“Unfortunately, I don’t see the cutting edge, lead from the front type of frontierism that used to exist early on with any anime convention — it’s all become a hodge-podge of mindless, thoughtless activity. Most people only attend because there isn’t anything out there which pushes the boundaries and the people on the inside who push for those changes are drummed out (or seek other opportunities). Maybe someday that will all change but it will have to come from completely outside the community, I fear because it has mostly all become complacent.” – Rob Miles
I’m not proud of the coast that I was born, raised, and was schooled for two degrees in. As a new transfer to the east side, I’ve heard stories about how much people envy what the west coast has. People dream of making it to Anime Expo at least once in their lifetime. It breaks me when I have to say, it was great…ten years ago. I begin to regret not attending some of the amazing opportunities that Anime Expo had – Maaya Sakamoto’s concert, meeting and greeting the creative team of Read or Die, a Q&A with Chiho Saitou and Yuu Watase, etc. I took this all for granted in my younger years. Now that I’m much older, there are much more things I can appreciate about Utena, Evangelion, and some of the mind-bending anime titles. What a thrill it would be to pick the brains of the creative teams – writers, directors, actors, designers, producers – of the anime that we know and love.
In 2013, something funky was in the air. I’m not talking about eau de fanboy. When the SPJA (known best for managing Anime Expo) bought out the fledgling Anime Conji, we had high hopes that Conji would have better quality guests. Conji did have guests. Yet, it felt it was more around cosplay guests than actual people affiliated in the production and creation of anime. With all due respect to TakoPop, I fail to see how they can be guests. While I do not know Vampy well enough to know what makes her stand out (other than this clip from a Filipino variety show), cosplay is a fan oriented medium. So, when Conji made the excuse that “cosplayers are industry guests,” this 10+ year convention veteran was appalled. Have we really gone this low?
It’s not just the guests at Conji, but rather also organization that has been run to the ground. I was talking with a colleague about what’s going on with Fanime Con. It is becoming more evident that Fanime Con is investing more into their sibling steampunk con, it makes the paying veteran attendee concerned. Even the usual guests – Ric Myers, Hiroyuki Yamagawa – have not been announced for Fanime Con 2013. It’s not just the guests, but my colleague also informed me that registration for main events and finding information about how to participate in main events (masquerade, anime music videos, etc) is that you have to go through the Fanime Con forums rather than the website. Registration for swap meet and new rules for the artist alley have also been pretty funny. Artist Alley merchants have to prepare their stock months before the con. It’s only now the rules state that Artist Alley cannot sell images with copyrighted material.
Of course, there’s Anime Los Angeles which hardly tries to make the event worth the rising badge price. I blame it more on the attendees who think it’s an excuse to have the frat party they never had, yet even the con chair admits he does not want to do anything about it. When I presented Arisia’s guidelines on how to party responsibly, the con chair dismissed this. When your own staff admits that there’s pot smoke on the fourteenth floor and in the live programming rooms, you have a problem you need to deal with. When 20-something kids think conventions exist for their red cup beer pong dorm parties, it really cheapens the image of the convention. This is not to slam on parties at conventions – by all means, party responsibly. This is more on how entitlement culture in otakudom is killing fandom and industry.
Of course, you’ll have the people who will say, “So what? I’mma cosplay and party and get my photos taken! I don’t need no stinkin’ badge.” We take these conventions for granted. Would you still have your shoot at the LAX Marriott poolside during any other time of the year? I’m cool when people want to do photoshoots and cosplay at conventions, but when the quality of conventions are declining, you gotta decide if it’s worth your time on attending. Not paying for a badge is just as bad because it further perpetuates entitlement.
However, there is some silver lining. Neither Anime Expo or Fanime have happened yet. It’s all waiting game from here. Additionally, the Bay Area’s Japan Expo announced Noriyuki Idaware and that’s been gaining much more buzz on the newsfeeds than Anime Expo’s Alodia announcement. Many convention veterans have cited that Japan Expo is looking better than Anime Expo or Fanime. Sakura Con also manages to get relevant industry guests like the creative team behind Sword Art Online. Sac Anime, a convention that I critiqued for not going anywhere back in the mid-2000’s, has acquired A-list guests in the anime and video game industry. Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario from the Super Mario series, will be a guest.
Even still, conventions on the other coast have stepped up their game. Animazement 2013 has Han Keiko, Yuka Minaguchi, Koichi Tsunod, and a ton more veterans that 80s and 90s otaku that know and appreciate. I would wait in line for Han Keiko’s autograph. I’ll wait all day for her to do a Luna voice. Anime Boston has Origa, best known for her musical work with Ghost and Shell and has collaborated with anime legend Yoko Kanno. Otakon has TM Revolution. For the first time in a while, states outside of California have been getting quality guests and the organization has been fairly consistent.While not every con is perfect, the con should deliver something that all fans can enjoy to make the experience worth it. Even something as bare bones to have registration for masquerade, hotels, amv contest, etc on the website in a timely manner.
Perhaps this is a message to the west coast organizers to step up their game, particularly the long time running conventions that we have attended for so long. We expect more for the price of the badge.
EDIT: Now that this editorial has gone viral, I’d like to clarify that this is more towards convention organization from the top down. Guests have been a recent topic of debate. I’m writing from the perspective of someone who has been a veteran of Fanime and Anime Expo and is just now learning about conventions on the east coast. I’m simply comparing long time running east coast conventions to the decline of quality – guests, programming, etc – at the larger California conventions. If you’re unfamiliar with the issues Fanime Con has been having, I would encourage you to explore the forums and read for yourself.