Conventional Wisdom

Okay, I need to make these two statements one right after the other, because leaving one to hang on its own without the other to provide context would end up being very misleading: 1. I was more BORED during Cosplay America 2022 than just about any other convention I can remember attending 2. I RESPECT Cosplay America more than any convention I’ve seen in years.  Those two statements are intrinsically linked to one another.

The obvious question to get from the comic above is “What on Earth were you even DOING attending a cosplay convention if you’re not interested in cosplaying?”  But, see, that’s why this comic starts out with another flagrant jab at anime conventions.  I complain about there not being anime programing at anime cons all the time, and that’s just the thing.  I’m used to having to make my own fun for most of the weekend, and it’s easy to do since so many OTHER people end up doing the same thing.  There’s plenty of people who just hang out in the halls for the entire con, to the point that I just naturally assumed Cosplay America would be the same way.  It didn’t even OCCUR to me that the overwhelming majority of attendees might actually be interested in attending the programming.  I haven’t seen this kind of empty hall/full panels crowd disparity since all the way back at Intervention (which, interestingly enough, also wasn’t an anime convention).  And yes, every time I glanced into a panel or workshop, it looked pretty well attended, so it’s not as if people just didn’t show up.  Believe me, I know what that looks like.  Heck, the fact that people were in the workshops is EXTRA impressive because you had to pay extra for a leveled-up badge to get in.  That’s some serious engagement with the programming, right there.

And that’s just the thing: It’s GOOD that a person who doesn’t give a crap about making costumes was bored at a cosplay convention!  A person like me SHOULD be bored at a thing like this!  If the programing were targeted towards me, that’d mean that the people who actually DID want to learn about costume-making would be getting short-changed, and what’d even be the point in that?  ‘Cos I can tell you right now, no amount of “cosplaying for people who don’t like cosplaying” normie-baiting would have changed my mind of the subject.  I fully support Cosplay America’s decision to double down on excluding me if it meant focusing its energy on its actual target audience.  Would that the cowards running anime conventions would be as willing to just be about one thing.

Of course, this whole rant is distracting from another very important question: If I freely admit to not planning on doing any convention stuff at this convention, what DID I end up doing?  Um, about that…