Soapbox: Local Conventions Aren’t For Otaku
by otaking on Aug.11, 2009, under Soapbox
Everybody has an opinion. This is mine.
Let me tell you a story.
Several years ago, I was part of a local alliance of gamers, who aimed to evangelize the glories of tabletop role-playing games to as many people as possible. Debates raged about bringing RPGs into the mainstream, what events to hold to reach a wider audience.
I did not agree with any of these initiatives. And I still don’t today. Because tabletop RPGs are a niche hobby, and they always will be.
The current conventions, whether they’re ostensibly comic or cosplay or anime or toy conventions, are all fine for what they really are — platforms for mainstream marketing. That’s right. They aren’t for the otaku, the hardcore fans of whatever genre we specialize in. Cosplay contests are for the non-otakus, who invariably vote for the flashiest costume or the ones they recognize from whatever movie-remake-of-an-80s-cartoon-they-never-actually-watched-religiously just came out. Comic cons focus on superheroes that have Hollywood blockbusters under their belt. Anime conventions focus on whatever is on network TV. And why not? The sponsors all want to market to as many people as possible, and the organizers want to sell as many tickets as they can. Well-known scene celebrities become shills for commercial purposes, and the disgruntled hardcore fans usually do nothing but sputter furiously from the dark moldy corners.
I repeat: Local conventions aren’t for Otaku.
Think about Akiba itself for a moment. Every Sunday, they close off the main street and people who want to show up in costume simply do so. No contests, no shows for the pointing-and-laughing public, just people who like dressing up hanging out with other people who like dressing up.
The indie comic creators were marginalized at the Metro Comic Con 2009 because it wasn’t for them. It was for the general public. They, bless their otaku hearts, are people passionate enough to create something they want to share with other people — and they want to share with people who care about the craft as much as they do. Real fanatics. Real otaku. These people want a Comiket, not a marketing platform for cellphones and bland remakes.
Someday we’ll be brave enough to have really focused cons, like a Star Trek Con for real Trekkies, or a Firefly Con for real Browncoats, or even a Cosplay Con where people who aren’t in costume aren’t allowed to come in and make fun of the real cosplay otaku. Real conventions where people who aren’t ‘with it’ simply have no place. Someday we won’t pander to the monoculture, hoping that one day drawing comics for a living or dressing up as anime characters or rolling polyhedrons will be as socially acceptable as knowing which celebrity is pregnant with so-and-so baby. You know, stuff that matters to the mainstream, to the people who worry about ‘common sense’ and ‘appealing to a broader audience’. To the NOT US.
But until then, we’ll be like gourmets who have nowhere to eat except fast food joints. We’ll be at conventions that bear the names of our hobbies but have no place for us, that don’t want us there. We’ll be coming to events that are supposed to foster the sense of community with people who share our interests, and wonder why we don’t know anyone there.
So. What are we going to do about it?
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Metro Comic Convention 2009 Event Report | magnetic-rose.net
August 11th, 2009 on 5:01 pm[...] truly call themselves a comic book convention. For more views on the recently-concluded MCC, read: Local Conventions Aren’t for Otakus by PROJECT OTAKING. AKPC_IDS += "3803,";Related PostsAugust 7, 2009 — Comics, Indies, and Cosplay [...]
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OtaGonzo: Cosplay Mania 2009 Part I - Project Otaking
September 16th, 2009 on 12:48 pm[...] considering the resistance my opinions have sometimes encountered, I was bracing myself for a battle. People had gone so far as to warn me of possible [...]
August 11th, 2009 on 4:03 pm
I agree with you 100 and 10%
August 11th, 2009 on 4:09 pm
Conventions here lack focus and are not made for the target audience. As you stated, its’ for the genral public. It’s more commercial than it is about the fandom of that convention. It’s more about making money than pleasing the otaku who actually are expecting a celebration of their fandoms.
Komikon (the one held in UP) is more of a comics convention that Metro Comic Con was. At least there, I could see it as a celebration of comic books, artists, publishers, and even a celebration of comic fans. Metro Comic Con felt like one big merchant toy fair to be completely honest.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:24 pm
I know what you mean. Komikon at UP was much better at promoting comics, even if it wasn’t as slick a package. Heck, I met my artist there! Plus I didn’t itch.
