anime conventions - what do you think about them?

[Memory]

seeing as a LOT of anime conventions in the USA are this weekend, i thought why not make a topic.

i really love anime conventions, i think they are really fun and i love buying stuff. i am going to one tomorrow with my cosplay and ita bag prepared, and i am really excited, but also scared because i don't have any friends to go with :( but itll be cool and fun anyways hopefully, i plan to spend so much money
what are you guys's experience with anime conventions? do you cosplay? do you have any good OR bad experiences? tell me about it...

[BlazingCobaltX]

I've been twice, to the same convention in 2016 and 2017. The first time was very exciting and I had a lot of fun interacting with random people over their cosplays (I was in my one and only cosplay as a Team Aqua Grunt). The second time I went I realised the things they schedule are exactly the same, and it wasn't as exciting as the first. The only consistently fun thing is the artist alley.

Maybe it was that specific convention being boring, but before COVID I went to a comic con and found myself equally bored quickly. It seems like it's a thing that's mostly made fun by the company you have rather than the actual events offered. At this point I have grown out of anime and wouldn't even recognise most of the things being sold.

[Nikodile]

We go to ACEN (Rosemont, IL, USA) whenever we can. They're fun, I never understood going for all 3 days though honestly. It's best to go one day, soak it all in, go to the panels you want, check out all the booths, see what else is out there and call it there. It can be very tiring.

Love seeing booths that offer very obscure things like old anime VHS tapes of shows/movies that are sorta lost media.

[serenefork]

I used to go to ACen when I was a kid! I really love conventions, it's really fun to spend time surrounded by people who love some of the same things, and it's fun to just spend some time really delving into a world full of something you enjoy! I've only gone full weekends a few times, and I think going just one day is fine, but I prefer going the full time if I can! There is always so much to do that I never feel bored and it feels easier to talk to people knowing that they have at least one thing in common with me!

I'm no longer anywhere near ACen so I've been trying to find which convention is now closest to me so that I can start going again. 

[night-at-the-musian]

I LOVE going to anime conventions! I tend to visit ones in Atlanta that are mid-range in popularity, like Momocon, Anime Weekend, and Atlanta Comic Con. These cons are tiny compared to Dragoncon, which is the biggest con in Atlanta.

I have a page on my website that's only accessible via QR codes I pass out at the cons I attend! https://natmsearch.neocities.org/wheresjed

Saving up to go to Momocon or Anime Weekend later this year!

[Paprika]

It's pretty cool, I've been to a handful of them in my country but since 2017/2018 it's been more about selling you funko pops and barely-related merchandise and less about the cosplay and hobbies. It's not all bad but there's definitely a decline in quality where I live. I'd love to see a very big one somewhere, one day !

[pencilz]

I went to one exactly One time (Anime Detour, actually) all the way back in 2013. It wasn't a great experience, not because of the convention itself but because I had to be chaperoned by my parents the whole time (I was fairly young and didn't drive, still don't). Also it was supposed to be a big thing with friends but nobody else bought tickets in time so that kinda ruined the fun for me. 

Other than that I've never really had the money or means to go to any. I definitely plan to change that once I move, since starting my art business tabling at conventions has been on my list of things to do. Plus I'll actually have friends to come with me (doing stuff like this by myself doesn't seem as enjoyable).

[bingus_baby]

Mixed feelings. I LOVE to cosplay, and buy anime merch. And cons usually have cool panels that I enjoy going to. But they end up being so expensive just going to them! Gas, tickets, parking, food... By the time I see anime merch I wanna buy, I'm already broke! Plus, the vendors selling obviously Aliexpress junk doesn't make me feel much better. And the cons where I live, the big ones are during the summer when I'm out of town, and the small ones are either very far or a bit too small and unestablished for my liking. (Badly organized events give me MAJOR anxiety ;w;) Main exception is that I live 40 minutes from a big con in my state and I make sure to always go every year. The artist alley there is unmatched, and there's a couple artists who I have to see every year and blow my life savings on lmao

I had some semi-bad experiences with cons in recent years, but NOTHING can get in the way of the feeling of dressing up as a semi-obscure character and getting recognized!! I went as Riamu to a con this past winter and even ppl who didn't recognize me stopped me and complimented my outfit! When it comes to cons, my favorite part is the cosplay for sure. I know many people think cosplay is cringe, but I think those people don't understand the euphoria of feeling like a frilly-frilly sparkle-sparkle anime girl. It's freeing. I think it's what humans are made for. (Being anime girls.)

[cybherspace]

I just got back from one of those~! 
I LOVE anime conventions. We live outside a bigger-ish city and we always go the extra "mile" so to speak and get a hotel. If you can afford it, that is by far the best way to experience an anime convention.
Each year the experience is slightly different for me based on what I want to focus on. There's enough to do that you can never do everything each year. I do have a couple things I do every year, though. I dress up in J-Fashion and I go to the artists alley and exhibit hall.
Last year, I focused mostly on going to panels. I went to a crazy number of them - at least 15 or so? I was hopping from panel to panel constantly. I had fun with it that way!
This year I hit up the Friday and Saturday night raves. I am not normally a rave person, but the one at my con has a lot of space and plenty of comfy seating to get away from things when I need, as well as lots of free water. I also met up with some friends at the con and did see a couple panels, as well as a fashion show!
My only complaint this year is that none of the vendors carried the Dungeon Meshi manga for some reason?? Or maybe they were sold out.

