Anime Conventions.

[.Eliah.]

How many of you guys have actually been to one? I myself have never gotten to go to one. But I plan too, once I get some money and lose some more weight. See, I wanna go as Rinoa from Final Fantasy 8. But in order to do so, I need to become a stick again like she is. I used to be really thin and then I gained a bunch of weight. But enough about me. I wanna hear all about your con adventures.

Give me names and locations of the cons you've been to. Even tell me what you all dressed up as. I'd really like to know. It seems like an interesting topic, in my opinion.

[Tianfu]

I'm totally addicted to cons. Luckily, I live near California, so I get to go to several a year, since they're close enough to drive to. Sacramento has something like ten geek cons a year, two of them anime cons. I've been to the past two Sac-Anime cons, but it's probably the worst organized con I've ever been to! The staff is absolutely clueless. But it's got a nice, small con feel and the same people tend to go to every one, so it's a great one to meet people. And they've even started having special guests that I care about. Last winter they had Prince Humperdink! And this fall they have Minmay from Macross, which is pretty darn amazing.

I also go to Yaoi-con every year, although it's gotten to be too full of screaming fangirls for my taste. It was lovely back when it started. Yaoi wasn't so popular then, so it was very small and had kind of a family feel. Now, I just go to sell stuff in the artist's alley.

And this was my first year going to Fanime. And despite the fact that I never once made it into the dealers room, I had an absolutely fabulous time. I tend to like small conventions, but Fanime is just so well-organized that it doesn't feel crowded at all. And unlike all the others, it doesn't shut down at night, which is great for us night-owls. It's just wonderful to be wandering the halls at 2am and get to join in on impromptu sing alongs of "Still Alive" from Portal. I'm so going back next year.

[Chu]

I used to be pretty into anime, but lately I'm just too picky I guess. The quality has gone down the shitter if you ask me.

Needless to say, I don't attend conventions. I don't mind them one way or another, but I most likely wouldn't dedicate the time and money required to make it to one.

[Tianfu]

Actually Chu, I'm with you. I'm an old-school fan. I think the newest thing that I've seen is Monster. And I loathe 90% of the series all the teenagers are so in love with. But I still have fun at conventions. I just gravitate towards the older people. There's a lovely man that I've run into at both Yaoi-con and Fanime who is about 70-ish. He dresses as the Mad Hatter and Death from Discworld. And we sit around and reminisce about Captain Harlock and Ranma.

[Chu]

... I wanna give him a hug.

[Amaranthine]

I love going to conventions. I've been to three so far (two Comic Cons and a Saboten Con) and I'm planning to go to Sabo again this year. It's horribly nerdy and really expensive, but I personally would rather go to a con than an amusement park or something just as costly. If you can manage to avoid the crazy, screaming fangirls, you can actually find some pretty cool people there. I've got a big group of good friends I met at cons that I cosplay Axis Powers Hetalia characters with and they're all funny, intelligent people. Granted, there are a lot of things that can be bothersome (hot costumes, crowded areas, expensive food, the glomping) but to me all the fun panels, games, dances, contests, cosplay shows, merchandise, and friends make conventions great experiences.

[Tianfu]

I wanna go to Comic-con badly, since nowadays I'm really more of a general geek than an anime geek. But I'm a little afraid that it might be too big for me. ;_;

Cosplaying is a great way to make friends. Lately I've been doing just general costuming, since all the anime that I like nobody recognizes anymore. Steampunk is a great conversation-opener, since it's getting pretty popular, so you can usually find a bunch of people who think it's cool and at least one or two other steampunk costumers to hang out with. At one Sac-Anime, I ended up chatting with the author of the Little Vampire childrens books for something like two hours, all because she thought my Steampunk costume was cool.

[Jack Hemming]

Ah, Texans are not as lucky to have well-organized conventions. In fact, we're lucky if they don't cancel the damn thing on short notice. Over here, we have a couple.

I'm going to Oni-Con, perhaps dressed as Nurse Joy from Pokemon, Natsuo from Loveless, or Edward from FullMetal Alchemist. (Because their costumes are so easy and I honestly don't have the time or effort to make costumes.)

Btw, I am so jealous of Yaoi-Con.

And Comic-Con is not so big here either. Mmm, I wonder why... not enough nerds?

[Tianfu]

Heh, you have no idea. I live in northern Nevada. We've got lots of geeks, but they're not very organized.

Well, I take that back. The live-action roleplaying geeks are organized. But that's it.

We're getting our very first anime con this year, which is great, but the people running it make me worry for the future. But that may just be my old-fogey-ness coming to the fore. They're just so... not professional.

[Amaranthine]

@Tianfu

I'm more of a general nerd too now. Comic Con can suit pretty much all your geeky needs. Yeah, it's always a little crowded, but it tends to taper off on Sundays. At any rate, it's always worth checking out.

Ah, you like steampunk too? I'd love to make a steampunk costume, but they're so intricate for the most part that it's a little intimidating. I don't know if I'd have the skill or patience for it...

[Sharij]

I've been to several Anime conventions. You see, in Germany we have the website "Animexx", where everyone can join and plan "cons".
But most of the time I went there without an own cosplay (costume).
Where I live there are cons like every weekend and I just have to go by train (takes 30 min or so) ........

But it's long ago I've been to the last con, I am more int pen&paper-cons now, that's more fun to me

[Amaranthine]

@Shaij

Pen and paper cons? I've never heard of those. How do they work?

[Tianfu]

I've never heard of pen & paper cons either. Now I'm curious.

Amaranthine, steampunk isn't as hard as it looks. Although some costumes are really intricate, they don't have to be. And they're the kind of costume you can add to gradually. They're also one of the types of costuming that you can do just as well with found items as with making it all from scratch. I'm planning a new, more involved costume, but my current costume I found pretty much every piece in thrift stores and then modified, except for the multiple lenses that go over my glasses. I bought those on Ebay.

[Amaranthine]

Oh, cool. That's really encouraging, Tianfu. We've got about a million thrift stores around where I live so I'm bound to be able to find stuff there. Also, do you have any pictures of your cosplay? I'd love to see what you were able to do using things you found.

[Tianfu]

I've got a couple of pictures on my Steampunk Empire page. I think that's viewable by non-members... http://steampunk.ning.com/profile/AminoMiko

That's really the thing I love about steampunk. You can find stuff for it anywhere. I mean, I do sew, but there's just something much more fun about wandering through a thrift store or a hardware store, looking at stuff and thinking, "Now what can I do with that?" I met a steampunk cosplayer who got all the accents for her costume (the gears and clocks and such) at a scrapbooking store. She just applied metal paint to make them no longer look like paper.