This past Sunday, I attended my first Comikaze Expo. Which is strange, since I'm from the area and really should have always attended. But Comikaze always falls on Halloween, and that's my annual sibling cosplay at Disneyland.
Whenever I go to comic book conventions, I feel out of place. A few minutes into the dealer's hall, and I mistook a Cecil Palmer cosplayer, for Sanji from One Piece. Then I was excited to see a Dante cosplayer (though missing his wig), only to later realize that maybe he was actually Star Lord. This out of place feeling, is what I imagine my comic book friends described, when they recently attended an anime convention and said they felt disconnected from the people and fandoms there. Everywhere I looked, were cosplayers from fandoms I didn’t really know. I can only assume that anime con atmosphere doesn’t have the same effect on me, despite my being so behind in new anime series/fandoms, because all the costume/character designs all have that familiar aesthetic, that by now, feels like home. And everyone seems to unconsciously all have the same tastes in story themes, archetypes, running gags, etc., and is just on the same page. But that’s just a guess.
But I will say there are still a lot of positives, being an otaku in a comic book convention for American comics. For one thing, the dealer's room is less daunting. I was able to systematically zip through every aisle, scan each booth in only a few seconds, and finish going through the entire place in a mere 2 hours. Plus, when there's less to buy, I can spend less money. ...Except that whenever I can't really find anything I want to buy, my con experience feels incomplete, and I fall into wasting money on things I'm only slightly interested in. And this seems to happen a lot whenever I attend comic book conventions. ~_~; I really should stop that.
Still, I bought Nendoroid Tina at $43, the cheapest price I've ever seen her, in person. I once saw her for $35 online, but after shipping, she would have ended up being the same $43, at least. So I shouldn't really feel too bad about splurging on Tina at Comikaze. Besides, I was able to resist impulse-buying Nendoroid Celty, Nendoroid Archer, Figma Pyramid Head, and those Nendoroid sleeping bags. So, I think I did pretty well with my (lack of) shopping. ^-^
But maybe the best thing about comic book conventions for American pop culture, is to hang out with my friends and family, who aren’t as into manga/anime as I am. They always seem to go to comic cons instead. SDCC is their AX. And this con, I had a nice chat with a family member, working his very first artist alley table. ^o^ http://inkstainedbrush.wix.com/inkstained
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