Forum - View topicTales Of The Industry - Trapped at a Convention
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
SaitoHajime101
 Posts: 283 |
|
|||
|
@504NOSON2, I've had the luxury to attend Sakura-con 5 times in the past 7 years and I've attended some smaller local cons in Florida and I will say that the average age group is below 24 years of age for sure. Its definitely a younger crowd.
I've never experienced odd behavior as what's depicted in the article, however I've seen some weird clothing choices in cosplay. For example, just this last weekend at Sakura-con, I saw a girl (looked to be definitely younger than 20 years) wearing a shirt and underwear, no pants. Seriously. No. Pants. I wasn't sure whether to be appalled due to the lack of clothing or impressed that the girl would be brave enough to wear something like that at a convention, whether its a legit cosplay or not. I swear, isn't there some sort of dress code to these things? |
||||
|
||||
|
Hagaren_Otaku726
Posts: 137 |
|
|||
Ugggggh please no I cosplay at cons, but I realize there's boundaries; it's neat to be "in character" and such, but when you make other people feel uncomfortable on purpose with your actions/words, that's just bad and embarrassing. I always try to be extra polite to those outside the fandom when I'm in cosplay because they have as much right to enjoy their day as I do, and it'd suck to be the experience that makes them hate "all" cosplayers. Getting older and more cynical or something though, I pretty much limit myself to large cons like Fanime and Anime Expo where I can be assured of there always being something to do, if only taking pictures of other cosplayers... (Being fairly quiet and afraid of conversations like the aforementioned Saber Marionette one, I never rely on 'interaction with other fans' as a thing to go for  )
|
||||
|
||||
MorwenLaicoriel
 Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
|
|||
Come to think of it, my local anime con (NanDesuKan) has somewhat strict rules about what you can wear--both women AND men are required to cover up at least part of their chest, for instance--but I'm not sure if the panties would be explicitly banned, since I think cosplay that's basically a leotard would pass. ...And I was so curious I HAD to go check just to see.
Gonna say that definitely wouldn't fly at NDK, although I don't know about other cons. Sooo...yeah. |
||||
|
||||
Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
|
|||
|
Never a dull moment for poor, ol' Justin, I see
|
||||
|
||||
|
partially
Posts: 702 Location: Oz |
|
|||
Maybe meant to be Strike Witches or something. Though if she was in actual underwear that wouldn't be SW, as they wear bloomers in the show. Which for cosplay purposes a t-shirt and leotard or swimsuit would be closer. Which she may have been doing anyway, how closely did you inspect to see if it was actual underwear?
|
||||
|
||||
|
kazume
Posts: 129 |
|
|||
This... all of this, belongs on a T-Shirt, somehow. Damn. |
||||
|
||||
Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1748 |
|
|||
It depends on what you're going for. There is an older crowd and they are largely found in the autograph area, in line for various Japanese guests. The regulars I see at cons in these lines are mostly in their late 20s and 30s, with a couple being in their 40s+. If you think about it, the young crowd makes sense. Young people have the luxury of taking time off school due to naturally falling school breaks. It's easy for someone in college to go to a con while on break. It's harder for someone who works full time to take a couple days off work, especially during certain times of the year. Doubly so for those that are married and/or have children. There are always going to be people at anime conventions or any event that draws people who live and breathe whatever it is they enjoy that are awkward in their obsession. I ran into a couple this past weekend at SakuraCon. I try to be as pleasant as a person as I can to the socially inept ones. Even if the conversation borders on the bizarre, I appreciate that they're at least getting out of their shell and taking the risk to open up to someone that they just met. I know it's hard for some of them and that's why, even if I think they're odd, I can't just tell them to "scram". A lot of the sketch collectors I've met over the years and now consider dear friends started out like this. |
||||
|
||||
504NOSON2
 Subscriber Posts: 647 Location: Body:Santa Barbara, CA ~ Heart:New Orleans, LA |
|
|||
Hmm, well, one's perception of being out of place may depend on how old you are (I'm 27), and what you consider "young" (I accept the UN's and many psychologists definition of 15-24). As far as Sakura-con, their official 2014 fact sheet shows that 50% of attendees are between 18-26, 15% are between 27-44, and 8% are over 45. That's 73% of con attendees being legal adults, with only 27% being under 17, and 23% being over 26. Maybe the younger (mostly teenaged) attendees might be more likely to cosplay, so they're more etched in your memory? That's just my hypothesis. |
||||
|
||||
mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
|
|||
|
I'm definitely an outlier, being 56 years old, so when I do go to a convention I sometimes get looked at funny because I have a grey beard and it isn't cosplay.
