What were cons like pre 2004ish?

Pretty chill. We still had our lolcows, but I found a lot of feats in cosplay more amazing because of the lack of wide-spread materials. There weren't 5 million colors of wigs and worbla readily available. Katie bear tutorials and sharpie dying were like witchcraft.

I also found cons less autstic (granted, I'm a bit aged out now, but if kids are having fun that's good). It was much less competative cosplay-wise, in the fact that you were just excited to see someone cosplaying from whatever series, it didn't really matter if they were missing a wig or construction was kind of shit. Since cosfame wasn't really a thing outside of Yaya or your online fave, there wasn't a ratrace amongest cosplayers. You were simply lucky to find a photo of yourself online in a gallery since everyone had disposable cameras. It all felt more personal to me.
Cons back then were more of a fun and chill Halloween party compared to how cut and polished things are now, as a norm.
That's not knocking on today's cons, because it's honestly pretty amazing how far things have come in the last decade or so.

Pretty amazing, ngl. This might just be the nostalgia talking, but in ye olde day cons were a magical oasis that you pilgrimage to once or twice a year. The conventions themselves were shittier with garbage programming and guests unless you were at one of the huge ones like Otakon, but in the late 90s and early 2000s it was much harder to come by anime merch and videos unless you were in a dealer's room. So it was something to get excited about. It was also harder to meet other weebs and cosplayers in the wild since this stuff wasn't mainstream yet. Most anime cons were smaller too, so it was easy to meet and chat with other nerds, since everyone was so desperate to make friends and have a good time.

It was a really different feel, especially from a cosplay perspective because virtually nobody was dressing up to get famous or take photos were better than potato quality.

>>8722727
Less bitches showing tits

I wasn't old enough to go to any but looking at ancient internet articles some anime conventions had really good guests. Like, directors/producers for animation studios that were aware of anime being a niche hobby and having a really hardcore fanbase in the west. I think they somewhat respected the effort fansubbers and translators used to put into getting their work over here.

Man, things were so different back then. Anime merchandise was really tough to come by outside of cons, so going to the dealer's room was far more exciting and magical than it is today. I remember Border's/Barnes & Noble only had like one bookshelf for manga, so going to a con and seeing so much was fantastic. Anime DVDs cost a ridiculous amount compared to what they go for now--there were a lot of t-shirts that said "Anime: Crack is cheaper!" Now I go to the dealer's room and I feel like nothing's really that fabulous, and I can get it all online anyway..

Cons were obviously also much smaller, which made it seem like it was just a bunch of friends hanging out, even if you'd never met them before. Now everybody's already got a handful of friends they're hanging out with and I don't get as much of a "cons are a great place to meet new friends!" vibe as I did back then.

>>8722770
That sounds great. I went to my first con in 2009, and it was mainly just posing for pictures, snippets of drama, and follow me on [socialmedia]. I went with my bro and bought some cool stuff. Also all the cool weebs from school were there, so there was that.

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>>8722727

If somebody was wearing a costume from [thing], it was safe to assume you could talk at length to them about [thing].

I hate to be all "no true scotsman" on this shit, but if you don't love a series or character or whatever, you shouldn't cosplay it. Like, why are you even going to a con if you don't plan to get into all the stupid nerd shit you can do there? Attention? Normies, reeee, etc.

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>There were no social networking sites, maybe Myspace was just getting started, people posted photos on Cosplay.com, AC Paradise, Cosplay Lab

>There were no digital SLR's, no digital cameras. Cameras were film or disposeable. You got your pics developed and scanned them in.

>If someone took a pic of you with their shitty brand new "cell phone camera" with 1mb file limit it was a fucking waste of your posing time

>No ebay costumes from Asia, everyone made their own costumes

>Wigs came in 12 neon party colors for Halloween, dyeing them was an art form

>Props were shitty-ass dowel-rod and cardboard messes. No such thing as wonderflex, worbla, or giant pieces of EVA foam

>No online stores full of stretch fabric or fabric printing

>No colored contacts for dark eyes (unless you got them through your optometrist, and they were flat colored, unnatural, and $80 per lens)

>Yaya looked like this, and was still considered one of the best cosplayers. That shows how far the quality has come in materials available, construction quality, and photo quality in a short 15 years

Not that different. Majority were still the local virgins trying to get laid.

>>8722832
Way to miss the point. It was socially acceptable back then to go up to a total stranger dressed like you and fangirl about your mutual series, because more often than not, the other person wanted to do that too. Today I have the internet, online groups, my out of con group of friends, my at-con group of friends, etc to get it out of my system; people have shit to do at today's cons - nobody wants to stop for an hour conversation. Most people will say "I love your costume" if you're dressed alike, but you aren't going to soulbond over your mutual love of Goldenboy.

>>8722893
>but you aren't going to soulbond over your mutual love of Goldenboy.
Speak for yourself

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>>8722893
This ties into what >>8722809 was saying about how it's harder to make friends at cons since everyone already has their group.

>>8722832
>>8722893
I was just getting into anime back then, and at the time I knew in good faith that any other anime fan I talked to would be really into it, like every other person had a higher powerlevel than me. Can't really do that these days, even with all the resources that are available. What gives? What happened?

>>8722838
I still don't understand how Yaya managed to fit all that plastic inside her small tits. Wouldn't it stretch the fuck out of the skin?

>>8722905
It's not a matter of people being "lesser fans" than you, dude. You are not the Master Fanboy here,. Anime is now mainstream, so there is no need to flip shits when you find someone else who's into it.

That and most people are no longer newcomers to the scene so it loses some of its shininess. Although you can still see some of the old attitude and blind excitement within the "con cancer" fangroups... as much shit as people give Homestuck, Hetalia, Sports Animu, etc, they are far and away closer to early 2000s mentality than anything else.

>>8722920
I probably worded it wrong. It's not the fact that people are "lesser fans" than me, if there is such a thing, I'm stuck on how hard it is to strike up a conversation about anime stuff with people despite anime being so mainstream these days.

>>8722927
I feel like back in ye olden times, because there was less anime around for consumption, people normally watched the same things - the same is still true, there's still popular anime, but there's such a wide range of anime you have no idea what that person is going to like. Mecha? Slice of life? Horror? etc. I remember going to a con and being able to have long ass conversations to strangers about Inuyasha because everyone watched it. I can't say that about more recent shit. Even really popular stuff has a set of fans, there's less over-reaching all-encompassing stuff.

>>8722927
Oh well in that case I think it's social awkwardness and fear of rejection. Everyone knows that people now go to cons for their own reasons and have schedules and shit to do. Because it's not a guaranteed thing that the girl across the hallway will want to fangirl with you, it makes people hesitant to start the conversation. She could be into it, or she could be in a huge rush to take her cosplay photos. Back then there was a 99% chance your fangirling would be received well.

>>8722935
>but there's such a wide range of anime you have no idea what that person is going to like
This. Back then, we were all poor kids who primarily consumed what we could find on cable or in the book store's manga section and that was it, because that was all we could get. A friend of mine still has a mostly stolen Shonen Jump collection.

>>8722914
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=How+does+breast+augmentation+work%3F

>>8722945
>Shounen Jump

Ahhh I had some fun times passing that and Shojou Beat around with friends at school.

>>8722945
I know so many people who read like volume 3 of Hack: Legend of the Twilight over and over because it was stocked in every chain bookstore. That and some Bleach if you were lucky, and maybe some shitty harem thing. I was amazed me and my first bf had the same taste in anime before twigging that's all the local DVD stores actually sold.

>>8722964
>Britfag who would literally beg confused normie friends visiting America to get me Shojou Beat
>three very tired, very dog-eared copies hidden away
>ah, fond memories

>>8722973
I ended up reading most of Love Hina that way.

>>8722973
I would always buy whatever was available at those Scholastic Book Fairs. So that was,
>1st volume Skip Beat
>2nd and 3rd (wow!) volume of +Anima
>1st issue Hollow Fields (american)
>Peach Fuzz (didn't read, it was garbage + american)

They consistently had those plus a couple other series that were slightly more... terrible. Our middle school library had those plus
>Naruto Vols 1-3 (didn't read)
>+Anime Vol 1
>Hollow fields Vol 2
The year I left someone donated a lot more.

>>8722999
Library also had
>5 vols of Ultra Maniac which was actually kinda cute, for our age at least
>Some vampire manga I want to go back and finish

>>8722914
>stretch the fuck out of the skin?
You gave the answer yourself. Human skin is very strechable. Strechable enough to become saggy over time.

>>8722914
Human skin can accommodate pregnancy. A boob job is NBD.

>>8722770
There was a minor amount of cosplay fame in that 1999-2004 era, some wanky, some not, but the community was a lot smaller. That was true for both the internet and cons. My local con had BNFs who got that way simply by doing semi-decent (for the era, so they'd be shit now) cosplay, being semi-decent looking, and being gregarious, which can really only happen when the community is small. Everybody kind of knew of everyone else. Wigs were bad enough and inaccessible enough that a lot of people went without or used Halloween wigs, and as a result natural hair that matched the character well was a bit of a status symbol. Usagi Kou-style natural hair was cooler than even a nice wig. I did a costume once partly because the character was a perfect match for my hair color and cut and I got a lot of positive attention for the costume and accuracy. (And maybe this marks me out as older than dirt, but I still love seeing well executed natural hair cosplay, especially for characters who are exist in real world type settings.)

