Hey, Answerman!

I went to my first anime con a few weeks ago and i was a little surprised to see that the cosplayers werent just from anime - there were video games and movies like pirates of the caribbean and even like, people dressed up as jokes from the internet.

What is up with that? it's an anime convention!!

Speaking of anime conventions...

For the last few years I have been attending Anime Boston; it was the first and, so far, the only convention I've been to.  The first years I attended were fun and exciting, as I was exposed to the American actors and producers for the first time and got to see tons of new anime series I had never heard about in the viewing rooms.  However, the last couple of years I've come away from the con with less of that jazzed-up feeling.  I have recently moved to a new city and will be attending a new con later this month, so now I won't even have a group of friends to pal around with while I'm there.  I was wondering if you'd have any suggestions for getting over this "hump" of lowered expectations fans can get after they become acclimated to the con experience and for finding new ways to experience a con.  For this year it's too late to volunteer to work at the con, so what would you suggest are ways to re-engage with a convention as an attendee?  How can a fan more fully (and politely) interact with anime distributors, producers, and actors rather than attending cookie-cutter panels where the same questions are asked over and over again?  Are there overlooked aspects of cons that fans who have only recently passed the newbie faze don't take advantage of?

Well, like anything else, anime conventions as an experience are going to get pretty stale after you've been enough times. If you ride the same roller coaster 900 times, you will eventually get sick and tired of riding that roller coaster.

A lot of fans these days experience con fatigue or boredom, and it's hard to blame 'em; by and large the con experience doesn't change all that much. They might have new events or an exciting guest, but you're still gonna be sitting in on panels, waiting in line for autographs, shopping in the dealer's room, watching movie premieres and drinking heavily late at night. The convention climaxes with the Masquerade and then everyone kinda waits to go home after that.

That isn't to say that anime cons have some bizarro responsibility to reinvent themselves every year; con attendance has been on a steady uphill climb for years and years and years with no end in sight, so obviously they're bringing in plenty of fresh meat and repeat business. It is what it is, but you can only go so many times in a row before you realize "Hm, these are basically all the same with few differences and I've experienced this 10 times before... it's getting kinda boring!".

That said, I'm not sure how much advice I can really offer you in terms of spicing up your routine convention experience. Most people go with a group of friends and yeah, it's the same every year, but you're relaxing and hanging out with friends, which is probably more fun at an anime convention than it is in some guy's apartment or at someone's mom's house. It's the social interaction that happens at conventions that keeps people coming back again and again, and long after the thrill of seeing your favorite anime director in person or buying Japan-only trinkets in the dealer's room has worn off, you'll keep going back to see your friends.

As for interacting "more" with directors and producers, what you see at an anime con is what you're gonna get unless you decide to try and get a job working in the industry somehow, which is a good way to experience a convention in a totally different way (but also one that saps the fun right out of it because you're working!).In terms of activities most people don't take advantage of, your mileage at any given anime convention will vary based on your interests. If you find yourself bored with voice actor panels, go watch a fan-run panel about modeling or manga writing or those creepy Japanese socket dolls with the haunting, soulless eyes. You might pick up a new interest and make some new friends, and in the meantime, expand your convention experience in a meaningful and fun way.

My Rant has to do with Censorship, Editing, and overall Americanization. Over the past few months I have become irritated with the American distributors of Anime and Manga. Not too long ago I started reading the Manga Basilisk. I was intrigued by the story and art, but one thing that really stood out in my mind was the use of honorifics. I was intrigued because most other manga I've read and anime I've watched in English, they eliminate 95% of the honorifics with some exceptions. With every honorific intact I believe the manga's tone is a lot different than it would have been. Simply by attaching -Dono to Oboro it expressed the respect and high esteem she was kept in despite other things the characters may have said. Without this tone I believe I would enjoy the manga less and it got me to thinking about other changes and edits that take away from the overall enjoyment of anime and manga.

Basilisk is very graphic in ways of blood and human nudity. While it has more style than Berserk which consists of only "Blood and Boobs," it is something that most people will not be exposed to. The relative lack of censorship pleased me, but also had me wondering about other favorites of mine and how they are edited. I can't read any Japanese language and my mastery of the language is limited to some nouns and verbs. Because of this I am a slave to manga and anime distributors and scanilators.

A link on ANN alerted me to a change in volume 8 of the fullmetal alchemist manga, changing the cross Greed was on to a rounded slab. While I understand the reason behind the edit, I am very annoyed with it. The cross is a powerful image and that imagery is completely lost with a random slab. If manga like Berserk and Basilisk can be released in America with little to no change at all, why cant series like Fullmetal Alchemist? Fullmetal Alchemist is not a kid's show and its audience should be old enough and mature enough to handle seeing a cross. The same can be said for Naruto, which is wrongfully being aimed at younger viewers. I wonder how they will censor out the cross Kakashi is crucified on while under Itachi's assault.

I myself am a mediocre artist, and mediocre artist, but I still appreciate the good story and artwork of Manga and Anime more than most and it makes me sick to see this media, this art form, censored just because of cultural barriers. When you look at pieces of artwork like Reuben's or Picasso and see graphic and grotesque images, they aren't censored by edits; they are viewed like they are meant to be. That's why I sometimes prefer scanillations to American release just because of the unedited art even if the language translation can be less than coherent. It isn't even the most graphic anime and manga either. Berserk and Basilisk are to my knowledge completely intact. Yet the "mild" anime and manga are often the victims of the most editing.