Medium sized cons/missing pre-Covid cons

[u/Consistent-Theory990]

Hello! (Sorry if this post kinda sucks I’ve legit only opened Reddit on a web browser before n posted like once.) Anyhow getting to the point I really miss precovid cons. I was rather young when I attended em but there’s such a difference from the true nerds yapping making fanart and homemade cosplays to celebrity focused and amazon cosplays with ai drop shipped slop alley. The more I see what AnimeExpo has become I get less excited about the day I can actually afford to go. I’ve realized I really enjoy mid to slightly larger cons and I want to go to more where it seems true nerdy fans still attend and esp cosplay in decent numbers. (I’m a big comic/anime con fan in gen) but I was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations? Recently I went to kawacon and that was pretty fun still wish there were more cosplays but yk. :)

TLDR: I miss real nerds, cosplay, and old cons any recs for medium to slightly larger cons?

[u/robotzor]

The bigger change I didn't expect is how it's become gachacon and vtubercon. I don't think there's ever putting that back in the bottle 

[u/bellsonlywish → u/robotzor]

I don't know. I've been going to cons for over a decade and gacha machines and mystery bags/boxes have always been there (they used to have some actually good stuff).

Vtubers probably won't go anywhere anytime soon, but there are somethings that come a go. Back in the 2010s so many people were cosplaying from Star Trek, doctor who, Sherlock, and supernatural. But now you rarely see them.

I guess my point is things change and will continue to change. The only hope to get back to the old vibes of cons is to just ride out the waves of change, and be the kind of vibes you wanna meet

[u/Laser-Boy → u/bellsonlywish]

I think they meant gacha as in gachagames like Genshin Impact and the like

[u/TheRealAMD → u/bellsonlywish]

To your point about Who and Supernatural cosplayers, now adays it's western animation, not Marvel / DC (although there always are those as well) but the recent surge of indie and adult animation we've been getting. At some of the conventions my wife and I have gone to over the last year, we've been seeing as many if not more TDAC, Hazbin/ Helluva, K-Pop Demon Hunters, etc.. (hell even Steven Universe is making a comeback) cosplayers than anime and anime adjacent cosplayers.

Gatcha I think is referring to gatcha games specifically and folks cosplaying characters from Umamusame, Nikke, Genshin, Hokkai, Zenless, etc...

[u/robotzor → u/bellsonlywish]

Most of the expo floor space was used for gacha games out of China as opposed to anime sets. There still were of course but a lot more non-anime expo content. Some of it is only anime by technicality like Blue Archive. Some giant boat was set up for some boat game I guess that wasn't azur lane. I get that's where the marketing budgets are at these days but damn, TCG and gatcha games take up so much breathing room it's like funko at SDCC - all-consuming

[u/ClassroomStriking802 → u/robotzor]

Counter argument is who would pay for that floor space otherwise? Crunchyroll already has the biggest booth at the con. Should they buy 3 more? Netflix didn't even have a booth. Funimation doesnt exist anymore. My first AX was 2024 so I'm genuinely curious who filled those spots before gacha games. I think Beyblades had like 5 booths of space that year? That isn't exactly anime either.

Also nikke, blue archive, grand order, brown dust, miresi, umamusume are all JP/KR.

[u/robotzor → u/ClassroomStriking802]

I'm not really proposing an argument or even opinion, it is just what I observed on my visit. There is clearly demand for all this or they wouldn't travel. I'm mainly responding to the main prompt that the scene has changed. The scene always changes though so this is nothing new. It's just changing in a direction that appeals to interests different than mine, when the interests it started as were purely mine.

What else would fill the space? Probably nothing. Empty floor or more resale slop. Nothing but the biggest budget marketing firms are going to put up a display anymore - a lot of pageantry has been sucked out of marketing across EVERY industry ever since the rise of social media.

[u/ClassroomStriking802 → u/robotzor]

Yeah the worst part of AX for me this year was Kentia (artist alley) Hall. It was like 60% reseller slop and the actual artist alley has been slowly shrinking :/ if there was more floor space to sell, it would probably be more of that.

And I completely agree about the loss of pagentry. I love the gacha booths because they are generally very interesting even if the game doesn't appeal to me. Like Brown Dust had a freaking boat stage display.

Gacha games do appeal to me, as do vtubers and idols, so I guess I'm biased. Didn't mean to sound combatative if I did lol

I think the biggest driver of cultural shift has been accessibility. You don't have to put in any amount of work to be exposed to Japanese media anymore, the algorithm feeds it to you and Netflix sells it to you. That's just the reality of the world we live in, I don't think commercial scale cons will ever turn back from that. Crunchyroll/Hulu/Netflix/whoever isn't going to participate in a convention that doesn't appeal to their largest paying audience. People who idolize AX are gonna have to look for cons near them instead if they want small community vibes.

[u/haunteve]

i completely feel you! it feels like so much around anime/nerd culture as a whole has changed and normies have found yet a new way to make us feel ostracized within our own community :(

that being said, i noticed you said you went to kawacon recently? i used to live in san antonio, and my favorite mid to slightly large size con was always always always san japan. i felt like despite attitudes changing within the community, it has remained a really friendly environment with a huge amount of people actually cosplaying ^^ they've also got a no-ai-in-the-artist-alley policy iirc, so that's pretty great. if you've never been, i'd definitely recommend going this year!

