Sekaicon 2025 is a convention celebrating its very first year and show. It’s run by a not-for-profit organization called Sekai Guild, which aims to promote cross-cultural understanding by creating inclusive spaces that celebrate, educate, and inspire a sense of global citizenship, primarily through the promotion of the arts.
The convention was held in Newark, Ohio over the weekend of April 11th. Newark is in central Ohio, and it holds a special place to me because it’s where I live. A couple weeks ago, by pure happenstance, I came across an ad that talked about Sekaicon 2025 taking place at the Cherry Valley Hotel convention center. I could hardly believe that a brand new anime convention was taking place in my hometown, and I later learned from the show organizers that it’s a major goal of theirs to bring things like anime and culture to places that have been without it for far too long.
GiN is working hard to increase its coverage of conventions, as is evident in our reporting from Blerdcon this year in Washington DC, the PAX Unplugged Show in Philadelphia, and TravellerCon. So, we were very happy to add Sekaicon 2025 to that circuit. Now, the goal of any first-year convention reporting is to let people know if the show is worth attending, but I won’t add any unnecessary suspense to that one. For a first-year convention, Sekaicon was extremely impressive. There were lots of great vendors, guest speakers, and events. And plenty of cosplay too. Most importantly, everyone seemed to be having a great time. The show will definitely keep growing, so be sure to check it out when it comes around again in 2026.
So, back to my coverage of the show, the staff was incredibly friendly not only to me but to everyone who attended. Since I was reporting from the show, I wanted to get there very early on the first day to get a feel for the show and to make sure that I did not miss out on any scheduled events. Despite barely having enough coffee to function, the staff were very patient with me as I tried to find the words to describe who I was, your friendly neighborhood (literally in this case) GiN reporter, and why I was there.
We had a few laughs and after I got my media badge, they were all too happy to chat with me about all things anime while we waited for the show to open.
Once the attendees started rolling in, the real fun began. I was instantly impressed by the craftsmanship of their cosplay outfits, and I took as many photos as I could. And I will share those in a video in just a couple of days. But in general, the range of cosplay characters was impressive. I saw everything from Jujutsu Kaisen to Trigun, and there was even a random Bob Ross there. And like we have seen at other shows, there was a cosplay repair station at the far end of the convention center. Wardrobe malfunctions happen, but Sekaicon was smart enough to have a fully stocked craft station to fix most issues as they happened.
Once the vendor hall opened up, I have to admit that I was kind of like a kid in a candy shop. There were vendors selling everything from gorgeous, framed anime art to tea served in tiny coffins. Collectable merchandise was everywhere. I was able to find an uncommon manga called Flipside that was even signed by the author and snapped it up right away. I got to talk to some vendors, but they were all extremely busy, so I was fine with standing back a bit for the most part and letting them happily sell their amazing things to the delighted customers.
In terms of the main event, Sekaicon 2025 had a great one. Kristen McGuire, the voice actress for Gemma from Monster Hunter Wilds and Milim Nava from the That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime manga was featured. She even signed autographs. I can’t tell you how much it meant to me and everyone in Ohio to have a voice actress of her caliber visit. I brought two photos of Gemma with me to the convention for her to sign. One signed photo went to me, and the other was for Monster Hunter fanatic and GiN Columnist Vincent Mahoney. That was amazing, but I didn’t realize that Anne Yatco, who voices Nobara Kugisaki in Jujutsu Kaisen and Raiden Shogun in Genshin Impact, was also going to be at the show. I managed to find a Kugisaki Funko Pop for sale, and quickly acquired that too. She signed it for me right away. Both of these actresses were incredibly kind and amazing to their fans, including me.
After covering various parts of the show for a while, I got to sit down with Michelle “Michi” Steines, the board president and director of the convention. We talked a lot about Sekaicon, and some of the many challenges that go into a first-year show. One of my main questions I had was why the first show was set in Newark as opposed to the much larger city of Columbus, where most of the conventions in Ohio take place.
“We actually considered Columbus first, but the costs were prohibitive,” Steines said. “Then we visited here and really fell in love with the venue and the amenities. We also wanted it to stay affordable for the show and guests.”
I also asked her how the show was going, and she said that everyone was very happy. There were over 800 people preregistered to come over all three days, and, of course, there were more people expected that were welcome to register at the door. She also stressed that the show aligned with the goals of the Sekai Guild, promoting culture and being a fully nonprofit organization.
“Our nonprofit status is very important to us,” she said. “We want the proceeds to benefit the community and also leave a positive impact.”
Sekaicon 2025 was a great experience and a well-managed convention. Everyone I talked with was having a great time whether they were working at the show or visiting it. If you are going to be anywhere in the Ohio area next year, you really need to add Sekaicon to your list of events to attend.
You can check out the Sekai Guild pages for more details about next year’s show and also to see if they have any upcoming smaller events planned, which they also seem to do from time to time.
GiN will definitely be back at the convention next year, and we hope to see you all there as well!