FanimeCon 2007 General Comments and Criticisms Thread.

[Raydere]

if you dont want to have to pay that much for a room, try sharing a room with others so you dont have to pay as much cash; thats what i did, and i only paid $70...for the whole weekend.

You can room with someone and split the cost? I thought if, for example, it's $85/night, each guest has to pay $85/night.

[otakuapprentice]

if you dont want to have to pay that much for a room, try sharing a room with others so you dont have to pay as much cash; thats what i did, and i only paid $70...for the whole weekend.

You can room with someone and split the cost? I thought if, for example, it's $85/night, each guest has to pay $85/night.

no, youre thinking about it differently. let me give the example of how my situation was:

i needed a room, and i called up one of my friends who i roomed with the year before. they got a room and were fronting the money for it. since they were paying and since they didnt want to pay so much money on their own, a bunch of us roomed together. so, instead of said person having to pay close to 400 for the whole weekend just for themselves, they only had to pay $80-90, with ther rest of us each paying $70.

basically, you split the cost among the group of people who will be in the room. if its just you, them youre gonna pay alot. but if you room together with 4-5 people then the cost gets split among everyone, with your roomies paying you their share.

now to put in in simplemans' (or laymans') terms:

you have a room for four nights. each night costs you $100, making it $400 for four nights. you get three other people to room with you. each person only pays $100 for the room, including yourself.

1 person pays $100; multiply that by 4, and you get your $400. theres your room right there.

[Moogleborg]

Fanime 2008 was practically my best Fanime ever! ^_^ Heres my details:

+ The Maid Cafe was excellent! ^_^ It had a pretty good menu, great food, plus the hosts and maids were excellent. It was an honor to have a pic taken with the maids! ^_^

+ Cosplaying as Vergil and having some pics taken. I even had a few taken with Reuben Langdon, the voice of Dante from Devil May Cry 3 as well! ^^ Hopefully i'll find them lurking around the net.

+ Cosplayers around the con to take pics of, with permission of course! ^_^

+ The rave was pretty good, and really fun, although I only went on Fridays rave.

And the (few) downpoints:

- I lost my digital camcorder, which still had not only a small handful of my cosplay pics, but also a few videos of me and a few pics from previous trips.

- The random glompers. Now, I wasn't randomly glomped, but I couldn't comfortably take some pics of a few cosplayers without them getting a random glomp. If you'd like a glomp (and/or kiss or other things), please ask the cosplayer for permission first!

- The Mariott elevators. Elevator ninjas, eh? Well, once they're done with me, they'd better think twice before using an elevator as a play toy! ^^

All in all, a great con! ^_^ I might throw in some constructive advice later! ^_^

[the otaku god]

here is your annual video post
Q, A, C, & R
Q= question
A= answer
C= comment
R= Reply

Q:    Yeah, I noticed that a lot of the video programming schedules (especially in the anime viewing rooms) kept getting changed...

A:   yes we know and we our sorry for that lots of tech problems with our power Macs

C:    I liked how all the video rooms were put on one side of the con

R:   thanks!!

C:   Lots of One Piece being shown

R:   well of course it’s the best and the hottest ser in Japan

Q:   I was a little annoyed at the anime schedule. I guess there was some sort of technical problems mid-Saturday, but I missed a lot of what I wanted to see because the schedule changed on me.

A:   we are sorry about this. The power Macs we used couldn’t handle certain files (mkvs and HD)
   
C:   Hentai night. Always fun

R:   thanks we aim to please

Q:   The Enies Lobby arc marathon was confusing....I came in and from the looks of it they went backwards after getting close to the 'Sanji's Scorching Kick' episode. What was up with that?

A:   oh yeah that…… well what happen was our staffer listen to the audience and skiped episodes that helped set up the story for new one piece fans who didn’t know what the story was about or characters (since 4kids butchered one piece!!!!!) also it threw off the timing of when the ser ended. So I had to have him play all the back eps to keep the marathon on schedule. I really hoped you enjoyed it. Also in case anyone else had a question as of why we ended it when he beat rob, there are 2 reasons. 1. I felt it ended the story we were aiming for in the arch. Robin is saved, all the main bad guys are beat, and it ends on a good note. 2 vegapunk ep 310 was the last ep they released that week before the con. I really hope you enjoyed the one piece marathon like I did (I was the guy in the middle of the room in front of the projector enjoying sec of it) its something I hope we can do again.

