While Halloween has come and gone, the costumes are still out—and they’re detailed, intricate and bespoke pieces of work.

Young pop culture fans packed the rafters of Labim Mall for the first day of Comcoscon’s seventh convention, to revel in anime and manga, gaming and pop culture. Fans of all ages attended, with some dressing in full cosplay livery.

Comic Cos Con is a comic and cosplay convention that celebrates and showcases its own community, organised by Otaku Next, a group that celebrates Japanese pop culture. The burgeoning group holds several events over the course of Comcoscon, all surrounding manga, anime, cosplay, gaming and pop culture. 

On Friday, a variety of events were organised, including the popular Ani-Dance Competition, where dance groups perform choreographed routines in the themes of their favourite anime series. Hundreds cheered as troupes performed routines, such as the one from The Last Airbender, while others traipsed around the mall buying memorabilia, gazing at fan art and taking selfies with cosplayers.

One cosplayer, Bindu Khadka, was immensely popular with pop culture fans.

The 18-year-old, dressed as Saber Alter, a character from the visual novel Fate/stay night, spent three days constructing her costume from black tape and foam. Along with her friend, dressed in intricate Odogaron armour from video game Monster Hunter, Khadka was immensely popular with selfie-takers. 

Khadka said she had been a fan of anime and manga since she was a kid, but had only been making her own costumes for about six months. She said while she would be entering the Cosplay Competition on Saturday, but did not know how she would fair.

“There are so many good cosplayers out there,” Khadka said.

The cosplay competition was one of the highlights of the entire convention, according to Sampanna Shrestha, one of the convention organisers.

Shrestha said the cosplaying culture has exploded since the first time it was organised. Between 10 and 20 people dressed up in the first year, compared to the number this year, which Shrestha expected to be over 100. 

“Every year people always set the bar higher than the year before,” he said. “It’s not always one specific genre too. Even comic books, and a few Marvel characters are here already.”

Dressed as a Sith warrior from Star Wars himself, he said the increasing number of cosplayers reflected the passion and culture of the community.

But it’s not just about who has the best costume, because there would also be various singing, dancing and video-making competitions among others, even a board game tournament.

“Every event is great, because people are really passionate about it,” he said. The popularity has led organisers to expand the convention to cover two days for the first time.

Saturday’s events include a visit from the Japanese Ambassador and competition finals.

Comcoscon is one of two events hosted in Kathmandu annually, the other being Comic Con Nepal, which was held in September.