May 08 2008
Registration Regrets.
I have been 
regretting little by little for registering for Anime Next and after the flood of incoherent teenage brats who flamed my Sakura Matsuri post, the lack of communication from the artist alley, and the fact that the anime next website goes down at least once a day has increased my general downturn on the whole thing. I only registered because someone invited me to help them with a panel on eroge/otome games and at the time I was really excited to help - but now I wish I never agreed to do this. Nothing against the panelists or the panel itself, but frankly I have this disgusted feeling at this whole thing to the point where I don’t want to contribute anything to anyone there.
I registered for the artist alley table in the middle of March. It’s almost the middle of May and I’m not the only one concerned. Last week the AA head came out letting us know there was a family tragedy which basically delayed the whole process. Alright, things happen I understand. However, why couldn’t we just register the way we did last year? That way people would have been registered, there wouldn’t have been any delays and everything would be fine. But no, the con is nearly a month away and people still don’t know if they even got accepted into the artist alley to register a table. WHAT. THE. FUCK.
It makes me glad I didn’t bother “waiting” to hear from them before starting a new doujinshi. Because of my game project I sorta dropped doujinshi making (maybe permanently as the sales at cons are poor anyway and I sell a lot more online.) The only thing that I’m regretting is wasting all that money on prints that I’m probably going to chuck into the garbage since mailing them is a pain in the ass due to folding in the mail etc. Frankly at this point I’m just sick of artist alleys in general and I think at this point I have no more intention of ever wasting money on a table again.
After this year I’m starting to reach my “peak” of con-going. Perhaps I’ll attend NYAF and finish my congoer experience “with a bang” and then as of 2009 I will no longer attend any. The situation hasn’t really improved and in fact the more cons I go to, the worse my experience feels every time. I can’t recall the last time I truly enjoyed myself at a con and actually HAD FUN. I just can’t put myself on the same level as these idiotic teenagers because when I look back, I never acted this way when I was their age.
I’m not generalizing and saying all teenagers are bad since a lot of you guys are teenagers and yet you can still come here and make intelligent comments. I’m specifically referring to the idiots who run around cons paddling people, glomping them (read “sexually harrassing”), screaming at the top of their lungs for 10 minutes, and general acting like they’re high on speed. I expect that kind of behavior out of like 5-6 years olds, not 15-16 year olds ya know? I’m probably just getting old, but perhaps this is just a little sign that all good things come to an end.
Kinda makes me sad though because while I do enjoy cosplay, it’s disappointing how some fellow cosplayers have to make such asses out of themselves. How while I enjoy drawing anime and making doujinshi, fellow fanartists exist who steal, copy and trace. I don’t know if it’s just the anime fandom, but from what JP tells me, Harry Potter fans the same age don’t act like this. Also at NYCC, there were a LOT of people, but despite this, there weren’t a LOT of people running around screaming - except the anime fans. 
In conclusion, I am regretting having registered for Anime Next…for all 3 days. At this point even if the artist alley responds, I will not spend $40 on a table. I’d hate to throw out my prints but unfortunately I have nothing else to do with them. Hell if anyone ever saw me in New York and wanted one I’d probably give it to you for free ^^; As far as leftover doujinshi, maybe I’ll drop the price since I’d hate to throw that away. I guess my reader question is, is it ok for me to feel this way or am I just over exaggerating on the whole con-goer experience? Make note I’ve been going to cons for the last 7 years…
Tags: disappointment, fangirl rage, rant, reader opinion
43 Responses to “Registration Regrets.”
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padfoot135 on 
Cons sound terrible.
Even if I was allowed to go I wouldn’t want to go through that crap as I’m very impatient. 
I can understand the major frustration. Well, I have only ever been to comic cons so that full anime con “experience” is not with me.
I think you have ever right to feel that way seeing as I don’t feel too differently. I may never go to an anime con the way things have been going at cons this year. Mind you I am relatively new into anime but I am not of the younger variety.
Actually, the money I would spend going to cons could put me in the middle of Tokyo (with my father’s flying benefits). I’m just saying money and time could be spent doing something worthwhile and rewarding.