C:   The Hentai Room. This was the first year I was old enough to attend, and although I was very reluctant at first (I was dragged there by friends XD), I ended up enjoying myself immensely. Midnight Sleazy Train and Swallowtail Inn had me dying of laughter, I swear. ("Spirit of hospitality!")

R:   yeah that’s 2 who love our hentai room yah for hentai

C:   Technical difficulties in the video rooms? And one of the only three anime series I like was cancelled due to them? How terrible!

R:   we are so sorry about this. You can be assured we are taking measures that this never happens again.

C:   One thing that really irritated me (and I felt really bad for the staff that had to deal with it) was when a room was supposed to be playing something, but the staff member didn't have the disc and didn't even know where it was. I forget where this happened to me, but apparently someone how borrowed the disk and hadn't brought it back or something of that nature. That threw off the schedule and there wasn't anything playing in that room for at least an hour while the poor staff guy had to hunt it down. I think with a con this big that sort of thing needs to not happen. All the rooms need to have all the shows that will be playing at all times.

R:   I feel the same way too. I don’t remember this happening but if you say it did then we will take measures to make sure disc are were there suppose to be.

C:   anime programming were awesome! I haven't spent that much time in the video rooms ever at Fanime (this is my forth year).


R:   thanks once again hearing things like this makes me so happy

C:   The video room schedules did get messed up a bit. I also wanted to see Red Garden and one other had been shown at an earlier time than was supposed too. Also better training for the poor video staff. On 2 separate occasions the room had to help the operators get the videos started. Also it seems that the formats of how the videos were set up; disk vs hard drive, DVD vs AVI etc. made it hard for them. One standardized player app would also help I think. I know the operators tried their best and they seemed genuinely sorry when the schedule got messed up.

R:   it’s so hard to do that. Certain players will only play just a hand full of encoded anime. We tried doing that last year and it was a nightmare so we got computers but we ran in to mkv and HD crashing our power Macs. But next year since we know what needs to be done we will have everything up and running with no problems or codec’s error.

C:   Anime video room time changes: Rarw, it seemed like everything I wanted to see was running really late or early so I kept missing an episode here and there.

R:   once again sorry.

C:   Elevating the screens finally. I was able to see all the subtitles this year, without sitting on the back of my chair, or on my knees, or standing off to the side. I REALLY appreciated this. Anime summaries outside all the doors. HUGE PLUS. Especially because we marked down several anime to see, but then when we were pressed for time, we couldn't remember which ones were the must-sees vs. the kinda-wanna-sees. Good anime variety and getting the schedules online out early so we could do research. Excellent job.

R:   oh thank you so much!! You noticed all the little things we did to improve our video rooms from last year. We really do aim to please. Also if you noticed a lot of other cons don’t do this thus this is what separates Fanimecon from the rest!

C:   People need to be trained properly in computer usage for showing anime. In one case, the person didn't know how to work the Mac. My friend tried to help, but was brushed away. After the audience started yelling "FULL SCREEN!!" my friend's advice was finally taken. During the second anime, the audience had to walk him through, step by step, saying stuff like, "Open... Browse... Click..." He finally got it by the third episode. (EDIT: I see this was explained above, so nvm.) Make sure all the anime works. I saw at least two anime cancelled due to corrupted files. (EDIT: ditto on the above edit comment)

R:   it is a new idea (computers), we know what needs to be done now and we hope not to have this happen again.

C:   So when someone forces themselves on me, I'd be the bad guy when I force them OFF of me, all because they wanted a "Hug?" Yeah, that doesn't fly. There are some serious freak shows around cons and I had to practically elbow one in the throat until he got the message to get his hands off me.

R:   please people go to con ops if you don’t know were that is go to the info booth and they will tell you were it is. Lets stop this early so it doesn’t get out of hand and ruin it or the con for the rest of us.

C:   Anime (overall): I was impressed with the selection of titles and I am happy that the screens were at a higher level this year so that the sub-titles could be easily read. Most of the problems have been addressed (corrupted files, people not knowing how to use the computers). Thanks to the people in the video department for getting the schedule out so early. That helped a lot.

