What was cosplay like in 1998?

My first year was '01 but my older friends tell me the late '90s were pretty similar.

Pretty much everybody had shitty costumes, shitty wigs, and didn't wear makeup. An impressive costume meant a giant prop or a "good" Goku wig. Hardly anybody took pictures and even fewer posted them online, and nobody had a DSLR or did actual photoshoots.

Cosplay was more... I don't want to call it "roleplay," but it was about getting to dress up as your favorite character and walk around for a day, and probably meet other fans of your favorite series. There was almost no such thing as a "popular" cosplayer and nobody was really trying to be one.

I feel like it was a lot easier to meet and interact with people, even at big cons like AX. People weren't paranoid like they are now.

Masquerades were a bigger deal and pretty much everybody at the con went to them.

People did more joke and gimmick costumes, and it was about getting reactions in person, not in pictures online.

>>9411640
Really? Cons encourage openness so much these days, it's a good thing I'm just saying since I taught older cons were more lurkish

>>9411650
I dunno, maybe it's just me but I found it much easier in the old days. Nowadays there's so much worry about saying or doing the wrong thing and ending up as greentext in some /cgl/ creeper thread.

Cosplayers tend to be busy with photoshoots and stuff nonstop too, and everybody is constantly burned out from the endless interaction with "fans," photographers, actual creeps, etc. at big cons now. In the old days I could walk up to somebody wearing a costume from a show I liked and it'd turn into an hour long conversation, now it's a minute of awkward banter on both sides and then it gets interrupted by Gamefan23.

It was awful, but in a good way.

>>9411717
Sounds great

No wigs unless you were rich. Want a different colour? Good luck dying it yourself.

Asian cosplayers were held high on a pedestal when they visited US conventions.

No-one really gave a shit about your quality because 1) everyone was shit and 2) you tried at least

>>9411629
>What was cosplay like in 1998?
shitty shitty Party City

Halloween for adults

Does anybody else remember floor pizza?

Freedom, no one cared too much and there were no sjw's bitching about everything. No one expected great costumes because everyone was a casual. Cons were fun because you could get into the panels you wanted, hotel cost was down and attendees were considered outcast nerds.

http://www.usagichan2.com/AX98/

Satin

People were a lot easier to talk to

It was also easier to run into guests and they were happy to see cosplayers - 1999 was when Yoko Kanno was invited to AX and we were able to take casual pictures with her right before the dance since she was in the ballroom with other people.

>>9411684
>and ending up as greentext in some /cgl/ creeper thread.
oh no, literally the worst thing imaginable.

>>9411684
I can kinda see what you mean.

People were more approachable at cons but that was because the the type of people who went was more centralized as well as the con being much smaller.

While it is still VERY possible to make friends at a con I do feel that that people are a lot more guarded. (I'm guilty of this too) but more people are showing up in groups and just stick to them to the point where they look like the rest of the attendees as annoyances. You got your crew and the rest of the people be damned

>>9412012
>http://www.usagichan2.com/AX98/
those cosplay galleries are so pure like everyone looks happy

If we're talking about cosplay specifically, all I can really say is it is much more accessible for the average person. Quality wigs are available at affordable prices and Chinese commissioners can make you costumes if you don't sew. My regional anime con had 500 people in 1998. Now it has over 30k. I feel like I'm more social at cons now because I got to meet people. Then, it was all about binge watching anime. Ah, how things have changed in anime over the last 20 years!

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Costumes were really a mixed bag- but nothing rose to the level of the best cosplayers today. But there was a camaraderie among cosplayers- "Oh, not only do you like anime too, but you like it enough to dress as a character? I feel the same!"

Cosplay back in my days was so much more about fun and being an idiot.
Now, try to have a good attitude and a sense of humour and you end up posted on /cgl

Found this on Twitter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7yV4o-phVQ

>>9411629

People weren't attention whores, you can actually talk to them about anime, they were more happier and not miserable, and the atmosphere felt friendly instead of lonely.

>>9412003
>>9412728
>>9415450
>>9415843
You can still find this sort of atmosphere if you go to conventions in smaller towns or in the sticks/boonies.

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>>9412012
>90%, of these people are dead by now

>>9416422
... how? 30 year olds are now 50, but most look younger than that.

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>>9412012
AX94 page has sum dat Win95/Web 1.0 feel to it

weebdom must've been avante-garde in those days

>>9419166
Anime as a teenager or adult was very shameful in the 80s and 90s

You might just even call it...
Super Taboo

>>9415827
not a single cosplayer

>>9412027
this