When A & G Ohio reached out to me to help them with some fundraising, I couldn’t say no. Partly because they have some compromising pictures of me at late night raves from my two appearances there, but also because they were my very first con…
And that also served as my inspiration for this long and uncomfortable fundraising video pitch.
Enjoy and please pass along! Then go to their indiegogo page and donate whatever you can!
Hug me.
A & G Ohio: The Animated, Pixel-Punched Party That Cincinnati Built
If you ever wandered the Queen City with a plastic sword, a foam hammer, and an urgent need to debate Doctor Who canon while button-mashing through a midnight tournament, you probably brushed against the delightful chaos of A & G Ohio — “Animation & Gaming Ohio.” Part anime love-fest, part video-game siege, it was the weekend where cosplay collided with controllers and nobody apologized for the glitter.
What It Was (Besides Loud and Glorious)
A & G Ohio styled itself as a multi-day fan-run convention fusing Japanese and Western animation with console, PC, and tabletop gaming. Think: vendor halls brimming with art and oddities; karaoke echoing from somewhere suspiciously near the elevators; panels featuring voice actors, musicians, and game modders; and a game room that seemed to run on energy drinks and stubbornness. If an event could plausibly involve a cape, a badge, and a leaderboard, A & G found space for it.
Where It Happened
Pin the map around Greater Cincinnati and you’ll find A & G Ohio’s footprints. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the con planted weekends at the Holiday Inn Eastgate in Cincinnati, then leveled up to larger digs across the river at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center as its ambitions (and queue lines) swelled. The precise GPS coordinates mattered less than the vibe: step through the doors, and you were in a universe where a wizard might challenge a space marine to rhythm game supremacy, and nobody blinked.
Signature Shenanigans
Programming was gleefully eclectic. Cosplay Masquerades? Naturally. Live music and YouTube-born performers? Absolutely. “Cosplay Wrestling,” “Ninja Academy,” rhythm-game showdowns, and foam-weapon tournaments? Bring eye protection and a sense of humor. The Artists’ Alley and Dealers’ Room fed collections and emptied wallets; the panel rooms fed obsessions and created new ones. By Saturday night, the dance floor proved that even armored boots can manage a respectable shuffle if the DJ hits the right BPM.
Snapshots in Time
Late-2000s attendees will remember badges priced to woo students, room blocks that came with breakfast tickets, and a schedule dense enough to require tactical planning. Circa 2010, the con was already leaning into its hybrid soul — animation on the big screens, controllers on every table, and a cosplay-music pipeline that made it feel like a local variety show turbo-charged by fandom.
The Social Footprint
Before every convention had a TikTok army, A & G Ohio lived where fans already were: message boards, Facebook, YouTube, and later X/Twitter. That meant highlight reels of on-stage antics, crowd-cam slices of panels, and the sort of inside jokes that become instant folklore. If you couldn’t attend, you still got a taste of the bedlam — enough to make you vow, “Next year, I’m bringing a better costume and sturdier shoes.”
Legacy in the Midwest Circuit
A & G Ohio fit snugly into the region’s larger constellation of fan gatherings, the kind that keep Midwest geek culture humming through winter thaws and spring rains. It broadened the tent for fans who wanted both anime screenings and all-day gaming ladders, proving the two tribes were always one community in different T-shirts. Ask a Cincinnati-area fan to list cons that taught them how to craft EVA foam or speed-run a tournament bracket, and A & G Ohio pops up with a grin.
Why People Still Talk About It
Because it was unabashedly participatory. The schedule didn’t happen “to” you; it happened with you. You sang, you fought (politely, with foam and pixels), you learned, you bought that print you didn’t know you needed, and you left with three new friends and a sore throat from cheering. That’s the alchemy: the specific dates fade, but the memory of a lobby full of capes and controllers lingers like the last chord of a con-floor concert.
Final Boss Thought
Call it A & G Ohio, A&G Con, or “that weekend my cosplay needed emergency hot glue,” the idea endures: mash animation and gaming together, wind up the fans, and let the culture make noise. It’s the kind of noise you don’t outgrow — you just learn better ways to pack for it.