R:   another satisfied Fanimecon attendant


C:    The issues with the technical difficulties couldn't really have been avoided, so I do understand, but it was still a let-down.  

R: oops our bad will do better next time. Promise

Well thank you for your questions and comments. Lots of good things happen and some unforeseen problems but all in all we got threw it and gave you one of the best video programs we could offer. Right now we are working on ideas to make video run even better. Also I just have a couple of question.
1.   What did you think of our new programs we put out there this year?
2.    Did you see anime hell? If so did you like it as much as I did?
3.   Did you check out famine short anime films? If so was it just right or do we need to improve it
4.   Did you like the new line up of parodies? New and old? You say yamato, voltron hell bent for leather, robotech pineapple salad, true naruto style,
5.   What other future parodies would you like to see?
6.   What else can you think of that could improve video programming.
7.   Did having the anime descriptions in front of the door ways and on the net help you? Did you download them to see what ser were about?

I hope to hear from you soon and thanks for making video programming a success once again!

[blancoisma]

I've been going to Fanime since 2003, and this year has got to be my least favorite. Don't get me wrong or anything, Fanime was still a lot of fun, but there was just...something about it that totally didn't do it for me. So, here are my dislikes and likes:

Lo Bueno:
- Great atmosphere, everyone was quite friendly and people seemed genuinely happy.
- schedules were definetely improved, props on that.
- staff, the staff is always helpful and friendly.

Lo Malo:
- there was a lack of goods in the dealer's room. I am the type of person to buy everything at once and then have no money left for the remaining days, but I had a really difficult time finding anything that I liked. I got some great stuff in the end, but when I walk into the dealer's room I've kind of built myself up to find something great.
- I was really annoyed by the vast amounts of Naruto and Bleach I saw. While this is something that can't be helped, it was very annoying to see it everywhere I went. I know it's because of the popularity, but still. Now, I'm being a bit vain here, but my cosplay took many many hours to do, and I put a lot of work into it. Yet my cosplay was horribly overlooked compared to something like Naruto. Once again, this can't be helped because my cosplay was obscure and not many are familiar with it. But people should be able to acknowledge when something is well made, and was made with a lot of effort. To all that commented on my cosplay and took pics, thank you so much for your kind words ( I was the one with the large wings and the green wig, King Chaos )


Those were my only gripes with Fanime really. The rest is simply stuff on my part that I could have done to make it more enjoyable. For instance, rooming with someone else. This year I came alone, and spent most of my time alone. I had groups of friends come to Fanime, but I spent very little time with them due to the fact that their schedule just didn't coincide with mine. I seriously spent most of my time in my hotel room staring at the ceiling because I felt so alone. The other thing I could have done was bring my own supply of snacks and water, things like that. That was just me being stupid, so yah.

Anywho, that's enough from me. I still had a great time, but if I manage to get the same time off next year, I will come again. Hopefully by next year the dealer's room might grow a bit more and have a bit more variety. And most of all, I will not come alone. I hate being alone. I'll be seeing everyone in '08!

[Jelly Soup]

Fanime 2008 was practically my best Fanime ever!

0_o Well, I hope it will be, anyway.

[Nina Star 9]

- I was really annoyed by the vast amounts of Naruto and Bleach I saw. While this is something that can't be helped, it was very annoying to see it everywhere I went. I know it's because of the popularity, but still. Now, I'm being a bit vain here, but my cosplay took many many hours to do, and I put a lot of work into it. Yet my cosplay was horribly overlooked compared to something like Naruto. Once again, this can't be helped because my cosplay was obscure and not many are familiar with it. But people should be able to acknowledge when something is well made, and was made with a lot of effort. To all that commented on my cosplay and took pics, thank you so much for your kind words ( I was the one with the large wings and the green wig, King Chaos )

I know exactly what you mean here. I was a bit dissapointed with how few people wanted my picture on Sunday. (I was the one in the big black dress with the poofy sleeves and 10 foot train, also seen in the masquerade.) I spent months handsewing every tiny detail of the original into my costume, but then when it came down to it, no one wanted my picture. In fact, very few people even complemented me on it. It was only after I resigned myself to standing along the side of the concourse with my train fully spread out (a difficult task to do by myself), did a few people stop and take pictures, but I felt that it was only because it was convinent. Yes, it was a very obscure costume and I doubt anyone knew what it was, but it made me a bit sad to see all these people cosplaying popular characters that probably did not (and did not, from the looks of some of their costumes) put nearly as much effort as I did into making a complex costume. But, that cannot really be helped, I suppose. People will be people.