I did cut my teeth on Model Railroad shows, I won't call them cons as most of them don't really work the same way. Think of them as having a dealer's room with a little bit of con style activity vs regular cons that have a more balanced approach. The Model Railroad crowd skews way older and you do get some truly obsessive behavior. Looking forward to this year's edition of the Central Florida Megacon, a more generalized fandom con, there's always a lot of interesting people to see and a nice healthy dose of Anime related activities. Mark Gosdin |
||||
|
||||
|
Crowjack
Posts: 40 |
|
|||
|
Whenever I see someone do something gross or weird I just have to verbally bring attention to it by somehow outdoing it. Like I will try to gross out whoever is doing the said gross or weird act by somehow referencing what it is they are doing in some way. For example if I had come across booger boy After he had picked his prize and disposed of it I would of asked if he minded digging me out 1 or 2 because the concession lines are long. Then as he turned and walked away telling me how gross I am. I would decry that he was in fact the rude one for not atleat offering to split his meal. I get some kind of sick satisfaction in grossing out people that do stuff like pick there nose right in front of people and stuff like that.
|
||||
|
||||
Brand
 Posts: 1028 |
|
|||
One year at Otakon there was a couple (probably younger then 20) where the boyfriend was walking the girlfriend around on a leash. The girl was only wearing her bra and panties. I think the next year Otakon started to crack down on stuff like that. |
||||
|
||||
|
Yadilie
Posts: 104 |
|
|||
There are no bloomers in Strike Witches (at least on the main girls). The Fuso Witches, and everyone at the Fuso school, are wearing school swimsuits and all the other witches are wearing more or less low cut underwear. The severity depending on the girl, I'm looking at you Lucchini. But on to the main topic. People I knew from college more or less have made me shy away from conventions. I love anime and manga but just can't stand to be around that crowd of people. And now I'm getting about to break 30 and it's getting to that awkward age of being around so many young hyperactive young people. Even though I live right near Megacon and my roommate constantly goes every year. Maybe one year before I really feel too old. |
||||
|
||||
|
HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
|
|||
Cons are definitely "younger" if you're out of college/college-age. (let's call that 23+) Using the Sakura-con numbers as example, they further split out and: 14-17: 20% To put that in perspective, let's ignore the 50% that's "college-age" for a moment, there are nearly as many people in the NARROW 4 year window of 14-17 as there are in the entire set of people over 26. Or, put another way, there are DEFINITELY more teenagers than there are people over 26. And, if we assume an "even distribution" in the 18-26 demographic (I will bet money right NOW that it is more heavily skewed to the younger end), then it would split ~17% into the 18-20 range. Which would mean that you have around 44% of people under 21. Which again, means you have almost TWICE as many people UNDER 21 as you have people over 26. |
||||
|
||||
Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23799 |
|
|||
|
I'm about to turn 50 and every time I go to Anime North, I feel like Methuselah's great-grandfather. Half the time if I see someone older than 40, it's because they've been roped into bringing their kids. Anime cons are definitely not an old person's game.
|
||||
|
||||
Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2520 |
|
|||
|
I'll weigh in and as a 55 year old at Anime Expo, I could only find one person that looked my age (in line for a hentai panel too). However, I'm still 18 inside, or maybe 17 as a couple of VA's claim, so there! An article in LA Weekly stated that most attendees were 16-26 years old and I think I agree. In attending for the last six years, I've never seen anything overtly unpleasant and everybody usually is very considerate and polite (arigatou...). However, I'd buy a T-shirt that had "Heh Heh I'm Schtalking Youuuu" on it! And as for not wanting to BE anime, I'd have to confess to wanting to be a cute Japanese high school girl or maybe Madoka, but if I cosplayed as that you'd have another entry to Justin's horror at conventions story...
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group