August 12th, 2009 on 12:00 am
On the side of the comic artists, I’ve heard horror stories of red tape trying to stop them from well… selling and getting their work out there. Namely, a disproportion of square foot space to price and cramming them all in basically a tiny box, for the heck of it, etc etc.
Basically, maximizing retail and minimizing actual artist production.
August 12th, 2009 on 12:14 am
I know. As Scott McCloud has been saying for years, a lot of middlemen stand between the artist and the reader — but fortunately this is the Internet age
And I have very specific ideas about how to handle my own comic to overcome these inefficiencies.
And vying for a tiny portion of shelf space isn’t part of it. Not when I can make the sellers come to me, instead.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:14 pm
I agree that a so-named Comics Convention that doesn’t actually feature comics is very sad and probably also counts as false advertising.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:29 pm
It’s not just the Metro Comic Con. It’s every single con I’ve attended since returning to the scene with the exception of Komikon, and the last one barely passes. Each one seems to be pandering to the mainstream instead of allowing true fans to congregate with other true fans.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:35 pm
I was surprised to see non-comic stuff in MCC, I expected a lot of comics but ummm…. moving on, having experienced how conventions are like in Singapore, I have to say that is one convention meant for an otaku.
Here when you go to an anime convention, it’s like saying cosplay competition and I really don’t get the logic behind “registered costrippers”
So what’s the difference between a cosplayer registering for a competition from a registered costripper?
Another note, costrip is a word created by us. In other countries there is no such thing as costrip.
And with all the political drama in the anime community it is really not meant for a REAL otaku. The political drama is mean and derogatory to a point you can sue people.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:40 pm
I really don’t give a crap about the drama anymore. I tried making friends, and one group is just too cliquish to let outsiders in, and the other seems angry and vengeful to the point of becoming shrill echoes of themselves. I just enjoy the fandom itself, and I want to hang out with other people like me. Is this too much to ask? Sometimes it feels like it is.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:25 pm
Local conventions are definitely not for otaku. Otaku operate at a totally different level. That’s why New Worlds has its conventions where people socialize, but the individual groups have their gatherings to have more focused sharing.
A more focused meeting point – that is what I believe the otakus should make for themselves. Otaku need a place with less noise. They may even need subgroups to strengthen their love for a particular genre or title.
The cons are too crowded and noisy even for socializing. Our local cons serve best only as a show-off point, a place to meet new people, trade things, mix a few ideas, expose oneself briefly to some things outside one’s current interests.
After the con has quieted down, it is time for groups to focus inward again.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:33 pm
I agree. We need a closed environment with like-minded people. I still remember the Vampire LARP with Tobie we held IN PUBLIC. That wasn’t such a great idea, although I had fun with the LARP itself. The private ones we held after were much more fun.
Still, the trouble is sometimes otaku focus too inwardly, and the whole point of conventions is to bring isolated but like-minded individuals together.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:40 pm
Hence the balance I suggested. You still need the cons to prevent inbreeding and a love going stale.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:47 pm
But that’s just it — the cons aren’t for the otaku at all. We have no problems turning inward, but we have no outlets for socializing
August 11th, 2009 on 5:32 pm
Then perhaps make a different kind of con, a smaller one, with a list of activities that are not featured in a regular con. No loud music, no sales booths, no cosplay events, no commercial promotions.
Activities can include panel discussions on techniques. The panels can be aimed at cosplayers, budding manga artists, fiction writers, anime makers, 3D animators, RPG groups, miniature wargamers, model-makers, music, etc.
Some of the more mainstream will get bored with such an itinerary but they’re not your target audience.
August 11th, 2009 on 5:59 pm
Actually I was thinking more of just drilling down to one of those genres you mentioned and sticking to that, instead of a potpourri of ‘geek stuff’.
August 11th, 2009 on 7:27 pm
That works. It doesn’t have to have everything. The idea is a more focused event.
August 11th, 2009 on 10:30 pm
That’s kind of what the blog entry says, yeah.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:34 pm
Those are some of the points I have been talking about that leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth after attending a con (to a point I sound like a broken record).
