Anime Crossroads Writeup

[rax]

Doing this now because otherwise I never will, here are some thoughts about the small anime con I just attended:

• Got asked early on by someone not in costume at all "Are you a furry?" I said "Uh, yeah" expecting a negative response and he said "Oh thank god I thought I was the only one, I keep seeing people in animal costumes who aren't furries." It sparked a conversation, which was pretty amusing. (I spent Friday and Sunday as a fox, and Saturday in full catgirl regalia including spots painted on my arms. [0])
• Watched two anime that were new to me: Ouran High School Host Club (want to see the rest now; the first two episodes were better than I had expected from what I had heard about it, although still kinda eye-rolly in places) and Hetalia Axis Powers (I walked out in the middle, I do not understand why anyone watches this show. OK that's unnecessarily harsh it made me laugh a couple of times. I do not understand why it is the Next Big Thing).
• Was encouraged to run a cat ear making workshop; am not sure I will be in town next year (it's moving to December 16-18, what the hell?) but apparently that would get me in for free which would be pretty cool, and I could teach people to make cat ears, which would also be pretty cool. So maybe? Definitely, while the cosplayers are amazing, this con had lower standards for animal ears than Anthrocon does. I would feel lame sauce bringing my homemade ears to Anthrocon, they would have been fine here.
• The best part for me was the "Iron Lolita" event, where teams of three (I got teamed up with two strangers, who it turned out were award-winning cosplayers with way more costuming experience than me) had an hour to make an Elegant Gothic Lolita dress (google that if you don't know what I mean) out of duct tape, newspaper, garbage bags, and balloons... in an hour. We came in third on largely arbitrary judging, but everyone made awesome dresses and so the placing didn't really matter other than meaning I got a DVD and some stickers. When I get photos I will post them, our dress turned out amazing!
• I got to play a bunch of go. Go go go go go go. I miss go. And chess. *nostalgia*
• The pokemon event was fun but kinda disappointing --- rather than being a huge pile of people trading and battling, it was mostly "let's all talk about Black and White and ask questions that would have been answered if people had been reading the LJ pokemon community or serebii or really anything" [1] and a trivia contest (I came in second, I won some keychains, whee!). This was not unfun because dude we talked about pokemon for two hours even my friends who like Pokemon won't let me do that with them. But I only got one battle and only got a couple of trades; although my pokedex is now at, like, 435? 436? So that's pretty amazing. Getting there!!! If it had been on Saturday instead of the last event of the con, I could have found the other serious people and met up with them later in the con. I suggested that to them for next year and they agreed --- scheduling was tight this year I guess, and something has to be last, after all.
• Found a remarkably good sushi place like a mile from the con; other than that, ate trail mix. SO MUCH TRAIL MIX. This time I brought trail mix without Goji berries and my life was not pain!
• Various people were providing maid service (mostly of things I couldn't eat) in a little lounge area, and trying to get into service/character with it, and most people were not obliging them. I hope I made a couple of them happy by (a) being able to put on formal roles and request and thank them for things properly and (b) tipping them, visibly, in such a way as to encourage others to do so as well. Certainly the smile on one of their faces when I thanked her for rice crackers in an elaborate way made me happy.
• 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. I used to be more into it, but even when I was, it was never the top in my constellation of interests, and it shows in how many shows I just have not even heard of. This is neither good nor bad [2] it's just sort of a thing --- and of course, it may just seem that way because of course they want to talk mostly about anime at an anime convention, duh. Furry cons don't seem to work the same way though, I dunno.
• I got a bunch of reading done, although this week is still gonna be a little painful homework-wise. Relatedly, I think I'm done here. :)

[0] This fits pretty well with how I've been feeling lately when I check my speciesometer: "mostly kinda foxy but in a half-assed way, sometimes I AM A CAT YOU WILL TREAT ME AS SUCH." In case you, for some reason, care.

[1] ...on the basis of knowing more about (some subsets of) pokemon than the people at the pokemon panel I declare myself a serious pokemon dork and am unsure how I feel about this. That was not what I meant at all when I bought that game.

[2]  Well, it's good for me because I don't care about anime that much and if I did treat it that way I would not be happy with how I organized my life. And it's bad, or at least inconvenient, for me when I watch cosplay skits and I'm like "I don't know who any of those people are except Vulpix. Wait, I think that clown is in one of Skuld's icons or something. That probably means he's from One Piece, since he's not Sherlock Holmes."