This thread is so nostalgic. I remember never wearing wigs as a cosplayer, but that was pretty normal. The only wigs I could find were crappy Halloween wigs so real hair was better. I mean there probably were better wigs around, but I was 12 and had no idea how to shop online.

My friends and I would cosplay in groups and we looked like shit a lot of the time but people just loved that we dressed from series they liked and took our picture, there was no "You ruined my waifu" stuff going on.

So those are the good points for me, that everyone seemed to generally love what they cosplayed. I really miss that element, but I love how much better we can all look with the wig selection, materials and so forth now.

>>8723061
> I still love seeing well executed natural hair cosplay, especially for characters who are exist in real world type settings.
I agree! For most things, wigs are better, but for some characters well-done real hair just works better. Especially for live action stuff--for example, Kaylee from Firefly. She's so natural and typically dirty - a wig just doesn't look right.

>>8722945
I still have every issue of Mixx Zine (that later turned into Tokyopop magazine) that ever came out in a storage bin at my parent's house... I should find it

>>8723061
>Usagi Kou-style natural hair was cooler than even a nice wig

Let's not forget Adella's Aeris hair either

>>8723137
Ooh, shcway

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>>8723061
Speaking of wank, remember this fuckery? http://www.cosplaycloset.com/

>>8722973
holy shit, legend of the twilight was the first translated manga i ever read in a store
>nostalgia

>>8723154
I remember the anime used to come on at like one in the morning, it was great.

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>>8723153
>http://www.cosplaycloset.com/
Hipsters strive to make their websites look like that now.

I tried clicking on some thumbnails but nope, that was just the fullsize picture. All 300x200 pixels of it

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>>8723184

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I think it's the nostalgia talking, but for a long time, the last con I really enjoyed was, I think, 2010.

After that, it just started getting bigger and bigger as the convention eked its way over 1000 attendees. (Up from 200 in 2005, it's first year, and the first con of its type in the country). And I just got more and more alienated from the convention and lost in the crowd.

The atmosphere went from 'Holy shit, and actual *con*, with *cosplay*, to something that just felt a bit sterile and rote.

Then again, I had a fucking blast this year by actually staying in the hotel rather than driving home every evening so it's a matter of swings and roundabouts.

I don't really like 'pro' cons. They tend to suck the atmosphere out of things in favour of money and sponsors. Fan cons can be a bit slipshod, but they're happening because everyone there wants them to happen and wants to meet up. Staff and attendee alike.... it's great when a con has that sort of atmosphere.

Maybe I'm being too idealistic. Or too rose tinted about it.

I helped make some of them happen and really I felt a change in some of the atmosphere ... like attendees started looking down on staffers as 'just staff' rather than fellow fans giving up their weekend to make sure the con happened happened.

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Never got to go to any cons back in the day, but I keep a small folder of old school con junk just because it's all so charming. It seems impossible to find anything pre-90s though.

>>8722973
My elementary school Scholastic Book Fair had
>+Anima
>More Starlight to Your Heart
>To Heart
>Tokyo Mew Mew A La Mode

I just can't bring myself to throw/give them away even though they've all aged horribly. Hell, I only recently found out To Heart was originally an eroge VN.... which explains why the first volume of manga read like it assumed you already knew all the characters in depth.

My first two manga were Angelic Layer and Instant Teen but those more likely came from the local Barnes and Noble.

The age range was more around college aged and maybe a little older (a lot of old school fans from the 70's and 80's, Yamato/Gundam era popping in). There were some high school kids, but not in troves. People were pretty chill, nobody running through halls or completely outlandish drunken shenanigans.

Everyone was nerdy as hell. We were all people from the web 1.0 era before social networking and sites like youtube. Myspace wasn't really even much of a thing yet. You needed to have some net savvy to find out about things like anime cons. Most of us had our own websites, be it cosplay websites or fansites about our favorite characters, series or ship (shrines). Some of us were really into designing and making those websites and delivering really unique and helpful content. I remember buying artbooks and finding everything I could just to scan and create tons of pages about my favorite characters, everything from backstories, mythology, etymology, what merchandise was available... and it was a lot more personal. Now you just go to wikipedia and google images. ho hum.

con't....

My local convention was run in one of the big universities in the city and had endless screening rooms showing the first 3 episodes of all kinds of fansubbed stuff. My Dad would come to the con just to watch anime all weekend and then come back to me raving about "the one with the angels" (Haibane Renmei) or "Magical girls with glasses!" ( G-On Riders)

The merch hall was 3-4 tables and full of VHS copies of Eat Man and Haunted Junction.

There was a circle of people doing an accapella version of Cruel Angel Thesis and it was really impressive and cool.

The convention get sponsored by Madman eventually and the first year they were in charge all the fansubs had to go. So the usual theatres just showed marathons of Trigun and Cowboy Bebop which everyone had already seen by 2007.

>>8723268
Guests at cons. Early cons like late 90's early 00's didn't have too much in the way of VA's. Hardcore fans didn't like dubs much. So it wasn't until maybe the early to mid 00's did you see more American VA's coming in. With exception to some early ADV VA's. Most of the time the guests were Japanese illustrators or designers, and some US artists but nobody cared much about them because who are you lol?

Coslayed series was far more limited. You basically knew what most people were cosplaying. These days I don't know who the fuck is who unless you're cosplaying some old stuff.

Wigs: like said above we had like 12 party store colors (mostly neon) and bad quality with like 3 styles: Cleo long, Cleo short, and Showgirl. Most wigs had the part sewn in the middle. People sprayed their hair or just left it natural. How to style wig? I know! Gel and a blowdryer! I had many a fried Halloween wig.

>>8722893

Way to miss what I was getting at dawg. I meant that nowadays there are just attention whores in Yoko costumes that can't tell you a lick about TTGL or similar situations. Yoko, to my memory, seems to have been patient zero.

>>8723280
There were no tutorials, no walkthroughs. Nothing. you made this stuff yourself. Or you could commission people like Setsuna Kou to commission your costume in the highest quality baroque satin modeled by her in her bedroom with a terrible low quality camera.

Everyone used disposable cameras or film. I started using a digital camera in 2004. Some friends had them before me though. I still have a lot of my old con photos on film in boxes.

Finding photos was a nightmare. You'd have to sift through dozens of photobuckets or personal sites linked on cosplay.com. And like today, you still had to sift through pictures of them, their friends, what they ate, their room in hopes you're among the 4 cosplayers they took a photo of in the hallway.

The concept of paying someone to take your photo was laughable. Photoshoots were let's pose in this open area and take a few pictures on my disposable camera, scan and upload.

>>8723293
Sift for hours through Kevin Lillard and Lionboogy's galleries on dial up. When cosplay.com came around there was Eurobeat king but we know where that went later on...

Our queen PT was around. We called her boob window on catsonmars/fuckin otaku's forums.

Overall the community was close, tight-knit and people traveled across the country to go to cons and cosplay instead of sticking to just their 8 local cons. It was super easy to make friends. I'm still friends with a lot of people I met way back when, even my first con friend at my first convention.

For what it's worth, I still go to conventions and I still love and enjoy them. At times I feel a little out of place, but only like a parent watching their kid have fun and remembering those days when you were the same way (except far less obnoxious and tumblry). I don't think I'll be leaving anime cons anytime soon, although I've been taking breaks from cosplay for lolita. I'd like to get back into it though.

I traveled for eight hours in 1998 with a friend to get to my first convention... it still blows my mind that there are multiple cons in my home state now. Upon arriving we immediately made friends with some random people who were cosplaying from a series we recognized, hung around with them for both days and at one point threw together a god awful masq skit with them because we figured why not experience the full extent of the con. Afterward a dealer asked us to booth babe for a few hours in exchange for a few pieces of merch before everyone piled into a cramped video room to experience Goldenboy for the first time. It was basically amazing.

I stayed in contact with my con friends for a few years until their friendcircle imploded from drama. I didn't realize at the time this was pretty standard for the Florida community.

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>>8723293
I still use film at cons for shits and giggles.

It amuses some people. Even if the pictures come out crap.

Except for the one snotty cosplayer who threw the rattle from the pram when I couldn't show the photograph I took of her to her....

Are there really people who don't know what film is?

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>>8723334

>>8723334
>>8723345
Mmm, film grain.

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>>8723347
People going around snapping with phones. I did the same with a fucking 40 year old rangefinder for shits and giggles.

>>8723348
I quite like these, maybe I'll pull my A-1 out of storage. Haven't used in in years.

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>>8723348

>>8722838
Was she engaged/married at the time? She's wearing a ring.

>>8723359
yes she was, for her green card. (Before she was with Brian Boling) She is from China. It is quite fun for the oldfags to laugh at how little the new kids know about some of these people

>>8723348
>>8723353
Maybe I should dig my old Nikon FM2 out and try it...

Also
>tfw getting your anime on VHS with pissyellow subs

>>8723466
I prefer the yellow, because white is hard to read against certain backgrounds. But maybe I just really like yellow because I am old...

>>8723444
I just wasn't sure of the timeline. I knew she married to get her greencard, for some reason I thought it was post-boob job.

>>8723334
There's something really charming about film photography. Though it's oddly funny seeing all these new series and twintail wigs on film.

God I remember wefting wigs for pigtails. That was the worst.

>>8723312
I miss the Cats on Mars forums so bad, and rinoarotal combat. Their "Top 10 worst cosplays each month" taught me so much just by seeing what not to do.

>>8723472
Nah, white is hard to read, hence why nowadays there's an outline around it.
No outline = yellow is better, since you don't run into piss-yellow backgrounds much.

