[STVO]

Jeff, on 01 May 2012 - 03:21 AM, said:

I am of the opinion that there should be only a single rave. The crowd these things tend to draw in is not very wholesome for what you've always referred to as a family friendly convention.

I disagree about doing only one rave but I do agree that they aren't family friendly. You know what else isn't family friendly? Yaoi/yuri/hentai/people getting their intestines ripped out/PedoBear cosplays/the Human Centipede cosplay/etc. If Acen was really a family friendly con, it would only show anime, have panels related to, etc. to anime rated PG-13 (may have to knock it down to PG) or lower.

Honestly, they need to drop that mindset IMO or at least make daytime family time and have night time be for the older crowd. ACen will attract a non family crowd, not only because of the raves, but the anime related content too. Again, aside from my gripes posted in another thread (cap on Chris Sabat, this year's unenthusiastic karaoke panels, and the Crystal Ball not being worth $25) ACen was awesome for me. Also, I thought while yeah there were some non-anime panels, they still had plenty of them and I went to the Mortal Kombat martial arts panel and though it was well done. C2E2 had two stand up comedians at the end of the con Saturday night that were hilarious and didn't do any comedy related to comics. I don't think me or several others cared. Also let's not use the "it's also known as an Entertainment Expo" excuse, you know most people consider it primarily comics, lol

[Molly Mae]

If anyone thinks Anime Central (or any anime convention) should be solely anime, they have a good lesson to learn in the way conventions work. As a general rule, any convention's general theme will make up about 50% of the actual content, 25% very similar/related content (manga and Japanese culture, in this case), 25% other geek content (board gaming, sci-fi, fantasy). Dragon*Con, Gen Con, Geek Kon, Daisho, ComicCon, GateCon... Conventions of all size roughly follow this demographic (if you don't believe me, check the programming guides for any of the previously listed conventions). The larger the con gets, the rougher the demographic gets mostly to introduce new interests.

If you want to separate out the things that you don't enjoy because you don't attend them or support them, good for you. You're probably the kind of person who would then complain that everything you like is at the same time.

So let's nitpick. What would be cut?

Death Note Mafia? It's anime themed, but mafia/werewolf is a game that isn't really anime.
Soap Bubble? I really have no idea why this is even here, I'll admit, and it probably is the biggest headache/cause for concern. Definitely shouldn't have trumped the Masquerade.
Lolita? Not anime
Manga? Not anime (sorry, you can't pick and choose--that makes you whiny).
Tabletops? Gone.
Video Games? Gone.
Most of the artists? Gone.
Learning to play Go? Gone.
Bristol Booth? Gone.
Comic Panels, artists, Steve Horton? Gone.
Many of the vendors? Not all gone, but severely limited on what they can sell. But a lot of them gone, yes.
Boffer (if there is still one)? Gone.


Go through the panel programming this year. If it's about anime (whether you like the anime or not), highlight it. Otherwise, black it out. You'll find a good portion still about anime (more than any other geek subculture). But haters gonna hate, regardless of what happens.

[Ohki]

Maybe I'm biased because I cosplayed from My Little Pony this year, but quite frankly I think it's absurd to whine about what people choose to cosplay. It sounds an awful lot like wanting ACen to have a dress code to me. "You can't cosplay from that, it isn't Japanese!" is an absurd mentality, quite frankly. It honestly isn't any different to me than people wearing normal clothes including a shirt for a Western fandom, like all of the Wicked shirts I see throughout the weekend (it always thrills me to see so many, Wicked is such a good musical). At the end of the day, how is my choosing to dress up as Applejack instead of an anime character any different from someone choosing to wear their Adventure Time shirt instead of an anime shirt? But you would never complain about a congoer in an Adventure Time shirt, would you? So why are you complaining about what someone chooses to cosplay?

Quite frankly, I kind of disagree with this complaint overall. I do agree that some anime cons are losing focus on anime and I do agree that it isn't a good thing, but I don't think it's happening at ACen. Yes, we have a lot of Homestuck and MLP cosplayers, but I saw quite a few of said cosplayers attending plenty of anime-related events. I'm looking at the schedule book now, and these are the only non-anime related panels and such that I'm seeing: Oregon Trail, a handful of comics creation panels from a couple guests, Vic Mignogna and Todd Haberkorn's Star Trek panel, the belly dancing panel, the game mastery for tabletop RP panel, can town, lightsaber 101, the Halo panel, how to convert your friends into steampunk, the Homestuck panel, the light toy panel, the webcomics panel, and the Mass Effect panel. Everything else was relevant on some level from what I can see, and that's only 13 different irrelevant topics, and not many more individual panels. Considering how many events there were over the weekend and how much space we have, that is NOT a significant amount IMO.