Comments

[hao]

Got asked early on by someone not in costume at all "Are you a furry?" I said "Uh, yeah" expecting a negative response and he said "Oh thank god I thought I was the only one, I keep seeing people in animal costumes who aren't furries."
Lol, for some reason this is cute. I was expecting something negative too, before I got to the end of the sentence.

I don't get Hetalia's appeal either. I really don't. Even if everyone's in it to slash, they all look exactly the same. I don't get Ouran either, but that's probably because I hate harem/reverse harems and anime that take place in schools.

[rax]

I think Ouran caught me for the first five minutes because it was so Utena-parodic --- I think harems are really tired but Utena was the first show I watched all of so I was going to watch at least a little bit of something speaking to it so directly. What convinced me to watch more was the main character's attitude toward gender and their gender specifically; it's refreshing and idealistic if a bit simple and I'm hoping it develops more over time. It might disappoint, but I think it will at least not be a waste of time.

I do wish more anime focused on characters too old to be in school, but what can you do.

[rax]

(And I guess given the age of some grad students (hi!) it's hard to be too old to be in school. But it is not hard to be too old to be in high school, and that would be an excellent starting point.)

[hebinekohime]

Ouran can be hit and miss, but it's worth watching. Haruhi gets her attitude toward gender from someplace, and that is all I will say. *g*

[rax]

I've still not seen any Haruhi. I assume you find it worth adding to a long-term list? (My short term list is "ha ha get back to your homework and your job.")

[hebinekohime]

Oh, I meant Haruhi the lead girl in Ouran, not umm, Haruhi's Haruhi! Though should the two ever meet, it would be cracktastic.

[rax]

Oh my bad, I didn't remember their name. ^^;

[picklish]

If you enjoyed the beginning of Ouran, it's totally worth watching all the way through. There are plenty of eye-rolls to be had, but it's a lot of fun.

[tixagon]

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.

[rax]

furries are people who sometimes wish they weren't

This phrase is awesome. :)

I get where you're going but I'm not sure there's that bright a line? Or at least I think a bunch of the people in cosplay were doing identity-play kinda stuff in a way that reminded me of what I get out of furry. I heard a couple of sixteen-year-olds who otherwise present as female tell people "I'm a boy right now" and I was like "YOU GO GENDER-NON-SPECIFIC PERSON."

Personally I don't find furry conventions a very big part of being furry, but I can see how other people, especially people who don't have a bunch of furries living within a mile radius, would. I'm wondering if that will become the case for me in a few years, since while I have one or two furry friends locally, I no longer have the same kind of community I did in Boston. We shall see!

(I also don't find Burning Man a big part of being a hippie, since I don't go. :)

[damerell]

Oh, god, not Ouran. All else aside, the scenario with the rich kids at the posh school patronising the kids who aren't from wealthy backgrounds - I got enough of that when I was 11, thanks - but beyond that it's just so crushingly obvious. A bit of genderplay can't save it.

ETA: I don't mind it so much if she wreaks revenge on the posh kids a la Hana Yori Dango...

[rax]

...If the main character doesn't subvert that somehow I will be very disappointed, you make a good point. I think I still want to watch it, though; I value genderplay pretty highly.

[damerell]

Rather you than me. Mind you, I suspect Ouran isn't the only thing we could say that of. :-)

[weirdquark]

I do not understand why it is the Next Big Thing

Oh, that's easy. It's because it's kind of funny* and is full of pretty boys that you can slash with each other.

*Which is why we watch it. It's also kind of interesting to look at all of the stereotypes about each country, and how it keeps having things that are historically accurate.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Huh. I guess that "can I imagine these two characters sleeping with each other" is a dominant lens through which to view media these days, and Hetalia might look interesting through it. Are there not other shows that are kind of funny and fill of pretty boys? Ouran's boys seem prettier and funny seems funnier, to me, I dunno. I guess there's no accounting for taste.

[weirdquark]

Ouran was The Big Thing when it first came out. Hetalia's newer. There probably were about as many Ouran cosplays back when it was absurdly popular as there are Hetalia cosplays these days, but at least Hetalia has a bigger cast which makes for more variety in costumes.

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

New animes

Ouran is in fact a really fun show, and I also do not understand the obsession with Hetalia. You should definitely keep trying to watch Ouran.

[rax.livejournal.com]

I thought about buying it at the con but it was $56 so I was like "What? No." Luckily one of my local friends has it so at such time as I have time (read: December) I can watch it!

