Anime Conventions

Mandy\'s avatar

We (very) infrequently attend local geek-type conventions, and these are some notes I jotted down from the last one.

As a kid I loved the panels on things like comics, costume, and video game creation, so I tried attending those again as an adult – forgetting that they’re structured for total newbies. That’s not a bad thing by any means, it just meant I wasn’t able to fill up hours with panels anymore…
The anime referenced in panel three, if you’re curious, is Attack on Titan. We went straight from the bar to the screening, and that was a mistake. Attack on Titan is a tragic anime you’re supposed to take seriously, and I am very very bad at taking things seriously when I drink (yes, I gave it another chance when I was sober and enjoyed it, you don’t have to insist that I do so).

I think we spent more time in the bar than on the convention floor. 😛

Fox\'s avatar

We do. We’re just too high level for this dungeon.

54 comments on “Anime Conventions

    1. Ah wasted chacne to use the “This is a pen”, which appears in a number of Manga when a teacher is teaching students English.

      As for Anime cons, most are pretty dull nowdays. I try to find a way to work on them, so I can get free entry as otherwise it’s an expensive cover charge for the bar.

      1. I made a brief attempt, downloading a set of basic instructions… It was fun for a while, but I finally got tired of trying to draw practice circles and getting ovals and variations on the letter D. On a good day, I can manage an almost straight line..! Huzzah!
        Yes indeed, art be hard. Too hard for wrinkly old guys like me whose hands sometimes …shake a little bit.

    2. I’ve noticed that it has an odd, but interesting, reaction when it’s combined with a sheet of “pay-purr…”

  1. now spend time in a bar during a convention is MORE THAN NORMAL lol.

    i know i spend my evenigns in it since during the day we are at a table and the bar is the only way to not go crazy after a day of dealing with some people and then unwind to manage to sleep before another day hehe

  2. This might get me banned from Deviant Art but…I can’t take Attack On Titan’s non-stop crying and preaching seriously and I DON”T DRINK!

    1. I don’t like it either, but I entertain those who do. 🙂
      Just to be nice like that.

    2. AND I can’t drink … alcohol does not like David’s body.

      1. Native American genetics here. I can’t metabolize alcohol, I’m very lactose intolerant, and I have an uncanny resemblance to the Avatar Korra including the hair (yes, I’m a guy!) Unfortunately I’m a project leader for a game development company, so I have to visit a minimal number of trade conventions each year, and I learned to hate conventions long ago.

    3. My friends tried to get me to watch Attack on Titan with them…let’s just say it’s why I don’t watch stuff with other people until I’m positive I like it at least a bit. I hate AoT. -_- Can we say Anime soap opera much?

  3. Panel four actually happened to me, in reverse. I had put together a Japanese Police Patrol Uniform for You’re Under Arrest using a lot of military surplus and a real good hand carved fake badge and hat insignia.Other con goers wouldn’t talk to me or avoided me and a group of Japanese businessmen followed me for a bit. Finally I asked someone at the masquerade desk what they thought might be wrong and they were surprised I wasn’t a real cop. I’d cos-played myself into being avoided as some sort of security personnel.

    1. A lot of my costumes are some sort of authority figure, so this happens a lot.

      I basically did a cosplay of a more modern Lt. Surge. Everyone would scatter out of my path as I marched towards them in full battle dress & ruck.

      After I walked by I’d hear some yell from behind, “OH! That was Surge! LOOK at the name tag on the back! Lt. Surge! Pokemon! That was an awesome costume!”

  4. I really love going to anime conventions, but that’s mostly because I’m usually slated to DJ when I do attend. 😛 I never go to panels and tend to hang out either with friends in a hotel room, in the vendor hall, or in a gaming area.

  5. Went to my first con a couple of years ago. Wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I don’t know, maybe I just need to go to a few more, but it was just uncomfortable.
    I did see some great cosplay and art, and I got an Aperture Labs shirt. One guy had a bag made from old floppy disks.

  6. Attack on Titan was shown at Anime Boston 2014. I would have watched it, but the room they were showing it in got so packed (both times) that I couldn’t.
    At AB 2012 there were actual BPD officers in the building due to some dumb cosplayers not listening to the police outside the convention center.

  7. The solutions would talk to the con staff and suggest next year the might add a few workshops to the panels where those that are more advanced levels share skills together. Of course this might just volunteer yourselves to help run the workshops though 😉

    1. Every convention I’ve been to doesn’t go scouting for people to run panels, they just open up registration and people sign up to do it.
      The “solution” is just for me to remember the target audience and adjust my expectations accordingly.

  8. I honestly could not handle conventions. The amount of people doing stupid things would kill me.

  9. Heh heh, I just got back from Fan X, and they had a bunch of cops there for security. But yet every time I saw one, my first thought was that it was awesome cosplay!

  10. Fox’s official annotation reference… Too high for this dungeon… Heh, we always say “LOL” But rarely do I actually laugh out loud…

    To quote Thomas E. Lawrence. “This… I did…”

  11. I guess you guys need to save up some ‘gold’ so you can travel to a higher level dungeon. I’d recommend Comiket, but unless you speak Japanese it might be a bit difficult to make work. Not so much the con itself (I’ve heard rumors that a lot of gaijin who don’t reside in Japan attend, not to mention most of the ones who have displays are young enough they most likely took English classes in high school, assuming of course that they are old enough to have made it to high school) but getting to the con once you’re in the country. Aside from attending a con that’d let me meet Randy Milholland of “Something Positive”, Fred Gallagher of “Megatokyo”, or Amber Williams of “DMFA” it’s the only con I’d want to attend.