>>8723581
I think one of the best things about it, looking back, is that we nitpicked the hell out of construction, dressing for your body, and altering costumes to suit your body type was stressed and praised over accuracy especially if it's going to look like shit. Then along came cosplay fucks and then normies getting into it, facebook popularity contests and it's all about being hot and attractive and if you're not, don't ever cosplay. Those lists were full of really terrible stuff, but lists of "fat cosplayers", or "ugliest cosplayers ever" wasn't a thing, and when it was, it kinda pissed us all off.

I went to a few CoM meetups at some cons and everyone was pretty chill and fun. I miss those days.

>>8723243
I agree with the pro cons thing. It seems like the attendees have blinders on and its much harder to interact with others.

If cons are getting your stale then you need to go to new cons or be more active in the con scene in terms of doing panels and hosting fan events

>>8723600
The whole website was invaluable to me, strange/pathetic as it might sound. I can't remember if I even had an account or just lurked hardcore. I wasn't cosplaying at the time, so between CoM and AlleyCatScratch I just had to craft and cosplay vicariously. Thank you supporting the forums for me and helping this kid get a headstart once I did start costuming.

>>8722838
Does anyone know what she's cosplaying in this?

>>8723495
Do you guys remember that caulk weft tutorial from katie bear?

>>8723623
Yes, I used it in a big project of mine in 2005. It didn't work so well, it easily pulled apart. I solved the problem by pushing in a piece of ribbon into the caulk so it couldn't be ripped apart sideways.

Damn the things we did before store-bought wefts

>>8723623
One of my friends tried to do that in a hotel room the day before a con and it looked like SHIT. She ended up just tying and pinning the long wefts to the stubs. Katie Bair was the number one recommend person for wig tuts though.

>>8723641
OH and it is a motherfucking BITCH to sew through caulked hair into a wig. Jesus fucking christ. My fingers were raw even with a thimble.

>>8723244
I was too embarrassed to check them out, but my library had- and still has, I think- a few volumes of To Heart and other manga from similar sources. I was mortified that someone would catch me reading them, because I was fully aware that they came from eroge, and I was far more into the ero than the ge. I was convinced everyone else knew, too.

>>8723647
oh my fucking god yes. I did that once, and tried to sharpie dye it to match my wig since I harvested the fibers from another wig that was lighter. It ended up looking like garbage compared to today's standards.

Would any of you old timers say you mix well with the congoers of today?

>>8723153
I definitely remember these two and their cosplay business. They were wanky as fuck. The guy tried to pick an argument with me once on some ML. So he must have been 30-ish at the time, trying to argue with teenage girls on a Yahoo cosplay mailing list. Real winner.

>>8723620
Mill from Maze Mega Burst Space. (Never seen it, but I made the same costume for someone circa 1999.)

>>8723860
I still do. I have a number of friends who are younger as well as my age and a some who are older. I'm still well aware of the culture and up on memes and other popular things the kids these days are spouting *waves cane*. I meet new people all the time, and after awhile faces become familiar. I meet a lot of people through staffing and vending and general networking. I try not to consider my age all that much and just have a good time.

I just get a little lost on series because honestly outside of a handful of things, I've barely watched much anime since 2008. I also get irked when congoers are too loud or obnoxious. I feel better at larger conventions but generally get bored and feel awkward at small college cons. I only go because hey, it's something to do or I end up vending there for some extra spending money.

>>8723860
I'm 34, been going to conventions since 2001. I have pretty much the same friend group I made the first 5 years, around college time.

I personally judge a few craftsmanship masquerades and run panels, and close friends of mine host several masquerades or have run startup cons themselves.

We still like new series and combing the dealer's hall for merch, that stuff never changes, even if you get married/start a family, which many people do by this age

>>8723860
I haven't been to an anime con since 2007, but I mix in just fine at sci-fi/comic/VG cons since there's a much broader age range. I assume the anime scene hasn't changed much and there's still a lot of clustering in the teens - early 20s range.

Steven Universe con-wide obsession used to be Homestuck, used to be Hetalia, used to be Jojo, used to be Hellsing, used to be Bleach, used to be Naruto, used to be DBZ, used to be Ranma 1/2, used to be Sailor moon when it originally came out

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Does anyone remember the Yuna Obi Wars of FFX, when everyone on Cosplay.com competed with how "accurate" they could paint/embroider her goddamn yellow Obi? It was the greatest craftsmanship wankfest between cosplayers that year

>>8723936
I remember it because my friend was one of those Yunas. She did a great job. My sister also tried her hand, and she did alright.

>>8723936
Hahaa yes. Obviously because I immediately saw this and thought "oh shit is this mine?!" But the only difference is the flower, mine was wooden and darker and I used coording on the sleeves instead of ribbon.

I still have my Obi lying around somewhere. I mostly keep it because I was at my fattest at that time and it's almost like a hula-hoop on me now.

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Ye olde cosplayer from 1997 here.

>>8722773 is right.

It was pretty fucking magical then for exactly these reason. It was rarer and less of us. That alone made sure we got along better and really enjoyed our time.

We weren't trying to get to our 4th con that year. We were just happy to get to the one con there was close to us. The dealers room and viewing rooms were full of hard to get items we weren't going to see elsewhere. So we were excited to see it. All the vendors differed in what they had too because no one had the same supply lines.

I was one of the youngest at my first con when I was 18. Closest person in age I talked to was 23. Everyone else was skirting near 30 or older.
I miss talking to older fans. They were pretty nice. I've tried talking to younger people but once you get past 25 the high school problems and crazy relationships they phase through gets to be too hard to muddle through until they've chilled out a bit.

>>8723268 is right also.
Nerdy as hell. The only way you were going to get to a con was to try. The only way you were going to show off your costume online was to try. The only way you were even going to have a costume was to TRY.

You actually had to be good at it and earn that photo/attention/new friend.

>>8723860
>Would any of you old timers say you mix well with the congoers of today?

Nope. I'm pretty damn normalfag and they don't really want to talk to anyone outside their established circle. They associate older people into this as weird and don't know how to socialize well with people who aren't their age or their immediate family. I see it in my niece who sees me probably once a month and she exhibits the same awkwardness I see in them.

>>8723620
>Does anyone know what she's cosplaying in this?
Mill Varna from Maze.

I only remember that because holy fuck I have been around for a long ass time and I remember.

>>8723936
>Does anyone remember the Yuna Obi Wars of FFX, when everyone on Cosplay.com competed with how "accurate" they could paint/embroider her goddamn yellow Obi?


Jaysus YES.
It was crazy. I mean I thought I knew the shitstorm that would be cosplay later when people started showing up as Rikku MONTHS before the game got close to a release in Japan or NA.
I thought people were doing it to test themselves to see how close they could get it in a short span of time. But nope, it was a wankfest of ME FIRST.

Then came the Yuna Obi. People first were leaving it bare, then painting it, then painting it with 46537 colors, then painting it on silk, then embroidering it, then embroidering it with 74753 colors.

On and then there was people embroidering her skirt inside the pleats that didn't show.

>>8723986
There was also that repeating pattern inside the pleats. I sat there and painted the whole damn thing and then wished I had embroidered it after seeing everyone else do it.

There were people at Otakon 2001 cosplaying Yuna about 5 months before it was even released.

Then there was the FFX-2 bandwagon...

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>>8723986
>I thought people were doing it to test themselves to see how close they could get it in a short span of time. But nope, it was a wankfest of ME FIRST.
Some things don't change.

>>8723998
I had friends cosplaying Yuna and Rikku at a con we all went to together right before X-2 was released and they were mobbed to the point it became hellish for us. We were all underage girls too, so that added to the stress a bit.

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>>8723998
>There was also that repeating pattern inside the pleats.

Oh yes, I know. Sorry I didn't make that clear. But they didn't show and people weren't bothering. So people were just doing it to show off that they did it.

>>8724005
>Some things don't change.

That was the first time I remember people jumping on a design without knowing anything about the character. I only remember it vividly because I saw a lot of ME FIRST around two years later and was like, "Son of a bitch, I know exactly when this shit started."
It hasn't changed since then. The me first Elsas got on my last nerve as they tried to one up each other.

I tried to find the one photo of the Rikku and Yuna at Otakon 2000 or 2001. I remember it vividly too. It was a hallway shot with a Yuna with white sleeves on the left and a Rikku bent slightly over in green jean shorts with no ruffles yet and a plain orange tank top. The Rikku was a girl named Carolina.

Have this back up photo instead. I think the Rikku and Yuna are the same girls but years later.

Game still wouldn't be out for 16 mos or 4 mos depending on what year that was.

>>8724077
>>8723986
>>8723966
Very educational.

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>>8723466
>>8723495

>>8723466
i like the yellow also...it's easier to read from far away (i'm nearsighted). all the shit that's subbed now i have to practically be on top of the screen to read it because of the contrast issues and my shit vision.

>nostalgia bomb.....all my old VKLL subbed sailor moon tapes that i got circa 1998-9

>>8723860
oldfag here....i think i still mix well with the kidlets. have made some younger friends though my new local con (i moved, so all my con pals are across the country), but it really depends. .shared interests really help a lot.

DESU, sometimes i just feel really old at anime cons. i still cosplay from some anime, though it tends to be old series. i go to dragoncon most years though, and that always renews my faith in cons and congoers. and i usually feel more age appropriate.

