Anime Sunika convention draws crowd

February 20, 2025

By Michelle Rodriguez

Belton Journal

Anime enthusiasts gathered at the Anime Sunika, a Central Texas anime convention, this past weekend at the Cadence Bank Center.

The special guest headliner was actor, martial artist, and stuntman Taimak Guarriello, known for his lead role as Leroy Green in Berry Gordy’s the Last Dragon. There were also appearances made by celebrities, voice actors, and actresses Stephanie Nadolny, Linda Young, Michelle Rojas, Alex Organ, Cynthia Cranz, Natalie Van Sistine, Scott Dreier, William Corkery, and David Humphrey. Attendees could purchase autographs, pictures, and selfies from them.

The musical guests were Sheilava, the Texas Dragon/Lion Dance Team, and the headliner on Sun. All-4-One. Sheliava and the Texas Dragon/Lion Dance teams both performed on Sat. and Sun while on Sun. only, there was a Valentine’s special live concert by All-4-One at 3 p.m.

Tickets were pre-sold and available for purchase the day of the event. Attendees were encouraged to dress up as their favorite anime character. There was an adult cosplay judging contest on Sat. at 2 p.m. and a child cosplay judging contest on Sun. at 2 p.m. The Bell County Cosplayers were there showing their costumes.

“We do a lot of events like parades, comic cons, our discord community is growing. We help each other with making cosplay, we taught a 3-D printing class, and cosplay on the budget,” said Ian Wise with Bell County Cosplayers.

There was a child activity zone hosted by Stewart C. Meyer Harker Heights Public Library.

“We are with the kid zone. We work all kinds of comic con to provide free activities like STEM, where kids work on building using a variety of materials. There’s a Scooby Doo investigation were kids play i-spy, seek, and find. There’s active play for large body movements, free coloring and stickers, gross motor skill activities, and fine motor skill activities by making puff pals and gem stickers,” said library director Lisa Youngblood.

Tabletoppers board game group had a vendor booth. When you subscribed to their group online you were given a chance to spin the wheel to win a prize. Some of the prizes were BitBar game passes, pens, a tote bag, a koozie, or a t-shirt.

“We have boardgame night every Tuesday and the first Friday of every month at BitBar Temple from 7 p.m. till midnight,” said Nicholas Bailey boardgame player with BitBar Temple.

There were 150-plus vendors selling anime collectibles like Pokémon cards, sports memorabilia, Funko Pops, J.S.A. certifications, chibi/kawaii, hats, t-shirts, anime drawings and art, and sneakers.

There was an Asian food festival at the event. Dynasty Chinese Restaurant and Pizza Hut were among more than 30 vendors. There were vendors serving rice, noodles, kebabs, egg rolls, sushi, chicken curry, dumplings, spam rolls, fried catfish and seafood, and pizza. Pecos Pete’s sold drinks in a refillable commemorative cup. Vendors had water, sodas, lemonade, iced tea, and boba tea for drinks.

There was a car meet Sunday morning. JDM Legends, Import Tuners, and anime themed vehicles were featured in the Import Tuner Garage.

There was dedicated areas to TGC card gaming tournaments, console tournaments, a board game area, and retro arcade games like PacMan.