[neoratz]

i go to Otakon every year i can, it's my favorite anime con and they have a great system for volunteers... >:-) i always have this problem where i will plan out a bunch of panels and only end up going to 1 or 2 lol. i used to cosplay but overtime it became more tedious than fun for me so i just dress in my funnest non-cosplay outfits instead. as for spending i dont usually spend much but sometimes i will buy a couple things from the artists and dealers... usually artists but i love digging through those huge dealers bins for keychains that are reasonably priced. a lot of dealers charge way too much, like $50 for a $10 prize figure, so it ends up feeling like a waste of money >_<

(doing stuff like this by myself doesn't seem as enjoyable).

going with friends makes the experience much better for me too, the years i was alone tended to feel lacking :P i like spending lots of time in the dealers/artists rooms and it's not as fun when you can't point out random stuff to your friends or go explore with them in general hahaha

[cybherspace]

going with friends makes the experience much better for me too, the years i was alone tended to feel lacking :P i like spending lots of time in the dealers/artists rooms and it's not as fun when you can't point out random stuff to your friends or go explore with them in general hahaha

If you like tabletop gaming there's often hosted play sessions of different TTRPGs and I have heard that is a good way to meet people. I haven't tried it myself but maybe something to consider!
If you go with a goal in mind (like seeing lots of panels or just doing a lot of people watching) and even gamify it a little you might have fun! I think it depends on the individual.

[Snow]

I think they are wonderful. I just went to my first-ever anime/video game convention last week and one of the things I loved most about it was feeling a sense of... belonging, and to a further extent, a feeling of acceptance amongst a group of people while I was there, which is something I have struggled with throughout my life. I remember feeling safe and a lot less tense than I usually am in my day-to-day life, and I even got to meet some like-minded people, even if it was a brief social exchange and I conversed with these people for only a few minutes, it was still a very uplifting experience.

Getting to buy cool merchandise, cosplay, and play video games are also common at conventions and these were also my favourite things when I went.

Also, seeing as conventions are relatively uncommon throughout the year (depending on where you live), I feel like if I ever go to a convention, I have to make the most of my time there knowing I might not be able to go to another convention for a while!

[garystu]

Tabling experience: I never made enough money to break even, but to be fair I was selling crap. I honestly think the most unoriginal, cynical stuff I made was selling the best though. I should draw genshon impact (ive never played it) characters kissing or quit.


Attendee experience: Yeah its cool idk.

The elephant in the room: haven't been to one in years because there's a pandemic right now. And its been good to take a break. Maybe those places were a consumerist hellscape I should enjoy more sparingly. I'll take the perspective with me, for when Covid is no longer a threat.

[halcybutton]

went to a few as a teenager, it was fun but it definitely is a luxury i cannot afford anymore. i also do not like being in enclosed spaces with a lot of people since covid, i still mask but that only helps so much when maybe a handful of other people are doing the same thing. cosplaying was fun, meeting people was cool, but man did i feel poor when i went lol

[larvapuppy]

I think they were great for me as a teenager from a small city, back when anime wasn't as mainstream. The con that I visited two or three times was fairly small, but the sense of camaraderie was pretty cool, all us nerds who "spoke the same language". I wasn't able to get any anime merchandise in person where I lived back then, so I mainly treated it like a shopping trip and attended a few panels. I remember I liked the attention that I got from girls when I cosplayed . Anime conventions really were like a nerdy gay teen meetup in a way.

I remember being somewhat disheartened when I tried to apply for a vendor table to sell my fanart print, but all the spots were filled only 20 minutes after applications opened! Then when I attended the convention that year there were a bunch of empty tables, and one kid just sitting at a booth selling pencil sketches on lined paper... I was a bit soured and never tried to apply again... to this day I've never tabled at a con. 

Now I have a lot more of my own money, but I find the ticket fees are too pricey! Basically, you pay money to be allowed access to more things to spend money on. Anime is popular enough now that I can even go to Walmart and buy DVD box sets and merchandise, so why should I travel and pay a premium to buy this stuff? Plus, I can get most of the things they sell in the vendor room online for cheaper anyway...

I don't keep up with anime as much as I used to- mostly I'll just watch a new show or two a year based on what I think is interesting. I used to try out at least one episode of every show that was airing in the season and choose a large volume of them to keep watching. Now I have no time to do this, and I think I'm getting too old for most of the series as a lot of them are teen-centric and I don't find high school or coming of age stories relatable anymore. All of this to say that I don't think I'd mesh well with the attendees since all my anime knowledge is a decade old. I'm fine with chatting with my fiance about the shows we watch together, and asking my little brother about what shows he's into.