Anime fever eclipses superheroes as Hyderabad Comic Con opens with a bang

Hyderabad’s HITEX Exhibition country turned into a popular civilization playground connected Friday arsenic the 13th variation of Comic Con returned to the city. The three-day event, moving alongside DreamHack India 2025, began with a riot of colour, cosplay, gaming and unrestrained fandom.

This year, a wide displacement was disposable successful the popular civilization tide arsenic anime has officially taken over. Stalls selling tee shirts, fridge magnets, posters and figurines featuring characters from bid similar Naruto, Demon Slayer and One Piece acold outnumbered those with DC oregon Marvel superheroes. Even long-time staples similar Batman and Joker were missing from the archetypal day’s cosplay lineup. Only 1 Superman, equipped with a brushed artifact of his canine Krypto, was spotted wandering the arena successful hunt of chap DC loyalists, without luck. Meanwhile, anime characters dominated the floor, with a fistful of Marvel appearances, including a surge of Doctor Doom cosplayers aft Robert Downey Jr.’s much-discussed instrumentality to the franchise aft the decease of Ironman.

“Honestly, it feels similar anime has taken implicit this year,” said Priya Nair, 22, who cosplayed arsenic Nezuko from Demon Slayer. “Last time, I saw Batman and Spider-Man everywhere. This time, it’s each astir One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen and Attack connected Titan,” she added.

“I came arsenic Doctor Doom due to the fact that of the Robert Downey Jr. announcement,” said Aditya Rao, 25, a Marvel instrumentality from Secunderabad. “I thought I’d find a squad of Iron Men oregon Thors, but anime fans person wholly hijacked this year. Still, it’s fun. The vigor is unmatched. Let’s spot however the play goes,” helium said.

Powered by Crunchyroll, the lawsuit opened successful the beingness of Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana, who lauded the increasing originative and gaming civilization among Hyderabad’s youth.

International guests included acclaimed writer and shaper Mike Costa, known for his enactment connected Netflix’s Lucifer and comic titles specified arsenic Venom, Transformers and G.I. Joe, on with creator J. Gonzo, celebrated for his vivid covers connected Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghost Rider and Alien.

DreamHack’s beingness added different furniture of excitement to the weekend, pulling successful immoderate of India’s apical gaming creators similar Sensei IGL, Vanshaj, TraceGOD and Mr. Spike. From Tekken 8 to Street Fighter VI, battles were loud, competitory and endlessly cheered. The Red Bull Tetris Zone and BYOD tournaments kept gamers plugged successful precocious into the evening, portion the Retro and Board Games Zone provided a nostalgic counterpoint with Pac-Man and Monopoly holding their ground.

Comic Con India CEO Shefali Johnson summed it up by saying, “Hyderabad fans person erstwhile again shown conscionable however profoundly passionate they are astir popular culture. The vigor present has been incredible. It is astonishing to spot however the metropolis has embraced the tone of comics, anime, gaming and everything successful between.”