[PyronIkari]

If you are cosplaying to get your picture taken... you're cosplaying for the wrong reasons... seriously.

Cosplaying SHOULD be about loving the character, and loving it enough to want to dress up like said character. I cosplayed one of my favorite characters as of recent, Chrono from Nanoha. Guess what, no one recognized me, no one took my picture, and someone who cosplayed from the same series didn't even recognize it. Did I care? Hell no, because the costume was awesome, and I love the character. If what I cared about was getting my picture taken, or getting recognized, I'd whore myself out and do something totally obvious(cough cough... anything 4chan, or anything bleach, or naruto, death note...).

"Cosplay is love~"
-ComiPa

Well it used to be, now it's about attention whoring. I liked how things were pre 2000 where the majority of people didn't cosplay, and those that did, did it not for the attention, but for love of the character.

[M]

If you are cosplaying to get your picture taken... you're cosplaying for the wrong reasons... seriously.

Cosplaying SHOULD be about loving the character, and loving it enough to want to dress up like said character. I cosplayed one of my favorite characters as of recent, Chrono from Nanoha. Guess what, no one recognized me, no one took my picture, and someone who cosplayed from the same series didn't even recognize it. Did I care? Hell no, because the costume was awesome, and I love the character. If what I cared about was getting my picture taken, or getting recognized, I'd whore myself out and do something totally obvious(cough cough... anything 4chan, or anything bleach, or naruto, death note...).

"Cosplay is love~"
-ComiPa

Well it used to be, now it's about attention whoring. I liked how things were pre 2000 where the majority of people didn't cosplay, and those that did, did it not for the attention, but for love of the character.

Word. Also keep in mind that with a million cosplayers nowadays, photographers do run out of film (although they should be carrying enough cards/film/whatever for a million shots, right?). =)

[Spiritsnare]

If you are cosplaying to get your picture taken... you're cosplaying for the wrong reasons... seriously.

Cosplaying SHOULD be about loving the character, and loving it enough to want to dress up like said character. I cosplayed one of my favorite characters as of recent, Chrono from Nanoha. Guess what, no one recognized me, no one took my picture, and someone who cosplayed from the same series didn't even recognize it. Did I care? Hell no, because the costume was awesome, and I love the character. If what I cared about was getting my picture taken, or getting recognized, I'd whore myself out and do something totally obvious(cough cough... anything 4chan, or anything bleach, or naruto, death note...).

"Cosplay is love~"
-ComiPa

Well it used to be, now it's about attention whoring. I liked how things were pre 2000 where the majority of people didn't cosplay, and those that did, did it not for the attention, but for love of the character.

Also QFT'd. I had a costume on hand for this year - the Akatsuki outfit from Naruto, aka OMG THE ITACHI!1! outfit - and I chose not to wear it, because even though I like the outfit itself, I simply am not into the series.

There's a difference between costume play and just plain costuming.

Fanime 2008 was practically my best Fanime ever!

0_o Well, I hope it will be, anyway.

It's so awesome you can feel it from a year away.

[astroboy]

...Also keep in mind that with a million cosplayers nowadays, photographers do run out of film (although they should be carrying enough cards/film/whatever for a million shots, right?). =)

Don't forget the extra batteries! A digital camera can eat more electricity then an aluminum smelting plant.

You're more likely to run out of energy before memory....or is that just me? I'm surprised anime con photographers don't walk around with 100 foot extension cords like Evangelion units.  :wink:

[Nina Star 9]

If you are cosplaying to get your picture taken... you're cosplaying for the wrong reasons... seriously.

