As fandom events continue to grow in the United States, Florida, especially the Central Florida area, has seen an increase in pop-culture events. For years, if you stayed in Orlando or the greater Orlando area, you could expect a few showcases a year. Anime Day Orlando in the spring and fall, MegaCon Orlando in the early summer, now early spring, Mystic Con in the late spring, and the popular Christmas-themed Holiday Matsuri in the winter. However, a new convention has decided to throw its hat in the ring of Central Florida conventions, taking over a portion of the west wing of the Orange County Convention Center from August 8th to the 10th, 2025. That convention was Animate! Orlando.
This convention is by no means a humble operation; it’s a part of the larger GalaxyCon conglomerate, which hosts around 16 shows each year in cities all across the US. The Animate show series currently has four cities it tours in, including Columbus, Ohio, and Raleigh, North Carolina. According to the internet and other reviews I’ve read, the show is mostly well-received, and here I’ll explain how it fared in Orlando. I’ll cover my first impressions of the event, my general experience, some highlights, critiques, and by the end, you’ll get a feeling for Animate’s future in Orlando.
First Impressions
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the convention on Friday, so my con experience started at noon on Saturday when I drove into the south concourse at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC). Parking was ample, but also $20, which is pretty annoying as there isn't a convenient alternative to the OCCC parking lot. This isn't an animate issue, just a fact of hosting an event at the convention center. Once I had parked, the convention was an easy find. By way of two flights of stairs or the elevator, you could make your way to the 2nd floor of the venue, where registration, the info desk, as well as the majority of the convention, were concentrated in one area. As someone who used to large events at the convention center, Animate didn't have heavy foot traffic, but it certainly wasn't empty, which made registration a breeze. I had my badge and convention info in a matter of minutes, and I was off to experience what Animate Orlando had to offer.
General Convention Experience
The first stop for me at Animate, and the place where I spent the majority of my time, was the exhibitor hall. The exhibitor hall had 4 sections: the outer area, which had activations from Animete and a food court, the artist alley, the vendor alley, and the celebrity signing area, which included a space for professional phot ops. Starting with the Animate activations, I was pleasantly surprised by what Animate pulled out for attendees. My first surprise, which isn't new to convention spaces but is always interesting to see, was the tattoo and piercing artist alley called Galaxie Ink. This area was fairly sized with 9 artists working in the area, I presume they were from the Orlando or central Florida area. To the right of Galaxie Ink was Galaxy Gaming, which was the hub for the free-play arcade. I appreciated the setup of the Galaxy Gaming; it had a full stage for Rock Band and Just Dance, which are two of my favorite games, as well as Japanese and vintage arcade cabinets, and tables set with consoles and controllers. At least two of the arcade cabinets were down, which is a bit frustrating because I swear it's always the games I like, but there was plenty to do, so I wasn't too soured by the broken arcade machines. The TTRPG area had your usual stuff, with Pathfinder being the prominent game I saw being run, a small shop set up at the front of the area, and these cool monster statues that stood at the front. Next, the TTRPG area was a family area with a few all-ages activities. To the left og the Galaxie Ink was a whole other host of fun areas, including a fan and cosplay meet-up area with themed Dragon Ball Z, Pikachu, and Iron Man installations, an itasha car showcase with only a handful of cars, but they were still very nice. As well as a Toon Town area. Yes, Toon Town.
A little about the Toon Town installation: If you're unfamiliar with the property, Toon Town was a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG, hosted by Disney, featuring a world where you could play as an anthropomorphic animal character in the signature Disney toon style. It was a huge hit in the early 2000s, launching in 2003 to wide usership before shutting down in 2013. I had read rumors and rumblings that there was a fan effort to bring the game back, but to my surprise, the game has not only been brought back, it's better than ever. Completely fan-run, utilizing a majority of the original game assets, and with a new name, Toontown Rewritten. The installation itself was part of an event called ToonFest, an in-person celebration of the game with plenty
of photo ops, family-friendly activities, board games, and real-life NPCs, as well as an opportunity to play the game for yourself. It was incredibly nostalgic being at ToonFest and a cool addition to the Animate Olrnado lineup.
Past ToonFest, the itasha cars, and the meet-up area were the artist alley. I spent quite a bit of time snaking the aisles, and I must say, they pulled in some talented artists from all around. I found some of my favorite local artists, such as Mojo97, Mario Genduso, and Teighlor Made Co., but I also discovered new favorites like Moshi Melon and Sailor Shrimpp. Next to the artist alley was the signing and celebrity aisles, filled with voice actors from animation across the board. I had a blast chatting with cast members from Hellova Boss and Hazbin Hotel, such as internet sensation and the voice of Blitzo, Brandon Rodgers, and a legacy voice actor, Richard Horvitz, as well as chatting with Zeno Robinson and Gary Anthony Williams about their tenure in voice acting and upcoming projects. Outside of the voice actors, there was the entire vendor hall, which hosted the official Animate merch store and vendors.
Critiques
While I had a generally good time at Animate, I have several critiques I'll address at this point. I haven't mentioned accommodations up until this point because most of the issues with Animate are about accommodations. Some of the issues I had with accommodations aren't necessarily things that have to do with animate, such as parking prices and food. When hosting an event at OCCC, those prices are regulated by the venue. That said, parking for $20 a day is still pretty expensive for a new mid-attendence event. Food at most convention centers is pricy, but OCCC has some of the most expensive food vendors, with a personal pan pizza being around 14 dollars after tax, before a drink and a bag of chips. OCCC is also not the most accessible convention space, with slow elevators and not a ton of accessible ways to enter the building in inclement weather or otherwise, which is a must-have in a state like Florida. Given the attendance for Saturday and Sunday, I think that Animate would have been better suited in a smaller venue such as the Hilton next door. understand why OCCC was chosen, given all of the different areas and programming available, but it's in my opinion that they could've easily fit into a large hotel convention center, which would've had better venue accommodations across the board.
My greatest critique of Animate specifically was their schedule. Their schedule genuinely frustrated me when walking into the convention on Saturday, and because of that frustration, I gave up on finding anything because I didn't want to deal with deciphering their schedule. The not hat, you couldn't access it at all, but accessing it was completely inconvenient. Aniamte Orlando's schedule was completely digital outside of a programming guide, which only contained highlight programming and big guests. The Programming guide was done beautifully, but functionally irrelevant if you enjoy fan panels or if you want specific times and room numbers. The digital schedule was only available on the Animate Orlando website, hosted by Eventeny, with no option to download a PDF or an app. I'm sure other attendees were able to figure out and navigate the event, but for me and a few others that I spoke with, we each shared our disdain regarding the schedule. I'm hoping that in the future, Animate will consider either providing paper schedules or providing options other than navigating the website.
Final Thoughts
For this to be Animate Orlando's first year was a generally good time. Putting on a convention is tough work, tenured promotion or not, and what Animate brought to Orlando was pretty good. There are plenty of areas for improvement, sure, but the 2025 showcase was a good time all around. I'm looking forward to what they bring for next year's showcase in the area.
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