August 04, 2010

Anime Culture

That was a little longer delay between posts than intended! However, since I recently attended an anime convention, it seems like a good idea to talk about anime fans' subculture.

Local residents are probably familiar GenCon, which is held yearly in Indianapolis. That convention is focused on gaming (video, board, and otherwise), but the basic principle is the same. The United States hosts a lot of anime conventions (generally referred to as "cons")--more than I can even pretend to know of--and the general purpose of them is to allow anime and manga fans to gather in one place with people who share their interests. Most cons will feature fan-run discussion panels about topics related to anime, manga, and Japanese culture, as well as have showings of anime; some of the bigger cons will have popular voice actors (American and sometimes also Japanese) who also host panels and sign autographs. Otakon, a yearly convention held in Baltimore, Maryland and one of the biggest in the country, will also have Japanese rock or pop bands come in to play for the dances; and this year there was even a fashion show hosted by one of Japan's popular designers!

Another popular fan activity at cons is dressing up as favorite characters from an anime or manga series, or even from video games and Japanese TV shows. This is called "cosplay" (short for 'costume play;' despite using English words, to the extent of my knowledge this term originated in Japan. Language is crossing boundaries and getting more fluid than ever!) Below is a photograph of two people who are cosplaying characters from the video game Kingdom Hearts:


Photo from the Cosplay.com forums; photographer Paul Crino.

The bigger a convention is, the more likely it is to have a wide range of things going on during it to appeal to of its attendees. Smaller cons can have more specific themes, like focusing solely on manga, or on Japanese culture, or on specific topics and genres of anime and manga. Most cons that are focused on a specific topic will state as much in their burbs and on their webpages; bigger cons, like Otakon or AnimeExpo in California, will generally cover a lot more topics.

If you're interested in attending an anime convention, Indiana has one of its very own! It's called Ikatsucon, and is held yearly in Fort Wayne.

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