Cosplaying SHOULD be about loving the character, and loving it enough to want to dress up like said character. I cosplayed one of my favorite characters as of recent, Chrono from Nanoha. Guess what, no one recognized me, no one took my picture, and someone who cosplayed from the same series didn't even recognize it. Did I care? Hell no, because the costume was awesome, and I love the character. If what I cared about was getting my picture taken, or getting recognized, I'd whore myself out and do something totally obvious(cough cough... anything 4chan, or anything bleach, or naruto, death note...).

"Cosplay is love~"
-ComiPa

Well it used to be, now it's about attention whoring. I liked how things were pre 2000 where the majority of people didn't cosplay, and those that did, did it not for the attention, but for love of the character.

If you honestly think that I only cosplay for the attention, then you obviously know nothing about me at all.

I cosplay because I honestly LOVE doing so. Why else would I choose some obscure costume that I adore (Bodaiju PV Amano Tsukiko - it's my favourite song) and spend months hand-sewing the darn thing? If I wanted attention and didn't love what I was doing, I would buy a really popular costume instead of spending a lot of time and energy on trying to figure out how to make something else that I know no one will know. I do it out of love for the costume and the original designer and wearer of the costume, not for the attention.

That was not my point at all.

My point in my above post was that it is discouraging when you spend a lot of time and energy and money making your dream costume, and it just gets alked all over, quite literally, like no one even notices you are there. It also makes one wonder why some people with costumes of lesser quality get all sorts of complements, pictures, etc., when the one costume that you spent a year doing breakdowns and drafting your patterns for and then months sewing it only gets a few nods, if that. (Even though I was carrying the 10 foot train the vast majority of the time, I was still scared of getting my costume ripped from all the people that did not even look where they were walking and accidentally stood on my costume. It can be a bit hurtful when no one even noices that you and your costume are there.)

I'm not saying that I am sad becuase I didn't get any attention, if you knew me at all, you would know that I am anything but an attention whore. I'm saying that when someone spends months hand-sewing every detail onto an elaborate costume because they absouletly love the costume and the sourse material, it can be discouraging and make one not really want to make something so elaborate and time-consuming again when barely anyone even acknowledges your existance. That's it. I'm out there for anything but the attention, I'm out there for the love. But sometimes, if one barely gets anyone even noticing their hard work, it makes it harder to pull out the needle and thread and make another dream costume.

[E-Chan]

+The staff members, especially those at Con-Ops and the Rovers were excellent this year. All of those who I spoke to were courtious and well informed. They dealt with line situations superbly. (Yaoi-Bingo line anyone? X_x yay for sick attendees.) And I'd like to thank the staff members of the console gaming who helped me by testing a used game I purchased from the dealers room which I ended up having to return do to it not running correctly.

Ahahha. I'm glad you liked the staff, I was one of the rovers working the yaoi bingo line... thanks for being part of a fun line. ^^

Oh dear. Glomping was such an issue, as were the people with the "glomp me" signs. Unfortunately, there's only so much we can do as staff.

We had only about 30 rovers this year, I believe, and most of us worked 70+ hours (Meaning that there was one of us for about every 350 guests, give or take), however, that's not nearly enough of us to be where we needed to be at all times, and a lot of stuff we took care of after a con-goer informed us that it was a problem... we simply could not be everywhere. So yes, taking down their badge numbers is the best way to get them taken care of; we have the badge numbers and we use them to find people and make sure they're not continuing to do the same thing again and again. We really do use them, I promise, and repeat offenders do find themselves escorted off con premises, and some badges do get pulled.

The glomping thing is definitely going to have to be addressed by the staff, and perhaps there will be a rule put in place for next year, I can't really say for sure. A general rule of courtesy obviously isn't enough; asking whether people mind is the best way. But somehow, it will be dealt with.

As far as the sleeping... Wow. Seriously, get a freaking hotel room, go home, etc. It is not our fault that you want to stay 24-hours, but... err... go somewhere else, sleep, BATHE, etc. I don't especially care if you eat so long as you don't turn yourself into one of our medical emergencies... though I'd reccommend it, the body doesn't function well without eating.

I'm sorry to anyone who got woken up badly, and yes, we do have a strong presence at night, and we do check the video rooms. It's something that's necessary. As Trooper said earlier, it's something that we'll be discussing for next year.

Midnight Snack Parties... Are peachy, if they could just please in the future be taken to a hotel room or off convention property to where it is not our problem. The PB&J wouldn't have even been nearly as bad if they'd bothered to clean up after themselves, but we still have rules about what we can and can't allow...