As for the masquerade, yes it sucks that it got canceled, but honestly? Just as many people look forward to the Soap Bubble every year as the masqerade. Who's to say why else they're here? Sure, some people only care about the rave, but there are plenty of people like me, too, who adore the rave and look forward to it, but spend most of the weekend doing anime-related things.

I think there was plenty of anime related stuff in the dealers room, too. I'm not going to look at the program guide to count things out specifically like I just did with panels, but the majority was definitely still anime related. I see no problem with there being some non-anime related booths in there, too. Like with panels, there's plenty of space.

I think the con is still more about anime and Japan than anything else. I have seen other cons slip to the point of it being a general fandom convention instead of an anime convention, but I don't feel that ACen has at all.

[ToughTurtles]

I too may be biased, as I cosplayed someone from Homestuck on Saturday. Nevermind my Pokemon cosplay on Friday...

The idea that someone should be barred from cosplaying purely because that fandom does not originate from Japan is a little absurd, don't you think? Even complaining about it is a bit absurd. I've been going to ACen for about 6 years now. EVERY year I've attended, I've seen cosplays that weren't from an anime or manga, but I didn't bat an eyelash at it. Stormtroopers. Comic book characters. American cartoons, which are some of the most popular, given the nostalgia factor. Yes, this year there was a HUGE abundance of MLP and Homestuck cosplayers. But what single cosplayer would know this would happen? Given it was my first convention since getting into Homestuck, and cosplaying HS, how would I know there would be HUNDREDS of them? You wouldn't notice if there were maybe twenty HS cosplayers, but because it was popular, MLP and HS are now looked down upon? I can tell you, getting spit on and yelled at because of your cosplay is a terrible thing.

Despite being in my HS cosplay, every piece of swag I bought was anime/manga related. I got tons of Oreimo and Madoka and Kuroshitsuji and others. I went to anime panels, or at least tried to, since a lot were cancelled...

I still go to ACen because of my love of anime and manga. It is still Anime Central to me. I will continue to do so, and the thought of not going because a majority of the cosplayers are from My Little Pony never crossed my mind. I'm glad for a variety of panels. I may not like a popular anime series, so I'm glad there's other programming I can look to. While I like the idea of the Masquerade, I have never gone, and yet have gone to Soap Bubble repeatedly. Yes, it was absurd, hearing that the Masquerade got cancelled in favor of Soap Bubble... Soap Bubble could go until 7 in the morning and the people there wouldn't care, haha.

Regardless, I am rambling. You cannot penalize a group of cosplayers or fandom because it's popular. People never cared about the Adventure Time, or Star Wars, or Doctor Who cosplayers before. They carried out anime/manga swag from the Dealer's Hall/Artist's Alley, so they're there for an anime/manga related purpose. I'm sorry I'm of a darker complexion and thus don't fit many anime characters, and covering myself with grey paint is perfect for me, but don't judge me based on what I cosplayed as, assuming I'm not going to find me my Kirino figure.

[STVO]

A large portion of my friend's that I have introduced this con to either aren't hardcore anime fans or aren't anime fans, period. I meet people at the con who are friendly and have good interests some like anime, some don't. Honestly, conventions grow because of variation. If they decided next year "Hey let's make this anime only, screw you guys" the attendance would drop by A LOT! Sure some die hard fans would be happy, but it would go back from being at Hyatt and multiple hotels to the smaller location (or similar) it had in Arlington Heights. I guarantee it!

Now if they decide to add professional sports panels, reality television panels, sitcom panels, or as much as I like this one, WWE related stuff, then we can start bringing out the torches and pitch forks.

[Washu Takahashi]

STVO, on 01 May 2012 - 12:03 AM, said:

Crystal Ball was pretty disappointing in how it was set-up, I'll give you that. They really shouldn't have charged for the event IMO unless they got a live band or maybe got you a steak or some other fancy dinner.