>>8724152
wtf, why does cgl keep adding desu to my posts?

saged for that fucking desu

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>>8724124

>>8724153
desu

>>8724114

Thanks!
It's silly knowing all this pointless stuff so I'm more than glad when the topic comes up.

>>8724152
>i go to dragoncon most years though, and that always renews my faith in cons and congoers. and i usually feel more age appropriate.

Same. DragonCon makes me feel at home in the hobby again. I've talked to new friends for 20 minutes on the trim they used for ______ the way I used to talk to my fellow nerds at an anime con.

I don't miss it for that reason.

>>8724175
>I've talked to new friends for 20 minutes on the trim they used for ______
anon, are you me? one of my favorite things is chatting about costume details.

>>8724181

I love asking where a great fabric came from or how long they spent looking for it. Oh and the stories about ripping out a sleeve for the 3rd time cause it didn't hang right or finding a seller who has the same wool as the LOTR capes or the Battle Star Galactica buttons.

I love all those stories.

Sadly when I am at an anime con this doesn't happen as much anymore. I tried to talk to some girls about the plaid they used and they were just like "Oh we bought the skirts." Earlier I was about to ask a girl about the bustier she was wearing when I saw the way too even boning and eyelets and realized it was bought. I'm an SnK fan as well and hell if you can find anyone who made any of that cosplay. It's a uniform so I understand, but it would have been nice to trade stories on where your buckles came from and trying to make boots that didn't suck.

So I really like the openness with DragonCon cosplayers. Chances are they made it & they will trade fabric war stories with you.

>>8724213
I like these stories too but I hate sewing myself. I'm just supporting those whose can do a better job than me.

>>8724153
It's some new thing to replace t.b.h. Several abbreviations are getting this treatment. It's kinda funny.

>>8723860
Pretty well yeah. I've cosplayed since my first con but I was solo for many years. I've only recently expanded my cosplay circle and started having people recognize my outfits. It's still pretty easy to fangirl out with strangers as long as you have the right target demographic... I hone in on huge dresses and nice trim, and odds are that cosplayer is more than willing to gush about her work.

I remember when people flipped shit on forums about non-Japanese media being cosplayed.

"Why is someone cosplaying a storm trooper? Go to the sci fi con jfc!"

or...

"You shouldn't be cosplaying Disney at an anime con!"

Then along came Kingdom Farts, which caused a stir because original anime characters, Final Fantasy characters + Disney was a huge clusterfuck. The guy I was dating at the time thought it was a horrible idea and was angry that I seemed interested in it. "These are things that should NEVER mix!" and all these years later we still have the games.

>>8724429
>I hone in on huge dresses and nice trim, and odds are that cosplayer is more than willing to gush about her work.


I should try this technique. I'm focusing on the thing they are cosplaying because I'm a fan of the character or the show.

But looking for quality costumes might provide people who actually want to talk and not be awkward about it.
Might also find snobs but might also find someone who wants to talk about their sewing AND the fandom it took to try and get it accurate.

>>8723244
Frankly I still have a soft spot for +Anima and that vampire series, whatever it was. They're clearly targeted at younger kids, at least the english translations are, but I still really like them... It's extremely nostalgic and some of the art is still awesome, like Skip Beat!

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Agreeing with the other oldfags, early cons were a magical place.

>Rare, perhaps once a year
>Feels like a hike to the other end of the earth
>Could buy tickets on the door
>Tiny dealers room, but anime merchandise was hard as fuck to find anyway
>Fansubs in video rooms
>People cosplaying because they love the character, not for attention
>Cheesy as shit cosplay but still great
>Wonderful atmosphere, so easy to make friends
>Cons small and intimate

Although it's nice the hobby has become more popular, modern cons are just a shadow of their former selves. They've just become soulless and the love has gone from the hobby, replaced by bought likes and attention whoring. It's sad really.

>>8724704
>cosplayer
>complaining about snobs
The majority of this thread are snobs kek.

>>8724213
As a shingeki who made a good chunk of my cosplay (jacket, harness, wefted my ponytail wig), I don't think it was waste of time because I enjoy making stuff, but I can't fault people for buying. The harness especially was a ridiculous amount of work. But I do love me some in-depth conversation about costuming.

This might be OT, but has anyone noticed some newer cosplayers insisting that cosplay is not costume? Sort of like being a lifestyle lolita, I guess, they consider cosplay a way of life? Maybe this isn't new, but wow, these people get offended if cosplay is called 'costuming'.

>>8724507

Hell, I remember when people flipped their shit about Japanese pop culture cosplay that wasn't anime being at an anime con. J-rock, J-pop, various J-celebrities... there was a time when that was viewed as just as impure as western media costumes.

>>8724929
Oh man, I miss seeing j-rock/visual kei cosplay. I'm considering cosplaying Ayumi Hamasaki but I feel like it'd just be so out of place at a modern con. Everything now feels like it's all about the latest flavor of the month anime.

>>8724735
What do they think the "cos" stands for???

There were less sluts.

Not even trolling.

>>8724990
Well when there are fewer people participating overall, that tends to happen.
I know you probably mean that more on a percentage basis, but it's still a stupid thing to point out.

>>8724941
Remember when fucking everyone used to cosplay Ruki or Reita from Gazette?

>>8725002
>I know you probably mean that more on a percentage basis, but it's still a stupid thing to point out.

Why is it stupid?

It's true.

>>8725013
It's stupid that you have the word "slut" in your vocabulary.

>>8725020
>unironically believing "slut shaming" is a bad thing

You're trolling me right?

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>>8724990
>There were less sluts.

Not really, you just had to be social and you'd find a horny mess of a lady to bed. Chances are though that the first person you slept with would end up being your significant other for a few of your young years. At least until you discovered some of their mental red flags.

Like everyone is saying here, cons were smaller, anime itself was scarce, and there were no social networks to make friends. So when you went to these cons, for me at least, it was like coming out of the closet, except it wasn't homo, just being able to admit I loved anime in the open.

I got my first kiss and boob touch from a girl that was into FF7, like me ZOMG. My biggest regret was that my douche friends rough housed me days later, and I lost the card with her number on it. UGH.

My ham planet bud though turn into a pussy destroyer at these things. So much jealousy, but no balls to try for another girl since I wanted "the one I lost."

>>8725029
>trying to insult people based on your perception of their sex life
No anon, surely it is you who jests.

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>>8725073

So...you single or a swinger? My cosplays include Dad from Homestuck and I'm working on a Sans from Undertale.

>>8725073
So how big of a slut are you again?

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>>8725088

Knock off the slut shaming. This is a nostalgia con thread.

>>8724941
do it anon, i've made utada costumes, a JE costume, and have everything to make an ayu costume. got some koda kumi ideas in the back of my head too.

nobody ever knows who we are, but the PV and concert outifits are fucking fun

>>8723334
I don't know if it's the type of con or the fact you're using film, but this is the most realistic con photography I've seen in a while. Goes to show how obsessive photogs have gotten.

>>8724735
Congrats for making the harness, that's seriously impressive. Were you Sasha or Hanji?

>>8725097
Chill anon, it's probably a robot virgin who got lost. Slutshaming is the only way the can make themselves feel better for never managing to get any, despite all the tits hanging out.

>>8725182
>utada
PLEASE SHARE PHOTOS

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AnimeCon '91, did anyone go to that one? I believe it eventually became Anime Expo.

>>8725276

As another shingek who made my uniforms (for 2013/2014 cons) I'd be interested to know who you cosplayed, too.

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>>8725348
and the programming booklet

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>>8725182
I always wanted to cosplay some of Aya's outfits from Psycho le Cemu but never got around to it. That used to be a big thing too. Especially that huge fuzzy white monster costume.

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>>8722727
Laid back, you could find fansubs playing in the video rooms, the demographics were more college aged than high school aged. Really there were very few teenagers, I remember being one of the youngest people at a con in 2000 at 16 years old. People were chill and more mature. Overall costume quality was shittier, but we had like party store wigs and nothing else back then.

The dealers' rooms were almost entirely manga in Japanese and other stuff straight from Japan. A few American products, very little back then... I got a pile of cheap phonebook manga that I still have now.

I just remember having conversations with people about Utena, Marmalade Boy, and Irresponsible Capt. Tylor, and shit just felt cozy and great. People worked harder to get access to anime back then, and I think the fanbase reflected that in a bunch of ways. I can't take the screaming weeaboos of today, they're so fucking annoying. I'm glad I was a senior in high school by the time weeaboos became a thing at my school.

Oh and very few "famous" cosplayers. I met Yaya before the fake tits existed. I remember Rosiel and Die and a lot of the big cosplayer people like them did Angel Sanctuary and visual kei cosplay. I miss old school visual kei cosplay.

>>8725356
Dat slutty Nadia pic.

>>8725413 here
Wanted to add, people gave a shit about cosplay skits back then. Like, they were clever and fun. Shit wasn't trite really. I did a few impromptu ones, and yes the "skit game" hit its peak level around the mid-to-late 2000s, but I had my most fun making and performing in skits probably up until around 2008 or 2009, before all the shitty song and dance and meme skits started taking over. Now everyone just does walk-ons. Fucking sad.

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>>8725360
I wanted to do most of Lida's costumes. Did one right before they broke up. Now no one does old visual kei cosplays so whatever.

Pic related.

Remember pimp and ho/slut versions, also can-can versions

>>8725182
I'd love to see yours! I'm a huge Hikki and Kuu fan too. I think I'll probably take your advice and just go ahead and do Ayu's evolution PV outfit. Thanks, anon!

