Celebrities and cosplayers descend on Armageddon expo

About 30,000 flocked this long weekend for pop culture Armageddon expo in Auckland, celebrating fictional characters from games and films through cosplay.

The 30th anniversary of the event, held at Auckland Showgrounds until tomorrow, features special appearances from Xena: Warrior Princess stars Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor, Fantastic Four actor Ioan Gruffudd, Australian voice actor Neil Fanning, the voice behind Scooby-Doo, and Kim Rhodes (Supernatural, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody).

Netflix show Stranger Things’ costume designers were set to present an exhibition of outfits from the show.

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Other guests include anime voice actors from hit series like SPY x Family (Natalie Van Sistine), Chainsaw Man (Reagan Murdock), and Dragon Ball (Jason Douglas) and renowned international cosplayers Alyson Tabbitha, Rachel Maksy and Ridd1e.

Here’s what some of the cosplayers wore to the expo. (*Names are their cosplay pseudonyms.)

Cosmic_batt, who was there to hang out with fellow fans and cosplay, went as Nami from One Piece. It’s one of the most popular manga series and has been made into an animation series with more than 1000 episodes, with a massive a global fan base including reportedly French President Emmanuel Macron and rapper Travis Scott. The comic also achieved a Guinness World Record for selling more than 500 million copies.

Madis and Anxiousay dressed as Mavuika and Il Capitano from Genshin Impact. The open-world adventure RPG (role-playing game) has captured attention with its anime-inspired graphics.

The duo, who love video games, say they came to Armageddon to socialise and look good.

Silver_Comet was also there as Kaedehara Kazuha from Genshin Impact.

Outta_the_box dressed as Wolverine from Marvel superhero comics and film X-Men. The cosplayer wanted to follow tradition in coming to the expo in superhero fashion.

Diaval and vampiretart dressed as Dabi and Toga from Japanese manga series My Hero Academia. Both were at the expo to catch up with some old friends, catch a glimpse of guest panellist Jeff Ward, who starred in the live action remake of manga One Piece, and visit the artist alley. The alley is a hub at the expo where artists and craftspeople showcase their fan art and character-inspired creations.

Cosplayer Wattson dressed as Natalie ‘Wattson’ Paquette from Apex Legends – a battle royale style video game.

They also turned up to the expo to show off their cosplay and mingle with peers.

Darksparrow, who went as Obi Wan Kenobi from Star Wars, came to the expo to escape work and showcase their interests.

Pukekura dressed as Elster LSTR-512 from Signalis - a German survival horror video game.

Pukekura was also there to cosplay and socialise but also wanted to visit the artist alley.

Starlxrdism dressed as Jayce Talis from Arcane – an animation action series based in the League of Legends universe. Starlxrdism says they were there to have fun with others and visit the artist alley.