Before I say anything else, I just wanted to point out I will GLADLY pay $25 to get into a dance with older, more mature people that isn't a bunch of pre-teen wannabe ravers and drunks. While I wasn't very pleased with the music selection, overall I had a great time and loved that it was small and fun and not overcrowded. And the dress standard was a bit lower than I thought it would be :/

Now on to other things. In terms of cosplayers/attendees, I would hate if it was like "oh, you can't cosplay unless it's anime!!" personally, I've always cosplayed anime characters, but I love getting to see the Disney characters and other random things people come up with. The vast amount of Doctor Who people (though not as many as last year) and Homestucks and Ponies and Adventure Time was a bit annoying, since they're not fandoms I'm in, but they were very popular even with the anime cosplayers, and like everything else, they'll slowly die out and become less popular. (Remember the year of the Narutos? And the year of Death Note? Yeah...)

As far as panels go, everything seemed pretty anime related to me. And all of the guests were anime related too.

Now, let's get into the music and fashion shows. Personally, I didn't go to the LM.C concert. But from what I heard they're a Japanese band and this was their ONLY stop in the USA. How is a Japanese band not filled with Japanese culture that you're all moaning and complaining about wanting? Maybe it's not the culture you want to see, but it's culture nonetheless. As for the fashion shows, again, they're Japanese. I modeled in the H&A show and attended the Sixh Opera. Both shows showed what's fashionable in Japan right now. These were international guests that we never would have met any other way (or at least the vast majority of us wouldn't have) Again, I feel that this showed Japanese culture, which is what you all say you want.

And lastly, the raves. Oh, the raves...I attended one, one year, for like 30 minutes. Crowded and unpleasant in my opinion, and no way would I wait in line for it again. THIS has no Japanese culture in it. Maybe if they started having DJs that only played anime themes or really popular Japanese songs it would be more relevant. I've never personally attended the masquerade, but it was completely wrong to cancel something that's a staple in many anime conventions for a rave. But if Acen cancels this rave altogether there will be a HUGE backlash. I honestly don't think they could do that without seriously hurting the con and its attendance. However, I agree that we don't need more than one, and that it should be located somewhere else. Maybe they could have two dances going on at the same time in different locations? One to focus on Japanese music, and another just for the partiers. That way the crowds would be split some and could possibly fit somewhere else besides the grand bsallroom. I'm not sure if this would be possible with the space we have, but it's a beter alternative to all of you saying "get rid of it entirely" Cause for every 1 of you there's at least two ravers who'd raise hell if it was gone. (And again, I don't even go to the raves, so I'm an unbiased party here.)

[Gabichox]

magicreaver, on 01 May 2012 - 04:37 AM, said:

As a fan of LM.C, they really have no conection to anime.

.........../heavy sigh/ No. Just no.
Oh my Juliet - Ending for Red Garden
Boys and Girls & 88 - openings for Hitman! Reborn
Hoshi no Arika & The Love Song - openings for Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan 2nd season

I'm tired of people saying LM.C has nothing to do with anime when they have been doing anime openings and endings for a while now. Fans should know this too.

Also, guys, please don't lump in Hardcore Synergy with the Soap Bubble. The DJs play anime and game j-core mixes. It has more of a place than the soap bubble. :I

[opimus.rm]

[quote name='STVO' timestamp='1335888418' post='1078042']
A large portion of my friend's that I have introduced this con to either aren't hardcore anime fans or aren't anime fans, period. I meet people at the con who are friendly and have good interests some like anime, some don't. Honestly, conventions grow because of variation. If they decided next year "Hey let's make this anime only, screw you guys" the attendance would drop by A LOT! Sure some die hard fans would be happy, but it would go back from being at Hyatt and multiple hotels to the smaller location (or similar) it had in Arlington Heights. I guarantee it!


That would make me very happy.

This post has been edited by opimus.rm: 01 May 2012 - 10:47 AM

[STVO]

opimus.rm, on 01 May 2012 - 10:46 AM, said:

That would make me very happy.

The ACen head and MAPS wouldn't . Good luck though.

Also Washu, dress standard was low. Are you dissing my TwoFace? ;D

[Washu Takahashi]

STVO, on 01 May 2012 - 11:17 AM, said:

The ACen head and MAPS wouldn't . Good luck though.

Also Washu, dress standard was low. Are you dissing my TwoFace? ;D

Haha, of course not You were in a tux after all. But for some reason I thought I read wigs wouldn't be allowed, not sure if that was right or not, and there were just some people who didn't quite fit the "formal" title in my opinion. But either way, it was a good time

[rondo]

It's called an anime convention but is it an anime convention? It is, but its not a pure anime con. Those are pretty rare, save for AP and perhaps some other smaller ones. It's more of a fandom con, heavy on the japanese influences.