Where is that youtube video that showcased anime cons from 10-15 years ago? It had Johnny Otaku in it and was hilarious.

>>8725446
Are we over Playboy Bunny versions of characters yet?

>>8725276
>>8725352
Thank you! Sasha and also Reiner, but I bought that wig. My friend and I made our harnesses because the friend is over 190cm and most bought harnesses were only up to 180cm. The homemade harness is pretty great, we designed them so we can put them on in like 5 minutes.

>>8725446
>>8725614
Pretty sure Noflutter designs are the new can-can versions.

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>>8725315
>>8725446
incoming! here's the traveling PV

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>>8725708
and the passion PV

>>8725567
oooh, i love the evolution PV! good choice anon!

i've got fabrics for ayu's mirrorcle world stage costume, plus i still really want to do kuu's showgirl PV dress and some really obscure jpop PV costumes and johnny's stage costumes.

>>8725708
>>8725709
>>8725713
Wow, those look amazing and spot-on! Hikki's traveling PV outfit was always a favorite of mine too.

And thanks, anon! The Mirrorcle World one is the outfit she had with the pirate ship, right? That's definitely one of Ayu's best tour outfits. I hope you get to complete all of your cosplay ideas because they all sound awesome haha.

>>8723623
I remember doing this, with clear silicone caulk for a C.C. wig which cost me over $30 even though you could see all the wefts through the hair. I fixed it nicely thanks to that tutorial. I don't miss doing that in the slightest.

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>2001
>Be young teenager
>Get a paper catalogue in con bag advertising a dealer's wares
>Manga collections, tshirts etc etc
>Wallscroll section has descriptions rather then pictures
>'Harry Hedgehog takes Sally Skunk from behind'
>'Felicity Fox bent over'
>lolwut and skim over it
>Years of wasting time on the internet later
>Find catalogue in a bunch of old files and skim through it for nostalgia
>See this section
>mfw furry porn wallscrolls were being advertised and sold at anime cons

>>8724160
Anon, all your film pictures of last year are gorgeous. There's something dreamy about film. Did you take any last weekend?

>>8726035
>the outfit she had with the pirate ship, right?
yep! the gold vinyl trenchcoat one.

Someone wearing a western cartoon copay was an ocassional noveltry. Like an Inspector Gadget or Sideman now and then. Now you can expect it to take up more than half the total cosplay

>>8723334
I'd love to take my film camera with me to a smallish con one day, but I might take a couple of cheap crap disposable ones as a test run.
As >>8723495 said, film photography is so charming.

>>8726906
This, it was a rarity when I first started cosplaying 10+ years ago and because there was so few of them, they were more of a novelty than anything else and people generally nodded and smiled and moved on. I remember when western costuming/role-playing was called just that instead of being classified as cosplay as well now. I'm pretty iffy about that, but I'm sure I'm in the minority with that opinion.

Current prediction is that Undertale is likely to be the most-cosplayed western origin (or any origin) at cons between now and through early next year.

Do current con skit criteria still call for "anime/manga/Japanese game-origin characters only" or has that expanded to include all sorts of nerd culture?

>>8726953
>Do current con skit criteria still call for "anime/manga/Japanese game-origin characters only" or has that expanded to include all sorts of nerd culture?

Depends. I've seen a few cons going towards slots filled first with Anime/Manga first, and if there are left over slots, they will allow other genres.

>>8726953
In the last few years I've been involved with running as well as judging small (under 5k cons) the largest one I did was about 10k but that was close to 4 years ago when I did that one.

Normally we'd just add a western division for craftsmanship purposes and give an award on best construction. In my knowledge, we didn't have many skits that weren't strictly anime/Japanese or east-asian in origin. I think one time someone had a skit with one or two characters from a western property but the rest of the skit was anime.

Cosplay in '04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijkqbIbUJLo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hETA2yv-8jk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMNzxVaYA6U

>>8725081
>Dad from Homestuck
>Sans from Undertale

Get this meme fad shit out of here and back to tumblr

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>>8722999
>Scholastic Book Fairs
This book actually untaught me how to draw.

>>8728150
I remember when these books started coming out and they were everywhere. It was literally a laughing stock of every anime nerd, especially any artist alley anime nerd. This was around the time more middle-schoolers were getting into anime. I thought it was funny driving around town and seeing billboards for "don't do drugs" drawn by some 6th grader that was in an anime style.

>In college at the time.
>What. lol

more nostalgia please

It would be interesting to see a panel about old cosplay techniques and old cosplay in general.

>>8730892
You could talk a lot about old wig techniques (using caulk, how you had to dye wigs to get a special color, how you had to be super careful with that hair dryer because everything was kanekalon and would literally fucking melt on high). But most of the oldschool "techniques" were just a total lack of resources and also most people really not giving much of a shit if you used hideous satin. Everything was a lot more casual than it is now and a lot easier to get local attention.

>>8728150
Oh my god THIS book. I got this as a gift as a youngster and had to be very "ohhh thank you so much!" Stashed in my closet to gather dust.

>>8728150
I still have a few of those from middle school in storage. I used to draw the cringiest shit.

>>8728150
My dad keeps finding those books and texting me pictures of them. He knows I like manga and drawing, and can't quite seem to understand that 'shit' isn't an art style. It's pretty sweet of him though.
>'Hey I found those mango books you like!'
>Doritos for days

Traveling to cons used to be affordable. Now its pretty common to spend several hundred dollars to get to a con. In Dragoncon's case, you can easily spend a thousand on room and travel alone.

Back then you didn't have to worry about con hotels selling out so damn fast. Hell, you used to be able to book a room the day of the con. Good luck trying to do that at major cons like AX, SDCC, Otakon and Dragoncon.

>>8732059
Even smaller conventions (less than 10k) sell out of their room blocks. Good luck getting a room nearby if you find out you can go a few weeks in advance.

>>8732059
>Traveling to cons used to be affordable. Now its pretty common to spend several hundred dollars to get to a con.

What? The cost of airfare, driving, or hotel rooms weren't crazy cheaper 10+ years ago. Those are normal travel costs incurred when you take a vacation anywhere outside your home city. Cons didn't sell out as quickly, but they were just as expensive to attend.

>>8722727


I don't browse this board that much but I wish I was able to experience the whole cosplay scene like the lot of you guys did. It's a little to me considering I was in Japan years ago; I take it cosplaying was definitely more prominent than here in the U.S. back then.

>>8732160
i think anon was referring to deliberate price hiking done by hotels for the larger cons. dcon's hotels do it big time: the room blocks sell out and you can only get rooms at stupidly inflated rates. also even at con rates, the restrictions on reservations are now through the roof (paid in full over a year ahead, no name changes, etc) and for what you're paying, you're not alwyas getting a superior product.

>>8732224

This. Even if it's not an obvious monetary issue, getting settled into con areas is significantly more of a chore now than it was back in the early/mid 2000s.

I hate how the casual/normie crowd has diluted con population while only making things more cumbersome reeeeeee

>>8732231
>casual/normie crowd has diluted con population
sometimes it feels like "let's go look at the weirdos" kind of thing, speaking as a cosplayer. dcon is getting pretty bad, even with the room key/badge restrictions for the hotels. the normals clog the halls and don't understand con etiquette, so they do dumb stuff like ask for pics in the halls or in the dealer's rooms. it's infuriating sometimes.

>>8732224
SDCC is another great example. Rooms are now $200-300 a night because they know they are going to get people. They don't have to compete for guests because 100,000+ people, the vast majority of them out of town, means quite a few rooms. I used to get rooms for $100 downtown and then they all jacked it up. I hear even ones not downtown or hotel circle jack up the prices. Hell, sdcc badges them self too. They aren't adding more in terms of value compared to previous years; it's still lots of celebrities and big name shows but not more in quantity. There's no new perks to entry. Heck, even something as simple as losing your badge sucks because they charge you big bucks for a reprint.

>>8732413
all of those things about SDCC are what keeps me from wanting to go...and i live just up the coast in CA. even dcon's caliber of guests has diminished somewhat in the last couple of years (some standouts, but not a whole lot of people i'm interested in seeing).

>>8732416
As someone who has been going before it turned into what it is today it's not really that fun anymore. Maybe if it's your first convention ever you'll love it because you have nothing else to judge it against and are oohed and ahhed by the spectacle. If you've been to other cons where hotels and badges are cheaper and more plentiful and you don't have to spend half your day to do things you probably won't have as much fun too.

>>8723353
I didn't realize this was a pretty recent pic for a second because of how the attendees are dressed. Nerd wear hasn't moved on from that baggy pants + hoodie + messenger bag look for at least a solid 10 years.

>>8725348
Fuck those guests are so good.

>>8732413

>tfw you used to be able to cover all of your con expenses with your shitty teen job

Even accounting for inflation these prices are now ridiculous. I really wish we could go back to mid/late 00s style where cons were getting popular but not BIG. I loved when there was a crowd, but I hate that the crowd is now mostly people who can't, like, name their favorite fanfic or tell you some autistic fact about what they enjoy. You can look at cream-of-the-crop weirdos from the safety of your room now, why pay to do it live?

>>8732602
Gonna be honest : I'd fail both of those counts. Been going to cons for more than a decade too.

But to answer your question:

1. To say you were at comic con
2. Celebrities
3. Omg I'm such a nerd teehee

>>8724735
I feel like 14 year olds have been doing that since 14 year olds existed, haha. My first con was 2005 and even then there were high school aged kids going "It's my LIFE and i wear it to SCHOOL and the normies don't UNDERSTAND." Not as much as these days, but young teens are always pretty cringey.

