Tips

• Set a budget beforehand – it can get out of hand very fast without one
• Book activities in advance – popular activities such as the maid cafe, VIP signings and workshop sessions tend to get booked out quick.
• Get there early – It can get busy and you will always wish you had more time cause of how fast the day goes by
• Think about space and usability when buying – I made this mistake in the past but make sure you buy things you have space for so it doesn’t end up in the drawer or not being used or seen.
• Bring your 3ds if you have one. Surprisingly a lot of people bring their 3ds so you can get street pass hits and even meet people as a result.

Smash Anime Con was held this weekend, July 11-12th, and it was a lot of fun. This was my third year going and I would still highly recommend it, just make sure you have a budget in mind first.

Day 1

The first day I arrived a bit late, around 12pm as I slept in :cry which may have been a mistake, as it was already pretty packed by the time I got there and some things were sold out. Anyway I managed to queue up and get my badge, heading down to explore level 2. Level 2 thankfully was not too crowded but still trying to have a look at every stall was a bit hard. Prices were also a bit high as well, with most key chains being around $12 and up each.

I was most looking forward to the TCG section however so I made my way straight there, only to find they didn’t have Pokemon or MTG :cry. Nonetheless, I was curious about the other games on display such as Vanguard, Shadowverse Evolve, and Palworld.

I ended up trying Vanguard first as I’d heard of it before and found it quite fun. It had a unique battle system. Each player has up to 5 rearguards (soldiers) and 1 vanguard (commander), and the goal is to get 6 damage on the enemy’s vanguard. The interesting part is that your opponent can block with their rearguards or the cards in their hand, which makes it feel like a resource management game. You can’t dump all your cards onto the field because you’ll have nothing left to block with, but you also can’t hold everything back because you need to attack too, each player gets 3 attacks per turn assuming they have the rear guards in place: 1 from the vanguard and 2 from the rearguards. On top of that there are drive checks on attack, which can boost your attacker’s power, and damage triggers, which can heal you or boost your units’ power for next turn. I ended up getting the Blaster Blade set which is a reprint set for their 15th year anniversary for $30, plus some sleeves and a deck box for a bit more :lies.

Before I realised it, I had spent most of the day at the TCG area just trying different games and versing other players. I had a quick browse afterward and bought a few key chains from my favourite series, plus some Pokemon cards.

Day 2

Same as day one. Up the escalators, into the queue for badges, arriving late again (need to fix my sleep routine). One of the best things about going to Smash in my opinion is seeing all the different cosplays. Unfortunately I struggled to recognise a lot of them but from the ones I did recognise my favourites were the job application guy, a gunpla cosplayer, and a Jinx cosplayer. (Will try to find and attach photos later.)

I headed back to the TCG section to play some more, but it was much more crowded, probably because everyone from the floors above had made their way down since the day before, so I took the time to explore the stalls instead. I ended up buying some more key chains (god I love key chains), but this time I was more mindful about buying things I’d actually use or look at (hence key chains lol), rather than repeating my past mistake of buying a ton of figures and posters without thinking about space.

For lunch I went outside and had Mappa. They had a 2 for 1 deal which was good, though I couldn’t take advantage of it going solo. It was pretty overpriced :cry as I ended up paying close to $30 with a Sunday surcharge and card surcharge??? wth

I also ended up watching the finals for the Valorant competition where even though I haven’t played Valorant, it was cool to see how top tier teams operate. The aiming and flicks were on a whole different level. The hype of the crowd and the commentators made it so much better but damn was it stressful. I forgot how stressful competitive gaming can be even just watching gives you goosebumps.

Alas, Smash came to an end. I ended up catching Swallowtail performing at the performance area, which was a good, if bittersweet, way to close things out.

Overall, I had a lot of fun this year. Even solo, you can meet so many interesting people and see a lot of amazing cosplays and art. Would highly recommend going at least once.