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Answerman - Why Do Anime Conventions Have Raves?


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Beltane70



Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 3894
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:28 pm Reply with quote
Anime conventions have had a dance of some kind for as long as I’ve been attending, which was ‘94 or so. I remember most of my friends looking forward to the dances of the early (‘96, ‘97) Katsucon and Otakons.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar


Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16939
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:34 pm Reply with quote
Sometimes they even get guests to be the DJ's for the raves. One of the more notable DJ's being Greg Ayres the VA himself. I never really found them to be out of place or a hindrance myself. Most of all the ones I have seen have been later at night so the only other things going on were a handful of 18+ panels or hentai video screenings.
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Brand



Joined: 30 Jan 2006
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:39 pm Reply with quote
I've been going to anime cons since 2001 and I always remember raves being a thing. Have I personally gone to one? No. I'll pass on extra nerd stink. But cons wouldn't keep doing them if they were not still popular, so I get it.
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Faceman



Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 300
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 1:05 pm Reply with quote
Correction: Anime Boston actually canceled their informal dance (aka rave) after an incident in 2012. They haven't held one since. http://www.animeboston.com/news/article/508
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 1:32 pm Reply with quote
Anime Central has multiple dances. They claim that their Saturday night event Soap Bubble is the longest-running such event in the country and regularly pulls 3000+ attendance, but they also have a formal dance earlier in the evening on Saturday and a rave-like event on Friday nights, too. For SB they pull in DJs from all over - even guest DJs from Japan, and I'm pretty sure Greg Ayres was one of them one year.
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 1:38 pm Reply with quote
I'd have thought drugs & alcohol would be a given
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ResistNormal



Joined: 06 Dec 2011
Posts: 117
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 1:45 pm Reply with quote
Faceman wrote:
Correction: Anime Boston actually canceled their informal dance (aka rave) after an incident in 2012. They haven't held one since. http://www.animeboston.com/news/article/508


Yep, AnimeBoston's rave spiraled out of control. When the Mayor's office gets involved you know you F*ed up.
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2012/04/25/police-crackdown-on-otaku-party-at-anime-boston
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Sahmbahdeh



Joined: 05 May 2015
Posts: 712
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 1:46 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
...the prototypical anime fan as a 23-year-old fashionista with colored hair, sci-fi tattoos, twinkly contact lenses, Japanese clogs with plaid Bermuda shorts, and a desire to become post-human.


Whoever wrote that was either very prescient, or things haven't changed as much as I thought. Age that down about 5 years, and that's basically still true (at least among the more hardcore fans).
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:20 pm Reply with quote
It does surprise me that a fandom associated with introversion would embrace a social environment typical of more outgoing types. Perhaps the 'nerds-only' environment of a convention clears the waters, so to speak, of personalities that would deter otaku from the average discotheque. (I have in mind the standard schoolyard power dynamics here.)

Quote:
Rave culture and anime mixed in bizarre ways in the 90s. Back then in the US, anime was a fringe entertainment medium that often meant very violent and sexy OVAs and movies, often with a noir sci-fi feel.

This explains why the Manga UK dub of Dominion Tank Police dispensed with the Japanese synthpop soundtrack in favour of a house number.
They gave it their best shot...
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Jadress



Joined: 08 Oct 2003
Posts: 807
Location: Seattle. It purdy and nerdy!
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:06 pm Reply with quote
Speaking of dance music/electronica/anime nerd connections.. I recall in the early 2000s, I visited Leland City Club, an industrial/goth dance club in Detroit, a few times, and they totally had traced anime girl murals on the wall. I think one was of the gal from the Cowboy Bebop movie.
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thenix



Joined: 18 Apr 2012
Posts: 265
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:52 pm Reply with quote
Just through personal experience raves have been going on since conventions existed by me (early 2000s) and it's always been mind boggling to me. Most nerds are introverted and often free thinking. From what I see often (and it's not just the rave but many parts of the anime cons) many people find other people that like the same things they do for once and start wanting to be part of the crowd, part of a mob mentality while at the cons. The rave is infamous around here for being full of guys trying to cop feels of girls, and hopefully take them to their room. I haven't been to cons in 5ish years though so I don't know if it's changed much.
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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:07 pm Reply with quote
I'm all for extra activities, but when they start to harm the rest of the con I think they need to go. When AB canceled their rave, I was celebrating. On the ground some people pledged there was no longer a point to go to the anime convention if there was no longer a late night dance party. I would have thought anime would be more central to this lad's focus at a con. It certainly brought on more risk than was needed.
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Ouran High School Dropout



Joined: 28 Jun 2015
Posts: 440
Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:28 pm Reply with quote
H. Guderian wrote:
I'm all for extra activities, but when they start to harm the rest of the con I think they need to go. When AB canceled their rave, I was celebrating. On the ground some people pledged there was no longer a point to go to the anime convention if there was no longer a late night dance party. I would have thought anime would be more central to this lad's focus at a con. It certainly brought on more risk than was needed.

Got that right! I didn't see the police "raid" itself, but I remember how quiet the hotel lobby got all of a sudden. I arrived in time to see a Boston PD officer wearing an "I'm in no mood to deal with anyone's crap" expression, and an ambulance stretcher at the hall door. The attendees nearby were quiet and subdued, and with good reason.
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K.o.R



Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 221
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:36 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
if they catch you with drugs or alcohol


Is this a US thing? The whole 21+ for alcohol thing? The parties at UK cons (which are inevitably 18+ only) are nothing but alcohol Laughing
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Ojamajo LimePie



Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 766
PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:51 pm Reply with quote
K.o.R wrote:
Quote:
if they catch you with drugs or alcohol


Is this a US thing? The whole 21+ for alcohol thing? The parties at UK cons (which are inevitably 18+ only) are nothing but alcohol Laughing


A lot of the con raves I went to in the mid-2000s were all-ages during the early hours, so it made sense not to have alcohol around. Also, liability.
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