>>8728150
Holy shit, there was a second one?? The first one was my bible when I was 11.

Back when conventions didn't suffer the same fate as MTV and other specialty niche cable networks had. When programs and attendees are that particular con medium.
Probably more nerdy male attendees and fewer 13 year olds, casuals, and outside the medium cosplayers.

>>8732224
>>8732602

One major reason for price hiking is also to prevent overcrowding. High prices discourage people from buying tickets thus driving demand down.

Then again they could just simply lower the badge cap to get the same results

>>8723488
The boob job was for when she worked in Vegas at a strip club. Them being good for cosfame was a side bonus.

Why do you think her cosplay name is "YaYa"?

>>8724726
I sometimes wonder if the anime fandom would have been better served never going above ground.

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I have been doing the Con thing for twenty years now. The first ones were little sci Fi and comic shows, then people started dressing up, eventually AWA happened, so in September it was the yearly pilgrimage. Megacon got onboard with the anime sceene then it exploded, every year I heard of a new con somewhere.

Cosplay was fun, you didn't have to spend a fortune in order to place or win a contest. As the years went on it seemed like more often skimpy costumes and obvious cliques took over the costume contests so I moved to doing it for fun and not bothering to enter.

Room parties were where you met the people from the Con and all joked and told stories. To this day I can still call some of the old regular guests and shoot the shit about life and work.

When these things started becoming big money it lost a lot of appeal. Getting bodies in the door was the primary goal. So many of these little shitcons are nothing but a dealer's room and 2 or 3 nearly abandoned panel rooms. My home state is notorious for having a convention every other weekend it seems.

>>8734284
I'm.. fairly sure that's actually her real name.

>>8725595
Found it. 2001: An Anime Odyssey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZmRw9o63RM

>>8734353
Oldfag here, I used to do photography professionally and would go to cons, I had my nice old 35mm camera and wandered around snapping shots of people and handing them a card.

So mega con I. Orlando I pass by some obvious fledgling attention whore who is being hoverd by the "boyfriend photog" I snap a quick shot thinking this is funny, someone is trying to turn being not a ham beast and cosplay into con fame.

Turns out it is ya-beast, her boyfriend sees me and asks if I want a picture with her, but the way he said it set me off, a sort of condescending tone so I point to my camera and hand him a card, "no man, do you?" From then on I get the rumors that start from her boyfriend about being a creepy stalker because I didn't want anything to do with her. So for the next few years I made sure to snap candid unflattering shots of tata and distribute them to the web's. Petty, yeah maybe but I really dislike her attitude

You aren't a convention vet unless you've got at least 1 cell from Steve Bennett's cel painting class. Bonus points if it is one of the naughty ones.

>>8734162
SDCC:
Raise prices year after year
Still sells out in hours and only because their servers would crash if they didn't drag it out

>>8734753
Just saying that's one of the reasons why the tactic is used. With SDCC a good chunk of badges are actually sold the year before so people feel pressured to make future purchases on account it would be harder for them to get back in

Anna Fischer was a shit-tier lolita, not a cosplay photographer scamming people out of their money with BS crowdsourcing projects

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>>8734350

I'm sitting right at 17 years and I feel it too man.

My only regret was not enjoying myself to the fullest before money and sex were such big players. I kept myself responsible and did one new costume a year, traveled every other year, and kept clear of the drama.

Now I wish I had made more costumes, traveled to more out of state cons, and said what I really thought.

But now it's too late. Things are expensive as hell, no one cares what costume you have on unless it's got giant armor or boobs, and people don't even really talk to each other outside of the people they came with.

Cons and fandom are more of a chore than they used to be. But I love creating things l really love so I keep on keeping on.

>home state is notorious for having a convention every other weekend it seems.

Florida? I lived there for six years.

>>8734364
pics or never happened

Never did cosplay, but I remember cons I went being more fun

Manga/anime was only available at cons, which made them more exciting. Now there is internet and stores open 100% of the year. Cons became an extention of those stores, being more expensive, so that hunt died for me

>>8735331
My god man, do you know where your hard drive from 15 years ago is?. If you do, that it is long past time to upgrade. The pictures went onto sites like a fan's view and others, even dropped a couple on the Chan back in u day. Go look at her lolcow page there is a few of them there.

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>>8735328
Yep, Florida. Home of the newly wed and the nearly dead.

I remember making a friend of mine a costume from battle Royale. The BR girl on the intro video. We made a bunch of little paper collars that could be worn on the neck out of thick Bristol paper. Everyone at the Con seemed to think it was funny as hell, great fun had by all.

Costuming has become so much more prevalent that you're right, your choices are make a huge suit of Armor or wear a string bikini and some vaguely related costume stuff. .

For fun one time I just wore my actual suit of Armor and a blacked out face mask, never spoke a word and let people guess what was the costume was.

>>8723243
First con of it's type in the country, ten years old now, uh, this wouldn't happen to be Eirtakon would it?

>>8723334
From the zombie girl in the bottom left and the giant scythe and the girl behind the scythe being sorta familiar I'm going to hazard a guess and say this is Eirtakon 2014

>>8723353
Yep, definately Eirtakon due to it clearly being fucking Croke Park.

Fuck Croker sideways with a rusty fork, had to wait 30min for a fucking lift on the Friday this year due to them not opening the fucking stairs.

I have a friend who's attended cons since 2000ish and she has a shit ton of old photos from that time. One of the strangest is one of Yaya before she went completely Plastic. Apparently she'd started trying to sell themed corsets?
She told me it wasn't uncommon to see her attempting some random new business before settling into her I'm a brand one. Made me wonder about other girls just throwing random shit out there trying to make a buck.

>>8723334
I preferred what Eirta did last year when they had all of us gather at the back of the room for the Masquerade than what they did this year where they had us line up behind a curtain at the side of the room, it was quite cramped behind there. (I was Jimmy Buffet in this year's masquerade)

>>8723910
No sooner than I set foot in one con's venue this year I had a running squealing weeb nearly run into me.

Worst con I've been to for loud obnoxious congoers was Fushicon the year before last, they were all adults and they were shouting and roaring.

>>8724929
Someone told me I shouldn't cosplay FemShep at an anime con, I told her to fuck off and she started crying, I didn't give two fucks

>>8735955
Lemme guess, you're lizard lady

>>8736177
Nope, no idea who that is, it was at a Canadian con

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>>8735403
Why the hell is Florida the cosplay captial of the United States ?

Anyways back to OP's Question back then (10-15 years ago and more) people were mostly diehard fans these were guys and girls who were average looking and didn't care much about stupid drama they just cosplayed and had fun and a great time.

>>8735955
Living the dream.

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>people over 25 going to "cons"

No matter how you try to justify it that shit is not normal, you're not normal and I hope one day they set age limits to this sort of events.

99% of the weirdos incidents would stop.

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>"oldfags" insist that they can pass up as teens or adolescents on cons

wtf...

you're clearly becoming that guy/girl that is beyond expiration date this type of events yet insist on hanging out with young people while making them feel embarrased

but they don't tell you this shit because it would obviously destroy you, so they better put up with your shit and forced youth for a few days in order to not make an scene in front of fucking everybody

never seen so much denial in a single thread

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>>8728150
NONONONONONONO
WHY DID YOU MAKE ME REMEMBER THESE

>>8734364
but wasn't it her bfs attidute?

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>>8739249
>>8739279

>>8722774
>>8722774
>>8722774
>>8722774
>>8722774

this

>>8739509
Cold hard reality isn't bait

>>8722920

you are REALLY dancing around the fact that, when anything gets popular, the purity of its fanbase and/or community content also gets watered down mass consumption.

Just fucking admit it. The trope of a "poser" is a real one. It wouldn't have been made up if there wasn't a need for it.

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Sailor Bacon before bacon was a meme. He even had the hipster beard! Truly before his time

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I remember seeing a lot of Gravitation, and it confused me when guys cosplayed it because I thought they were crossplaying Jubilee from x-men (since most people who cosplayed Shuichi were girls)

>>8739249
>>8739279
You have to be over 18 to post on 4chan anon.

>Look for my early con pics to contribute
>Can't find any on my computer
>Dawns on me they're all actual photos taken with a non-digital camera

Must dig them out and find them, I've got some going back to 2001.

>>8739551
Gravitation and Loveless, so much catboy cosplay (crossplay?) was generated between the two around early 2000.

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>>8739249
Newsflash buddy, you're on /cgl/ a board for people dressing up like Chinese cartoon characters and wearing weird fashions from Asia that nobody in their right mind would wear otherwise, on website known for little shits in Guy Fawkes masks, degenerates and CP posters. You're not so normal either.

Since I have nothing to contribute here's an old con photo of mine of Ginny. Back when big named cosplayers would travel to po-dunk nowhere across the country for conventions of about 1k.

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Con memory: It was freezing outside. This guy in a Kuja costume decides to go out to smoke a cigarette. Only the door locks on him. Everyone waits a minute, laughing before letting him in.

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And here's some old Yaya. I've posted these in some oldtimey cosplay/con threads in the past.

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And another Yaya.

Back then, this was like "wow" in the sea of shiny unhemmed fraying satin with hot glued trim cardboard props.

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Oh here's more Ginny.

I want to post more pictures but a lot of them are friends and surprisingly people I'm still friends with and see at conventions, but friends don't post friends on /cgl/.

