The Power and Persona of Oriana Perón

Checking Back In After Anime Central

Hello Again, Readers!

This was my sixth or seventh year attending Anime Central (ACEN), the largest anime, manga, and Japanese popular culture convention in the Midwest. I love attending this convention, especially if I cosplay as Sadness from Inside Out. This year, I even put a twist on it and made her into a Jedi. (I’ve included a photo below.)

I also only received two A&E press releases this week, so we’re a bit light in that section. Do not worry, though; I’ve got a wonderful interview piece with the incredible Oriana Perón to make up for it.

Enjoy The Long Weekend and Thanks For Reading,

Amanda

Celebrating Art, Pride, and Fandom

Fans were clacking. It’s a familiar sound in queer spaces, like a clap with more flourish. And for Oriana Perón’s show, plenty of that flourish was to be had.

That’s because the 2nd largest venue at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare was packed, standing room only, for Oriana Perón’s Drag Show at Anime Central (ACEN). Featuring the Pretty Guardian Drag Soldiers Encore, this show was built from the heels up for its nerdy audience. An audience that waited in a line that trailed along numerous hallways in the hotel’s lower level to get inside. It was an audience with which Perón was familiar. After all, it was their 19th year attending ACEN.

“It's my 19th ACEN—I'm shocked by it,” Perón said after their powerhouse performance that ended in a Sailor Moon-inspired group number. “If I went back in time to 2006 and told 19-year-old me, ‘do you know how many times you're going to go to this con?’ I don't think that I would have been like, ‘yeah, that sounds right.’ I don't think I would have known.”

Still dressed as Sailor Moon from their performance, Perón said they didn’t know much about anime at the time of their first con, but they’d been a fan for years. They’d been a fan ever since their cousin introduced them at eight or nine to Sailor Moon chapter by chapter in issues of “Mixx Zine.”

Fast forward to the present day, and Perón can regularly be found performing as Sailor Moon and a range of other characters at conventions or shows all over the country. They’ve created their own incredible pocket of performance that is well-suited to a convention setting of fellow pop culture cosplay fanatics. In the case of ACEN, a Drag Race style competition was followed the next day by a drag show. Combined, these create Sailor Oriana’s own magnanimous Silver Crystal Power—one of the most potent attacks in the Sailor Moon roster.

Perón was hooked on con culture after their first ACEN, learning to sew, mix their own audio, and make costumes for the sole purpose of upping their cosplay game. “It all translated into drag, which I started doing in 2012, and immediately just started blending drag and cosplay together,” Perón said. With a chuckle, they added that the folks back home in Bloomington, Indiana, didn’t get it at first. But now they and their show partner, Verna Vendetta, do shows there regularly.

It seems they get it now.

This amalgamation of cosplay, anime, and queer culture makes so much sense. That overlap is evident in convention spaces. As a queer con-goer, I have seen a lot of that much-needed community built here. Cons are a safe space for self-expression. That’s something Perón has seen in every corner of the country. When asked if that safe space vibe was the same everywhere they’ve been, Perón agreed wholeheartedly: “That is absolutely the case.”

“We've done cons here in Illinois [and] in Chicago, Indiana, Orlando, Florida, Seattle, and St. Louis,” they began. “It doesn't matter, it's all the same. It's the same folks…they're not literally the same people in those locations, but they're the identical personality types. I find that refreshing and lovely that we're all drawn like moths to a flame to similar things, and I think it really binds us as a community. Regardless of where we are in the country, we are bound by the things we love, and we come to these conventions to share the things we love with other people.”

That safe space community is vital right now. As the current administration attacks both the queer and artistic communities, having a place like ACEN is essential. Perón agrees, noting that convention spaces are irreplaceable for the people who flock to them and the communities they empower.

“We need conventions now more than ever because we need spaces that we can come together and be ourselves,” they explained. “We need spaces where we can leave the newsfeed behind, leave the clickbait behind, [and] leave the doom scrolling behind…I fully believe that conventions are invaluable.”

If you want to see Perón’s upcoming show schedule, be sure to check out their website.