/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

omfg BARBIE AND KAIE TADA. They seriously were what got me into cosplay, I as a tiny 13 year old newb sent them many emails and they ALWAYS replied back to the best of their abilities and were so friendly and sweet and helpful. Miss those two.

http://www.setsunakou.com/costume/sailormooncostumes/smcostumes.html

>>6321597
Is it still possible to order stuff from her? I mean, I see the order form is still up on her website. But just as usual, her 90s layout is confusing me into thinking that this site got abandoned decades ago.
Not that I want to buy from her, just kind of curious.

Popular oldschool topics include the following:
1st gen cosplayers and influential community members-
• Tikki
• Alisachan
• H-chan
• Beverly
• Miyu
• Angel McLeod
• ElfEater
• SailorJAMBoree
• Eyes On Me
• COSPA
• Widya Santoso
• Kevin Lillard
• Cosplay Scandal
etc
2nd generation cosplayers:
• Lindze
• Yaya Han
• Ginny
• Nadine
• Dommi
• PikminLink
• Adella
• Lillyxandra & Haruka
• Akanepanda
• Twinkle
• Ashita
• Daitenshi
• UsagiKou
• Lord Masamune
• StripperVash
• Limebarb
• Jia
etc

>>6321608
let's see, before the thread died, on the docket was:

-Sailor Jamboree Drama
-cosplay.com mod drama (sana-chan, Aldela, Yuna/Nessa, ect)
-what was the demise of anime conventions and the rise of the self-centered generation we have now
-in direct connection: Conventions, Then vs. now
- how we treated other people before (a topic that was more or less spawned from the other old school thread about Kevin Lillard and how some people considered him a creep)
-first cosplays
-What happened to Animagic?
-anything goes oldschool (remember when we used to say "anything goes (Blank?)")

>>6321619
I think we should also discuss how people used to take different approaches to translating costumes into real life as opposed to everyone being very literal about their interpretations nowadays. It seemed to be almost geographically divided back then. In the the Atlanta scene it was popular to glitz up the costumes, ala Moulin Rouge. On the East Coast people were very realism and texture oriented, making their costumes as if they were from a movie. In the SoCal community it was more about a more cartoon-y approach, literal in it's own way.

>>6321630
I never noticed that till now. then again, im in the old school "as long as I somewhat look like the character, im down" mentality, which was my MO for a while, then I became bogged down with exact looks.

>>6321619
If I remember correctly, it was always Sana-chan and a friend of hers or her roommate named Jen. I think Jen made all the costumes Sana-chan wore. They both worked at Sea World as performers but wanted to work at Disneyland. My information is like 8 years old so I could be WAY off

As for Animagic. The hotel was demolished. The last few years of it sucked because the founders got rid of the one who originally planned it, I believe? I just know someone got fired and then it juts spiraled downhill. I really REALLY miss the Window Decorating Contests.

As for other old groups, I remember only TeniMyUSA, Gomugomu no cosplay and Sakura Mochi that weren't listed above.

>>6321630

Yes, people used to take a different approach. They attempted to approach authenticity, unlike now, where you get JNig's T&A version.

You know, this may sound blasphemous, but coming up on 12 years of cosplay and other than age and nudes, the Homestuck kids remind me the most of old cosplay. Don't have everything perfect? It's fine! It's about having fun, meeting other fans, and expressing how much you love a character!!

Today's shiny photos are cool and all, but I miss cosplayers who did it for true love of the series. I can only find the "true fan" sorts now if I'm cosplaying niche cult stuff, /m/ stuff, or niche cult /m/ stuff.

>>6321694
it's nice, yes, but you also need to keep in mind that the old school cosplay ways didn't include flash mobbing people and being obnoxious little iddiots like most of them tend to be. At some point, it became less about cosplay and more of an attention race: who can notice me faster, who can take the most pictures of me, how many people can I push my shit down my throat, where as in the old school, you just dressed like the character and went on your business.

This thread....

I hope we keep it. It's nice to not be the only old fag around.

>>6321603
I think so. Her last update was from September.
Man, I remember when she used to sell copies of CDs & VHS tapes. I bought so much crap from her back in the day.

>>6321580
FUCK dem costumes are fabulous

>>6321597
>http://www.setsunakou.com/costume/sailormooncostumes/smcostumes.html

Oh man I thought this was the shit back in the day. But now I look...

Pic related. Poor Seiya

>>6321875
Is this the lady that sold Sailor Uranus cosplays as yellow because it was that way in her headcannon? She made up English last names for all of the non dub characters and set them in relationships to use in page descriptions.

>>6321902
http://www.setsunakou.com/index2.html

Yup, the one and only.

>>6321906
>Susan deVenici
>Terry Star
oh my god how could I have forgotten about this?

>>6321919
http://www.setsunakou.com/dolloutfits/dollcloths.html

Scroll on this page with that background...oh god my eyes hurt.

>>6321919 Susan: "Hello, I am Susan de Venici, and this is someone very close to my heart, Terry Starr..."

Terry: "Good day." Terry says with a kind smile. "After seeing so many of your finely crafted costumes, I couldn't think you anything but a wonderful fashion designer."

Susan: "Oh Terry! You're so sweet! I do my very best on each costume piece I make." She says with enthusiasm for her work."

Terry: "And your best is a wonderful thing to behold--everyone agrees." Terry had a romantic nature and poetic soul.

Susan: "Thank you so much! Please be sure to thank everyone for their kind words and compliments. I'm so glad I can do something for them like this."

Terry: "Now, let's look through the gallery of costumes you have made....." He takes her hand in his and kisses it.

Susan: "Yes. I'd love to view them with you...." She gazes up at him, entranced.

I remember way back in the day when Heidi did her Katt cosplay, and there was a bunch of drama because people thought she was walking around in a thong and bodypaint. She wasn't, but now you see that all the time and nobody gives two shits. It's crazy how people's views in the cosplay community change.

Anyone remember Apollo Smile?

>>6322006
Oh crap, you're taking the way back machine really far back now.

>>6322006
SHUT UP. JUST STOP.
...but I also remember the Sailor Moon episodes with a live action SM intro-ing. It was always like a mini marathon around a school holiday.

>>6322344
>>6322209
Heh. I just remember when she hosted an anime week on the Sci Fi Channel and her being billed as "the live-action anime girl" or "real-life anime girl.". I guess she was the first cosplayer to become famous, though Wikipedia says she was already a semi-accomplished singer.

>>6322006
Yes. I have her comic AND her cd. Found it at a used record store for $1.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-mike-toole-show/2012-03-11

I love this thread. Here's an interesting article about old failed anime conventions like Con no Baka, Kunicon, Chibi-con, and one that I personally remember, Aka-kon. I remember they hired a model to dress as the mascot but she had to be nixed due to her outfit being too skimpy (the hotel complained).

I'm guessing she who shall not be named isn't going to soil this thread as well... maybe.

>>6322513
>2012
>not using extensions to filter that shit out.

not really drama still, but something fun. This is Mamoru Nagano (the creator of Five Star Stories) and Kunihiko Ikuhara (director for Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena) cosplaying Sailor Venus and Mars. Better legs then most female cosplayers...

>>6321630
This is a very astute observation. I was (and am) a westcoaster*, and I think the groups that had people spread out across the country encountered vision/design issues because of this, but perhaps weren't savvy enough to figure out what was going on without the help of hindsight.

*the ex-SJer from the last thread, btw, continue to AMA

Any one from Florida Remember a little convention called JACON?
What a shitty clusterfuck that was glad it died.

>>6322944
Oh Ikuhara. You can pull off the weirdest shit. I want to be you when I grow up.

>>6323056
when one of his inspirations is David Lynch.. I say he'd be awesome to spend a lunch date with just to pick his brain.

>>6323061
Just make sure you're not 16 or younger, because then he'll drunkenly fondle you the way he did with Michi and others at Fanime 2000 or whatever

>>6323087

Wait what?

>>6322944
>>6323056
>>6323061
>>6323087
I look younger than sixteen. Maybe if I milk that for all it's work I can get him to drunkenly fondle me.

>>6321608
I think the 1st gen list needs to include Derek. His one pose, geocities website (like everyone had) and how he'd jump in to threaten anyone that talked bad about Alisachan. (remember when she was harassed/trolled by Portal of Evil?)

>>6323087
im all ears for this story and unfortunaly now, im not bellow the age of 16. Even then, I would of let him fondle me. It's like being groped by a god.

I remember when anime cons still had anime everywhere. Locally (Toronto), it's really died down. Posters like these are far less common, and I don't think any booths had them displayed right out at any of the cons I attended this year.

This picture is from '08

>>6323362
They have them in Pmall.

>>6323362
I lied, that picture was '07

Thre used to be just cardboard boxes of manga everywhere too, which is also less common

>>6323365
They do, not much selection though.

I also remember when Pmall had a cosplay/lolita store

>>6323364
Just go to pmall or animextreme.

>>6323372
There a lolita shop in kensington market. I was just at Pmall last weekend and they had a large amount of posters there just in various shops, the one with the most amount is the shop across from the big plushie shop with the cosplays for sale in. Nothing has changed its still the same amount in Toronto. Just over time things change and shops move around.

>>6321619
what was the cosplay.com mod drama exactly? I know adella's involvement, but the others??

I've been in cosplay/anime fandom for almost 10 years. These threads are making me so nostalgic.

>>6322006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRR027lJ1-s

All on board the time machine.

>>6323653
how can you forget usagi kou and her magnificent serger...

