For most people at the con who I got into major conversations with, anime seemed to be one of the main driving things in their lives, an organizing principle. [snip] Furry cons don't seem to work the same way though, I dunno.

I think this could be explained fairly easily: For most of the folks I've met in furry, the furry subculture isn't a hobby, but rather a state of being; a lifestyle. A world separate from, but connected to our own. Furry Conventions are as much of a hobby to us as Burning Man is to hippies.

Anime has such a large world of media from which their fandom has spawned. Primarily, folks who attend Anime conventions are doing so because they are totally into a number of animes. There's a lifestyle for some, but that's not the primary focus of the convention.

I'm not explaining this as well as I had hoped to, partially because I am up past my bedtime, and just ate a huge plate of Indian. Soo.. sleepyy...

So uh, in conclusion, I feel that furries are people who sometimes wish they weren't, and anime nerds are people who get caught up in entrancing stories from a culture that interests lots of folks by itself.