“Also at NYCC, there were a LOT of people, but despite this, there weren’t a LOT of people running around screaming - except the anime fans.”
I had the same experiences the many times I went to the San Diego ComicCon. The general nerd public is actually pretty tame, although occasionally lacking a decent shower. I never had problems with people glomping me or hitting me with yaoi paddles or screaming uncontrollably in large groups.
Off Topic:
I’ve been to that hotel years ago. I think that’s where I meet Former President Clinton.
Well… I don’t really know what to say, because I’ve never actually been to a convention myself, and… I don’t really think I want to. I’d rather limit my hobby to buying manga off the internet, and watching the anime online (because there’s nowhere you can buy anything like that where I live, unless you wanna go to an exhibit in Manchester that teaches you how to wear make-up like a ganguro (is that what they’re called? :/)). Although I haven’t actually met any properly, I have run into a few idiots online, who I’m embarassed to call fellow anime fans. They don’t come armed with yaoi paddles, but they come with spoilers, and usually when they get out, hell breaks loose, especially on Crunchy Roll (ugh…).
I guess all I can suggest is that you bear with it for a little longer, and if there are no improvements with 2009, try and find something different to do. Judging by your recent posts, you seem to be doing really well with the Renai game, and like you said, you’d probably get much more feedback selling it online.
Beth> For the record the game will actually be free haha
Nekki> Wow interesting! :O
Calawain> Yep exactly!
zqube> I think I will use the art table money to buy myself a spare phone battery and an 8GB Micro SD card
Kona> I dunno my FIRST con was great, maybe that first time experience is ok but afterwards it sucks? I dunno then again based on the current con goer population I doubt anything can make even a first time experience worthwhile.
I don’t think you’re exaggerating. One was enough for me to decide that it wasn’t my cup of tea. And sorry to hear that your post got flamed. I thought it was a good write up.
Caitlin> I still think it’s a good write up - I’m not really surprised they flamed me, I’m just surprised it took them this long. After all I’m the first result on google for “sakura matsuri 2008 at brooklyn botanical gardens”
It’s fine to feel that way. I do and I haven’t been to a con yet.
Screaming 15-16 year old kids = quite common.
A reason why I am conspicuously absent from Singapore cosplay events. I cannot stand excessive noise. I am an old man, after all.
Don’t throw the prints ;-;
sell them. ONLINE. USING EBAY. WITH PAYPAL.
welll it seems like u r have a bad time at the cons. i have not been to one but i am going to the anime expo in london this yr. and i know how u feel about the screaming 15-16 yr olds. i hate that to
Disillusionment after many years = quite common too. Much as I wish to go to one, I lost my enthusiasm after a few years of working. When you have money, you don’t want to go; when you don’t have money, you want to go. Interesting paradox. Even the dream of going to japan to leer.. I mean perv… I mean VIEW the cute cosplayers isn’t that strong anymore. Only the urge to raid gamers akihabara for all the Dejiko goodness-nyo… :3
I mean where has it all gone. This is the first time since I start watching anime that I’ve had a season with nothing to watch. That’s something like a 7 year chain broken. To be frank, it’s oddly satisfying not to be jumping up and down like a child waiting for each week’s dose of crack.
There is disillusionment among the jiji/baba/old trappu among us. Maybe the next installment of Kojika anime may improve things. Nanoha SuckS Z made things worse.
I’ve been to a couple cons and none of them were actually at the level of “fun”, let alone “enjoyable”. No lack of intelligence from the congoers though - it’s more of a lack of substance for the con itself.
Your disappointment with cons has been a long run; so I don’t think that is much of a shock. You need to get in touch with what you really enjoy versus what you think you should enjoy. That sounds cryptic, but it does make sense, trust me.
As for the flaming, the age old saying goes: Never argue with an idiot because intelligence has limits, stupidity doesn’t. I had a feeling that would actually happen. You’re blog is too popular!