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DDR cosplay was a thing.

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Sephiroth, Hojo and Jenova.

It's sad to think FF13 and seas of lightnings have been a thing for so long. I remember a time when none of that existed.

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I remember taking this and being so excited to see an FF6 group. This is from Otakon 2002 which had like 12k in attendance and it seemed so enormous. In today's terms that's a decent medium sized convention or even small fry if you only hit up the really huge ones.

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A Yunalesca and Shiva.

Sorry, a lot of my old pictures are Final Fantasy as that's kind of what got me into anime and cosplay way back when. I hadn't watched a whole lot by this point and I was more familiar with it and wanted to use my 24 exposures per disposable camera wisely.

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I really miss seeing Tokyo Mew Mew cosplay. I always wanted to cosplay from this.

>>8740320
That's alright anon, I actually really miss seeing FF cosplay from the older games.

>>8739249
Dragoncon invalidates your post.

>>8740315
>That Gau with the diving helmet

Oh man I actually really like seeing this. If you've got more pics, please keep going!

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>>8740300
And Erika Door on the right!

I remember this costume of hers being stuck on the home page of Cosplay.com for like 5 years, looking back, it actually stood the test of time. (And pre-worbla lol)

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>>8726902
I did.

And because of last weekend, I can't afford to develop them. Got smashed drunk on whiskey and bought too many DvD's. But still, had the best time I've had at the con for years.

They'll be online soon. Considering not posting on facebook since that'll make me identifiable. Yeah. I'd prefer to avoid that.

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>>8725204
I just ambled around and snapped at shit. Even the photographers. Half the fun for me was using a 42 year old piece of equipment the way it was designed to be used, rather than letting it languish on the shelf.

>>8723334
It's a mix of 2013 and 2014.

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>>8740903
Fortunately, I found a better place to develop them.

>>8723351
>>8726951
Go for it. The results will be interesting at least.

>>8732590
This one was 2014.

<<That's 2013

>>8739249
>>8739279

Maybe they should kick you whiny children out of conventions, the fuck? They were never supposed to be for you and now everything is all "Family friendly" garbage. Go back to Disney world.

There, I can talk stupidly as well.

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Back again with some more 02 and 03 photos. There was a period of time from 04-06 where I took tons of pictures, but they got lost after switching computers a number of times. I wish I could find them.

As a current AA frequenter, back in the day there wasn't a huge emphasis on building huge impressive displays. Most people had their stuff laid out on tables like so. I know my first few AA tables in 03 and 04 were like this. Now I build tall displays with cubes, zip tie and pray like everyone else.

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Digi Charat is another series I really miss seeing cosplayed. Back then people were a little more creative with costumes and did some more fun and different stuff with them.

This was also before Katie Bair's website was around. I remember seeing a lot of people with wigs pulled into pigtails, wefts pulled back and natural hair showing underneath. A lot of people used colored hairspray on their wigs too.

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>>8740851
I have an individual picture of Erika Door's costume here! I didn't even realize that was her. I remember admiring a lot of her costumes way back when too.

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Faye Valentine! Cowboy Bebop was everywhere back then. Still see a few Spikes and Fayes every once in awhile.

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Have some Utena cosplayers.

I'm still very pleased that this series is still going strong as far as cosplay goes!

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>>8741875
*crossplayers I mean.

Here's a Saber Marionette J group. I don't think I've seen this cosplayed in eons.

This nostalgia is murdering me. I should find my old photo albums from 90-00's.

>>8728150
>get this thinking "it'll be just like my brothers' books!"

It's a good thing I was too lazy to actually draw back then.

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>>8728150
Had this monstrosity.

>>8741871
Speaking of Faye, does anyone have any pics of Man-Faye?

>>8742810
I never went out in that area when he was out doing his thing. But I have a friend who did and got full view of bare ass ballsack.

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>>8742810
anyone remember when he did a segment on tech tv? i have it on tape somewhere.

>>8739543
underrated post

look at that fucking muscle tee

>>8743354
Is Man Faye still doing his thing?

Has he ever met Steve Blum whilst in costume?

>>8743414
i have no clue. last time is saw him was ax '05? and he got kicked out for indecency and/or selling shirts without a permit or something.

>>8743414
Man Faye stopped doing his thing around 2006.

He got an industry job of some sort, and stopped going to conventions.

It's weird. A lot of the guy cosplayers that become cosfamous even a little bit tend to go hermit after they get well known, and then disappear into normalfag jobs. I guess they know deep down it's not a sustainable thing if you don't have tits.

It seems anime/manga used to be more popular. What happened? Why isn't it as popular to cosplay as it used to be?

>>8743445
Cardcaptor Will comes to mind. Great guy. I miss seeing him around cons.

>>8743612
Basically anime imploded upon itself. I feel like the height was during the latter 2000's. Anime was everywhere but the con and cosplay community still had that reclusive nerd feel to it. Back before Comic Conventions outside Dragoncon were huge and attracted so many normies into the cosplay scene. The anime industry just kind of started deflating after that point with fewer and fewer really good series coming out, and much more material pandering toward neets, like lolicon shit. Though that stuff had always existed, I just feel like there's less really good influential "must see" series that's been released since 2010 outside maybe Madoka, Kill la Kill and AoT or maybe the Sailor Moon reboot for some nostalgia (and badly drawn inbetweens). There's been a huge decline in animators and quality animation in Japan since the mid 2000's too and this has really impacted it.

Back before the late 2000's there were tons of great series being produced and the medium as a whole was far more interesting and varied. Most of my favorite series are from the late 90's and early 00's. I just can't get into current anime like I used to.

>>8743688
Also when it comes to cosplay, I see smaller percentages cosplaying anime. Anime cons have become Japanese pop culture/media leaning comic cons where anything goes, but we're really here to celebrate Japanese stuff, right? Not that I mind seeing the variety, and I often find all this western media entering the scene to be far more interesting and entertaining than what anime studios are producing most of the time.

>>8743692
Anime cons are now sort of diluted into 50/50 Japanese anime/manga/game - western nerd stuff now. I'm more confused than annoyed by this direction since it's supposed to be an anime (Japanese culture) con after all. Kingdom Hearts is fine, but Steven Universe and Dr. Who?

>>8743688
>>8743692
Hmm I was wondering if the decline in anime was more apparent or if it was just me. Seems like at least a few other people agree its harder to find new, interesting series.

>>8743688
I feel like I've started to see a bit of a change again recently, honestly-- I've watched more anime this past 12 or 14 months than I did from all of 2009-2014. There have been some really solid shows recently in a lot of different genres. Anime fans are a lot more fragmented than they used to be, though-- probably the only recent show as monolithic as anything from the early-mid 2000s is Madoka. Basically there are more niche interests within this niche interest than there used to be.

>>8727258
holy shit those costumes look really nice

>>8739249
>>8739279
Here's a tip, if you want to samefag you have to space out your posts.

>>8722774
Ha, nope sorry landwhale. Back in the 90s I could grope 16 year old bitches with their tits hanging out with ZERO repurcussions, and more often than not get my dick sucked. Way back then coplaying whores will still just as slutty, but had zero mainstream appeal. Plus, since I was the only confident half-decent looking guy at almost every con I went to, I could pull some pussy I'd never be able to in this days. I'm talking about girls who make Nigri look like dirty brown water trash (instead of model euro trash, which is what she is).

Ah, the good old days where if you had a hotel room you could easily convince virgins to get drunk and have a threesome with you and some rando slut.

>>8740311
OMG I REMEMBER THIS. I actually forgot all about how I wanted to cosplay someone from DDR when I was a young teen. I never did though because I cosplayed the same cosplay my mom once made me to almost every con cause I had no idea how to sew.

>>8744695
>getting someone drunk so that they will have sex with you

So, you didn't actually manage to pick up girls, you raped them... and are now bragging about it?

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>>8744695

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>>8744695

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>>8738671
Because Florida has a ton of conventions every year. So I guess per capita you have more people doing costumes. Though I rarely see big grand endeavors like the guy who built the hulkbuster suit or things like that, you do see more people with their costumes made for a season rather than 2 or two events.

Also I blame not having a winter for the ability to wear skimpy cosplay year round.

>>8740285
Fuck, that image reminds me of making a Delita costume way back in the day, I made the one from the first half of the game with leather Armor matching it as beat I could to the art. . not a soul recognized it until I found someone in a white Mage outfit and we hung out for the rest of the day golfing around the Con recruiting random final fantasy cosplayers.

>>8741871
Holy shit. I remember getting in a van and driving from Florida to Ohio to go to the first Ohayo con. To roast Steve Bennett. Costume, Vicious. I walked around with the sword, my fake bird and my own hair that was bleached white. Fuck me it was cold.

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>>8744695
My african-american! We would have been good friends if we met. A con back in the days meant hooking up with 9/10 girls that i would never scored with otherwise.
Seriously, cons made me the man i am today. Getting with all those girls made my confidence soar sky-high and honestly helped me later in life. I know it sounds stupid but it really made me a better person.

>tfw when you're older now and can't play spin the bottle with 3 crazy cute 14 year olds dressed up as Sailor Moon anymore

>>8743692
What I think killed off the old con scene was the banning on fansubs. In the UK at least.

Back when cons were small the video rooms used to show fansubs, and it was a fantastic way to discover new anime. I'd be in and out of the rooms all convention. One year in the opening ceremony they showed the opening to Dokura-chan, and the video room was so packed they had to have a second showing.