Cosplay... I had some issues in that I didn't have my camera with me a lot of the time when I saw good cosplays... and then there were some where I was like ... *blink, blink* who are you?? But still, yes... good job. I'd like to see fewer half-arsed naruto outfits where people just grabbed a headband and called it cosplay. ><;

General Behavior... For the most part, as a rover, the people I encountered were as nice to me as I was to them... but there were problem people, and some issues that couldn't be addressed, etc. Remember guys, the behavior of our congoers determines whether we can continue to work with SJCC... if we make them too mad at us, we won't get the spot again, it's that simple. So try to play nice, and clean, and when there are issues, let the staff know; we can't fix things that we don't know are broken.

Okay, now that I'm done responding... (this is the post of doom already, can't you tell?)
+ Dealer's hall layout was far superior and had a lot more space than it has in past years.
+ Artist's alley was also well laid out.
+ Many, many people bothered to get their items peacebonded. Thank you to all of you who did.
- Program guide; I love looking at them and it was a bummer. But I've seen all the reasons... I hope that printing company is either offering a huge discount for next year or this year or something. *le grumble*
- Event overlap; deadly. It's hard enough as a congoer, even harder when you're a rover.
+ Events; I liked the variety.
+/- Maid Cafe; Location. I didn't go, so I'm just going to say that the location should be changed if it returns next year... that room downstairs from where it was would have been much better... also, decorations. But, as I said, I didn't go, so I don't know what it was really like. I do, however, like that it was something new and different... with some work it could be an awesome event.
+/- Food; I liked that there were food vendors. I disliked their prices (Seriously? They wanted that much?!), and it'd be nice if they could perhaps offer better deals...
- Video Rooms; Some of them were labelled badly, some of them had technical difficulties, etc. As a whole they were alright, but maybe attatching whiteboards where video staff can update statuses outside would be good...
+ Yaoi-Con Events; I liked the lines... XD that's a lame thing, isn't it? But thank you to all of you who were in the line that were nice. (I worked the Yaoi-Bingo, and yeah). It sucked when that girl got sick, but I'm glad she was ultimately alright.
- Hentai Rooms; I wanted funny, not scarring. O_O;;;; Sushi is ruined... Seriously. I'd like to see *funnier* hentai, not awkward, gross, and fetish-filled.
- Dealer's Hall; I'm going to support the opinion that it should be more anime-related. We're not all goths, and goth-gear is more than a little out of place. I'd love to see more variety in merchandise, though I realize there's only so much the con can do...
- Fanime Booth; The booth in the dealer's hall for fanime was... err... lame? C'mon guys, do something fun in there! Seriously. Don't just do a huge cuddle pile... that was awkward.
---- Registration Line; Wow. Good Lord. I did line control on Saturday and it was insane. Then I had people yell at me for things that I'm not in control of... harsh. Please, please, please Pre-Reg!! ><;

And... umm... yeah. Now, I'm good.

[Tenba]

I was carrying the 10 foot train the vast majority of the time

I barely saw any of the con, so I didn't get a chance to see you, but I'd love to see your costume.  Do you have any pictures you can post somewhere please?

[PyronIkari]

I cosplay because I honestly LOVE doing so. Why else would I choose some obscure costume that I adore (Bodaiju PV Amano Tsukiko - it's my favourite song) and spend months hand-sewing the darn thing? If I wanted attention and didn't love what I was doing, I would buy a really popular costume instead of spending a lot of time and energy on trying to figure out how to make something else that I know no one will know. I do it out of love for the costume and the original designer and wearer of the costume, not for the attention.

Oh... ther'es a number of reasons to do so. The same reason why some people PURPOSELY choose to cosplay obscure things, it's not the amount of attention they get, but the elite feeling that if someone recognizes their super obscure costume, that it means that much more... or it could be that you wanted to be elitist completely and have people ask you about it... I'm not saying you are any of those... but those are possibilities.