Conventions outside our country allow for people to move about freely, socialize and generally celebrate with others in their own respective fandoms.
Most conventions here are really for show. And I find that gaming events are more in tune than our standard anime cons that look like one big commercial event after another.
August 11th, 2009 on 4:42 pm
The great thing about gaming events is that the people who go there already congregate somewhere — ONLINE, and they’re already united by a common interest — the game itself!
So those events tend to be far more focused and coherent. Maybe other conventions can take a page out of gaming events’ playbook. 
August 11th, 2009 on 6:13 pm
I think in any event room would have to be made for the sponsors. Although it does fall heavily on the organizers to strike a balance between their supposed target market (otaku/fandom) and the groups that gave them the resources needed to run the event.
August 11th, 2009 on 9:56 pm
But I’m not saying we should eliminate sponsors at all. I’m saying we should stop making the sponsors the PRIMARY FOCUS of events. If you’d gone to the comic con, you’d see that the G.I. Joe display was about as large as the entire indie comics section.
August 12th, 2009 on 9:01 am
Hence the balance.
August 11th, 2009 on 6:48 pm
I remember back then when cons used to be for the precious few geeks. There’s a very fuzzy memory I have of a collectibles convention where people were gathered in the smallest Megatrade Hall with tables to showcase their collectibles: comics, cards, figurines, coins, stamps… there were people selling and trading items, some people talking about the new stuff they acquired. I was there with my tiny collection of Magic the Gathering cards hoping to sell off a few I didn’t need and play with some strangers.
Nowadays, you say the word “Convention” and people start to think of one of the larger Megatrade halls jam packed with mainstream shops, a bunch of games being shown and “weirdos in costumes”. All of the cons nowadays seem to be the same thing under a different name. Like you said, cons are just becoming way too mainstream nowadays. Way too mainstream and way too commercialized.
As much as I appreciate them because I can’t pass up food… I do wonder if food sample stalls have a place at a convention. o_oa
August 11th, 2009 on 9:57 pm
You said it. There’s really nothing to make one event stand out from all the others… so what’s the point of attending any particular event at all?
August 11th, 2009 on 10:52 pm
Shin you always say no to free food and I love you that way.
Anyway, those days were gone. Now when you say convention, people hear *kaching* *kaching*
It’s all about the money. I do know that in organizing cons, you also expect something to be returned to you in terms of monetary but if you focus too much on that the true purpose of WHY YOU ORGANIZED A CONVENTION will be muddled ON HOW MUCH WILL YOU EARN FROM IT.
Gone were those days Shin *gets vodka*
August 11th, 2009 on 8:51 pm
In reality, these people who end up organizing conventions wrong, like the way you put it, are basically apathetic folks who blabber corporate babble till the folks start nodding and that’s all that matters to them until they can get back to aping the high street lifestyle.
August 11th, 2009 on 9:58 pm
I know what you mean. Everything edgy and counter-culture eventually gets assimilated by corporate monoculture and churned out as more products to sell to the masses.
But can’t we do anything about it?
August 11th, 2009 on 11:02 pm
What I mean is people not thinking through planning an event concept properly. Notice it’s just cake icing, with a core of… whatever they want. There’s not a wholeness-of-concept, just tacked on. I mean, how long has it been since so many cons were just basically reduced to bands-on-stage and cosplay?
August 11th, 2009 on 11:19 pm
Long enough for me not to remember any, but then I’ve been gone a long time.
August 11th, 2009 on 10:31 pm
It’s weird that “otaku” have conventions. I don’t mean to etymolonazi, but shouldn’t otaku have this urge to stay in their caves? I also don’t mean to generalize “hardcore fans” to be the stay-at-home type. Certainly, there are a few who go out, play sports, date, and do groceries. What I AM pointing out is that to be a “hardcore fan” entails a sort of isolation: “I love Kuroshitsuji MOAR THAN ANYONE.”
Otaku have that sort of environment online already, and if they feel like meeting their demon butler-loving peers (for whatever reason), they can set up meets on their own, WITHOUT the lowly non-demon butler-loving insects milling about in a fire hazard.
