ABOUT
Run under the Penn State Anime Organization since 2007, Setsucon has been bringing anime, manga, and Japanese culture to the winter months in Central Pennsylvania. After a year of planning, Setsucon debuted as a one-day event with 288 people filling the halls of the Days Inn Penn State.
Since the beginning, Setsucon has continued to expand, moving through various venues in State College, PA until arriving in 2018 at the Blair County Convention Center. With over 2,300 attendees annually, Setsucon has grown into a new home & continued to expand in size and content each year.
From the start, the focus has been on three pillars: Anime, Cosplay, Gaming. The convention plays hosts to events such as fan & voice actor panels, viewings, masquerade, iron cosplay, gaming tournaments, itasha car show, and much more to make the weekend as exciting as possible for any type of fan.
Setsucon Strives to Bring a Safe and Inclusive Social Environment to Anime and Manga Fans of All Ages Across Central Pennsylvania and Beyond. We Aim to Bring the Big Convention Feel to a More Intimate and Affordable Convention.
Setsucon is far more than just a single weekend in January. Take a look at some of the other places we go, activities we host, and adventures we take as we continue to spread the love of anime and Japanese culture far and wide.
Setsucon is hosted by the Penn State Anime Organization (PSAO). Since September 2001, the PSAO has been bringing anime, manga, and Japanese pop culture to the Penn State-University Park community. Through weekly anime screenings, video game nights, a manga library, and many more activities across campus, PSAO provides a social environment for Penn State’s anime/manga fan base while continuing to grow to bring more to the community. For its efforts, it was named the Penn State Student Organization of the Year in 2018.
Started in November 2020, Setsucon’s response to conventions being shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic was to bring the convention feel to everyone’s home, not just with an online convention but also with weekly streams. Since then, our Twitch channel has grown, featuring original gaming and anime chat programming, including our own tabletop rpg series Setsu Roll, Friday Night Party Night, MOBA streams, late night chat nights, and much more. Check out the streaming schedule and follow along at twitch.tv/setsucon.
Since 2019, Setsucon has been hosting a costume contest in partnership with Schlow Centre Region Library’s BookFestPA during the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. Showcasing cosplayers of all ages and all genres, the BookFestPA Costume Contest is a summer event you will not want to miss. Plus check out the other exciting events that BookFestPA has, celebrating both written & illustrated word with authors, comics, vendors, and much more. Learn more at bookfestpa.schlowlibrary.org.
While planning the first Setsucon, we discussed several names. Our original name was to be “Daikon” like the radish and also “dai” (大) for “big”. It was decided that this might be confusing as there was a “Daicon” held in Japan previously. Our next choice was “Setsucon”. “Setsu” comes from the Chinese reading (on’yomi) of the Japanese word for “snow”, yuki (雪). Since the convention is held during the winter in a region where snow is not uncommon, we felt that the name was fitting.
The International Otaku Expo Association (IOEA) is a global association of expos and events where enthusiasts of the otaku culture may gather together. The goal of the IOEA is to share and encourage new and global development within the otaku community by linking together otaku expos and events around the world.
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Founded in 2007 by the Penn State Anime Organization, Setsucon brings anime, manga, and Japanese culture to the winter months in Central Pennsylvania.