My point in my above post was that it is discouraging when you spend a lot of time and energy and money making your dream costume, and it just gets alked all over, quite literally, like no one even notices you are there. It also makes one wonder why some people with costumes of lesser quality get all sorts of complements, pictures, etc., when the one costume that you spent a year doing breakdowns and drafting your patterns for and then months sewing it only gets a few nods, if that. (Even though I was carrying the 10 foot train the vast majority of the time, I was still scared of getting my costume ripped from all the people that did not even look where they were walking and accidentally stood on my costume. It can be a bit hurtful when no one even noices that you and your costume are there.)

You missed completely where I said absolutely know one asked me for my picture, or that no one even recognized it... even someone from the exact same series. If you're whining that no one recognized it, or that you didn't get attention... then you aren't doing it for love. You ARE doing it for the recognition. Some costumes I've done have gotten me loads of attention, some have gotten me absolutely none. Van from Escaflowne got me so much attention it's not even funny... but the reason why I did Van in the first place is a very personal reason and connection I had with something that's not worth mentioning on here. Had I gotten 0 pictures and no one cared who I was... I still would have been super happy because I did that character, and I did that costume that I was very much connected to.

I did a sprite from the Atelier Series(Iris version) and I got 1 picture taken... and it was because he thought I was cosplaying Li Syaoran(which if anything is more insulting than not getting your picture taken before) and had a person cosplaying from the Atelier series say she had no clue who I was, and stated that she had no clue who she was, she just thought the costume was cute so she did it.

I even had a little chemistry set with the bottles and the rack and I sat on the floor playing with it like in the game... XD it was so bad ass.

I did Laharl(LOL first Laharl in the US and possibly Japan) since it was before Disgaea was even okayd for release in the US and it had only been out in Japan for about 2weeks. Of course no one recognized that costume at all. Girls just wanted to take my picture because I had no shirt on and I apparently have nice legs or something.

See, cosplay is about yourself. It's about doing something you like for yourself. Not for anyone else. Not for the attention you might get, not for the picture opportunities, not for anything accept your will to do it, and your wanting to do it. Recognition is nice, but definitely not important.

I'm not saying that I am sad becuase I didn't get any attention, if you knew me at all, you would know that I am anything but an attention whore. I'm saying that when someone spends months hand-sewing every detail onto an elaborate costume because they absouletly love the costume and the sourse material, it can be discouraging and make one not really want to make something so elaborate and time-consuming again when barely anyone even acknowledges your existance. That's it. I'm out there for anything but the attention, I'm out there for the love. But sometimes, if one barely gets anyone even noticing their hard work, it makes it harder to pull out the needle and thread and make another dream costume.

You're right, I don't know you at all, I can only base this on the logic you have put forth in your posts. I can only rationalize what you have presented as a base point. And your base point is...

"I Don't cosplay for anyone but myself. I do things I love... but I don't want to do it anymore unless people recognize me and give me attention".

Sorry, but things don't add up that way. You might not be an attention whore... but you're definitely seeking attention for you to have that attitude. That's not love at all. That's an excuse.

[Keys]

I think you might be reading too much into things PyronIkari.  My feeling from the posts was that these cosplayers do love the characters and that's the main drive behind their costume, but that a little positive reinforcement never hurt.  Nina Star 9 was just a 'bit disappointed.'  blancoisma went a bit further saying they were 'really annoyed' but it seemed like blowing off disappointment to me.  More photographs would be icing on the cake, not the driving force.  

For instance, I'm sure Nina Star 9 will end up doing another wonderful costume next year.  This is the second one I've seen from her in as many years at Fanime.  I think she was just trying to say that after all that work, she would be more eager to get right back on the sewing train rather than take a time out, if she had more feedback.

I know when I'm happy with work I've done, I like to share it with others, but it's hard if no one is interested.

I doubt many people cosplay for only one reason.  After all, if you're only cosplaying for yourself, why bother bringing it to a con?  Why not just cosplay for yourself at home?  I assume you want to at least see how it goes and perhaps play with other people with like interests... aren't you glad when you do find some of those people at con?  Isn't it fun to play dress up with other people?  The driving force is the love for the character, sure, but there are added bonuses.