>>6323655
groovy!

>>6323674
Oh god, childhood. Apollo is what got me into Cosplay. I still remember my first anime that I fell upon a few years before, Bio booster armor Guyver.

Hey guys, I have a question. A lot of you say you miss the days when this hobby was just for fun and hate how people treat the hobby as a contest.
Have you ever dismissed or held back leaving a nasty comment about someone's "bad" cosplay knowing that you were like that at some point?
Is it okay for someone to just cosplay for fun even if the outfit turns out badly ?

>>6323731
I usually keep my mouth shut mainly because of this. Who am I to judge someone's cosplay when my cosplay wasn't as spectacular as well? But who's also to say the better people can judge the ones bellow them? are they afraid of loosing the spotlight? or are they too proud to admit they got the costume made by someone else?

>>6323731
Yes, actually.
Honestly, I don't have an issue with 'bad' cosplays unless someone's got a super bad attitude about it. We can all remember a time when we didn't have the money or skills or other intentions.

Some of the nicest people I've met at cons just wear their cosplays for fun and not for photos. I've never been really one to dislike or judge bad cosplays, I don't think I have a right to, but it's people who come off with terrible cosplays and think they're running the con and or have a right to tell others not to cosplay whom or what that irk me.

Even then, I think I'm too much of a pacificist to tell them that it's bad.

>>6323731
Of course it's okay for someone to cosplay for fun.

I usually just keep my mouth shut unless I'm in a position to give direct constructive criticism. When I was young I really learned a lot from reading about bad cosplay but these days I don't even like the "lol look at this shitty costume" and "stupid itas" threads here to be honest. Maybe I've mellowed with age.

>>6323731
I'm happier at the fact that someone showed up to a con, made an honest effort to try and cosplay and appeared at a gathering to nerd out with other fans.

Add in all those points and it's hard to paint people in a negative light.

>>6323846
>>6323837
>>6323761
>>6323754
It's good to see that there are good souls in this hobby.

>>6321608
>Widya

Does anyone keep up with Widya anymore? I haven't talked to him in so long. We used to keep in touch regularly.

>>6323861
which is sad truth:
we grew up in those "buy fansubs VHS' from vendors at anime cons" and what not. We lived that lifestyle that was in Otaku No Video.. and now it's lost. Even people our age who go to cons now are entrapped by the Selfishness of getting themselves over. It's sad really that's what we've become. Anime cons used to be about meeting new people, now a days, people just wanta get high, get drunk, or do both and not really want to deal with people.
My first con was Comic-con 1996. I had more fun seeing the stuff and talking to people with my sister at the time. My first con solo was Comic-con 1998 and I remember just being at awe at this booth that was selling old wrestling tapes, which prompted me to buy the King of Hardcore show (the infamous one that Mick Foley discusses in his first book), and my first anime con was AX 2001.. where because of my then Kleptomania, I stole a good 300-400 dollars worth of crap, but I still had fun talking to all the anime fans about things. The last major con I went to before the anime bubble burst was Comic-con 2004 and before that, AX 2004. After that, I had to stop because I was working a dead end job and I was more interested in money. I did make a few appearances here and there at SDCC mainly, but I didn't full on get back to Convention going till 2 years ago and I realize that things changed so much and I feel sort of left out and also kind of an outcast because of my old school mentality. The telling sign that things changed is in the Kevin Lillard thread and people accused him of being a rapist and such. It saddens me that people can accuse people like that and I figured not to be thrown into that category and just keep to myself at cons and stay with people I know.

I guess i'll end it on a happy note: here's a picture of me with Ban Dasuke from Comic-Con 2004. It was awesome meeting a Tokusatsu star in person.

All I care about is hanging out with friends and not getting tackled by the hambeasts and meeting other people cosplaying from the same series or series I like

>>6322511

Oh, Aka-kon. Trying to remember everything after 12 years leaves far too many gaps to comment anymore, but I knew a lot about what went on there.

>http://brokenpencil.tripod.com/kittyresignation.htm

>>6322511
Now I'm reminded of Aurora-Con in Alaska. Went for two years, they rented out the one convention center in town, and it was really nice. Then one year they canceled the convention because it was the same weekend as the Lion King musical, and it folded shortly after.

>>6324015
>"buy fansubs VHS' from vendors at anime cons"

I miss that period. Back then, you knew everyone at a con was actually there because they liked anime (and usually scifi/fantasy shit too). These days anime cons are like a catch-all for Japanese shit and internet shit. I don't have anything against lolitas really, but I feel like once that (and VisKei) started becoming a thing at conventions was when they really started going downhill/off-point.

I feel like it's no longer about the media itself so much as it's become some weird circular, meta beast and cons are now "about" the fandom itself. No one's there to talk about or appreciate anime anymore, it's all about the spectacle of being in a particular social group and putting on a show about being a part of it. People aren't buying merch because they really want it, they're buying it to show other people that they bought it. It's all about showing off and acting out now.

Honestly, I don't think we could ever get the old atmosphere back at this point. A lot of that depended on the limited availability of everything. Everyone had a certain general level of familiarity with the "big" series because there wasn't much else.

>>6324015
I think the major game changers for cosplay have been the internet and the ease of getting into the hobby.

Early cosplay days you'd be lucky to get your photo in the local newspaper. While looking good was always a goal, your audience was restricted to the con attendees and whoever you could show off your kodak photos to. Nowadays it's easy for us share and upload photos. Simply being at the con dressed up was not so special as we could see everyone with a badge wearing something silly. Somewhere down the line we decided to care a lot more about how we looked as we realized we needed to turn heads by dressing silly AND look good while doing so.

Meanwhile elitism surfaced due to both the competition and how easy it was to get into cosplay. Prebought costumes, wigs and accessories made it easy to single out "the true cosplayers" from the casual fans and helped generate an "us vs them" mentality for some.

>>6324236
yeah, it was mentioned in the last thread that around 2004, the bubble sort of burst. You couldn't hit a dead cat without hitting an anime at that time. People where majority of the time downloading it off bit torrents (guilty of this. Swear to god, the day we got broadband was the day Bleach started and I watched it.. up too 100-ish, then I realize that it wasn't going anywhere. Still isn't) and because of this: so many companies started buying up licenses to series left and right, to the point where they where pandering an already niche market with niche tittles (It was a telling sign when I saw Saint F'ing Seiya translated in english and released in the U.S., Unless you REALLY like old school anime or a wetback like me, no one was buying it) and the bubble sort of brusted sometime ago, not to point the finger, but it was the timing really, but around the time Haruhi was gaining steam, for some odd reason, shit hit the fan hard and nothing has been the same since.

>>6324241
I will agree too. I did have a confrontation with Nessa/Yuna from cosplay.com once from a gathering and she wanted to butt heads with me for.. no god damn reason. The egos have grown, more scrutiny has been placed on people, people are put on pedestals more. If your wondering why I haven't done shit since that Shit cardboard Seiya costume is because of this. That and im getting older and older, the characters are getting younger and younger and I crave more and more food, and get fatter and fatter. Why bother with anything when people are wanting to butt heads with you over every little shit? Your blessed at least to have comedy and a personality behind you. I'm the old guard and I got nothing left, so why even bother?

>>6324241
>Prebought costumes, wigs and accessories made it easy to single out "the true cosplayers" from the casual fans and helped generate an "us vs them" mentality for some.

Back then, you'd get props just for trying to make your own EVA plugsuit or simply being creative enough to piece your costume together. Even wigs were honestly a challenge. There used to be a shit quality of them and mostly from Halloween or drag stores. Now you have a plethora on ebay and fully-stocked sites, the con's dealer's hall, etc.

Prebought costumes...oh man...Setsuna Kou and Cosaru later on were like the only two things I knew of. I remember my first costume I wanted to be Sylphiel and I tried begging my dad into letting me buy the oevrpriced Setsuna Kou one.

And all in all, cosplay to me back then felt more as like the ice breaker for having someone approach you and feel like they could share their appreciation for anime too.

Like everyone's been saying, there's been a massive shift in attitudes. Cosplay for example isn't something that makes the con more fun, that helps break the ice... The convention is there for cosplayers to cosplay at, as opposed to cosplay being a catalyst for others things at the con. It's become it's own cause and event.


I think at the end of the day, mentalities have changed because anime and manga have become readily available. That's the simplest point I can boil it down to. That also really fuels the "us vs them" attitude like >>6324241 said.

Us oldfags feel like the younger generation is entitled, ingrate, and not as appreciative of the whole culture surrounding conventions as we used to be (and mostly still are, I hope), simply because they don't have to put in the same effort.

I sometimes wonder if that's unfair though... Had I been born 10 years later, I probably would've been a crazy Homestuck or Hetalia fan too. Even though things have definitely changed (and especially in cosplay there is a lot of negativity that never used to exist), but at the same time I can't help but wonder if we're a bit too unforgiving.

bump

>>6324026
Masa you aren't oldschool in the least. You started way after 2002, making you newfag as fuck.

come on, don't let this thread die damn it! I miss the old school. We need to preserve it!

>>6323378
twylite doesnt count thats just shitty k-star and overpriced F+F and Bodyline in XXL

So what is Jacqueline/Michiru/female Assassins Inc up to nowadays? Anyone wanna tell me where I can find her, or post some old photosets? I admired her so much for a long time, and really regretted not saving any pics of her tats and cosplays.

>>6326616
last I saw of this person, she had a photoset with her husband dressed from Hellsing, next thing I know, they are doing legit porn?