Have contingency plans for the Masq. Get your panel times nailed down. On time folks, on time.

This post has been edited by rondo: 01 May 2012 - 01:02 PM

[SprinklePuff]

There should be one rave like the ones they have now, and one dance with Japanese/anime/video game music, maybe even a little Kpop. Seriously, why isn't there a dance with anime music at an anime convention?! The very first convention I went to a few years back, Anime Milwaukee, had a dance with anime music. They also had a screen that would play the music videos. It was so fun just to sit and listen/watch.

[Ohki]

Personally I think a better solution re; the Soap Bubble would be to have all of the DJs include at least a couple Japanese or otherwise anime-relevant songs in their sets, rather than doing away with it. Con raves have become almost as much of a staple as the masquerade, and canceling it would be a horrible idea.

Also as an attendee who is primarily here for the anime-related stuff but is a huge fan of the raves as well, I'm kind of sick of seeing people making what happened on Saturday night into masquerade versus Soap Bubble. It's not the Soap Bubble's fault that the masquerade got cut short, it's the jerk with the fire extinguisher's fault. Blame him, not the other event. The Soap Bubble has been here for 14 years. It's not going away. Bashing it because your preferred event won't make it leave.

[rondo]

Let's just hope that the Saturday night pull was an aberration and not a trend (x2 experiencing alarm pulls at the Hyatt). Making sure things hit their times as they are supposed to will allow for some extra flexibility. From what I understand, it was already behind the ball before the pull. That only made things worse.

This post has been edited by rondo: 01 May 2012 - 01:35 PM

[Unka Josh]

Hello My Name Is Bob, on 30 April 2012 - 11:11 PM, said:

I was quite saddened by the lack of an AMV contest as well. Again, I'm a big fan of seeing fan efforts on display. In the last several years, it's seemed to have been increasingly forgotten about and hardly promoted, which is strange considering most of the major cons consider it a fairly respectable event. I should say that I am surprised that it was gone this year, but I'm not. Just another example of audience participation events going down the tubes in favor of this new direction.

As the person responsible, I'd like to address this point. (It's been discussed extensively elsewhere on the forums, but that can certainly get missed.)

Shortly after the end of last year, we lost the entire staff of the AMV department. Literally-- every single person quit.

This put us in a bit of a bind, and we were scrambling to find replacements, but we weren't able to do so.

Finally, it was a month before the convention, and it looked like we wouldn't have an AMV department at all. I said that we had to have one, and if that's what it took, then I'd take the duties on in addition to the normal duties of Video Programming.

This was extremely short notice, to put it mildly. There wasn't time to get a good room, recruiting staff for the purpose had to be done with essentially no time for it at all, we didn't have anyone experienced with AMVs available... we were flailing.

Under the circumstances, the prospects of putting on a good contest were slight, indeed. I could try to throw something together in a few weeks, in the middle of our normal Video Programming crunch time, but it really wouldn't be much of a contest. But there was one group that I wanted to do my best for, above all-- the AMV creators who would be submitting their work to the convention.

Therefore, I went to AMV.org and asked them what they wanted.

And the answer was unanimous and quite clear:

They would rather have no contest at all than a crappy contest.

Therefore, there was not a contest this year.

Next year? Of course there will be a contest, and before Acen even started this year, we started planning it! We have ideas, we have been doing research, we have worked out the starting ideas for systems that will let us give you an awesome contest.

At the very least, we'll do our absolute best.

But what happened this year wasn't because I, or the convention, don't care about AMVs or an AMV contest.

This year's lack of a contest was because I care enough to want to do a better job.

[Sayuri-chan]

Unka Josh, on 01 May 2012 - 01:55 PM, said:

As the person responsible, I'd like to address this point. (It's been discussed extensively elsewhere on the forums, but that can certainly get missed.)

Shortly after the end of last year, we lost the entire staff of the AMV department. Literally-- every single person quit.

This put us in a bit of a bind, and we were scrambling to find replacements, but we weren't able to do so.

Finally, it was a month before the convention, and it looked like we wouldn't have an AMV department at all. I said that we had to have one, and if that's what it took, then I'd take the duties on in addition to the normal duties of Video Programming.