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Hetalia. Otakon was full of it and I just can not stand it. Thankfully I could rely on its events to be huge draws and thus anything scheduled ACROSS from Hetalia was sure to be not as crowded, even if it was a fairly hot ticket item. Good time to hit the Dealer's room too.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Clever scheduling trick! Thank you :)

[bossgoji.livejournal.com]

Hetalia is basically a series that makes light of one of the most horrific events in human history for the sake of racist humor and cheap, pointless yaoi. I seriously want to beat the shit out of people who can watch it with no irony whatsoever, shit is sickening.

[rax.livejournal.com]

It must get worse then --- the bits I saw had some racist humor in them but it was mostly just making fun of Italians, and I've seen much worse making fun of Italians.

We hadn't really gotten into WWII though. So I bet that's where it gets worse. :(

[bossgoji.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. God, the depiction of Russia is just... asdfghjkl. NO.

[kelkyag]

Iron Lolita pictures are a must.

Properly appreciating the help and expressing it is difficult, and ~nobody in the US is taught that as an early skillset.

[rax.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that I know how to properly appreciate the help if I were, I dunno, suddenly handed $50 million and a mansion and a staff. (Other than 'pay them like software engineers.' I bet that would make up for lapses in etiquette better than just an apology.) But I know to not ignore someone who walks over and asks you if you need anything, and I can usually raise or lower my formality level to meet the person I'm talking to even if I initially get it wrong.

(Actually if I were suddenly handed $50 million and a mansion and a staff, I'd sell the mansion, provide the staff with generous severance packages, pay down my mortgage, and start some kind of charity. But you know.)

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

I actually was kind of confused about that: were those con guests, dressed as maids/waiters, trying to serve people con suite food and asking for tips for it? Because I don't know that I'd find that appropriate ("no thank you, I do not feel the need to pay you for something I can easily do myself"). People trying to sell food at the con? Hired serving staff (which seems really weird at a con)?

[rax.livejournal.com]

There wasn't a con suite --- there was a dealer who was selling random Japanese snack food and ramen and soup bowls, and you could have people in maid/waiter costumes bring them to you and bow and be flirty. I considered this table service and thus worthy of a tip. [0] I think it was mostly an excuse to dress up in complicated maid costumes; certainly I could have walked over and purchased the food and sat back down with it. (I think the secondary goal was "replicate a maid cafe!" but uh the ambiance was completely not there.)


[0] (...especially for the cute one)

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

Okay. I guess I would be annoyed if I purchased food at a dealer's, then had it brought over to me by someone expecting a tip when they were clearly not a part of the establishment (and when I fully expected to do the work of picking it up myself).

If you enjoyed the role-play up to and including giving a tip, then, well, cool. Sounds like a good time was had by all. But I can sympathize with the people who didn't want to participate to the point of paying the cosplayers for a service they neither expected nor wanted.

[rax.livejournal.com]

While you make a good point, it was both strictly optional and advertised as a "Maid Cafe," so I don't think it was reasonable to not expect a waitress to bring you food if you walked into the Maid Cafe room, sat down, and asked a waitress to bring you food. ;)

[kelkyag]

I'm sure paying them well would be a good start, but there are also things like reasonable and clear expectations, working conditions, letting people do their jobs ... dunno. I do not particularly have this skill.

[ab3nd.livejournal.com]

Everything I know about "the help" I learned from Jeeves and Wooster, so I'd assume they were all supernaturally competent.

Not that I'd actually want staff, as the big thing I'd be buying with money is solitude, not more people around.

[cyborg-kitty100.livejournal.com]

anime seemed to be one of the main driving things in their lives, an organizing principle. I used to be more into it, but even when I was, it was never the top in my constellation of interests, and it shows in how many shows I just have not even heard of. This is neither good nor bad [2] it's just sort of a thing --- and of course, it may just seem that way because of course they want to talk mostly about anime at an anime convention, duh. Furry cons don't seem to work the same way though, I dunno.

So.... at furry cons people there are often not involved with furry at the level that it is a central organizing principle of their life?
Cuz that's kind of a relief.

Fan cons are generally intimidating because you worry that people are more than just interested in said topic, that it indeed is their prinicple interest. And yeah, it's hard to relate to that.



And I so challenge you to a game of go. Maybe 2.

And we demand pics.

[paxed.livejournal.com]

Hetalia. Ugh, no thanks. I prefer the "Scandinavia and the World (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld)" comic strips by Humon.