Then when the cons got larger and the distributors started having stalls they clamped down on fansubs, demanding that they be banned or else. Now video rooms just show whatever shitty mainstream stuff the distributors are flogging in the dealers room. I've not been in a video room for the past 6 years, because it's either boring shit or shit I've seen before. Really sad.

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>>8741871
This is Anya, she did a really beautiful Peorth cosplay from Oh My Goddess, too.

She was pretty popular in the Midwest. I wonder where she is now

>>8740326
The wig and ears look like they've been shopped on badly and the skirt is dangerously short for a time when wearing safety shorts was not common knowledge, but I still feel happy seeing this. Tokyo Mew Mew was one of the things that carried me through school and I don't see cosplay of it at all nowadays.

Any of you pensioners got good stories about now famous cosplayers?

>>8747966
That's also because it is easier to know about smaller stuff now, it is pretty hard to stumble on any series when we get a list of what is out this season

And while this will sound hipster, a larger audience will push what is big towards a more bland mediocrity. Not just being all "normies reeee" but that's what a middle ground becomes

>>8747966
When cons do have video rooms, they're pretty much empty these days. I remember going back and forth between different rooms as well to see different series.

But now Crunchyroll and Netflix are things. I haven't been in a video room in probably closer to 10 years at this point.

I staffed a con once and was in con ops chit chatting while I wasn't on duty. We stopped doing video rooms for awhile because it was just wasted space that could be used for panels or host other events. Some older guy came in and was complaining that we had time for My Little Brony, but we didn't have time for No Vidya Room. The con chair tried to explain, and it went on for a few minutes. Eventually we grabbed a big monitor, an extra laptop and threw something on it and plopped it outside by some chairs. He was there for the rest of the weekend happily watching anime... pretty much by himself.

>>8741962
If the contents of the book are like the cover, you got off easy. The melty-faced disasters are infinitely worse than DA-level weeby shit.
...I still wouldn't take drawing lessons from it though.
>>8743612
I think it might be something to do with so much more stuff being available online. If you can only watch Very Special Cartoons, any storyline that's more than the usual moral lesson wrapped in a predictable plot will be incredibly interesting and unique. Now that people have access to more than a handful of fansubbed anime tapes, we can afford to be more selective about what to watch, and split off into different niches. Obviously not everyone liked CCS, SM or Inuyasha, but everyone had heard of them, because you had fuck all else to watch. Now that it's more socially acceptable to be an adult who enjoys cartoons, people are watching and talking about Western cartoons as well, which are easy to watch and mainstream enough not to need a painfully awkward explanation whenever the titles are mentioned. Same for games.
I don't think anime/manga are less popular, I just think that there's so much choice that people aren't aware of all the new releases. plotlines, characters etec. Again, you kinda didn't have much of a choice way back in the old days. Now people know about Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan, Haikyuu etec as well as the classic animes, but any non-popular anime of the moment gets lost in the background.

>>8747966
I've run a ton of video rooms at cons (anime and multi-genre ones) over the years and it probably won't ever be the same as it was just because so much is available to see online so quickly. But a good number of cons don't put any effort into programming a video room these days, either, including some really big ones.

While I always try to work with licensors to screen their stuff and also get their support, I still use fansubs if the title is real new or not being streamed or already released on video. I also try to screen animated shorts, animation/cartoons from other countries, and some live action series/films not released in the U.S.

>>8722838
she looks like this mt that gives me my weekly happy endings

As a long time staffer one of the things that has changed is attitudes towards staff. Everyone used to be aware that it was volunteers, usually the local anime club, running the con, and they were there because they were fans and wanted to do something for anime and fandom. Now you get all these attendees who complain "I am paying GOOD money why aren't you catering to my every whim" and we are still volunteers and also paying money to be at the con for you to yell at us for it not being your perfect Disney experience. Definite shift in the last decade with more normies coming in. Usually it's an angry mom with 3-6 preteens screaming at us.

Cons back then were more fun simply because there were less people attention whoring. It was more about that you were having fun while in costume.
Nowadays I only go to hear news on in the works titles, the dealer hall and room parties.

>>8750043
I agree completely.

People tend to forget that constaff are fellow fans giving up free time to make the even happen, and not just paid monkeys.

Everyone's a member of the same Convention.

>>8741854
Mfw this is one of my oldest con friends and my AA table was directly across from her that year

>>8750043
Sadly anon, I understand why attitudes have changed. When I first started attending cons I paid a lot of respect to the volunteers and gophers, but now with hindsight and experience, I have absolute zero. Gophers are either incompetent, assholes, or gone mad with power. They either don't know shit, or think that having a special badges gives them permission to act like dictators. The worse are the long time constaff, who are all buddy-buddy with the committee and get away with murder.

I'm sure there are plenty of nice ones over there, but as a whole constaff tend to be rubbish. I don't know if the quality has decayed over the years, or I've become more aware of it as I became older/more experienced.

bump cause I loved this entire thread.

nostalgia!

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>>8744695

Ugh what the hell. This whole thread makes me want to cry.

>>8756187

good or bad cry?

>>8723153

Whatever happened to them?

>>8756333
Good cry for sure, I miss it all so much dude

>>8735944
Everyone got to start from somewhere. And typically the public doesn't know what it wants till you show them. Apparently...boobs!

>>8735944

Yeah, she and a couple of her friends used to make fairy wings and satyr horns (think she does mlp ones now) on angelicstar.net

I used to be so obsessed with her cosplays in the 2000-2005 era, she used to do some really great ones.

I have no idea when the Australian con scene actually started. Seeing how it's still tiny, I don't feel like I missed out on much.

>>8758172
This is where the Yaya drama started though, because it came out that some of the less popular people she cosplayed with were making her stuff and she was taking credit. It was pretty obvious though because there was a huge jump in the skill level of her stuff in a very short amount of time.

>>8745910
>tfw I had these opportunities too and missed them because I'm a fucking loser who was constantly oneitising on one girl or another who wasn't into me.

Anyway, as somebody who started in '01, my recollections are:

-Much more of a focus on actual anime, and more people into "grown-up" anime. Far less open shounen fanboying and almost zero western animation.

-People were much less stand-offish, more willing to meet, talk, and invite you to their parties, etc. Said parties were much less gender- or status-biased. Most of my con friends now date from those days.

-Less drugs, more drinking.

-Smaller dealer halls, but bigger booth budgets. ADV's old booths were insane, multistory monstrosities with huge screens and giveaways and all kinds of shit.

-Almost zero "cosplay photographers," you had EBK and Lionel snapping and other than that it'd just be your friend with a disposable or an early digital P&S. I was involved in photography outside cons, and I remember the reactions I brought the first time I brought an early DSLR to a con, people were stunned. (Nikon D50 right after it came out, so that would've been '05.)

-More "old" people. Funny to think that, now that I'm that age, but when I was 18 I knew tons of 30-something fans, now I hardly meet anybody over 25 at cons that I don't already know.

-More visual kei and other J-Rock stuff, less lolita. (And what lolita there was would be considered horrible ita shit these days.)

>>8761337
>-More "old" people. Funny to think that, now that I'm that age, but when I was 18 I knew tons of 30-something fans, now I hardly meet anybody over 25 at cons that I don't already know.


Yeah. I talked about that too in one of my posts up there.
At first I thought I'd be fine with the younger set cause I was fine when I was their age talking to older fans. But nope, they don't want to talk to anyone outside of their circle or age range.
So I feel slightly cheated out of that. I was looking forward to being one of those "old" people who seemed to know a lot and looked up to for crazy sewing skills.

Super cynical but actually more true than not: If you aren't in giant armor or showing 3/4s of your ass or boob not one cares about skill.

And even if you do walk in with skill if you aren't the pretty spitting image of the character you chose? Hope you enjoy being posted here for your "lackluster" genetics.

>>8762466
>And even if you do walk in with skill if you aren't the pretty spitting image of the character you chose? Hope you enjoy being posted here for your "lackluster" genetics.

Speaking of which, I remember on forums like coscom, when it was absolutely absurd to ask "What character should I cosplay? *posts picture*" or "What character do I look like?" or "Can I pull off this character?" Because honestly nobody gave two shits if you were the physical spitting image of that character, just cosplay a character you really like and something that is within your skill and budget level. If you're heavier, consider something more modest, or alter the design to be more flattering on you. None of this "her nose ruins it" jfc. We're adults playing expensive dress up.

When it comes to the age differences, honestly it depends. By and large, most younger people don't want to associate with anyone outside their group. But I've made really good con friends with some other girls who are in their early 20's in recent years through tumblr and shared fandoms and interests. Not sjw or shit like that, I just post lolita and fandom stuff along with artwork and stuff I make. It's weird though, having friends of 13-14 years knowing me from way back when and people calling out my tumblr username and recognizing me from there. It's not impossible to make new friends or acquaintances these days, but it's a little different. Also I guess being a girl changes it a little. It could be vastly different if you're a guy.

>>8762466
>Super cynical but actually more true than not: If you aren't in giant armor or showing 3/4s of your ass or boob not one cares about skill.

oh my god so much this anon. as an oldfag with awesome sewing skills, i am baffled that teens in taobao schoolgirl costumes will get more photo requests than gorgeous gowns with tons of handwork. i wish i was better at armor.

>>8722774
This.

>>8722788
Yeah we had Carl Macek once back in the single digit 2000's. That was pretty amazing.

>>8758215

Oh man, I missed out on that drama.