As the little hand struck two, Taco Bell employee, senior Tara Brown, noticed a group of people dressed as zombies. She did not think much of it because she was busy working. However, when a group of people walked in with cute fuzzy ears, she had to ask what the occasion was.

Turns out they were cosplaying for the annual Arkansas Anime Festival commonly called A2F. Cosplay is short for costume play and a large part of A2F. A2F was held at the Holiday Inn and Convention Center in Springdale. The festival started April 5 and lasted until April 7.

“My sister had told me a couple months ago but I had forgotten about it,” said Brown. “I had wanted to go but I didn’t have the money and my sister wanted to cosplay.”

There are even contests available to cosplayers who wish to enter their cosplay into a contests judged by the audience. Cosplaying is completely optional and it is just another way for fans of a work of fiction to display their love of that work of fiction.

“If I had known cosplay was going to be a big part of the festival I would’ve done a bit more,” said senior Paden Adams.

This was the first time that Adams had attended the anime festival. He did not cosplay but he plans to next year.

“Next year I’ve got a cosplay as Kurz Weber from Full Metal Panic and it’s going to be interesting,” said Adams. “He’s one of those ladies’ men where you have to hit on all the women at the festival.”

Cosplay contests are not the only event at the festival. There was a rave, special guests, video games, and even a zombie prom to entertain the festival goers.

Senior Craig Lawrence went to the festival for the first time and thought he would only encounter cosplayers and an experience to talk about. However, he also found video games and gamers who shared his interest in video games.

“I played one of the scariest games in the world and talked about random games and went to a rave,” said Lawrence.

Lawrence thought that food would make the experience better but he had a good experience and recommends other Arkansan anime lovers to come.

“It’s a good time and no one cares how you dress. Come for the games at least,” said Lawrence.

It can’t be an anime festival without the panels and A2F featured animes from Hetalia to Full Metal Alchemist to Pokemon. So many different genres of anime will keep people coming back for more and junior Cecelia Lackey was no exception.

Lackey has been going to the festival for two years now and has always managed to entertain herself by watching people play games, visiting panels, making new friends, and of course, watching anime.

Lackey was introduced to anime by friends and has been hooked since.

“My favorites are ‘Say ‘I Love You’’, ‘Black Butler’, ‘One Piece’, ‘Fairy Tale’ – I could go on and on but I probably shouldn’t,” said Lackey.

The festival attracts people from all over Arkansas for 3 days of fun, gaming, and shared love of anime.

“The festival’s got this sense of brotherhood. You’re all there for a reason and no one really knows what your reason is,” said Adams. “We all know that you’re accepting of everybody else’s reason. It’s weird. There’s not much else like it.”

Adams encourages more people to come even if they don’t think they’ll find someone who shares the same interests.

“No matter what you’re into – there’s someone there that’s also into it,” said Adams. “You can always find a friend at the festival.”