This was extremely short notice, to put it mildly. There wasn't time to get a good room, recruiting staff for the purpose had to be done with essentially no time for it at all, we didn't have anyone experienced with AMVs available... we were flailing.

Under the circumstances, the prospects of putting on a good contest were slight, indeed. I could try to throw something together in a few weeks, in the middle of our normal Video Programming crunch time, but it really wouldn't be much of a contest. But there was one group that I wanted to do my best for, above all-- the AMV creators who would be submitting their work to the convention.

Therefore, I went to AMV.org and asked them what they wanted.

And the answer was unanimous and quite clear:

They would rather have no contest at all than a crappy contest.

Therefore, there was not a contest this year.

Next year? Of course there will be a contest, and before Acen even started this year, we started planning it! We have ideas, we have been doing research, we have worked out the starting ideas for systems that will let us give you an awesome contest.

At the very least, we'll do our absolute best.

But what happened this year wasn't because I, or the convention, don't care about AMVs or an AMV contest.
This year's lack of a contest was because I care enough to want to do a better job.

^I <3 this. As a fan of AMV's I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. I'm looking forward to how this turns out. As for some of the other arguments mentioned here:

-I agree that ACen is losing some of its anime feel. The cosplayers were the main reason that I feel this way, but that's just a personal opinion and letting myself feel affected by it. The massive number of Pony and HomeStuck characters felt almost claustrophobic to me. Its not really anyone's fault, just the sheer number felt overwhelming versus other series/fandoms.

-Hearing that the Masquerade was cancelled because of the rave ticked me off more than I can express in words, and I didn't even attend the Masquerade. I've always felt the rave is a waste of time and space at an anime convention, but it seems popular so I kept my opinion to myself, however, to have the Masquerade cancelled for something that goes until 4am or later anyway is ridiculous. People put their time and energy into the Masquerade - making costumes, skits, and everything else needed to put on a show for the attendees of ACen. They were essentially dumped on because ACen delegated that the rave was more important to start on time. No. Not acceptable. I'd like to hear from whomever made that executive decision to understand what they were thinking. Maybe there's more to this than meets the eye, but until that time, I am just severely disappointed by this.

[Dark Spellmaster]

I'd like to add something, I don't see Anime Central not being about anime. To be honest, a lot of the shows that are out there right now are heavily influenced by Anime. MLP's team were all influenced by the way anime uses face and body movements to give the expressions to the characters and deeper storyline. A lot of Anime is going global now, see Tiger and bunny, for example. I saw mixes of various characters from all over. Is it really a bad thing to mix anime and other geekdoms? Also I should note that most if not all the panels had some connection to Japan and I saw more kids in cosplay and coming this year then I have in a while.

Regarding the dances, best thing to do, I think is to move them to a different hotel, or at least that night moved either the masq or the Soap over to the Hilton to finish it up. I think that's the only way to be fair about this. Agreeing that there needs to be more Japanese music or anime music in general at the raves.

[therobd]

Ohki, on 01 May 2012 - 08:47 AM, said:

and these are the only non-anime related panels and such that I'm seeing: Oregon Trail...

As one of the panelists, I'd like to say that we do try to keep Oregon Trail as anime-focused as we can. We do a playthrough of the game with various challenges determining what choices the contestants make at landmarks. We try to keep those challenges anime and East Asian culture-focused. Some years we have more, and some years we have fewer. "Guess the anime clip" and "Guess what anime this clip is a parody of" are mainstays in each of our playthroughs. This year, we added an anime/tokusatsu fanfiction-related challenge.

We like to ensure that Oregon Trail is as focused on the subject matter of the convention as possible. We realize the panel isn't directly related to anime, and if ACen ever determined that the panel wasn't in line with their core values, we'd have no complaints. I don't believe this is the case, though.

I tend to lean more toward the purist side of this argument. I have no problems with people coming to ACen as Disney princesses or MLP characters. However, I think that ACen should ensure that the bulk of their content relates to Japanese culture in some way, and they do a good job with that. I've never heard of an MLP panel pushing out a niche anime panel.

Should ACen change to become a generic geekery convention? Ultimately, that's for the staff to decide. If they wanted to get maximum attendance, they probably should, but I think its identity and personality would be too diluted. Less is more. There's nothing wrong with a smaller convention with a bigger shared interest among the fans. I don't need to be surrounded by lots of geeks if I have little in common with them.

