This is maybe the 3rd major anime convention I have ever attended in my 23 years of life on this planet. The first two times, I went to the Baltimore Otakon 2000 and 2001 (I don’t remember the exact years) with some friends during high school. I find it kind of interesting to mention a few comparisons between Otakon at the turn of the millennium and the New York Anime Festival in 2007.
*Disclaimer: This exercise is obviously problematic, since:
- Baltimore and NYC are totally different cities.
- Furthermore, Otakon had already become an established event in the DC-metropolitan area by the millennium, whereas NYAF - according to Show Manager Peter Tatara - is only in its first year as such (there has been an annual New York Comic Con for a while, but apparently those have had limited space for anime/manga).
- I worked as a volunteer this time, to get a refund on my entrance fee, whereas the first 2 times I went, it was as a full-price customer.
- Otakon was held in a hotel, which was big, but not as big as Jacob Javits Convention Center in mid-town. The estimated attendance as of Day 1 was at 10-15,000.
- I’m about 6 or 7 years older than I was then and mildly less spastic, and hopefully a little more analytical/observant.
- My memories are fuzzy.
Now that that is over, let’s move on to the Highlights:
Attendance
The costumes ranged from very cute to horrific to exotifying. The extent of the halloweenification of Japanese-ness is overwhelming. I will include some pictures below to illustrate, as soon as I upload them:
- My favorites: two versions of L
- Maids at the Maid Café – a perfect excuse for pubescent girls to show off skin and wear lace. I wondered how anyone would ever volunteer to dress up as an exotic other and become someone’s servant for the day, until I remembered wearing that chinky outfit for Asia Nora Restaurant in Northwest DC. Clearly, the circumstances are different. Clearly.
- Dancing at the concert, before the musicians actually get on stage. I don’t think most of the attendees had heard of Unicorn Table (I certainly hadn’t) but they seemed to be in high spirits as they rushed to get in on the “dancing” (more like moshing).
One thing about NYAF is that it seemed like more of the “cool kids” from school are starting to make an appearance, although the “geek”/”dork”/”loser” contingent maintains a strong presence.
I did line duty on Saturday morning, which was probably the highest-volume day for the weekend. I will have to CHECK this. I saw a fair number of families, a fair number of high-school and middle-schoolish kids in costumes, and a fair number of grown-ups (25-30+, totally arbitrary number), presumably there to relive oldies like Speed-Racer and Super Mario, but many were probably there to sell/speak/research. This wasn’t strikingly different from my memories of Otakon, but what was STRIKINGLY different was the…
Racial Diversity among Attendees
But even before we talk about that, let’s first make very clear that the women who were replacing smaller trash-cans, cleaning the toilets, clearing some of the trash on the floor of the convention center, etc were Latina and Black (and possibly Southeast Asian). And that the men hauling the heavier trash receptacles and policing the major events and retail spaces were Black (maybe some were Latino, and some of the cops may have been White). This has not changed since 2000. We volunteers were treated not as employees but as guests who could also do a little busy-work.
As for the Attendees…
I doubt that anyone will argue that Otakon was mostly attended by Whites and Asians, whereas NYAF had a significantly higher percentage of People of Color. I don’t know if that is due to the nature of NYC versus Baltimore (a chocolate city if ever there was one), but nevertheless, the diversity was pretty astounding. When I did line duty, I did a rough head count, and it seemed like White people made up around 1/3 to as little as ¼ of the line.
Furthermore, there were a significant number of Young Black Men walking around together in groups, as well as (of course) Young Asian Boys and Girls flocking together and also Young White Kids in groups. There were also a number of integrated groups, but these seemed more or less unique.
Racial Diversity among Panelists
Not surprisingly, mostly White and Asian. But the diversity among Asians was pretty cool to see. I was impressed, too, at how “Japanese” some of the White people behaved – there was one woman, a freelance translator, principally for Go! Comi (also my employer), who was in a gothic Lolita outfit and who giggled very charmingly and held her mic as elegantly as a Japanese B movie actress at a press conference about her up-coming Dekichatta Kekkon to a struggling baseball superstar boyfriend-turned-fiancée. (Note: A “Dekichatta Kekkon” is a marriage that is hastily arranged to beat the baby’s due-date.) Clarification: “I was impressed” because it is mad tiring to be like that on a full-time basis. Not because I think you have to be Japanese to “be” Japanese. Although you can obviously never be racialized as “Japanese” or “Asian” if you were not born that way. Even with all the different kinds of surgery out there, you just can’t turn White unless you’re MJ, who didn’t turn White anyway. He just turned into a freak.
One of the more interesting panels was the "Researching Manga and Anime" panel (which I'll talk about more later), in which someone from the audience asked about political messages in Anime. One of the panelists replied "Japanese people are on the whole a lot more apolitical than Americans" or some such ludicrous cow-poop statement. But rather than go on about why that is a problematic statement, I'm going to describe another kind of grown-up who attended NYAF: the concerned and interested teacher (like moi)! A white male teacher chaperoning a bunch of students from his high school in the BX immediately responded to the "apolitical" statement by arguing that Barbie Dolls might seem apolitical but they are clearly putting out messages about what girls should be thinking about, and "everything is a text that can be read." When he said this, I have to admit feeling guiltily happy that someone decided to bring out the theoretical big guns in this conversation. Ugh, this is another blog topic all by itself...
Personal Experience:
- At Otakon in 2000, a Chinese boy from my high school asked me my name and having acquired this information, told me that “The Japanese deserved to be bombed for what they did to the Chinese.”
- At NYAF in 2007, a Black kid with a 日本人彼女募集中 t-shirt asked my name and replied: “Like… Mika Nakashima????” (*** T-shirt reads: “Currently Recruiting Japanese Girlfriend.”)
- Also, a 15 year-old girl (East Asian descent) gave me a starry-eyed look and said that she was so jealous of me for being Japanese.
Ohhhh the irony. I could and should write an entire essay on this experience alone. It would be titled: “The Commodification of My Racial Reception.”
I have to say it was a million times more fun to work as a volunteer than to go on my own and not know anyone or talk to anyone. I met a Brooklyn Tech student who showed me where to get some of the best doujinshi, what the difference was between Yaoi and Boys' Love (one is more hard-core than the other), etc.
Types of Panels offered
TBA - (to be added)
“Japanese Culture” Clash
TBA
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