Oct 7, 2019

Street Fighter Ultimate Cosplay Showdown

For our trip to Anime Expo this year, we gave ourselves a mission. Not only would we do our usual blog covering cool cosplays at the con, but we would cover some of the cosplay events too! This year, Anime Expo debuted a new panel and event: The Street Fighter Arcade Edition Panel and Ultimate Cosplay Showdown. For the first time, Street Fighter Executive Producer, Yoshinori Ono came to Anime Expo. To celebrate, AX made the panel extra epic by combining it with a cosplay competition in this Street Fighter Ultimate Cosplay Showdown.

The Panel

The panel gave the audience a behind the scenes look at the history of Street Fighter, what it takes to make the games, and a sneak peek on what is to come. They even announced that for the first time ever, Team USA and Team Japan will face off at a Street Fighter Tournament in Los Angeles at the end of the year!

The panel didn't stop there. We were joined by four voice actors from the games who interacted with the audience by playing games and giving away prizes.

Kyle Hebert, voice of Ryu, Lauren Landa, voice of Karin, Bonnie Gordon, voice of R. Mika, and Bill Rogers, voice of Urien, join the panel

Street Fighter Ultimate Cosplay Showdown

Once the panel ended, it was time for the cosplay competition! Competitors had up to 60 seconds to show off their poses as individual entries, or fighting skits as partner entries. Their handmade costumes were judged on construction and creativity as well as their performance and stage presence. The First Place winner would walk away with $5000 and a Street Fighter prize pack!

Street Fighter Ultimate Cosplay Showdown