Anime Conventions @ MindSay

I have a rather eclectic personality and a this can be witnessed in my entertainment tastes. I try not to let trends guide my decisions so much as I simply like what I like. As a result when anime was first becoming popular in America, I was all over it. The style and storytelling were like nothing I had seen, and the artwork was reminiscent of the video games that I had been playing my entire life. I was obsessive about anime from the time I was about 12 years old right up until my early 20's, but then I started to notice some changes.

I started attending conventions in around 1999 to meet like minded people and find out what was new in the world of anime. Almost immediately I noticed how annoying most other anime fans were. I assumed that I was obsessive, but I hadn't taken into consideration just what obsession entails. Some of these people would, prior to the convention, create elaborate costumes so they could look exactly identical to their favorite character. Others would, during the convention, go the entire time with little to no sleep and, much to the chagrin of other con-goers, never bathing.

I've never been a big fan of other people ("Hell is other people", after all - Satre)  so finding out that anime people are just as hard to get along with as everyone else fit quite nicely into my world view. What bothered me was how these annoying nerds could control what was available.

Like I said, my taste is eclectic, so I grow bored of things on a superficial level quite easily. After about two years of anime conventions I started to notice that while the titles available grew in number, the actual variety was becoming slimmer and slimmer. The artwork was slowly becoming homogeneous and the  stories where all essentially the same. Certain themes had been judged superior to the anime crowd at large, and anime that featured these themes was overwhelmingly available. At this point I had long grown weary of the same old story lines, especially those involving an embarrassed boy and his would-be lover (a scenario played out all to often in popular anime series). There were still some things that I found new and interesting, such as Trigun and Cowboy Bebop, but these too became popular and subsequently copied ad nauseum. The anime crowd was eating up what was out there, despite the dearth of new material.

The other big problem is that nerds are notoriously sexually deviant. Once anime started getting really big in the states sub-culture-esque fandoms such as yaoi (boy-boy love, but not necessarily sex) started becoming very popular. If talking to anime fans was annoying in the past, it was downright impossible now. No conversation could go any length of time, regardless of topic, without switching to what anime characters were having sex, wanted to have sex, or who the person you had the misfortune of talking to wanted to have sex with. It was mildly disturbing,

In the meantime I started to think of anime as cartoons. Yes, they are cartoons, but fans are elitist, so they like to put anime in it's own special category. I still watch anime these days, but I generally call it "cartoons" and continue to watch what I like... and that is rarely what is popular.

For awhile, I actually tried to get into all the things anime fans were into. I tried listening to J-pop (I hate regular pop music... don't know what I was thinking with that one), I tried to watch all the new anime that was comming out, I even tried to cos-play (usurped Japanese word from a usurped English word, short for costume play), but none of it appealed to me anymore. I sort of liked the feeling of belonging at first... being a part of such a large movement and having similar interests with so many other people, but in the end, I just couldn't shake this one thought. A nagging thought that, as far as I can tell, is the real reason that I can't really ever be an official geek or nerd.

"These people really need to get a life".

I have nerdy and geeky interests. I watch cartoons and children's shows, I play video games, I love computers, I like to read and I have a collage degree (that must count for some nerd points). Despite all this, and although I could easily be labeled a nerd, I don't think I make a very good one. I suppose I'll just have to learn to live with that.

-Maru!

Hey guys. I'll be at the AWA Anime Weekend Atlanta this whole weekend and all. Anime convention so first time going and everything. All my people are going so it'll be fun hopefuly. No I'm not coplaying lol =P. They hardly have any black characters in Anime (with REGULAR HAIR sheesh @_@)

I'm doing okay. Just kind of out and about sorry haven't been updating. Also I'm not sure if I told you. My brother got promoted at Carton Network a couple weeks ago. He was in charge of a project. Go to this link www.cartoonnetwork.com/video I haven't had a chance to fully check it out. But it's basically a thing he's doing for cartoon network that he programmed. So there's a lot of old skool shows you might remmber and everything. You can only use Internet Explorer right now they haven't set up the foxfire or mac stuff yet unfortnately. But take a look at it. It's a big thing for my brother and all. And if you do take a look just tell me what it's all about in a reply!

Hopefully we'll get some pictures while I'm down there.

Yesterday was the first-ever Anime convention held in PUP, my dad's school. He studies in the OU (Open University) and while waiting for his class to be finished me and my mum were in the car, bored, sweating and dehydrated. We noticed some otakus walking by, and we began criticising (did I spell that right?) their costumes ("She doean't give Tomoyo-chan any justice... at all!"-Me on a girl wearing a ala "Sakura-from-the-first-season-opening" costume).

 

After my dad's class he suggested we go to the anime convention. I didn't want to at first, but I accepted in the end.

 

We went in and saw lots of anime goodies scattered on the floor. As expected, this was a Hero-sponsored event, so they were for sale. I saw a box of Sakura Cards on the floor and liked it instantly. As my dad was asking the guy to lower the price to 220 pesos, I spotted a Chii cosplayer emerging from the bathroom. She really did look like her! I pulled my dad closer and whispered to him.

 

Me : Dad, look! She's cosplaying as Chii-san, from Chobits! She's Pamela's favorite!

Dad : Wanna take a picture with her?

Me (If I was an anime girl, I would be sweatdropping now.) : But...

 

So I walked up to her and asked her if I can have a snapshot taken with her. She accepted and handed me the flowers she was holding. It seems I have to be clutching on to them in the picture. So it was 1, 2, 3...

 

CLICK!

 

Click here to see the picture : http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y255/patriciaselina/gif/me_and_chii_otaku.jpg

 

So I walked away from the anime convention, a smile on my face, a new button pin on my bag, a nice photo on my phone, and a box of Sakura Cards in my hands!

 

Doomu Arigatou Gozaimasu!!!

 

Alright, computer is back to happy state with all data recovered and everything running about as smooth as it was before. Just been doing a lot of crap lately. Had a capoeira demonstration over the weekend (will have pictures later), another one yesterday, been working on my message board (which is up and running at http://rpnet.lemontoast.com), and getting ready for a mess of conventions coming up.

First of all is Dubs Along the Rockies which is the biggest Volkswagen convention in Colorado. I'm making a pile of vinyl stickers to take along, that's tomorrow.

Then we have Opus Fantasy Arts which is coming up the weekend after. I've got registration tickets and hotel reserved so it'll be smooth sailing. Costuming fun, shopping, gaming, dancing, partying, and sleepless nights to be sure.

Weekend after that is Fanime in San Jose. This is my big market research trip. This is what I find is really selling at anime cons and what isn't sold at all and keep it all in mind when I start going gangbusters on this business of mine. Here's hoping.

June 17th - 19th is Kunicon in Denver. Fairly decent-sized anime/video game/martial arts expo that I'm going to be having my first booth at. This is where the Fanime trip pays off. I should be going with a whole bunch of Fish stuff and about $1500 worth of my own inventory. Rock!

So that's about it. I'm busy busy busy and actually having a fair amount of fun doing it.