This series is my occasional countdown to Anime Weekend Atlanta. I’ve done it two or three times with varying levels of success, and I am once again embarking on a quest to spend 100 days writing 100 posts about anime, manga, animation, comics, film, and conventions. We’ll see what happens.
100 Days of Anime 2026
Day 007/100
OP of the Day: “Shiki No Uta” by MINMI from Samurai Champloo (2004)
Currently Watching: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
A century or so ago, I attended my first or second convention. While loitering outside some panel or other, I caught snippets of conversation from a group of very fit men around my age all cosplaying as Spartans à la 300.
The conversation was less than inspiring. They were sneering at the attendees, whispering about how easy it would be to score with the nerdy women present. This was a small, local-ish convention with cheap-ish badges. They were probably from a nearby college. It bothered me for a long time.
Alas, fake gamer girls. Eat your hearts out. The fake nerd boys were all too real.
There’s a lot you could say about that situation, about the predatory nature of their behavior or something long and somewhat contrived about the risks of allowing our precious hobbies to bubble up toward the mainstream.
But many cons later, the thing I think about is how depressingly shallow their experience was. They bought the ticket and didn’t even take the ride.
Growing up very conservative and steadily tracking more and more to the left with time, my first several conventions were a sort of cultural awakening. Anime fandom and fandom in general (fandom, yuck) certainly has a conservative element. There are grognards and gatekeepers and outright bigots out there, but a good convention is a microcosm of humanity in all its infinite and glorious variety.
Every time I hit a con floor, I dip my toes in magic waters. I see people living as themselves in the loudest ways possible and find fellowship with people totally unlike myself.
I wade in as a casual enthusiast alongside people of all stripes. The cause is consumptive, but the effect is an expression of pure passion. Cosplayers and K-Pop enthusiasts, con artists and kinksters. Rowdy, bawdy, strange, and wonderful.
There are people I look for every year at my favorite convention, people I don’t know by name and have maybe at most exchanged pleasantries with, but it is life-affirming to see them across the vendor hall living as themselves year after year.
Anyway, this is an essay to revisit when there’s time for more words. I must away to bed. Until next time.
Note: Here’s a bonus version of “Shiki No Uta.” I stumbled across it on Youtube ages ago.
chasetriesagain.com 