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Hey, Answerman! [2009-02-06]

Unless you, erm, don't like J-Rock. In which case, I have some very simple advice: don't go to see their shows.

Zac wrote:

Not sure what the last convention you went to is but anime cons are basically becoming even worse than teenage party weekend, now it's teenage party BE AS ANNOYING IN PUBLIC AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE TO CALL ATTENTION TO YOURSELF weekend.

I think this is something we can blame sites like 4chan, myspace, and Ebaum's World for. 4chan has its good parts (I'm a regular in /co/), but /b/'s depravity has been turned up to 12 over the past four years, and it's leaked into just about every other portion of the internet with a large teenage presence. For some reason, it's now standard culture for internet-enabled teens that if you can't scream random quotes/memes, you won't be accepted. There are times when these are not only appropriate, but work very well, but not when you're just walking down the hallway (except, perhaps, shouting spoiler[THE GAME], but even that gets way over-used). I also blame parents to an extent, as they seem to be more willing to let their children be "free spirits", feh.

I disagree, i frequent 4chan, and the oppasit seems to be true of most of the anime fans there, /a/ hates that kind of behavior, as does most of /b/, its just stupid kids who think its, cool to memespam outside of the internet

Zac wrote:

Mohawk52 wrote: It certainly dispells the myth that otaku are sexual cretins, however I doubt that most of those predators are otaku, but more opportunists. Wolves in otaku t-shirts, so to speak. Nerds tend to sleep with other nerds, and 90 percent of the people who show up to these things are teenagers, who are more likely to sleep with eachother. I don't think it's a display of sexual competence, rather just inevitable when you put a bunch of nerdy adolescents in a room together.

Surely not of mixed gender though? I can relate to school trips where the boys shared a room, but never with the girls as well. So it's the promiscuity that is the myth then?

No it's not, since the J-rockers don't have any presence here, so they take a pay-cut and use the whole thing as a chance to sell an international album.

Hell, considering how many people complain about the prices of American CDs, how many people do you really see paying the double the cost for the overseas stuff?

But those cons don't make a profit; if they did, they would actually do a better job of dealing with over-crowding, instead of cutting corners at the expense of the attendees. These concerts are just an excuse to pay off "rising operation costs" most of the time.

About the J-Rock band question, it bugs me too how a little-known Japanese rock band is shoved to the forefront for no reason.

It's disappointing as an older fan to go to a convention just to see the same English voice actor guests over and over, with bands I've honestly mostly never heard of.

-also like to mention that I'm not one of the aforementioned "teeny bopper" j-rock fans. I'm a 24 year old MALE who takes the shows seriously; I don't go and act like an immature 12 year old like many within the scene; it really gives us a bad name.

I disagree. In fact, I would argue that having the J-Rock show up props up the "teenage party fest" trend. If J-Rock is truly done to bring in those crowds, I say go ahead and stop it.

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The fanbase has been building for years and it's bigger than most people believe it to be.

If you count Japanese expatriates living in America, sure.

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I don't go and act like an immature 12 year old like many within the scene; it really gives us a bad name.

You do know that's their target audience in Japan, right?

I have another solution. Start your own convention, conference, or workshop. It doesn't have to be big with thousands of people. Start a small, meaningful conference or convention for people who happen to share the same sentiment as yours.

They've also introduced me to artists that I'd never heard but now love.

Conventions are organized with the goal of entertaining thousands of people, many of whom are not satisfied sitting in their hotel room all weekend jerking off onto KOS-MOS figures

But those cons don't make a profit; if they did, they would actually do a better job of dealing with over-crowding, instead of cutting corners at the expense of the attendees. These concerts are just an excuse to pay off "rising operation costs" most of the time.

In the case of bands the con also probably has to cover the extra cost of not just transporting the band but their equipment too.

Fees to record label, food & lodging, etc. aside, musical guests are not THE CANCER THAT IS KILLING ANIME CONVENTIONS though.

Fans of Japanese musicians can only pray that their favorite artists sign up for an anime convention because they are SOL on seeing them live unless they are financially secure to travel to Japan.

If it's a band that has done a popular theme song for a popular anime, I can accept their presence at an anime convention. Otherwise, I can't approve. Just like those lame LARP rooms at cons. It's not anime or manga-related. I only accept gamer rooms with the understanding that there is some crossover between the two fandoms, but as unwashed and dirty as they say anime fans are, its always the gamer room that smells like a gerbil cage.