Landon McDonald. (in other words, Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul is being rescheduled to an upcoming con in St. Petersburg, while Enmo from Demon Slayer and Future Devil from Chainsaw Man are being added to Sunshine City Scare).
horrorific characters you'll meet
- Denji from Chainsaw Man
- Pochita from Chainsaw Man
- Future Devil from Chainsaw Man
- Enmu from Demon Slayer
- Kuki Urie from Tokyo Ghoul:Re
- Gabi Braun from Attack on Titan
- Furlan Church from Attack on Titan: No Regrets
- Jazz from Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun
- Celestia Ludenburg from Dangonronpa: the Animation
- Shinichi Izumi from Parasyte
Anime horror maid cafe
How will a cute and adorable maid cafe transform into scary and creepy? Miria Maid Cafe, Orlando’s only stand-along maid cafe, will add fright to everything they do at Sunshine City Scare from desserts and games to dancing and performances. And the group, which will be at the con both days, will also be performing on the main stage.
subgenre explored by florida comic cons
Florida Comic Cons, a news site that covers conventions and fan topics, explored the subgenre in a post called ‘Anime Horror 101: Chainsaw Man, Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan‘
Anime Horror is like a reese’s cup
“The notion of combining anime and horror seems odd at first, particularly considering the many anime characters who are so darn cute and adorable. But further exploration into anime reveals a seemingly endless number of horrific characters who are as scary as Freddy, Jason, and Michael (or any supernatural apparition, for that matter). I find anime horror is much like the Reese’s Cup. You initially wouldn’t combine the two separate ingredients of chocolate and peanut butter, but after doing so the two unlikely partners form a masterpiece of flavor.“
– from Florida Comic Cons blog titled ‘Anime Horror 101: Chainsaw Man, Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan.’
sponsors
Sunshine City Scare 2023 is sponsored by Florida Comic Cons, a news site that covers comic, anime, sci-fi, horror, and pop culture conventions; and Florida Cosplay Digital Magazine, a free monthly magazine that spotlights cosplay throughout the state from features and interviews to photos from recent conventions; and Anime St. Pete, which is on Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at the historic Coliseum in beautiful St. Petersburg.