Conventions are stores, meeting places, and contests rolled into an always-too-small venue, and that’s pretty much all they are. Personally, I don’t really think things “can be better” because they’re good enough as they are. The people who do not know or just pretend to know TRUE FANDOM (thunderclap) can mill around in their stink and flyer-choked cons all they want. The true fans find their own.
August 11th, 2009 on 10:37 pm
Okay. I’m a Firefly hardcore fan. I know the episodes by heart (it’s not hard since there are so few) and I can sing the theme song from memory. For some reason this doesn’t make me want to isolate myself in the secure knowledge that no one is more Firefly than I am. In fact, it makes me want to find other people who share this level of love for Firefly.
Yes, cons are stores. But those are just the cons we see all the time. So I disagree with you on this, quite deeply. I think things can be much better than they are. We just don’t see it. And no one can make it better but us.
August 11th, 2009 on 10:47 pm
But can’t you find the Firefly fans online? Heck, I’m pretty sure you’ll find a YoSaffBridge fansite out there, and maybe you can find a YoSaffBridge fetishist in Manila. Why mill through cons?
I used to enjoy going to cons, and I suppose I still do, but not because I want to find other fans for my fandom. I go because there are cosplayers of varying degrees of pwedeness, and freebees. Or something. Not to find other people who can identify Magic: the Gathering artists by card (actually, I can’t do this anymore). Yes, there’s potential for Con Nirvana, but maybe it already exists, just not in the politics-swamped affairs we’re talking about here.
August 11th, 2009 on 10:55 pm
Doesn’t it bother you that we can’t find it, then? Is Con Nirvana so exclusive that people who want to find it can’t because otaku are simply shut-ins by nature?
You’re right. Maybe it exists, but we aren’t part of it, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I won’t wait for it to find me, and I want to find the other people who feel the same way.
I don’t want to mill through cons. I don’t think that’s what I was saying. I want cons that work for otaku, and I don’t mind making the effort to make it happen. Even if it’s just emailing the YoSaffBridge club for a get-together at Starbucks.
August 11th, 2009 on 11:02 pm
Ah. I get it now. Let’s make it happen, then. Let’s change just a bit of it.
August 11th, 2009 on 11:08 pm
Yes, a little bit at a time.
August 11th, 2009 on 11:16 pm
Yes, even if it’s smaller. The Macrossworld.com guys have been at it for a while and it’s working out *wink wink*
August 12th, 2009 on 12:42 am
Ooh really?
…but I haven’t seen a Macross since Plus… 
August 12th, 2009 on 7:36 am
You simply must watch Macross Frontier, Cliff. Kawamori’s refined his formula to new heights. It’s as much eye candy as it is ear candy as it is mind candy.
August 12th, 2009 on 9:53 am
I recall they just finished having their own con or something a few weeks or months ago.
August 11th, 2009 on 11:03 pm
You obviously have not seen better conventions. Well, honestly… there are. Outside of… the Philippines.
Another thing is that marketing, it seems, most of the time, by those apathetic folks aren’t too skilled at dealing with very targeted audiences and just go for “how do we spin this for run-of-the-mill folks (who won’t honestly turn up much profits for us save for ticket sales)?”
August 12th, 2009 on 1:48 am
I’ve heard of these fabled good cons from distant shores. I’ve always thought they just pushed off because there are enough geeklings–many of whom have JOBS (gasp)–to feed the cons with enough income and allowing them to go all awesome (Section R-2 is for the YoSaffBridge Club and N-12 for the Orphaned Dinosaurs of Wash Club).
So maybe it is, in part, an economics thing. If the people behind the cons weren’t so desperate to, uh, not go poor, maybe they could do awesome stuff as well.
August 12th, 2009 on 5:46 am
A component of the success involved is the volunteered manpower, with incentive.
August 12th, 2009 on 12:52 am
Comiket pl0x~
August 13th, 2009 on 1:56 am
I don’t know. I haven’t gone to a lot of cons, but shouldn’t a con of a particular theme be organizes under said theme’s context? What I’m trying to say is that they shouldn’t be too diverse. The theme should stand out. Just my two cents.