>>6326616
She's a self proclaimed 'sci fi writer' stays at home making up stories now. They never stayed in touch with their cosplay friends because it was all beneath them after they got butthurt when people laughed at their nude cosplay photos.
http://www.jkoyanagi.com/
https://twitter.com/jkoyanagi

My very first con:
I went to connecticon the very year some dude chopped off his finger to accuratly cosplay someone. it was 5 years ago. don't remember what the cosplay was but fuck

this guy chopped off his fucking finger

>>6328040
Sorry.

My bad.

>>6321608
When people refer to generations of cosplayers it's weird but it works; though I'd say that except for a few of the "2nd gen" category most should be lumped together as the 1st gen. I think the best way to break it down would be to first start the clock at 1998-99, which was when cosplay started to hit the radar and sites like fansview took off and base the generations on the peak of cosplayer relevance (ie seen at many cons, doing skits, or even "cosplay famous" in general). None of those people on that list to my knowledge predate that other than widya and cosplay closet (ramsays) and some unlisted people like rob lantz, danny t, etc. They can be the cosplay grandparents who founded it, lol. Then break it again at 2003/04 to 2nd gen, as it seems to me that the cosplayers do tend to come in waves that often change at post-college-age/adulthood and 5-6 years is a good general boundary because no one seems to stay across the board "famous" longer than a few years anyway. That gives us a second gen and I would say stripper vash/jia/limebarb, etc, became relevant (even if they started cosplaying earlier, that was when they were most relevant), and a few of the earlier had already started to fade from view (nadine, ashita, angel, maybe elfeater?). Set a third generation at 2008/9, and I don't know who I'd include in that because I'm also an oldfag (but a lot of the people who were super popular in the early-mid 2000s are already fading from view by then) and there were a bunch of new coolkids on the lawn.. So, we're getting close to a fourth generation now. fffffffffuuu-

Here's a picture of Yaya and some other cosplayers (no idea who they are) from Animazement 2001. I was full-weeb back then, wore my AWESOME red Gundam shirt that I got from MediaPlay. Exchanged e-mails with a dude named Simon.

>>6328161
And one more picture, of a CardCaptors slash Lain group. I don't know why they posed together, to be honest.

>>6326616
She's jkoyanagi on twitter if you want to read her latest crazy.

>>6326616

I just feel really bad for her husband. I met Dan a couple times and he seemed like such nice guy. Does anyone know what happened to him?

This is my favorite old picture. From my first con AXNY/BAAF 2002.
Part because I'm still good friends with half the people in the picture, but especially because, oh, who's that Yuna behind YuffieBunny? Only some girl I wouldn't actually meet for another month, and then end up dating for 10 years.

>>6321580
iunno what the drama is with these people

but UNF sailor cosmos's legs

UNNNF

>>6328300
They are still married and live together but "polyamorous"

http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/315910
UGH. IF ONLY.
I'll make something like this one day.

Does anyone still have any pictures of Assassins Inc's cosplay? I really liked them back in the day. I also wonder if there are still pics of Jacqueline's backpiece floating around? I love tattoo work and hers was gorgeous, from what I remember seeing.

What's with all the crazies in the Sailor Moon fandom using "Kou" as their last name? Usagi Kou, Setsuna Kou, Haruka Kou ... is there something I'm missing? I know the Star Fighter Senshi were using Kou as their family name but aside from that ...? IDGI.

>>6328992
It was all a group surrounding Usagi Kou. https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Usagi_Kou

>>6329020
Ah, I see. Thank you.
I'm a newfag, so I didn't know they were a group. It surprises me tbh, from what I've been reading about Usagi Kou she doesn't seem like the person who likes to share the spotlight.

>>6329064
She definitely didn't. They all had to kiss her ass hardcore. It was a big deal when they finally started calling her out for her bullshit!

If you're a newfag I seriously suggest settling in to read the whole saga, it's some of the best crazy the cosplay community has to offer.

>>6330503
I must admit, Usagi Kou was cute and physically attractive, but what a bitch. She was a delusional attention-whore who actually thought she was Sailor Moon.

I wonder what she is up to now? I heard somewhere she's living in Seattle.

http://www.sm.mypockybox.com/drama.php

Shit is hilarious. I still can't believe some of those people actually went back and became her friend again. They must like being used.

>>6330506
Truth be told I love her Sailor Moon cosplays. She's crazy as fuck and she didn't make most (any?) of her own outfits, but she really did look good.

I know she started posting here again a few months ago and she recently started cosplaying again. Maybe she'll pop up and can tell you alllllll about what she's doing now.

>>6330856
Played wow with Lori for a couple years, not too close, on the same server, saw her every once in a while in main cities/goofed off, friends with friends of hers on FB so I knew what she looked like. Became a lolita, started coming to /cgl/... had no clue she had any kind of infamy (didn't even know she cosplayed at all) until the most recent posts within the past year started popping up about her. Was wild man.

>>6330856
Yeah, see, I'd love to have sex with Usagi Kou, but never would I be in a real relationship with a bitch like her. For me, she'd be nothing more than a fuck toy, as that and cosplay are all she's really good at.

Usagi Kou is an abusive, attention-whore bitch, but damn, those nudes are kinda hot.

>>6326616

I saved a nude set of hers. She was covered in glitter or something. I'll find it and post it.

So what's the story with Sailor Jamboree? I remember being awed by them way back when in the early 2000s and haven't really heard from them since. Also what about Gomu gomu no cosplay?

Anon wasn't here for that last thread.

>>6330515
Oh my, the Sailor Moon Pocky Box! I completely forgot about that one, I loved their bitchy website reviews, lol.

Nostalgia time... my first con, the only manga volumes being sold were in Japanese. Only English-translated manga there were Mixx Manga Sailor Moon. Got the full set of Kenshin manga for $125.

Also, woah all dem cels for sale in the old days. Alas my hobby died with computer animation and now the only people left in it are total hoarders.

>>6321902
Yep. And the Sailor Pluto cosplay she sells is purple instead of black.

>>6333468
I am so, so mad at myself for not buying cels while I had the chance.

Going through that site... holy sleeves

Why doesn't she own a single decent wig D:

I wanted a cosplay from her so badly 10 years ago, thank god I never bought one.

>>6333622
I'm mad at myself for not buying art books and ost's sooner. They're all now out of print and can cost hundreds of dollars. The only cels they sell at cons, that I've seen, are pretty boring and unpopular subjects.

I also wish I had found conventions and cosplay back when I was a teenager. I think I would have grown up to be a much different person.

It also upsets me that these cons have become so popular, that they're exceeding capacity of the venue/the hotel, and it's becoming harder and harder to get into one. You have to pretty much have everything booked and ready a year or more in advance, and buy your badge as soon as they're put up for sale. I watched as two very large hotels for a con sold out in less than 5 minutes, crashing the hotel site and causing chaos. Some of the venues get so full that the fire marshal is forced to limit access or tell people to even leave.

bumping for more memories.

>>6328080
More info please? This has really intrigued me.

Drove 12 hours to the first Anime Central. Ate pizza with Kenichi Sonoda.

My first Otakon, a big guy cosplayed as Skuld and used hot glue to stick the gem to his head.

When Widya would flirt with anyone remotely female via AIM or mirc.

It was seriously looked down on to come to an anime convention in anything BUT anime or video game cosplay.

We all had our own crappy websites with "future cosplay" and what conventions we were planning to go to.

Fuck, I can't believe I still have this. My first ever con - back in '02? '03? Something like that - was an Otakon I'll never forget. I had a horrible time. Summer of Freshman year, about to enter my Sophomore year of high school, and I had just realized that I was bisexual. The group that I was with consisted of two yaoi-obsessed Asian girls that dragged me to the con, this wanna-be juggalo, and a VERY militant lesbian that kept kicking me, punching me, and trying to kick me in the balls with steel-tipped boots. This being my first con, I didn't know how to act or react to anything. I had a terrible time.

However, at the end of that Sunday, I met some girl dressed as Terrible Master Urd from Ah! Megami-sama. All of these people were taking photos of her - and I immediately saw why. She was drop-dead gorgeous. I walked over, and heard a few guys asking, "So, who are you?"

Being the shy kid that I used to be, I didn't answer their questions. I just waited until they were finished, and then walked over to her. I asked if she was Urd, and told her that I thought this was the greatest thing I'd seen all weekend (which it was). I think she caught wind of the shota-vibe that I used to give off, because she hugged me tenderly and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

I left feeling a lot better, but that was my only positive con memory - until I came here and heard about these motherfuckers. They sounded like they were having so much damn fun, I couldn't believe it. They're the reasons why I started going to cons again, though, I never got caught up in any such antics.

Did someone want female Weeaboo Inc's nudes? I forget who.

someone did want a shot of her tat tho, so there you go. too lazy to look up who it was and link, sorry.

>>6333687
>I'm mad at myself for not buying art books and ost's sooner. They're all now out of print and can cost hundreds of dollars.

You're not out of luck. There are still dealers in these old artbooks at conventions. There's an old anime artbook dealer at Animazement every year and I've purchased something from them each time. They had old EVA and Sailor Moon and 3x3 Eyes and Ah! My Goddess and Love Hina and all that stuff in artbooks.

And then there's always eBay or Amazon.co.jp or even Yahoo.co.jp. For those last two you can do a shopping service, even. I'm thinking of finally bucking up my courage and getting the Heroic Legend of Arslan OSTs from Amazon.co.jp since they're so cheap and nobody wants them.

