Is this the cast of Pokéball Z or something?

Attention self-proclaimed nerds, anime buffs, and gamers: NoBrandCon is back. And it’s bigger and better than ever, co-directors Christopher Sturz and Amy Quinlan said. Eau Claire’s own anime convention and “three-day celebration of nerd culture” includes major voice actors hosting panels, costumes and cosplay, movie showings, tasty food, sword demos, and even a performance by Comic-Con alumni and nerdcore rapper Mega Ran. “For the last few years, we’ve been looking for our footing. Now we’ve got it,” Quinlan said. Sturz said one of the things makes it unique is a weekend-long plot that Con-goers can follow. “Our theme (this year) is that we are trying to find the next NoBrandHero. We’ve made the call to design a hero and your character may show up as a ConCharacter (in the future),” he said. All that plus dedicated areas like a MST3K-commentary style room, gaming rooms (video and table-top), vendors, animé screenings, and more. And did we mention there’s a big huge rave on Saturday night? “We are guaranteeing that we’ll have the best rave in the Con scene,” Sturz said. “Try to one-up us on that – you can’t do it.”