Avid anime fans flock to Pittsburgh for Tokkoshocon

The crown jewel of Pittsburgh’s Japanese anime scene looms once again, to the delight of… The crown jewel of Pittsburgh’s Japanese anime scene looms once again, to the delight of thousands of the area’s Japanophiles and gamers.

This weekend, the seventh incarnation of Tekkoshocon (which appropriately translates to ‘Steel Mill Convention’), Pittsburgh’s biggest and best anime and culture festival, comes to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Downtown. Featuring a vast array of activities ranging from anime viewings to anime costuming (‘cosplay’) contests and even video game and karaoke events, Tekkoshocon appeals to hardcore enthusiasts as well as the more casual consumers who have been swelling its attendance numbers over the past few years.

‘The first Tekkoshocon had 600 attendees overall, and this year we’re up to 1,100 online pre-registrations alone,’ said T.J. Condon, Tekkoshocon’s public relations manager. ‘We’re expecting somewhere around 3,500 attendees overall this year.’

Condon, a Pitt alumnus, was one of many Pitt students involved in the founding of Tekkoshocon. ‘The first Tekkoshocon was founded and head98-ed by Rebecca Roach, a Pitt student,’ said Condon. ‘We squatted in rooms in the Cathedral [of Learning] to have our planning meetings.’

Unsurprisingly, the involvement of Pitt students in Tekkoshocon has not changed — even with its explosive growth — as the current chair of the convention, in addition to many of the department heads, are either current Pitt students or Pitt alumni.

This year’s installment represents a large leap forward in magnitude and merit for veterans like Condon.

‘For the first few years we were bouncing around various hotels until we finally settled into the Monroeville Expo Mart a few years ago,’ said Condon. ‘This year we just had to face the reality that we’d outgrown [the Expo Mart] and were forced to move Tekkoshocon to the Convention Center Downtown. It’s new territory for most of us, but is an opportunity to make the convention even better than in the past.’

With a larger venue and increased attendance come more prolific guest artists, musicians and speakers. This year, Tekkoshocon’s headlining band is Boston-based synthpop sensation Freezepop, known well by Tekkoshocon’s gamer attendees for its songs in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games. Founded in the summer of 1999, Freezepop has achieved simultaneous success in indie and gamer music circles.

‘When Harmonix [developer of early Guitar Hero and current Rock Band games] was developing their first game, ‘FreQuency,’ [band member] the Duke [of Pannekoeken] was working there and convinced them to put a Freezepop song on there,’ said Liz Enthusiasm, Freezepop vocalist. ‘From there we’ve had one of our songs on almost every Harmonix game, even ones like Guitar Hero and Rock Band where we kind of stood out from the rest.’

Tekkoshocon represents the beginning of a summer tour for Freezepop, going as far east as Minneapolis and as far south as Washington.

‘We usually try to anchor our tours around a big convention or show, like Tekkoshocon,’ said Enthusiasm. ‘I think our music appeals to gamers and all the other overlapping subcultures that will be present at Tekkoshocon, so we’re very excited to be playing there. We’ve also probably played in Pittsburgh more than anywhere else besides Boston, so we’re happy to return.’

The other big musical draw at Tekkoshocon VII is the North American debut Otokage, a Japanese Visual-Kei band. Visual-Kei, a Japanese musical movement characterized by flamboyant, costumed looks, has many followers in anime circles and expresses itself in Otokage’s over-the-top ninja attire, inspired greatly by the wildly popular ninja anime ‘Naruto.’

Finally, local favorites Battlecake, a video game music cover band made up entirely of CMU students, will also be performing at Tekkoshocon. Its songs cover a number of different popular video game franchises’ music, including ‘Final Fantasy,’ ‘Street Fighter,’ ‘Metal Gear Solid’ and more.

‘The experience really changes depending on the attendees’ interests,’ said Condon. ‘We’ve been making a concerted effort to diversify, both in terms of the guests we bring and the activities available to the con-goers.’

Mentioning the two video game rooms where numerous tournaments will be run, a karaoke room, multiple mini-theaters where anime and anime music videos (AMVs) will be shown, the ever-popular Cosplay Masquerade and various other activities, Condon promises that Tekkoshocon will appeal to even those with the most casual interest in Japanese culture.

‘The sense of community is strong,’ said Condon. ‘With all these different overlapping subcultures represented, many people just come to be among so many others with shared interests and be reminded that there are a lot of people like them in Pittsburgh.’

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