What was my first anime convention of this year would turn out to be the only one at this event’s small and humble finale.

Following the successful Brick City Anime Festival 2026 weeks earlier, I was obviously eager to continue my anime convention journey for the year. Before I discovered SSAS+’s Toracon in late 2025, I was always checking animecons.com to see if any new anime cons in Florida would pop up—and sure enough, one did. This humble convention, despite having run for 15 years, was one I shamefully never knew existed. After learning, it was held in Sarasota—a city I was already familiar with from my previous time at Sarasota Anime-Fest 2025—I knew my chance to attend Toracon was all but cemented. Once it concluded, SSAS+ Toracon became my second anime convention of 2026. It was also my first free convention ever and one of the few free ones this year. My choice of cosplay? None other than the original one: Tobi! My good boy deserved to attend his first anime convention, and at long last, he did!

SSAS+Toracon is an anime convention located in Sarasota and hosted at the Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences charter school. It was first inaugurated in 2012 and ran for fifteen years, with 2026 marking its final edition. It is highly likely that no future events from SSAS+Toracon will happen anymore. Unlike previous years, the con was admission-free in 2026 and lasted only three hours. Toracon is notable for its family-oriented theme and popularity among children—particularly elementary and middle schoolers—but despite that, it remains an all-ages anime convention open to everyone. This simple fact makes Toracon the smallest and shortest anime convention of 2026 for me (as of right now). So, the question is, why did I travel to attend SSAS+Toracon? Well, exactly for that reason. This con had its last year ever in history, and just knowing that I, Kurai of Animangemu, got to attend Toracon’s finale—with photos, recordings, and having witnessed all the events—makes me feel proud that this otaku was able to be present at an anime con’s closing chapter. In the distant future, when some advanced civilization discovers that an anime convention called SSAS+Toracon once existed, they will see that this otaku journalist’s name and brand were etched into the history books. At the same time, just remembering it fills me with overwhelming sadness. Toracon wasn’t just a con; it gave me my first real taste of “con crash” in the history of my otaku life—something beyond the usual anime, manga, and video game consumerist world. In other words, this was a truly revolutionary moment for me…

SSAS+Toracon 2026 had a lot of great things. However, you’re probably wondering: How did this anime con, despite its small size and short three-hour run, manage to rock the fun for me?