Nina Star 9 - You were in the Cosplay Spectacular right?  Assuming you were craftsmanship judged, you should have at least gotten some feedback from them correct?  Also, I'm sure you are friends with other Amano Tsukiko addicts who can appreciate your hard work.  I'm sorry to hear that people were inconsiderate regarding your costume, that's the worst.  It's tough going it alone, usually when I cosplay, I'm with friends who can help carry stuff.  If I see you next year and we're both not busy, I'd love to hear how you made your costume(s.)

Another thing about photos is, often photographers don't want to inconvenience the cosplayer.  I pretty much only take pictures myself when I see someone already stopped for pictures.  Maybe you just tend to look like you're busy?  Also, maybe people don't realize you're wearing a costume and think that the dress is your usual fashion.  It does look very professional after all.

People take photographs for different reasons.  Some people want to catalog all the costumes that wow them, others want characters they love, some people like to set up stories... the list goes on and on.

blancoisma - It's hard to notice immediately how well made something is and how long it must have taken on a quick walk by, depending on the costume.  Sometimes you have to be up close or take a long look to full tell how difficult it must have been.  Also, how are people to know if you made the costume or had it commissioned?  

Plus, maybe those Naruto costumes did take people a long time to do.  Some Naruto costumes aren't simple and depending on skill level and experience, putting together a costume even if you don't think it looks that hard might have been quite an endeavor for the person wearing it.

[Stormfalcon]

Or, to look at the issue in a more simple way, you may be cosplaying for the love of the character, but it'd be nice to see that others share that love for the character as well and see that others recognize the character besides yourself.

[PyronIkari]

Or, to look at the issue in a more simple way, you may be cosplaying for the love of the character, but it'd be nice to see that others share that love for the character as well and see that others recognize the character besides yourself.

Ah but you're comparing two different things. Cosplaying and getting a bonus is different than cosplaying and being disappointed that you didn't get recognized.

It's like offering to help out a friend, then getting mad that he didn't offer to buy you dinner or something afterwards...

compared to

It's like offering to help out a friend, then being surprised when he offers to get you a beer afterwards.

I certainly wouldn't get mad or disappointed if I offered to help out a friend and he doesn't get me diner or anything like that. I'm helping him because I want to help him. If he does get me something that's a bonus, but if he doesn't, there's 0 reason to be disappointed.

IT IS seeking attention no matter how you look at it, or word it. By being disappointed or sad, or angry, or anything along those lines at all, it means that you WERE SEEKING ATTENTION. I like when people talk to me about my costume, but if no one does, I don't really care. I find it kinda pitiful and irritating when someone from the same series doesn't recognize me, because that's disrespectful to the character they're cosplaying, the series as a whole... and the production of that series to cosplay about something you have such little knowledge about. That's not love at all.

[Nina Star 9]

Pyon, this discussion is completely pointless. You are totally misinterpeting what I am trying to say and taking on some eleitest attitide. I will not diginfy this with any more responses.




Thank you all of you that are giving encouragement and understand what I mean. Especially you, Keys, your kind words have really lifted my spirits. I hope to see you next year, as well. :D (By the way, unless you want specifics, here is how I make my costumes- I make it up as I go. @_@) But thank you all who actually understand my logic.

[Keys]

It's like offering to help out a friend, then getting mad that he didn't offer to buy you dinner or something afterwards...

compared to

It's like offering to help out a friend, then being surprised when he offers to get you a beer afterwards.

I certainly wouldn't get mad or disappointed if I offered to help out a friend and he doesn't get me diner or anything like that. I'm helping him because I want to help him. If he does get me something that's a bonus, but if he doesn't, there's 0 reason to be disappointed.

I'm seeing it more like, you help your friend because he's your friend.  While you're helping, you get thirsty and think "Wow, it would sure be nice if he offered me a beer" and then "Too bad he didn't offer me a beer."  Later, once you've gotten your own beer or gatorade, you don't really think about it ever again.

I've done some characters where other people from the series haven't recognized me.  I didn't find it pitiful or irritating though.  I figured either my costume wasn't good enough, they hadn't read that far in the manga/seen that far in the series, or I had just picked someone who was too much of a side character or an outfit that was on screen way too short an amount of time.  

While I've never cosplayed someone I didn't know, couldn't it be seen as a sign of respect to the character designer to cosplay a character even if you don't know much about them?  It's like saying "Wow this design is so cool, I want to cosplay it even if I can't read/watch/play."