May 17, 2001

7:50 PM

A fans' viewchronicles the strange spectacles that are anime conventions. I used to watch a lot of anime when I was younger, and I'm still a fan of some series, but I can't really get into anything new anymore. Besides watching shows, probably the strangest aspect of my old hobby is cosplay, where everyone dresses up as their favorite anime characters. Of course, this can understandably bring some unwanted attention...
posted by moz (8 comments total)

Alisa's site is fantastic. It's so easy for me to underestimate the capabilities of someone who is 19. It's particularly amazing to read about how she came up with all the pieces, shopping eBay and thrift shops and closeouts at strange stores, and seeing something and saying "Hey! I can modify that!" I just spent two hours visiting every single page she has. What an amazing young woman!
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:42 PM on May 17, 2001

I am a comic book geek, no lie. But I have got to say the Trekkies, Star Wars and anime people are way further gone than we are. Really.
posted by owillis at 10:42 PM on May 17, 2001

i'll agree with you owillis. not that comic book geeks are more or less geeky per se; anime fans just have more opportunities to geek out.

i know some people who use japanese words here and there. they won't say good morning, they'll say ohayo. which, no offense, is really fricking annoying. or they'll eat tons of ramen, not because it's good, but because it's japanese. pocky? yah, it's decent, but the best part is it's japanese. i mean, hey, if that's your thing fine; it just grated on me. (you can tell i'm not half the fan i once was.)

now i'm just a huge music geek. i'm not really sure if it's any different. as an aspiring dj who shops at record stores, i can tell you that the average dj is pretty much just as geeky as the average comic book nerd. and just as elitist.

the funny thing is i actually know both elfeater and alisa, at least online. i know elfeater has had to deal with some creepy doods who would like find her tel# and call her. which i suppose is the price you pay if you want to make public all of your costume escapades. (though fansview doesn't ask for permission or anything.) in a way, i suppose that can be applied to weblogs.
posted by moz at 11:19 PM on May 17, 2001

moz, the worst part about anime fans eating ramen because it`s Japanese is that ramen is Chinese.
posted by chiheisen at 12:00 AM on May 18, 2001

I'm hooked on wasabi flavored roasted green peas myself.

As a fan of just about everything, a culture whore, a ... well, I just want to point out that I put my preorder in for it and you should too. Does anyone in Seattle want to join me in going to see it when it gets re-released this summer?
posted by john at 2:06 AM on May 18, 2001

Some of this stuff is a little bit sad.
posted by pracowity at 3:33 AM on May 18, 2001

I admit to being something of an anime fan, yes, but convention-going is right out for me. (Had a bad experience at a small RPG con.) I also admit to yelling "Baka!" at work after getting off the phone with a particularly trying customer. (That's so the boss doesn't hear me calling someone an idiot in English...)

I'd never cosplay myself. I love sewing and mucking about with fabrics but I make all my costumes for dolls, which look much better in their outfits than I ever would.

There hasn't been any recently released anime that I've been particularly interested in either, but then again, there hasn't been much in TV or movies recently that's held me. The anime exception to that being Cardcaptor Sakura, which is just such a cute show. I'm intrigued by Corrector Yui, but it hasn't been licensed for translation yet. (Don't start me on fansubs. No.)
posted by Electric Elf at 6:59 AM on May 18, 2001

i have only been to one anime convention, actually; that being the first anime central. it was surreal. on one hand, you have 15 y/o guys there with their moms, and on the other, you got guys dressed up like someone from macross.

probably the worst experience that i had at acen was in the dealer's room. some guy was walking around with his 7 y/o daughter dressed as sailor moon, which is fine.

and some dealers were selling bondage porn in the room, which is not so fine.

the dichotimy of that situation just bothered me. and i'm sure that it's not acen in particular, but i think that just jaded me towards conventions like that altogether.

i always liked the old school stuff. macross, orguss. there is a lot of great work. if you were a neophyte to anime, but perhaps somewhat of a film buff, i would say you have to rent the patlabor movies. both of them. spectacular work. (the second is better than the first imo, but not by much; still the first would give you a little better of an idea of what the context of the series is like.) macross plus, any episode, or just the combined movie version.

actually almost all the series that i like are robot nerd series. i don't know why. they're not all good (some of gundam just plain sucks), but macross, macross plus, orguss 02, armitage iii, patlabor, giant robo ... great stuff.
posted by moz at 7:32 AM on May 18, 2001