I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for, someday.

bump

>>6340090
no way... another arslan fan. mah nigga.

daily bump. Gotta keep the old school strong here.

>>6340005
She may be drowning in the crazy sauce but she is hot.

>>6330856
i'll bite:

if I can duct tape her mouth shut and make her wear one of her Usagi outfits, i'd bang her brains so hard, her head will be fixed.

it got bad the moment divas outnumbered "doing it cause I'm a fan"

In high school you are nothing BUT diva. Kids are assholes until life hits them with the "it's not all about you" stick. Some young adults never grow out of it. That is where the problem started.

I remember my first con in 1998. I saw another Sailor Moon and I was like OH FUCK YES. And we talked about the show, and stuff we noticed, and our fave characters, and waiting for vid game stills.

Fast forward to 4 years later and I saw another Rosebride and my first thought was "I look so much better"
The minute I realized I had fallen into that now normal way of thinking I was like NO, I will not be doing that. I am not a bitch and that girl likes the show as much as I do, I need to go talk to her and share our love.

>>6333140
Sailor jamboree all grew up and went their separate ways. Gomu gomu merged with Sakura Mochi and I think some of them still compete together at Comic Con, but the skits don't have the same magic that they used to. All of the girls are still fun and most are still involved in the fandom in some way.

Remember when all we had was 10 party color options from witchwigs.com? Cosplay kids have it so easy nowadays.

... now excuse me while I get my rhinestone encrusted cane from 2005 when we were making fun of SeraMyu and blinging out all of our costumes.

>>6345638
oh yes.

I was Princess Pluto and I had to go with black hair. No one made a green that wasn't neon.

>>6333632
Holy crap. I'd be afraid to stand next to her... I might get an eye poked out!

>>6343013
Haha, that rare artbook dealer I talked about? I got some promotional booklets for the Arslan OAVs from him too. I was so excited. I'm a little bananas for Arslan, wish I could read Japanese well enough to get into the novels (which will never be translated into english.)

>>6347620
I think I saw Yaya's first cosplay of Lum (either that or it was another cosplayer who did Lum) and she basically just took her black hair and dyed it green without any bleaching. It looked pretty cool and I think it would work with someone like Pluto or Saturn.

>>6333687
>I'm mad at myself for not buying art books and ost's sooner.
Same here. 11 or so years ago, I had the chance to buy vol 5 of the Sailor Moon artbook for $30 at a convention but I didn't. My reasoning: I spent $25 on the Materials Collection artbook, spending another $30 is going over board. I regret it.

>>6345638
Yup yup.

And you either had the long cleo wig, short bob cleo, the parted in the center wig (usually with the seam so you couldn't alter it, but I think witchwigs had skin scalps), and the showgirl wigs. That was it.

And then along came Amphigory, Katie Bair, wig dye, HOLY CRAP YOU CAN DO THAT WITH A WIG?!

That's some shit tier coplay right thur.

I'll never get why so many people think conventions were better in the past. They fucking sucked. The only reason they were "better" is because there were less people, so everyone could feel like a special little snowflake.

>>6328390
Lol, she was 12 that year.

>>6348089
Out with you, heathen

>>6348089
0/10

try harder, son.

>>6348089
But now you can't feel special at all.

Oh wow, what the hell ever happened to Stripper Vash?

>>6348812
I saw him up in Indiana this past summer.

I had no idea it was him though, his pretty boy looks sorta remain. He's more handsome than cute though, as expected with age. Nice long brown hair.

>>6349004
I don't know what you're seeing but he got fat and scruffy.

bump

I just came back from Oni-Con, and literally about 90% of the (small amount of) cosplay skits were song/dance routines. It didn't used to be that bad... right? I mean, yeah, they existed, as Sailor JAMboree is proof, but it wasn't, like, every single skit, right? This drives me nuts, that nobody's actually bothering to write or care about their "skits".

Also, hey, did anybody archive either of these threads or any previous oldfag threads? I'd be interested in holding on to these.

> Oldschool
> a bunch of girls that started cosplaying during the early 00s, or at the late 90s at best

Really? That's oldschool?

Alos, I find it odd how in that list list of 1st and 2nd gen cosplayers, there alleged 2nd gen people that are older some in the first gen.

>>6353754
i'd love to hear from the people from the REALLY old school, like around the 80's and 70's, but they have more dignity then to come here and talk.

>>6353754
Jesus, I'm pretty sure it's too early for retirement for any of ya'll to be coming out over here.

>>6354937
and who the fuck "Retires" from cosplay or from anything for that matter? it's not like you payed into a 401K and decided to cash that shit in. No, just say what you really want to say "I fucking quit"

daily oldschool bump

>>6355695
Real job retirement, ding dong. Not cosplay.

>>6354149
If you look long enough, you can find bits and pieces from various old SF conventions. I think the problem is that by now most people have long moved on to other things, and all their old photos and zines are lost in basements somewhere.

>>6330856
Yea fuck no, all my first costumes sept for Serenity and Neo Queen were commissioned.

I never stopped posting, I just dont do it as frequently as I did in 08 as I don't have the time. :<

>>6332676
Thanks. ;3

>>6330876
MissMumu dat you?

>>6330506
What do you mean "thought". I am toooootally Sailor Moon, nagaz be tripping.

>>6330515
Clearly that has to be the case.

>>6329064
A lot of people actually use the "Kou" that had no involvement with my group.

My life is pretty boring guys, outside of the dramastorm its pretty uninteresting. 'Sept today, today I wore Horns and it was a totally interesting day of goofy looks. Thanks for the compliments on my looks though, being the massive bitch that I am I really don't need the reminder though. :3

>>6362223
It's alright, retard. You're OUR massive bitch and we still love ya.

Also... horns in public? If you weren't you I would question your sanity.

>>6362493
They look too much like bunny ears. I think that's a very strange angle to wear horns.

>>6339999

Holy shit, been forever since I've seen Michiru. Is this what she's up to now?

Any stories on her? She was never anything but cordial to me, but after a couple of my friends had a falling out with her, I heard some stories. Unfortunately I can barely remember any of them, it was so long ago.

>>6363192
Hi Calistrisa/Ana Asthetic

>>6363503

Holy shit, I remember her too! Barely though.

And no, I only cosplayed once or twice, but I hung out with all of them at cons. Back in the day when non-cosplayers and cosplayers alike ran in the same circles.

Do you remember filling out surveys the licensing companies sent out to poll what few series would be picked up for the US markets?

Do you remember when plushies ONLY came from official banpresto/sega UFO catcher machines, and weren't massed produced?

Do you remember when series did not become licensed/dubbed until 4-6 years after being released in Japan?

Do you remember when only a limited number of shows could be licensed each year, so everyone at a con knew precisely what everyone else was cosplaying from?

Do you remember when more guys cosplayed than girls?

Do you remember when cons were 75% screening rooms, and only 25% dealer/panel/contests because it was the only chance for people to see subbed anime that would never be licensed?

Do you remember watching crappy chinese fansubs with half the subtitles cut off?

>>6363503
That's also a name I haven't heard in forever. She and Michiru were both GA, right?

>>6362183
yeah. The internet has made us spoiled. If you look at all those people dressed up in that time, they seem to care about A) having fun and B) looking the most accurate. Not like now where people have to sacrifice one for the other

Not too terribly old but I kind of miss this person since it was interesting to see her grow.
Gonna throw the not Barry/Luppi cosplay up.

Vendettafag posted her multiple times for like a year and she eventually left after getting sick of it - Still she her popping up from time to time when people want to mock the Alberta cosplay scene.

(inb4 selfpost - Selfposter would have basked in it. Not ran out with her tail between her legs and dropping all contact with an entire community because of "lolpostson4chan".)

Seemed like your typical 15 year old that got flack for accidentally putting themselves out there - Would be interesting to see where she'd be if this didn't happen or she sucked it up and kept going.

>>6365182
Who the fuck is this? Not an oldschooler.

>>6321967
Oh man, she was always one of my favorite cosplayers because she was so sweet and helpful. Wonder what happened to her?

>>6322511
I actually have video, via Canadian friends, for both years that Aka-con existed. I would like to know what happened, though I gleaned some bits but don't know for sure.

>>6328164
OMFG IT'S ANGEL AKA COSPLAYANGEL OMG
She was my fave ... ANyone got any other unseen pics or stories on her?

>>6365768
Or a costume she made without using costume satin?

>>6365182
if you think thats old school, then I got some badddddd news son...

>>6365182
This reeks of selfpost. IMG000033? Seriously? You ripped that right from your camera, girl. Nice try, though.

>>6365182
I have no idea who this is. Looks like a retard. And nobody misses retards.

daily bump for old school

im going to bring back an old discussion about old school things:

why is it back then, we can get high profile guest of honor, now a days, the best a convention can get is a few american voice actors? what happened here?

>>6321608
Oh my god I remember StripperVash. I don't even know why that was so amusing to me when I was younger

>>6376181
My theory is that since the age group behind conventions shifted to be mostly young casualfags they can successfully bring in guests that appeal to young casualfags and save a fuckton of money.

Back in the day dubs were rare and everyone wanted to meet the great artists or Japanese seiyuu, there was no drive for english voice actors because not many existed and the only anime dubs were children's shows- and the majority of cons were watching more adult oriented series subbed direct from Japan.

If it were your convention and you were looking to make cash: Would you pay more for a great guest that only 30% of your con would erally appreciate, or pay a lot less to bring a meh guest that 50% would appreciate.