This post has been edited by therobd: 01 May 2012 - 02:47 PM

[jsieczkar]

Many of the issues that people are bringing up are either not in Acen's control or would backfire on the con
Yes more non-anime related vendors are in the dealers room. The stores that show up are the ones that think that they can turn a profit from being at the con, many pure anime related vendors do not think they can. Anime sales are low and at con sales in many cases simply cannot beat Rightstuf or Amazon.
The inclusion of Fashion and Music guests was not done at the expense of anime guests. The Japanese fashion industry is very excited about the prospects of expanding in the US and are asking to come. The Japanese anime industry is seeing poor US sales are needing to be convinced to come to the US. If we could have convinced a mangaka or Japanese VA to come they would have even with the fashion guests.
On the guest/Industry side there was never any thought of putting fashion or music ahead of anime. We worked with Funimation on the English premier of Panty and Stockings at Acen and hope to have more in the future.
If a person comes to Acen do to H.Naoto, Angelic Pretty, or H&A but maybe they walk away an anime fan after seeing a show or talking to people.

[ATICE]

I was actually walking around the dealer's hall a lot this year, and didn't see a whole lot of anime/asian style booths you know... Like maybe half of the booths had anything to do with anime/cosplay/etc.
I was also really saddened to see NOT A SINGLE booth selling snacks/candy or something, like AsianSnackTime does. Get those guys for next year and put them towards the front. I saw them at freaking c2e2, oddly enough. Why wasn't there any at acen? o_O

This post has been edited by ATICE: 01 May 2012 - 02:51 PM

[Tombolo]

ATICE, on 01 May 2012 - 02:51 PM, said:

I was actually walking around the dealer's hall a lot this year, and didn't see a whole lot of anime/asian style booths you know... Like maybe half of the booths had anything to do with anime/cosplay/etc.
I was also really saddened to see NOT A SINGLE booth selling snacks/candy or something, like AsianSnackTime does. Get those guys for next year and put them towards the front. I saw them at freaking c2e2, oddly enough. Why wasn't there any at acen? o_O

It's my understanding that ACEN isn't allowed to do anything like that because of agreements with venues.

[ATICE]

Tombolo, on 01 May 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

It's my understanding that ACEN isn't allowed to do anything like that because of agreements with venues.

Do you mean the snack/candy booth thing, because I'm pretty sure I saw one last year.

[myrla]

Grand Master Brief, on 01 May 2012 - 01:21 AM, said:

quick fix to all of these problems. Harsh as it seems. anime only photoshoots. Brony and doctor who fan though I am, no more pony shoots, no more homestuck,no more Doctor who, no more steampunk. Panels must be somehow anime or manga related or have something to do with Japan. I have no problem with people cosplaying any of these things, just no photoshoots for them. C2E2 is like 2 weeks before hand, save those things for that, there is now a bronycon in chicago. There are plenty of other places to gather. ACen 2008 was my first ACen and I have to say that this one was the best one since them but I was disapointed that anime and manga seemed to fall out of the spotlight that it rightfully belongs in.

My only anime cosplay last year, I was the only attendee for the photoshoot.

Though I tangentially can argue that both Firefly and Doctor Who have both been animated at some point, so they are technically anime, but not *Japanese* anime.

Quote

As far as restricting panels, I like the idea but that is easier said then done. I feel like videogame panels (at least Japan originated series) do feel appropriate. As far as comics go, not as much, yet there is an japanese anime for Wolverine, Iron Man, and even X-men, so where do you draw the line?

Final Fantasy - Animated, originates in Japan, has had movies made on it, but never on TV. Technically anime? does it belong in a convention? Yes to both, IMO...

I think what is really being said is we're missing the Japanese elements more. This was very.. western-centric. I've been to Otakon, and the best part of Otakon for me (aside from Dir en Grey) was seeing all the webcomics. Their video game room was cool, and there were several great panels, but the cosplayers by in large were -really- sticking to anime and from animated series.

I don't care about dances or raves, so I don't bother with Soap Bubble etc. The Masquerade is always against our panel on Saturday, as an alternative for people who don't get in. two of the three panels I'm otherwise considering revolve around Whedonverse and Dr Who, but I think those would have good attendance here at ACen.

There will always be crossover, but i can agree that it was heavily non-Japan oriented.

This post has been edited by myrla: 01 May 2012 - 03:43 PM

[delial]

Sigh. I'm one of those people that doesn't think ACEN should go through some non-Japanese cultural purging.

