Practically the only character I recognized, Princess Peach in all his glory.
My friends Shannnon (as Cloud from Final Fantasy on the left) and Shaun (Zak from something, on the right)
No idea - help, Patrick?
the lobby of the hotel, shock.
So I went to the Anime conference in St. Louis this past weekend for a bit, to see my friends Shannon and Shaun, who were in town for it. It was stunning. Subcultures fascinate me, especially high-school ones. Every high school I've been involved with or been around has had a group of Anime-enthusiasts, and I want to learn more about it. Here's what I learned from this weekend:
- the sense of community at these things is huge, people yell out the name of the character you cosplayed as and hug you.
- 'Anime' is kind of an umbrella term that includes Star Wars, gaming of all types (there was a Guitar Hero battle room), 'goth' culture, and everything Japanese.
- Shannon told me that the age demographic for Anime conventions has shifted dramatically down in the last decade, from people in their 30s and up to now mostly high school.
- This subculture is mostly caucasian.
I'm 1 for 2 on this one. Zak is from Final Fantasy 7, as for the cat thing... I recognize it, but no dice on what it is.
ReplyDeleteOh, and they're basically identical characters. In Cloud's amnesia he takes on Zak's back story. IT's quite complicated... but it's funny the twins chose those characters.
ReplyDeleteI love cons. I'm not really into anime (although my brother and sister are, and were cosplaying this past weekend at a con in Chattanooga), but I love going to Harry Potter cons, I loved going to the midnight book releases and talking to random people about who we thought was going to die, which characters we loved, who we 'shipped, etc.
ReplyDeleteI loved that other people were as enthusiastic about it as I was. I was sad when the series ended, not just because it was Harry Potter and it was over, but also because it was so cool to be able to start a completely random conversation with someone solely because they were dressed up as your favourite character from your favourite series.
your princess peach looks similar to former snl member Jeff Richards as Drunk Girl.
ReplyDeletei concur. drunk girls/jeff richards.
ReplyDelete