  12. Have you considered trying a more literary convention? The panels might be more interesting to you.
    Also, “pen-sill” (or pen) might be a new idea to a generation used to the idea of doing everything on tablets or with markers.

  13. Ah, excellent! I had been feeling annoyed that the price and distance always kept me from attending various “Cons,” but Huzzah! They’re not very fun anyway, so I don’t have to feel bad!

  14. Have you thought about register your comic in Top Web Comics?

    1. I have a visceral hatred of anything resembling a popularity contest, and an extremely non-competitive nature.

      I may at some point in the future, even though I couldn’t actually commit to “voting incentives” or extra content, but I’ll have to get over all of that first.

      1. I don’t think it would add anything to the experience. If you don’t care about it, don’t do it.

      2. I just have to say, I think it’s cool that you are #18 on the Belfry WebComics most read comics. It makes sense seeing that your comic is amazing

  15. Here in Orlando we have a multi-genre con called MegaCon every yesr. It’s got EVERYTHING….SciFi, Anime, Comics, Cosplay, Fantasy, Dr. Who, B5, Star Wars, Star Trek, you name it, it’s pretty much here. Been to it every year for the past 9 years…..it’s a blast and I think anyone here would enjoy it.

      1. Yes, MOF they DO. I’ve had a BLT Club sammich at the food court and a MASSIVE Bacon Cheeseburger for lunch. You can get a bacon/cheeseburger pizza there as well.

        HOWEVER…….this is the ORANGE COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER where the VENDING MACHINES charge $2.50 for a 20oz bottle of WATER. Sodas are $3.25. 8^O!!!

        Food/drink there is a TOTAL ripoff, (it’s local govt, whaddya ‘spect) which makes the very nearby (couple of blocks) restaurants nice. Prices are MUCH more reasonable.

        That is pretty much the ONLY downside to MegaCon. Like I said, been going for nearly a decade and have had a ball every time. There are also quite a few fursuiters there with some of the most beautiful characters/fursuits.

        If you get down thisaways, I encourage you to check it out. This year’s event is on April 10-12. You can check out http://megaconvention.com/ for more info.

        1. I doubt I could make it to Orlando just to go to a con being a teen living in the West 🙁 Plus I feel antisocial about these kinds of things haha

          1. Sorry to hear it’s such a long distance. 🙁 But you’d be very surprised at the number of folks from other countries, Canada notwithstanding, that come here for MegaCon, not just other states.

            As for Cosplayers, last year I saw a ‘squad’ of 4 guys in full armor/weapons that looked like they’d literally stepped out of a HALO video game. Their costumes were dead on accurate……they looked incredible.

          2. Forgot to ask. Why would you feel ‘antisocial’ about something like this?

            Last year, there were over 20,000 attendees.

          3. That is the point, the more people the more I feel like I need to be alone and doing something. Anything that requires attention or focus such as videogames, RPG’s, building airplanes, stuff like that

    1. The closest I came to a convention was a car and motorcycle show… Too bad you weren’t there S’aaruuk. I’d like to see your motor tricks. :'(. also I was like, 10… I need to get out more…

      1. Heh….you really DO need to get out more…..how long ago WAS this? I go to ‘Biketoberfest’ and Daytona Bike Week here every year. Been to Sturgis several times and ridden the entire way.

        I may drive a limousine for a living, but traveling by motorcycle is the ONLY way to go. 😉

          1. I don’t understand your connotation of the term “sick” relative to m’cycles. I’ve been riding ’em since I was a pup and the bike I have right now, is a 1981 Honda GL1100 GoldWing, a full dress long haul touring bike that I bought brand new. It turned 34 years old this past January 7 and now has over 403,000 original miles with only ONE engine rebuild and I’ve put every one of them on it.

            There’s just no better way to travel for me…..regardless of the weather.

          2. I have no idea why I like that bike, it just registers in my mind as nice and cool

          3. Thank you, she is. And in all these years, all those miles, not once has she failed to bring me home safely. And not once has she ever stranded me. Sure, I’ve had flat tires, fouled plugs, (crappy gas) clogged filters (same crappy gas) things that are bound to happen. But I’ve never had a mechanical or electrical failure that’s stranded me anywhere. And believe me, when you’re “out-in-the-middle-of-NOWHERE” at Oh-Dark-Thirty and something happens, you are COMPLETELY on your own. The one thing I’ve never worried about has been the reliability of this bike. I wish I could post a pix of her.

          4. I am jealous of your bike. I wish that i could get a license but not an option open to me at the moment. I have looked at pictures of that bike onlines, so you just need to describe color and other unique stuff 🙂 We have aslo turned this into a discussion on motorcycles

          5. S’aaruuk? That’s one of the more recent “turn the meaning of the word around” things, where “sick” now means something like “extremely good.” Don’t worry, in a few years this too will be laid to rest and forgotten.

          6. *Face-Palm* Thank you for educating this Olde Farte of a Wolf (64) on the latest ‘slanguage’. If indeed this be the case, then yes, she’s definitely VERY sick. 🙂

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