It’s the trappings of being hot. I know what it’s like when people fuck with you for no reason other than their being desperate, weak, or ugly or what not. It happens. Laugh with pride 
It’s always nice to see a loser make a fool of themselves.
I think you should follow your heart in whatever decision you make; only you know how you feel. And it’s your money & time on the line; think of all the things you and JP could do with what you could save! Like buying designer Pocky and what not.
I dislike when you’re down; feel better Mi Amiga. *Hugs*
Same problem here: screaming teenagers blocking your way.
Add horrible panels, small con area with too much people and you got Finland´s every con. yay…
I was directed here by someone else who heard that I was gonna have a table at AnimeNEXT.
I registered with a group and she said everything was A-OK since she did get a response. Now I’m worried after reading this that the response was not regarding our confirmation for the table D:
Hah, I think this will be my last AnimeNEXT too since last year kinda sucked. Hopefully they redeem themselves this year. I doubt it, though.
Hinano: LOL. ‘Kay. Maybe I wasn’t look into it enough.
I’m not here to flame honestly.
But don’t let people stop you from enjoyin a con, seriously. If you don’t like them/us, just ignore us and go on with life. That’s what I do if I don’t like someone.
And I’m honeslty sorry you can’t get into the artist alley, I would of loved to see your work! ^-^ I love art just as much as the next person, and I draw too.
But seriously, I wasn’t on that other blog to flame at all. We probably got off on the wrong step.
Well, I live way out in California (with the great govanator
) and am heading out to Fanime in San Jose on Memorial Day weekend. I’ve been heading to cons like Anime Expo (in LA, and which has risen to fame through the figure of ManFaye 
) since 2002 but his is my first in about 2 years. I’ll try to remember to let you know if its the same situation or level of annoyance with the kids (I’m 25).
These cons can be better if we make something out of it. Lets try and get our own panel on anime blogging or dango or something. I can go, you and jp and whoever else we can get a hold of. It could be the coolest event at the con, and you could give a print away to each person who asks a question! It would just be an intro to anime blogs, animeblogger, anime nano etc…
Or else we could could go on a mission! Wear anti-yaoi uniforms and go around confiscating paddles and spraying anyone who screams or runs around like a fool with pepper spray. We would be like con vigilantes! We could take videos of the worst offenders and put it online and try to get parents to watch and see what their kids are up to!
Cons are actually fun… if you’re there as a spectator. I’ve been involved in one con (and this was seven years ago) and regretted it because I never got to do stuff except be a gofer. From thereon, I often enjoyed myself as a spectator, not as part of the organizer group or the one of the people in tables.
I’ve always considered my life as an anime/manga fan as a hobby, but a lot of my friends became magazine writers for anime mags, fansubbers, cosplay groups admins, etc… I’m glad they enjoy it but as for me, if I did made it work, I will start treating it as work and start resenting it.
It would seem that teenagers, some not all, are reaching a point where they regress to their childhood years and believe that it is OK for them to act like a 4-7 year old brat.
That kind of behavior looks bad in a kid and it looks even worse on a teenager.
It’s a pity that things have gotten so out of hand that it’s keeping you from enjoying a con, but at least look at there is one positive thing, the money you spend on the con you can save for your wedding, after all even a little money helps.
DS> I thought about doing an anime blogger panel - maybe we can get something going for NYAF? What would be talk about though? I wonder if it would be like that stupid ANN panel without that jackasses though.
apoc> youre about the same age as me, good luck!
Kate> I don’t personally hate you or your friends. I don’t even know you enough to “hate you”. It’s just unfortunate for you, that there are naruto cosplayers who I group with “all” naruto cosplayers that were making assholes of themselves. They weren’t even in the picture I posted of you and your friends. They were walking around yelling like idiots at other parts of the festival but because I saw you and some other people on the trees I automatically grouped all of you guys as “stupid teenagers with no respect to Japanese culture.” If you read my post all the way you would have noticed that after I left that area I quite enjoyed my time at the gardens - and also the replies to my other post speak for themselves in terms of the brain capacity of the people who were pissed off that I “insulted” them. It’s not a personal attack, it’s just an opinion of what a bystander sees you all as. If you guys don’t care how you look to others (which I don’t think you all do) then there’s no reason why you should care what I write on my blog. (omg tl;dr
) Also I like how I was accused of saying you broke the tree branches when it wasn’t me who said that in the first place - another sign of ignorance.