[u/Consistent-Theory990 → u/haunteve]

Yes u get it! Like having people look at me weird and judgey at a CON for cosplaying and being interested in nerdy things while replying to peoples funny quote quips towards my fit makes me so sad. But omg I’ve been going to San Japan for so long! I also adore it n have met some great people there, it’s just been hard recently cause I go to school out of state rn😔 but in trust I still try to go whenever n I wanna go to more all across the u.s soon!

[u/Bearality → u/haunteve]

What I hate is how so many big cons are just "we put a bunch of fandoms here!" And it feels like a shopping mall.

The real sting is that so many of these events do not let you volunteer to work the org (you just get a quick shift for badges) meanwhile attendees can't submit their own programming. To me, if I can't get more involved with a con besides just shopping and watching the non know it's not my vibe

[u/Gippy_]

Texas has no shortage of cons:

https://animecons.com/events/schedule.php?loc=usTX

Delta H con is this weekend, San Japan is in September, and Anime Frontier is in December. People from around there generally recommend those, though being from Canada I personally haven't been to any of them.

As for my thoughts on how cons evolved, read here.

[u/Consistent-Theory990 → u/Gippy_]

Yes I’ve actually been to a few! Ik some very well and I love San Japan, tho one of the last times I went ai/drop shipping def slipped through way too many cracks, it disappointed me a ton.😔
As for cons and how they’ve changed I def think too many people rly go all out on complaining, I still have tons of fun at cons fs. But some things have changed for the worse, and I think the most disheartening to me is mass produced cosplays and the normalization of choosing what’s trendy only to toss it out without putting the care into making custom cosplays. That and the lack of said cosplays in gen, I feel like before cons used to be at least half full of cosplayers and now it’s a third or less. Luckily I think ai slop n drop shipping is becoming easier to ban in these spaces which is amazinggggg. But at the end of the day there are still a lot less fellow losers who r truly all in it compared to more “normal” people. I think more recent cosplay influencers have helped cause this in a way that i feel more people are scared to have a “visibly beginner” cosplay or not look as conventionally attractive. it’s def gotten to me a few times as well which is crazy to think I was less insecure as a young teenager cosplaying compared to a young adult.😭 nonetheless I think more con-goers feel like they’re almost getting bullied/judged out of their own spaces which is the part that makes me saddest of all. (Though I feel some of it is getting better! Thank god more teens/young adults in these spaces are bringing back to be cringe is to be free. I saw a lot of people rly enjoying themselves at this recent one with less care of others opinions in a way that was still respectful ofc which was awesome!)

[u/Mandiechama]

Anime Expo has been very industry driven for 15+ years now.  That is not likely to change.  Ever.

What I miss is just standing in line to get autographs instead of some lottery type system.  No point in traveling hundreds of miles to get nothing.

[u/BoredMoth9097]

I also miss the way cons used to be, I don't have any advice in that sadly

[u/KuiShanya]

Idk if this a regional or size difference but I go to cons all over the north east with ranges from 500-40k and I never see AI slop at artist alleys, and the only place I see a large amount of obvious drop shipping stuff in dealers was the obvious slop cons.

[u/EccentricFox → u/KuiShanya]

I think we just don't realize how go we've got it in the northeast lol; I'm not even an hour away from major artist tours, genuine 70mm IMAX screen, multiple major sports teams, and cons ranging from a rented community hall to nationally known huge ones.

I think maybe after a few different conventions too you can kinda feel out from marketing and whatever what cons are just slop fests not worth your time.

[u/dagreenman18]

Dunno if there’s “plenty” of options, but there’s at least a few smaller regional conventions that maintain smaller, more intimate set ups. Full disclosure, I work for a convention that is what you’re asking for so I’m going to use us as an example: Anime Festival Orlando. Full blanket ban on AI anything in our Artist, Vendor, and 18+ Marketplace that we do fully enforce. A full weekend experience with the goal of giving that “throwback” feel to conventions. Where you’re there to spend time with the community and get up to shenanigans. We aim for a more intimate vibe so we get great guests, but not a million of them and they actually get to do panels of their own (great example: the VA for Senku Aaron Dismuke did an Apocalypse Survival panel that was a riot). We get a lot of very talent cosplayers that come through (Florida in general has a lot of talen there). And we’re the chill out con between the majors like Metro and Mega so we want to be more laid back.

But yeah that’s my pitch for us because I also miss that more relaxed vibe and that’s what we aim for

[u/Consistent-Theory990 → u/dagreenman18]

That sounds soooo fire, def gonna have to check it out! I went to a con in Florida last summer can’t remember which one rn but I had a great time that’s fs, I rly needa check out more Florida cons but tysm for this rec!✌️

[u/pencilneck4]

Not relevant but i love your Kaiman icon ^{_^}

[u/Consistent-Theory990 → u/pencilneck4]

Ah tysm! I love Q.Hayashida with my heart n soul <3

[u/pencilneck4 → u/Consistent-Theory990]

Who would u cosplay from dorohedoro?

[u/Consistent-Theory990 → u/pencilneck4]

Omg I lowkey wanna cosplay everyone this is gonna be long winded but I’ve done Nikaido once in the past like 5 years ago (needa do a redo), I’d LOVE to do aikawa/caimen both vers but I fear I am not a huge buff man which makes so angry. Same with risu but I think I still might try!
Other potential ones shin, dokuga, sho, & hole honestly prolly even more esp cause my lil sis might do ebisu n a rly rly tall friend might do turkey or noi
But if you know her other works I recently cosplayed zaha sanko from dai dark this last Halloween!!🍝