By: Krow Smith | @coffeewithkrow

When Peggy’s con crusade brought her to Anime Town Greenville in South Carolina, she invited me to come with her, and I certainly considered it. Then an opportunity for free entry arose when a couple friends of ours needed an extra person to help with their booth at the event. So, with my best friend and a vendor’s pass, I had my first full experience at an anime convention!

First and foremost, I decided to use my wheelchair for this event since I figured there would be a lot of standing and walking around. So, I greatly appreciated the spacious aisles! It was roomy enough for me to zip by in my wheelchair without it getting congested (unlike Peggy, who contributed to Con Crud). [EDITOR NOTE: Hey! I tried not to—and at least I wore a mask! – Peggy]

With the Greenville Convention Center itself, I appreciated the hard floors as it helped me to maneuver myself around more easily. Especially compared to carpeted floors where there would be more resistance. However, there is one thing I should warn specifically other wheelchair users heading to this particular convention center about. At the start of the ramp to enter the building, and slopes to get onto the sidewalks, there were huge gaps where my front wheels would get stuck. This would force me to have to approach them backwards, which is inconvenient and something the convention center should look into fixing ASAP.

As for the booths themselves, there was some good variety. There was a stall that was selling used manga and their selection really caught my eye. I managed to find the first three volumes of Chobits and volume one of .Hack//Legend of the Twilight. At other booths, I also bought a few really nice figures, a Pokémon plushie, a few acrylic stands, a keychain, and a handmade dice holder with a dragon on the lid. I even made some purchases from a vendor that sold crystals since I don’t have a metaphysical store near me.

This, being my first real con experience, added to the excitement and anticipation for what treasures I may find. However, that initial feeling wore off by the end of the first day. This is because I bought 90% of my purchases on Day One and I was quite satisfied with that. My Day Two purchases were things I took my time to deliberate on.

This lack of excitement or interest on Day Two brings me to my issues with the con experience: I don’t think I would have had nearly as much fun if I weren’t working at the event. I certainly wouldn’t have felt inclined to go on the second day if not for assisting our friends and Peggy. I became quite passionate about the queer youth literary journal I was helping to promote, Let’s Say Gay (I recommend checking them out!). Outside of working the booth, I felt the convention didn’t have much more to offer for me.

As someone who is hard of hearing, I immediately lost interest in going to any panels once I heard about the issues with the space and severe noise pollution. Not to mention that I couldn’t even find the panel area for myself until the second day. The signs were small and hard to spot, especially with voice actor advertisements nearby. The voice actors were also lined up against the curtained walls that separated the panel “rooms” from the rest of the convention space, further obscuring access to the panels. When asking a staff member for directions, they didn’t know where the panel area was either.

The only panel I did attend was “Creating Your Own Comic: Idea to Draft to (Indie) Publishing” by Peggy. This is because some of her friends came to support her and I was tasked with giving them their passes and leading them to the panel. Technical difficulties aside, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Even though I’m not planning on making a comic, I still learned a lot on how to better my creative writing in general.

The food was mostly bad—plain and simple. The fries were delicious, but the egg roll was a greasy mess and the “sushi bowl” was drenched in mayonnaise. It was extremely off-putting, so I would recommend bringing your own food just in case they have the same issues at the next Anime Town Greenville. Also, the queue to order food was marked with line dividers, which were too narrow for me to go into with my wheelchair. So I needed help from a friend to go in line for me as I didn’t feel comfortable moving the line dividers myself.

There were a couple of activity areas (like game systems set up and tabletop games laid out), but they would always be empty whenever I passed by. So what remained in terms of entertainment for me was to look around at all of the booths, which I had made a few laps around by the end of the first day. That left me feeling that there was much to be desired. Maybe if they had staff managing those areas and advertising it more, it would have been more full.

If you are like me, and you don’t often buy things or will quickly become satisfied with what you have purchased, then you might want to consider going to Anime Town Greenville for one day, if at all. As for those who are three-day convention goers, you enjoy panels, or you need more than simply perusing and buying items to retain your interest, I don’t think Anime Town Greenville will be worth the time.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience when talking to lovely people at the booth and working for Let’s Say Gay. It was a rewarding experience to support the journal; outside of that, however, I would rate the convention itself as a 5 out of 10 experience. It didn’t blow me out of the water, but it didn’t overwhelm me, either. If you’re in the area and you aren’t coming for the panels, I think it’s a fair place to start for newcomers as a one-day experience rather than all three.

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Edited by: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

Copyedited by: Katherine Cañeba | @kcserinlee