Sabrina> That’s why I kept all the comments, they speak for themselves
I think the only reason I’m really regretful is the fact that I spent like $40 on all those prints and wasnt really able to sell most of them 
Digi> haha I admit my desire to go to Japan isn’t as big as it used to be….now it’s like “well if I have enough money ill go otherwise w/e.” XD
Drm> Problem is shipping flat prints without them getting wrinkled ^^;;
Impz> if you’re an old man I’m a fossil
Did your involvement in the eroge/otome panel come before or after you started your game? Maybe you could start sellings eroge/otome games instead of doujinshi
It was actually after the panel :P. Eroge/otomege’s are pirated way too much that I don’t really wanna sell it at this point. I only plan to make 1 game and that’s it. It’s just one of those things Ive wanted to do in my span as an anime fan so it’s not something I’d do more than once like with the doujin.
“if you’re an old man I’m a fossil”
OMG, then what am I???
And, as for a panel, it could just be an overview of anime blogging with info about different types of anime blogs, aggregators, hosting and so on…
I guess some people don’t know how you always complain on almost everything on your post
They are not Hinano addicts! 
Just enjoy your last con. And if it helps I like reading your posts eventhough I don’t comment all the time
eiram> Yea nobody reads my about page where I state about my rants & opinion, they just google up one of my posts and start flaming, it’s to be expected
DS> send one of the NYAF guys an email. I tried to email him about something before but I never got a response…I think my inbox emails get in people’s spam queues or something
Well, if you’ve gone religiously for 7 years I’d say you’re on a bit of a burnout. This is why I only go to 1-2 cons a year MAX.
And most of my con experience has been with Otakon. I’ve generally had fun, but I can’t imagine the headache it would be if I actually bought a table there or signed up as a gofer or anything like that. It’s all I can do to just make it to the hotel and find the energy/time to do/see everything I want to.
So maybe instead of swearing off cons altogether you can just limit it to a couple that you really like or are easy to get to. Because to think of you with a life barren of cons altogether is kinda sad.
L-chan> When I said 7 years I Only went to 1-2 cons per year haha…I didn’t go to like every con, waste of money (although I know someone who DID and eventeually he started up his own con….aka the guy behind Youmacon lol)
Not much comfort but I had a feeling this was going to happen. Just from all the posts about cons and the few comments I had with you on them, it didn’t seem like cons were fun at all for you really.
I’ve never been to one but just from hearing your experiences, I think it’s normal to feel this way…..heck, I would’ve felt it waaay before 7 years lol.
If it’s worth anything, I think you should just go out with a bang and leave the con scene while you’re not feeling suicidal about the whole thing
It seems like it’ll only get worse and worse.
It’s kinda sad cause your fangirl rants on various cons were fun to read (and when the Yaoi paddlers came out of the woodworks? Comedy gold.) But I guess your misery is too high a price to pay for our enjoyment.
(Huzzah, not grounded now)
Was AnimeNext really that bad last year?
I hadn’t gone before last year, so I thought it was okay. I was shuffled around a lot, and barely got anytime to do stuff I wanted to (I was only there saturday), but it was fun to run around as Kairi and do stuff at the con. Plus, I was the only Kairi doing the Hare Hare Yukai. 
But, gragh, I see what you mean with the forums. They (The idiots) seem to be growing in number. I knew there were Narutards and Bleachtards (Or BleachedNarutards), but man.
Some of these people on there… I have seen worse, not by much though. It’s kind of frustrating to find people like that online, and they demand respect even though they can’t type properly or speak/type coherant ideas. And even worse… to this those idiots are my peers. 
To see people my age do crap like that makes me annoyed and to give pity to our future. To think that we’re the next generation. Oh joy.
