The COVID-19 coronavirus has hit the gaming scene hard this year, forcing the cancellation of a huge number of gaming events and conventions. However, the anime scene has also been seriously hampered by the coronavirus, with the vast majority of conventions completely canceled for the year.
Although there are still a few holdouts scheduled for late in the year, anime fans who regularly attend major conventions like Anime Expo are no doubt disappointed that their cons have had to shutter for the year. Similarly to online gaming events popping up to help substitute for the lack of E3 this year, Funimation is planning on doing something to help make up for the devastated con scene.
FunimationCon is a brand new convention that will be held solely online in a virtual format. Funimation is promising “cosplay meetups, industry panels, Q&A sessions, and more,” strongly mirroring what fans could expect from an in-person anime con. The con will be held from July 3rd-4th, overlapping when Anime Expo would have ordinarily been open to the public.
Of course, there’s nothing quite like attending an event with like-minded fans in-person, but companies like Funimation are doing the best they can to help make up for this loss of yearly events. As an added bonus, FunimationCon will be completely free for people to enjoy, whereas traditional anime cons typically have fairly large entry fees.
Source: Funimation