I too miss the days of CLAMP and other well known artists and Japanese industry at cons anon...

>>6376181
I wouldn't say that. Otakon got Luffy's VA meanwhile AX had Miku and Nebeshin.

Doesn't AM2 get some high profile Japanese bands?

>>6376285
yeah, but let's not kid ourselves here: at one point, we could go to AX and have it jam packed with guest from all aspects of the industry: a few voice actors from japan, a few producers, a few manga-kas and on the occasion a few american VAs and people in the industry. Now you're lucky to get 1 guest form japan to come to your con and pad it out with Vic Mignogna panels.

I can see why alot of you want to go to a con to drink instead of going to a con if that's the case.

>>6376278
well too, alot of times the people running the conventions are inept at doing thing. I remember how hard AX fumbled when it came to getting Morning Musume back in 09. Thing would not get better and they have to restort to more fan things like some 3rd rate con. I remember that was THE con to see the biggest in anime industry and now it's ALA with 49,400 (a number that can be disputed) of people going to the con.

I only started cosplaying in 2009, so I obviously don't belong here, but I just wanted to say I really admire you guys and your maturity as a whole (not referring to age, but attitude). I always see people (here, especially) talking badly about other cosplayers as if their "bad" costume is some crime against humanity, as if their weight affects them personally, etc., and I wonder if this hobby is even worth being a part of anymore.
I can't stand that people who should be simply happy to meet other "nerds" that they can talk to about anime and manga and games could be so mean to each other. I browsed this thread and learned that there are many more cosplayers that are, you know, decent human beings, than I had thought, and it makes me very happy. People that cosplay because it's fun, not because it's a way to say, "look how much better than you I am."
Kudos to you guys.

bump

>>6378742
A lot of cosplayers are like that, but they don't post on CGL, or lurk at best. Either that, or you'll find them in threads that aren't tearing people to shreads and have a bit of helpful advice or interesting discussion in them.

I'm finding a lot of the newer people tend to think of it as a beauty contest instead of just a nerdfest. There were always bad cosplays, people who were very overweight and showing too much. But back in the day, it wasn't a crime against humanity it was just something you'd expect and maybe mention to a friend under your breath. "Did you see that huge hairy guy in that sailor starlight costume?!"

bump

>>6383462
I wish I could've gotten into cosplay earlier so I could experience the "cosplay is for fun" attitude rather than the "you're so ugly, why don't you lose some weight and grab a new face while you're at it while I go about being perfect as usual" attitude. I mean, yeah, there are obviously still people out there that understand cosplay is about having a good time, but they seem to be becoming the minority.

>>6323997
He's always popping on my facebook to comment on some of my status updates. He's working with the Australian WCS team and is always traveling around that area.

I remember when I first started going to cons around 2004-2005(?) when my country first started having them (non-US, European). I grew up in a small city and nobody I knew liked anime so it was just amazing to see all this glitz. Inspired by this, I started cosplaying and visiting more and more cons, being in awe every time I saw my favourite characters being cosplayed and ran to them to take photos.

Now years later, I've become a stuck up bitch. When I see my favourites cosplayed I immediately notice all the flaws in their costume and do the full "fatty-chan ahoy jesus christ what happened to your face that fabric choice is awful gawd did you even try with those props" routine inside my head. I'm always polite though and I would never say that to anyone's face, but I can't help but judge them in my mind. It doesn't help that my country's cosplay scene is rather small and I know most of the decent/above average cosplayers and everything about the drama surrounding them. So when I see a well-made costume I just go "oh, that crazy bitch, god I hate her so much" instead of enjoying it. And when I meet a nice cosplayer who has a great costume, I get a little jealous. There's no winning.

I've also become a huge perfectionist. Everything needs to be perfect, no skimping on details or cutting corners. It drives me mad because I set the bar so ridiculously high for myself that I start hating my costume when I'm halfway finished. When I don't get a place in the top 3 of the contest I get insanely depressed. I spend ludicrous amounts of money into my costumes because I always want to improve instead of just wearing old ones. It's driving me nuts, why can't I just be happy like I was with my half-assed, shitty no-wig cosplays from way back?

tl;dr: A bitchy stuck-up cosplayer hating herself and what she's become

>>6388832
I mean, at least you admit it. That's at least a start. There are others that are not self aware of what they are doing and end up damaging themselves and the others around them. If you want to continue as is, that's fine too, but at least you can be upfront with people about your attitude and tell them that you expect nothing but the best.

bumping for nastolga

>>6388540
The best thing I can say is to remember that the people who are being bitchy are honestly in the majority. Wat you get online is completely different than in person.

If someone like me who wears sub par costumes and closet cosplay can walk away with good comments then someone who actually knows what their doing is in good shape.

>>6362223

So how are your days like nowadays since you've moved to Seattle?

old school bump

What generation would pixytery be in?

I know there is some recent stuff on her. But I feel like she has been around for ages too.

>>6395851
As far as I know, she popped up around 2004-2006 or so. It was around the time I was a drama-llama and at the time we called her Boob Window because all of her costumes tended to have boob windows and she wasn't fond of wearing proper undergarments for support.

>>6395851
>>6395861

yeah, she started around 2004 or something. I know I met her in 2006 and I distinctly remember seeing that Yuna dress sphere poker thing in person.

Hi.

I'm a long-time lurker, rare poster. I've never posted my cosplay pics on the Internet, ever.

I grew up in a really small town. There were two other Asian families but their kids were a lot older than me. I played lots of video games with my friends, and got into Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering, LARPing, and some animes that my relatives sent me (they all had Chinese dubs, terrible, so I didn't understand a word). I was half /a/, half /tg/.

I dressed up as some JRPG characters as a kid, mostly people from FFX, but it wasn't a huge deal. I was lucky my mom knows how to sew really well. It wasn't a huge deal, on Halloween, people knew I was obviously in a costume and adults really don't give a shit what you're dressed as (I have no idea what half the kids who come to my door trick-or-treating are supposed to be), and my interest in anime, and eventually, video games and traditional gaming stuff, didn't ever rule my life, it was always a side hobby. I was lucky because my mom was good at finding cool Internet sites, so she showed me stuff on Japanese Streets (back when it was new) and I thought that Japan was so cool! I'd never been to another country but I knew my grandma was from China and wanted to learn more about Asia in general.

>>6395952

Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to move to Asia, but this was back when I couldn't find mainstream Asian stuff, I didn't have cable.


We moved to a big town and boom. I was stupid enough to tell someone about my /tg/ related interests and got stuck lumped with the other kids who liked /tg/ and /a/ stuff. In high school, the same thing happened, so in college, I made sure not to let anyone know about my interests in anything even slightly non-mainstream until we were good friends. In middle school, the /tg/ and /v/ people were dicks, because it was all pubescent guys, and in high school, they were all the creepy losers. Yes, I'm sure there were normal /tg/, /v/, /a/ people,but the weebs and the neckbeards were the loudest, as usual.

Through high school, I didn't make an effort to make friends with normal kids. I wasn't a special snowflake, I know that I wasn't abnormal, whatever. However, in college, I did desperately want to make friends so I decided to do the things other girls my age did: dress a certain way, go to parties, whatever. And guess what? Even though it seems kinda stupid, it's worth it to have a nice social life.

So what have I seen change?

I miss the old anime stuff I had to learn about through word-of-mouth. I like YouTube for watching videos of funny cats, whatever, but there was something more raw, more intimate when I had to search for various things, like copies of the next manga book in a series, back before every store had a manga section. I remember when I couldn't find scans of manga online (and I had slow internet) so I had to borrow from my friends, so the mangas my friends had shaped what I read. Nowadays, I can just download scans, so I'm not forced to read what my friends read, and we end up having less in common.

>>6395955

I guess what changed was the Internet, weeaboos/neckbeads, and Special Snowflake Syndrome.

The Internet was cool when it was a resource, but as a social network, it was kinda shit. I remember everyone in my school wanted to see how many MySpace friends they could get, and they were adding perverts and pedos left and right. I wasn't stupid, my mom was a computer scientist who talked to me about virus and phishing and bots, so I just googled "MySpace bot" and got a few thousand friends in a few weeks. I was super disillusioned with social networking: it was about pressing buttons to get imaginary points.

Weeaboos and neckbeards were the bane of my existence because if I ever told anyone I was interested in anime or video games or LARPing, I'd be asked if I was friends with the various weebs or neckbeards of the school. In high school, these were kids that brought their LARP weapons to school and were dicks to everyone, trying to make everyone roleplay with them, and constantly making references to anime and speaking pidgin otaku Japanese. It was bad.

Finally, special snowflake syndrome sucked. In high school, a good number of average/plain girls became *~*~*magically attractive*~*~* by talking about how awesome Pokemon was and how special they were for playing it, the same way that there are a ridiculous number of "nerdy girls" on tumblr talking about how special they are for liking the Avengers, even though basically everyone saw it and it's the highest grossing film of all time. It's pathetic.

>>6395970

So, what did I do? I became a lurker. I read manga and watch anime on my own time, with friends, in the privacy of my room, and I don't play MMOs or any multiplayer games anymore because I'd rather not have to risk dealing with special snowflakes or neckbeards (the kind that basically use being a gamer as an excuse for being a slob, living at home, and hating women).

I do like the Internet, it's great, the issue is when it creates people like PT, Creepyeha, Chris-Chan, etc. It's a great learning resource, and it does help create a lower bar of entry into various things like fandoms, hobbies like /cgl/ or /diy/ stuff, etc. because there are so many free resources out there, as well as lots of things like journals that do provide documentation on the creative process of various people that make cool junk. If it wasn't for the Internet, I wouldn't know where to buy certain clothes, how to apply makeup, and what things in my area I can go to with my friends. The Internet's great for that.

