by Ryan Mathews

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June 2000

Mind you, there was nothing wrong with the convention. First off, I attend two other conventions each year: Katsucon, which is my first con of the year, and Anime Expo, which is, well... Anime Expo. Anime Central is stuck in-between and thus gets robbed of much of my enthusiasm. Secondly, I have distractions at Anime Central, since it's the one con that I regularly attend with my best friends. When the con schedule conflicts with that of my friends, the con loses.

And thus went Anime Central. I had a choice between attending industry panels, or hitting Yaohan Plaza and Chinatown with my friends. I chose the latter. The convention, or trekking into Chicago with my friends to have lunch at this great little Mexican restaurant? Friends win. It also didn't help that my friends, although anime fans with sizable collections, really don't like obsessive otaku. Getting away from the con was the easiest way to stop the bitch-fest about the motley collection of overweight losers, closet pedophiles, and general assholes that fandom seems to have become. (In their opinion. Don't flame me.) Still, as much as I feel they make too big a fuss about it, there is the grain of a point within their complaints.

To give you an illustration of the type of thing that happens at cons that annoy my friends, here's an example. One of my friends was walking through the hotel when he turned a corner and ran smack into two female fans who weren't watching where they were going. The two girls giggled and bowed and shouted "Gomen nasai!", before running along. I'm sure they thought they were being cute, but apologizing "in character" seems a bit rude to me, especially when the person they ran over wasn't another cosplayer.

There seems to be some odd assumption on the part of some fans, a minority of fans overall, but a large section of the fans that go to conventions, that if you are into anime, you must therefore be a nippophile. You like anime? Here, have some Pocky. You like anime? Wanna listen to some J-Pop? You like anime? Japanese schoolgirls are cute, aren't they? My friends are huge into anime (and even prefer subtitles), but they hate Pocky, can't stand J-Pop, and think the schoolgirl fetish is a bit odd. Having Japanese pop culture shoved down their throats is one of the main reasons it's hard to get them into conventions.

But enough about my friends. What are my opinions? Well, I like Pocky, but not enough to buy it. Gimme chocolate-chip cookies anyday. I like three J-Pop bands, but none of them are bands that show up on otaku lists. As for schoolgirls, yeah, they're cute, but I still think it's odd.

There was a really great essay on the web that a reader sent to me, on the topic of fans behaving badly. It fit in with this editorial and my intention had been to include the link, but wouldn't you know it, I can't find the email. All I can do is apologize to the writer and hope he resends.

(Oh, and the J-Pop bands I like are Pizzicato Five, Psy-S, and Advantage Lucy. Told you you've never heard of them.)

On to the web picks!