I enjoy Acen from the cosplays to the panels (disappointment in the cancellations and sched mess this year aside) right down to the soap bubble. I do agree the Masquerade shouldn't have been cut short in favor of it. And I do rather wonder if what I am dancing to is what Japanese youth is dancing to, because I can also agree to keeping a large part of the con relevant.

People go to acen focusing on various aspects. But you really can't force people to not go "solely" for the Soap Bubble or solely to cosplay Harry Potter.

This post has been edited by delial: 01 May 2012 - 03:46 PM

[Jguy]

Tombolo, on 01 May 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

It's my understanding that ACEN isn't allowed to do anything like that because of agreements with venues.

Indeed. Not speaking 100% officially, but it has been pushed hundreds of times before that vendors/artists are not allowed to sell food due to contracts with the venue(s).

I definitely saw a lot more non-anime cosplays this year, and a lot more non-anime booths (there were 3 different vendors selling dresses/corsets, for example). It's not ALL about anime. Besides Anime Central, what is there to do in Chicago that 20,000 people can show up to and NOT be afraid of being themselves? NOT be afraid of acting like a dork? NOT be afraid of dressing up in something that might be construed as something "not normal" by people who do not share similar interests? Hang out with friends and meet new ones in an environment that is all about things you both love? Yes, it's called Anime Central, but someone else mentioned that that's not all it has to be. Look at Youmacon...they're not 100% about anime, and probably never will be. If we were just about Anime, take out TTG, 80% of the panels...and we've just lost probably 25%+ of our attendee base.

[delial]

Jguy, on 01 May 2012 - 03:46 PM, said:

Besides Anime Central, what is there to do in Chicago that 20,000 people can show up to and NOT be afraid of being themselves? NOT be afraid of acting like a dork? NOT be afraid of dressing up in something that might be construed as something "not normal" by people who do not share similar interests? Hang out with friends and meet new ones in an environment that is all about things you both love?

THIS

[Lina]

Jguy, on 01 May 2012 - 03:46 PM, said:

Indeed. Not speaking 100% officially, but it has been pushed hundreds of times before that vendors/artists are not allowed to sell food due to contracts with the venue(s).

I definitely saw a lot more non-anime cosplays this year, and a lot more non-anime booths (there were 3 different vendors selling dresses/corsets, for example). It's not ALL about anime. Besides Anime Central, what is there to do in Chicago that 20,000 people can show up to and NOT be afraid of being themselves? NOT be afraid of acting like a dork? NOT be afraid of dressing up in something that might be construed as something "not normal" by people who do not share similar interests? Hang out with friends and meet new ones in an environment that is all about things you both love? Yes, it's called Anime Central, but someone else mentioned that that's not all it has to be. Look at Youmacon...they're not 100% about anime, and probably never will be. If we were just about Anime, take out TTG, 80% of the panels...and we've just lost probably 25%+ of our attendee base.

You've got C2E2 and Wizard World.

[Jguy]

Lina, on 01 May 2012 - 03:56 PM, said:

You've got C2E2 and Wizard World.

C2E2 is also more expensive than ACen. I've never been able to navigate Wizard World's site so I can't check their ticket prices.

[Lina]

Jguy, on 01 May 2012 - 04:00 PM, said:

C2E2 is also more expensive than ACen. I've never been able to navigate Wizard World's site so I can't check their ticket prices.

C2E2 is not more expensive. It's roughly the same price. You can even buy one day tickets ahead of time which is amazing! Plus the hotels are way cheaper and they offer free shuttle service.

Wizard World is way more expensive, but you never mentioned anything about price in your original post.

This post has been edited by Lina: 01 May 2012 - 04:07 PM

[therobd]

I think there's something out there for everyone, personally. ACen's an evolving beast. It will never again be what it was the first year you went. No matter who you are, you've changed, and ACen has changed. At the moment, there are smaller anime conventions popping up even around the same area. If you can travel, there are more convention options for you as well.

I'm actually mostly fine with what ACen is, but I've only ever gone for the panels, the video/video game rooms, and the occasional costume from a series I recognize and enjoy. If there isn't a panel for what I want, I'll make one. ACen's gotten much bigger in the last few years, and the anime industry hasn't. There's a disconnect there. There's also less of a shared culture among anime viewers than ever thanks to the abundance of fansubs (not a bad thing in and of itself). If you want a hardcore fan experience for your interest and lots of camaraderie among fans, a big convention probably isn't the place to find it, ACen included.