The issue is when the Internet replaces the real world. When people's Internet reputations and Internet points become more important than their real world reputations and their real world accomplishments. I've seen people destroy themselves because they can't really separate the two.

>>6395983

The two people:

Person One: previously one of my closest friends. He only goes on /v/, /fit/, /cgl/ for the drama. He buys crap to impress /v/ (he posts "battle stations" and junk) but in real life, he's a total loser. He lives in parent's house for free and forgoes stuff like training at work to take vacations for video gaming: he'll literally just sit at home playing video games. He has less than a few thousand dollars in savings because he blows it all on junk like whatever gadget /g/ decides is trendy. On an anonymous forum, he still gives a shit what people think of him, and it's pathetic. NOBODY KNOWS WHO HE IS. He isn't a tripfag and nobody knows it's him posting over and over, nor does anyone care, yet I guess he thinks they do.

Person Two: the guy I'm in love with. He's obsessed with conspiracy theories and spends all his time on /x/ and /pol/. He tried to do chaos magick that he read about on /x/ and got his ass landed in the psych hospital because he had a paranoid break down or something. I can't date him, and I can't help him, all I can do is watch him slowly basically kill himself.

>>6395992

I guess the last thing that changed:

People doing cosplay and nerdy stuff to stick out instead of because they like it. We have a group of people at my college that basically do just that. They went to a college Halloween party and insisted on not talking to anyone who wasn't cosplaying as well, even though that's obviously the vast majority, when people were being perfectly nice and inviting them to dance and stuff. They got super pissy at any girls dressed like "sluts" in their opinions, when their costumes were pretty shitty and one of the costumes was pretty slutty too.

One of them is obsessed with the idea of being a tsundere because it's an excuse for her to be a bitch, so she uses her "personality" as her excuse for being a bitch and threatening to beat people up. She then plays the victim and claims she's bullied (lolno) for her "obscure" interests...in Disney. She's basically a female brony, except she likes Disney stuff.

Most of them wear costumes on a weekly basis to class or parties, and it's pretty pathetic. The ones that don't wear costumes wear zany clothes, like rainbow toe socks with sandals, to stick out, and they do stick out, just not in a good way.

There's about 20 of these losers at my college and nobody likes them. What's sad is that a few of them, away from the group, are perfectly nice, but the jerks in their group bring them all down.

In contrast, on the outside, I look like every other student. My friends all look normal too. Do we have interests that are maybe a bit less mainstream, like classic horror stuff, old-school horror video games, BDSM, etc.? Yes, but we don't talk about it all the time, or with randoms, and we don't pretend we're automagically special because we like those things. We're obviously not and it would suck if we were special.

>6322006

Did she do the live action sailor moon intro thing? I vaguely remember seeing that for a few minutes before changing the channel as a kid. Has anyone found that on youtube?

>>6396015
Wow they sound like such losers. I expect that kind of behavior from high schoolers. Wearing costumes to class in college is just so .. ugh.

>>6396015
That makes me mad too. It's kind of what the whole "hipster" thing is based off of- liking obscure things because they are obscure. They don't like them for any other reason. It then gets annoying because I happen to be into a few obscure things, and it suddenly turns into "oh what a hipster..." and it's not like that, some people just legitimately are into obscure things for whatever reason.

>>6399188
nope, But here's your mystery woman

>>6399465
I'm glad somebody made this. I could've sworn I saw it on TV but nobody else remembered it.

>>6399465
Huh. I wonder if there are any clips out there from this. Was the intros just done for the 'friday after thanksgiving marathon' they did in 1995? I googled around and found some small info about it.

>>6322511
>Con no Baka
Man, that brings back memories.

>>6322511
I fucking love when mascots clash with the dress code. Artists getting cosplayers in trouble for their own creations. You'd think they'd enforce the same rules onto what they advertise.

>>6400502
>Con no Baka
>Con of Idiots
Gee, I wonder why that one failed.

>>6400540
oh, it was a magnificent clusterfuck.
The dance was fun though...

>>6400540
It was the first time I stayed at a hotel with friends for a con. What a waste. But really I had fun and it was interesting watching the con crash and burn

>>6400540
No, that would be "Baka no Con." "Con no Baka" translates to "Con, you idiot."

>>6400312
well, the only place I found that had it was here, and it's lumped with other stuff like Toonami promos, the infamous Toon Makers promo and such:

http://missdream.org/directdownloads/[Miss%20Dream]%20Sailor%20Moon%20American%20Specials%20-%20Tia%
20Browsh%20Dateline%20Saban%20Toonami%20and%20More.rar

bump

late night bump

>>6328358

>dating for 10 years.

Time to put a ring on it.

>>6364124

YES TO ALL OF THIS

>>6406969
>implying marriage is worth a damn

>>6407080
The only people who say that are commitment phobics or people who are cheating.

>>6407212

I convinced my high school boyfriend to go to a con with me 10 years ago. Still together today. Not in a hurry to get married, either. :)

bumping the thread

daily bump!

bumping again for more old schoolness.

what was everyone's first con experience BTW?

>>6407212
The only people who say what you say are people who just get married "because you're supposed to."
Fuck you, I can be committed to my girl and not cheat without having to perform some archaic ceremony.

>>6414701

AWA 3 which was 1997 or 98.

Met some online friends and a creepy lady who insisted on doing my make up. Had to lose her in a crowd.
Met a guy who followed me around with his vid cam. I suspected it was for later fap material but there was no way to be sure.
Met the only other black person there and he asked me out and I had to fake having a boyfriend already.

Also bought my first anime CD for $32 (before I knew wat SonMay was), saw the Saban version of Sailor Moon, wore my first costume, just missed meeting my first real boyfriend, met a few cosplayers, sang japanese SM songs in the atrium, watched everything I could in the viewing rooms.

>>6414858
You don't want to marry her because you want the opportunity to leave her whenever you want without paying spousal support. Very smart.

Wow guys what the fuck.
Yeah, no real reason for us to get married, especially when we're still living 2hrs away, unable to move closer, and she may even need to move much farther away for her career. Marriage is not, and never has been, an option. Chill out.

what happened to rikkux?

Whatever happened to Kabukiboy?

In my opinion, one of the better crossplayers of the early 2000's. Wish I could find more shots of his previous cosplay images but they've long been erased by the passage of time.

>>6416539
Didnt he become a designer? Or at least thats what I last remember hearing. Dont know if hes successful but he was doing it.

>>6324365
> Had I been born 10 years later, I probably would've been a crazy Homestuck or Hetalia fan too

I wouldn't have.

When I was 11, I was researching classic anime titles from the 60's-80's, and discussing religious/philisophical talking points of Mamoro Oshii's work with people in the fandom who were a good 20-30 years older than me.

Never accept that you "could have been" one of these new kids. There are totally different breeds of fans. Those that love the history and culture, and those that just like it as
a fad.

>>6328400
>"polyamorous"

That means she's getting the Vitamin "D" from elsewhere, while he's being cuckolded.

That shit runs rampant in our fandom for some reason.

>>6348089
>I'll never get why so many people think conventions were better in the past

1. Better Attendees (Read: Smarter, intelligent, more love for the anime and artfom, better, yet small community, sci-fi/fantasy convention intermingling so nerds all around. No loud ass kids running down hallways treating the anime con as High School 2.0)

2. High tier guests of honor were much more common in the old days. Hideki Anno and stuff like that. You can hardly get anyone like that anymore, as the modern con scene in the west has disgusted them into never coming back.

3. Cosplay was more for fun, less for drama.

4. Diversity of products in dealers hall. Used to be, the dealers hall was filled with all sorts of rare goodies from Japan. Stuff right out of people's collections. Nowadays, most anything you want is either online, or the dealers hall only seems to stock the "major" titles in terms of merchandise...leading to a lot of booths carrying the same shit it feels like. No one has shelf space for rare one of a kind items anymore. Anime Swap meets at cons are better than the dealers hall.

I would go on, but my root canals are hurting.

>>6362183

Most of my 90's con photos are somewhere in a closet among thousands of film prints mixed with old family photos. I don't own a scanner.

Lost to history they shall stay.

For now.

>>6364124

Pepridge Farm remembers.

....And so do I. It was hard times, but it was GLORIOUS times.

>>6416652
>Cyan Bloodbane
Like.. from dragonlance? The green dragon controlling the nightmare in the elven place... was it Silvanost... by whispering into the ear of the Elven king Lorac while he touched the dragonorb?????

>my childhood... my... childhood...

>>6407212
>The only people who say that are commitment phobics or people who are cheating

Or men smart enough to know that marriage and alimony laws are basically out to screw them horribly.

60%+ of marriages end in divorce.
70%+ divorces are enacted by the female.

Almost all divorce laws/courts favor the female when it comes to splitting up the assets and child support.

A wise man would never get married in this day and age. Not until things change.

But that's a topic for another thread.

>>6416685
>Like.. from dragonlance? The green dragon controlling the nightmare in the elven place... was it Silvanost... by whispering into the ear of the Elven king Lorac while he touched the dragonorb?????

Ha, yes, the very same. Also my cosplay.com name.

Anyone know wtf is going on with Dragonlance nowadays? Dead franchise/fandom is dead, or something.

