After months of hard work selling goods to fund their voyage, the Manhattan High Anime Club traveled to their annual convention for a weekend of new and fun experiences.

Before the trip, Anime Club put together a coffee fundraiser to raise money for the bus ride and cost to get to the convention in Overland Park, Kansas City.

Students students thought that it was the best idea for them to plan the two-hours-away trip during spring break, while school was out, was the best idea for them all to plan to go on this trip to Kansas City, two hours away.

Senior Anna Mackay traveled up two days prior to the convention with a friend to spend the night there. Since Mackay went before the other Anime Club members got to the convention, she didn’t have the chance to experience the bonding time that the others who rode the bus did. Students riding the bus met up at the high school and drove straight to the convention.

“The best part of the convention, is just the fact that the students were allowed to dress up as well,” Mackay said. “So they got to walk around, having fun, dressed up as a character that they decided to dress up as … in an environment that they feel very comfortable in.”

Around two thirds of the students dressed up as anime characters and cosplay characters. At these annual conventions, students have the option to dress up as their favorite character without feeling ashamed or judged. Instead, others admire who you try dressing up as and put dedication into styling their costume.

Voice actors of anime shows and manga artists also attended the event, giving students and attendees the chance to listen to speeches and experiences from different people.

“I enjoyed hanging out with my friends just getting to see all the different types of cosplayers especially since we’re able to walk up and ask people to pictures when you first see like, all different types of cosplayers and people plans and put all their hard work into kind of thing,” Mackay said. “It’s just fun to see what type of things that people can come up with was dressed up as a character they wanted to dress up as.”