Alright then, as long as we don’t have to keep on with this drama. I understand you more than you realize. I don’t hate you either, because just like you said, I don’t know you well enough to “hate you”.
In addition, I did read the whole post, and I realize I couldn’t be mad 100% because I did understand what you were saying. That’s why I wasn’t trying to be rude about anything. Besides, since you did go to ANEXT and MNEXT, I know very well that you have seen worse cosplayers.
We don’t mean to accuse you about the tree breaking thing. It was because someone did try to get us kicked out after our 2 hour long lunch in Popeyes, and we didn’t understand why because we were out for so long. Not all of us were even together, some just followed. But they figured out that it was the One Piece Group ((which I’m upset about because I too cosplay from One Piece))
I’ll be the first to say sorry in my own way. If I came out and made it seem as if I “attacked” you, I’m truely sorry, but we just felt as if we were be “bashed” on and picked on.
And I will be honest with you, I agree that some Naruto cosplayers are dead out annoying!
^-^ Thank you for atleast responding to me about it. So don’t worry, I can talk to them to tell them to relax a bit..I hope o.o;
Also, hopefully, maybe at ANEXT, I can probably say sorry to you in person. What do you think?
Kate> It’s really no big deal haha I’m not upset about it, I’m an old fart I’ve taken my share of this stuff in high school, I think at this point I’m jaded
I just hope you guys can enjoy your cosplaying and do your things without disrupting those around you. Or in the least if you have the disruptive idiots in your group, tell them to go somewhere else so that people don’t associat all of you based on 1 person’s behavior. 
That really is unfortunate, as I, personally, haven’t seen you at a convention, I was there last year when your AMV won for best comedic AMV. My friend, who I dragged along, and really hasn’t seen that much anime, FELL IN LOVE with that AMV.
It was too funny and I would love to be able to meet you and congratulate you on really awesome AMV’s and doujinshi!
Believe me, I also hate the Yaoi Paddle freaks who feel it necessary to attack any male cosplayer and smack him on the ass. And I’m a cosplayer, who likes yaoi. They act like 5 year olds with candy and get hyper on the fact of pain for another person.
But please, don’t be discouraged from a few cosplayer comments. Its your blog and if you want to hail Satan, by all means, go and do it. Its no one’s place to tell you not to.
I just want to say that if I have ever act like a complete idiot at a con, I’ll try and stick to my friends and not attack random strangers. ^^;;
You are a really awesome person, and those who attacked you must be really sensitive, because there are websites that are a million times worse, i.e. cosfu and 4chan.
YOU RAWK.
XD I understand
I’m just getting out of High school and I’ve been through a lot more than a normal HS kid should be going through…
We don’t let others get to us honestly, not unless its about our own friends. And the people who are annoying, we don’t really let into “our” group. XD
But, seriously, enjoy yourself at a con, oky? I would hate to see someone hate a con because of a few people.
But I would still honestly like to meet you and say sorry personally. ((Cause I’m more of te type to try to forgive and forget)) >>;
Megan> Thanks, I wish more people had the understanding that you do. Also, you should see what the Japanese think of American cosplayers on NicoNico video.
I think everyone goes through a period like that. It seems like all my hobbies are part of a perpetual cycle whose only purpose is to drain my bank account.
Add that to the fact that the anime fandom kind of sucks and your disinterest starts to make sense.
LINK! I really want to see the reaction from Japan. >_>
I couldn’t really understand your feelings of frustration, since I’ve only been to my first con last year (and you know how first-times are usually very, very exciting). However, seeing that you’ve been to cons for 7 years, I guess the novelty feeling does wear off. It can indicate that you’re ready to move on to larger things.
Maybe I just haven’t seen the worst of the rowdy kids yet, but I kinda like it when people at cons glomp/squee/act like a bunch of idiots. I sort of wish I had my own circle of anime-loving, loud, occasionally idiotic friends when I was younger. Because teenagehood is the best time for you to be “free” and make fools of yourselves all you want. Now that I’m older, I feel like I’m missing out on that opportunity.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling. Hope you get at least something positive out of your participation at the con.