I actually read some of the more recent stuff (like the Elves getting a new homeland in the Desert, and the new Goddess Mina)....anything new come out since? Feels like all the authors jumped ship to Warcraft novels, like Richard Knack.

>>6416636

Yeah, I think you nailed it. I think the root causes are twofold: after-effects of the mid-00s anime bubble (the over-saturation of certain titles and the dominance of merch-you-could-have-bought-at-Borders-if-Borders-still-existed along with the overall lower target audience age) and the general shift of anime cons (and arguably the greater fandom in general) from the close relationship with science fiction to the current, general anything-from-Japan perspective.

I still don't understand why kids act like retards these days though. I started going to cons when I was 11 and neither I nor my friends ever acted like feral beasts, screaming and jumping on strangers and shit. I guess the overall age of attendees was significantly older in the late 90s, so maybe that's part of it.

>>6416636
I'll tell you what changed cons and cosplay...

The internet.

I'm dead serious when I write this.

>>6416724
Well they released some 'in between' novels for the original chronicles. And then before that I read the Mina novels, which were Ok. But yeah, nothing really huge out of them. I did the Gotrek and Felix novels in Warhammer until Nathen Long took over, which turned them to crap. Nothing really to say about fantasy these days along the Dragonlance vein... every is either toooo high fantasy (like Malazan) or not really high fantasy at all (Like Sanderson, whom I love, don't get me wrong, but where are my fucking dragons?). Weis and Hickman haven't written anything together since 2009 I think... Man, did you ever read Death Gate Cycle though? fuuuuck meeee... my childhooooood. Sage for no contribution whatsoever...

>>6416740
>>6416748
it's not just that, but having some journalism background, it's sort of the EPS Cycle playing out:

Elite Stage - The days of Tape trading and fansubs freely being sold at anime cons. No Internet Access to communicate, maybe the BBS message boards or something, but nothing as elaborate as we have now

Popular Stage - The "Anime on Toonami and could not swing a dead cat" phase of anime fandom. More and more fans started getting attention thanks to TV exposure and the internet. The internet itself changed from just smalltime BBS channels to full on forums and chat rooms.

Specialized Stage - where we kind of are right now. People tend to pick and choose what animes they want to follow and people would rather torrent and keep the stuff they have access too instead of buying. Stuff like 4chan comes out of this era as it sort of brings those specialty stage fans together with the above fans.

>>6416880
>BBS
oh man oh man

bump

>>6416880
It also changed cosplay.

Before a cosplay photo was a simple snapshot that showed you were at a convention wearing an outfit. Now photos are meant to look visually appealing through the use of photography techniques and shooting at different locations. Before the only people who could see your costume were people at the con or whoever had access to your photo album in person. Now you could start getting comments from people all over the world.

>>6417510
yeah, the more cameras pointed at people, the more inflated the egos are. It used to be Cosplay Photos where rare because we had stuff like Polaroids or disposable cameras that we carried around, so getting a photo ment that you had to take up someone's camera space, which was a huge deal, now, you can't hit a dead cat without someone with a camera and wanting to show off how shitty your costume is on an anonymous message board.

>>6418351
I remember carrying around 5 or 6 disposable cameras and having to think about EVERY SHOT because they were so expensive to get processed.

People would take your picture, but no one expected to be bombarded and it was rare to ever have any physical evidence you actually wore your costume. You basically had to scour the forums, hoping to find one shitty hallway shot someone MIGHT have scanned to post online. Having even 2 or 3 photos was amazing.

The point of cosplay didn't used to be to have photos taken and attention whore, it was to represent your favourite fandoms and make yourself a beacon to other fans of the show so you could easily meet new people also into your fandom since the giant websites didn't yet exist and people were still mostly connecting through mailing lists or tiny forums.

I wish I had been able to expierience the cons the way you guys have. It was more friendly I guess? I definitely don't belong in here, because I never got to cosplay until this year. Just wanted to let you guys know you're the best. You haven't really done anything in here to insult some 'bad' cosplayers. I feel that I myself am bad, but I just do it for fun and to make friends. That's what I guess it should be about, but yeah Kudos to you dudes.

>>6416636
I respectfully disagree.

Overwhelmingly, the college and high school crowd dominated the cons I started going to in 1999. I recall screening of Gundam Wing where every. fucking. time. Duo Maxwell spoke, the entire room screamed. An individual gets older, but the con age doesn't. I think that's why there is a perception of cons "getting younger," when their core demographic really hasn't changed that much.

As for guests? Occasionally, one of the giant cons would get a good guest, but mid to smaller-level cons went after the dub actors/actresses. Wendy Lee and Crispin Freeman were highly sought after, and Sandy Fox and Lex Lang were always asked for as well. You're right on when you say that Japanese guests used to come more often, but in the southeast, we never really had them to begin with, except for Yoshitaka Amano five or six years ago.

Cosplay drama? There was a shitload, but only if you knew where to look. Mailing lists were awful in the late 90's, and people were rude and unapologetic. Nowadays, if you are nasty, you do it anonymously because people will pounce on you for any real or perceived elitism. There was a lot of cheating in contests and personal vendettas.

Dealer's room? Depends. I remember boatloads of Gundam Wing, DBZ, Tenchi and Sailor Moon. Outside of artbooks and manga, you really had to go to a big con for the good stuff.

Honestly, con merch didn't get good until the mid 2000's for me. Way back when, I used a service where you'd send a list of items to people in Japan who would , if they located the item, send it to you for an additional fee. Even then, I was never able to get my Hikaru Magic Knight Rayearth 12" PVC figure. Closest I came was losing to a 375.00 bid on ebay.

>>6418365
Disposable cameras or if you were lucky, a gigantic XBox-sized digicam. I remember lugging my Sony Mavica around along with an extra box of diskettes. It was like "Oh hold up, gotta swap disks! I took 3 photos!". Despite the diminished storage capacity, it was literally the coolest thing to be able to see your photos instantly and decide whether you needed to take another one without developing film. I used to spend a crapton on photo processing from disposable or my old Canon AE film camera.

Man... the way we talk about some of this shit is like, if it were in the 70s or 80s... but it was just 10-13 years ago. How fucking far technology and accessibility has come in 10 years. Holy fucking shit guys. We are living in the future, it is right under our noses. How amazing is that?

>>6418541
I think a philosopher once said it best: Mo Money, mo Problems. Sure, we've gotten far, but fuck all if there's more problems that mankind has created because of it. Now anyone can be or wants to be a celebrity and everyone will do anything and everything to be lord king bignuts at a con for the amusement of serveral mouthbreathers on an anonymous message board. It's like being in a race to see who's going to be the king of the retards: at the end of the day, your still a god damn retard.

>>6418507

Maybe it's just a regional thing, but I started going to cons in 1999 and up until about '02-'03 the vast majority of attendees in my area were college age or older. I always remember making special effort to act more adult/responsibly at cons since I was almost 10 years younger than most of the other people there. Though, of course there was drama back then, there will always be drama (I remember the whispers about infighting in JACO's higher ranks).

>>6418365
>The point of cosplay....was to represent your favourite fandoms and make yourself a beacon to other fans

I still have this kind of perspective in mind when I'm cosplaying, but it's always kind of disappointing when no one wants to talk to you about the series you're 'wearing' but just snap a photo and walk away (or even get too scared to say anything to you if they don't have a camera). I really hate having my picture taken, to be honest (not particularly attractive, don't know how to pose, etc), but I like making costumes and talking to people about series I enjoy.

A combination of getting older, going to to many conventions and getting burned out.

>>6419235
yeah, I guess thats it.. But it's also that part of me that has hope that I can find SOMETHING to latch onto to continue going.

looks like these conventions used to be for adults

today it's a bunch of 14 year olds running around talking about halo4

>>6418507
Have to disagree too, I was 13 at my first convention and I was THE YOUNGEST person I saw by far and everyone I met was 19+, almost all the friends I made were in their early 20's and I was referred to as 'pedobait' my first 3 or four con years.

>>6420536

Pretty much this. When I started going back when I was an early teen, most of the attendees were 20-40. Comic/sci-fi crowd mostly.

And the convention was better because of it.

You want oldschool /cgl/?

You guys remember Mike with his bright orange business cards and huge glasses?

I really miss seeing that guy.

You want oldschool /cgl/?

You guys remember Mike with his bright orange business cards and huge glasses?

I really miss seeing that guy.

>>6418507
>>I recall screening of Gundam Wing where every. fucking. time. Duo Maxwell spoke, the entire room screamed.

I believe you, but that was an aberration. I was at a con in the late 90's where I just wandered into what turned out to be a yaoi panel. The fangirls weren't squealing! It was a different time.

I'm a newfag to the con scene. This thread has inspired me to try strike up conversation with people who I snap pictures of and be more friendly in general. I understand that some people may not want to talk to me, and I'll respect that. But maybe I'll find someone I can become friends with at a con!

>>6421361
I went to the site, http://conpix.org is the actual address. I've only looked at his Otakon 98 album, but none of the thumbnails go to the pictures they are actually of. it's bizarre.

Bitches don't know 'bout Masa's castle with tacos and Maguma's cardboard mansion outside the drawbridge.

>>6422703
Please do anon! I miss the days when people were more open to approaching others and talking about fandoms, almost all of my really good cosplay friends I made before 2005 simply from arppoaching/being approached and complimenting them on their costume and chatting!

>>6422423
No one cares. Don't derail this thread.

>>6422747
I apologize if it came across as a derailment attempt. I was making a reference to a very old /cgl/ joke and hoped that a few other people would remember. It won't happen again.

>>6422760
I know what you're talking about, and that is not nearly oldschool enough for this thread. I mean cgl has only been around since 2006, we're talkin about pre-2005 stuff here

>>6422778
Ah, alright, then. Again, I apologize. The cosplay and general convention community has been around for a very long time, which is awesome. It's always fun listening to stories from older fans about shows, conventions, or how they've applied their costume-sewing skills to things like sewing their kids' cosplays/Halloween costumes.

>>6422760
Nobody gives a shit about your boyfriend.

bumping, but im sure that it's starting to be useless.

>>6422760
You were blatantly namedropping people nobody really cares about and that's just embarrassing for everyone involved.

I think this thread needs pics.

Let me see if I can find some from my first couple of cons...

>>6425124

>>6425127

>>6425131

>>6425132

>>6425136

>>6425137

>>6425140

>>6425142

Man, so many of these I remember well.

>>6425152

first crazy Jesse wig there was.

>>6425151

this one won something I think.
It was quite detailed for the time.

>>6425153

Some underaged Alisa.
Wonder what ever happened to Carolina (Lilith)

That's all for not

And some old school Michiru. Still waiting on her nudes and drama stories, by the way.

I wasnt really into cosplay/conventions but I was on otakuworld.com daily.

>>6425305
Drama and nudes/'modelling' has already been posted, she was one half of assassins inc and now goes by j koyanagi on twitter etc.

>>6425600

Those aren't nudes you fuck. They also aren't stories. I want old drama stories from back in the day.

>>6425600 now goes by j koyanagi on twitter etc.
I remember when Assassins Inc quit cosplay out of concern for their professional careers
I'm curious as to what shitty careers they had and how long that laster.

>>6427058
>I'm curious as to what shitty careers they had and how long that lasted.


Well I'm not going to call anyone's career shitty when I don't know what they do for money but I also wonder why they couldn't continue to cosplay.

most typical jobs, what you do in your free time is easily concealed if you don't want it known. Only thing I can think of is if you were a public figure.

Perhaps they just grew out of it and wanted to sound authentic about leaving?

>>6427661
She worked at some doggie daycare and now I think she works at an animal hospital. I have no idea what he's doing, he's smart and doesn't put shit up online. She's just too much of an attention whore to go without I'd imagine. I remember when her etherealsea.net website was part of my network. She had tons of personal stories and pictures and shit up on there. Every cosplayer who had a site like that did.

>>6427045
She and her friend Laura Vasilion were obsessed with Sailor Moon, I think they did some fanmade voice over crap. As for nudes, there were the Hellsing ones she did as Assassins Inc - easy to find if you look and they did the nude modelling ones but I can't remember the names they used for their modelmayhem accounts.

>>6427661
Dan might have some sort of career, he keeps off the internet, but Jacqueline doesn't even though she calls herself a 'sci fi' writer, she's recently got a part time job at a vets.

http://www.jkoyanagi.com/
https://twitter.com/jkoyanagi

Oh and even though they are married they have a poly relationship and currently have other partners.

They stopped cosplaying when they got married, the expense of the hobby was apparently one of the reasons.

>>6365629
She's still around. She just doesn't attention whore like the rest of her generation (Yaya,Adella, etc) so she's under the radar and only does a few new costumes a year. That's what happens when you grow up.

>>6428847
Pretty much. Lots of oldschool cosplayers who were well known are still around, but since they're not clinging desperately to fame like Ginny or Adella they're under the radar. Lindze is a great example of an amazing old-school cosplayer who is still around and doesn't do stupid shit.

>>6428670
Link to these, please. I have an odd obsession with the female half of AssInc.

>>6428670

>>6323653


Oh fuck cosfu.

How I miss that site. The precursor to /cgl/

>>6323731
Oh god, old comment but feeling the need to reply.

I keep my thoughts to myself.

A long time ago, back on catsonmars I made some comments about someone who was a really enthusiastic younger person. She called me out on it. I argued with her for about half a minute, said some of the stupidest shit I probably ever said, and I realized that I had really hurt said person by trying to "prove" myself as better. I stopped, appologized profusely, and we ended up chatting for a few hours and eventually became friends over it.

When I see someone with wrinkled satin, unhemmed edges, strings everywhere, unflattering, my mind may register as "OMGWUT" but then I remember that I did that too. That's when I stop, take a picture (not for malicious purposes) and compliment them instead of tearing people down. There's no point in it, and I don't want to make another person feel miserable over my own stupidity. There's too many people who do that, and somebody has to encourage others to keep trying and improving.

>>6430828

This, pretty much. I may think some cosplays are crappily done or badly made, but I remember that hey, I was once that Goodwill-thrift cosplayer, and that I still make silly mistakes and dumb choices for cosplays.

Plus, we have to remember that for a majority of the cosplayer population, this really is just a hobby. And while yes, some hobbyists do want to be the best, the majority just want to do something fun and something they like no matter what they look like or the cost.

Sometimes I feel like breaking out my '03/'04 cosplays (if they still fit) and seeing the reception they'd get nowadays. Sure they weren't that popular back then, but people were nice and I got compliments. I bet I'd get ripped to shreds now.

>>6416539
He moved to LA, became a fashion designer, and got super buff. His facebook pics are so different from 10 years ago it's like DAMN SON.

Bump!

>>6321875
I cant believe I actually ordered a plush from that site. Good god those are hideous.

>>6436011
It's okay, a lot of us were there, friend. I really wanted a Duo Maxwell plush when I was 14/15 and I seriously considered saving enough money for one of the not-really-cute ones she made.

>>6436014
I really wanted a KOS-MOS plush. I convinced my self that it was good because ...KOS-MOS. I ended up selling it for $60 on ebay or something.

bump cause this thread is full of legends.

bump

nothing? anyone? sad that most people's memories are after the boom...

daily bump for it's survival

I had a blast from the past when I found my old Vampire Hunter D cosplay plans from like 2003.

time to bring that shit out.

>>6446363
>I had a blast from the past when I found my old Vampire Hunter D cosplay plans from like 2003.

I found various plans from things I was going to make. They must be from around 2001 or so too.

I really should finish up some things I had in my head. I still have 13 yds of gold velvet that was going to be an LOTR dress when I was deep into that.

bumping. At what point does a thread go into autosage mode?

>>6446490
My blast from the past was rediscovering my horrible Cosplay Lab account full of crap from 02-05 before I realized there were slightly better places to plan/share/etc., only slightly better. Even more amusing is that people still sign up on that site or update. Just wow.

>>6442840
I think a lot of people might of been on the fence about going to a convention, and then BAM! Convention in their hometown or only an hour away so started going then. I was opposed to the idea of conventions until 2004 when I went to the first Oni-con. Since that's still somehow new, I haven't posted much in thread, despite loving it.

Speaking about the first Oni-Con, Anyone remember the guy dressed as a monster who went around hugging people? I miss that guy.

>>6365136

Definitely. It's also that we now have popularity to compete for. Let's not deny that most of us do seek validation in cosplay, and before the internet/rise of cosplay communities, at conventions you were pretty awesome if you cosplayed, especially if you did it decently back then.

Now you have to compare to that girl who looks exactly like the character, or has 10+ years sewing experience or has 3x the budget you do, etc.

I wasn't old enough for the 90's con experience, but my older friends told me about how the cosplayers then were fawned over a lot more because they were considered awesome and rare, and it didn't matter what cloth they used or what colour or if they used a wig because it was just awesome enough that they decided to bring the character to life.

You want to see some real oldschool? Have a look at this archive of an ancient Urusei Yatsura mailing list (open the textfile with wordpad or equivalent):

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=92397563427937186377

Notice the date of the first message: October 1986. We're talking stone age fandom here. The Old Testament. See that ancient computer in my pic? That's a Decsystem 2020 mainframe - the owner of this UY ML had one of these at home just to run this list!

Reading through this treasure trove of prehistoric fandom is mindblowing. It's amazing to think that there was an online anime scene (however archaic) when I was six years old (and the average 4chan poster was not even alive) in 1986. Look at the sense of wonder these people had for this strange new anime thing, and the lengths they went to to understand the raw Urusei Yatsura.

This is like the Rosetta Stone of online fandom: study it, and marvel at the luck that it was preserved. I feel like Indiana Jones studying a scroll from some lost civilization....

*Note: the original compressed file is at:
http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pictures/anime-manga/UruseiYatsura/Anime/urusei-yatsura.txt.gz

I have tons of early 2000's memories and they're all great. I met so many friends and learned so many things in those year, and by far had the most fun at those conventions even if they were a little dinky.

Since everyone seems to want stories I'll give a few:

>my first costume, worked on it for months to get it perfect. simple but well-made and recognizable because the Ghibli movie was out in theatres.
>pretty much going to con alone and have no trouble with that because there is SO MUCH TO SEE AND DO and it honestly felt like paradise.
>meet girl cosplaying my other half. we take pictures together and randomly decide to spend the entire con together.
>lots of people come up to us to chat, it's 1am and we're in the lobby talking about anime with a circle of people we just met.
>we all do brunch the next morning and discuss the stuff we saw and things we bought.
>THESE ARE MY PEOPLE.

>join forum. talk to all these neat people online.
>meet them all in person at con and they're just as cool.
>feel like a member of some big club, everywhere you go people recognize who you are or what you're cosplaying and you never feel lonely or bored.
>go up to other cosplayers dressed from series I love, get into hour long in depth exciting conversations and share emails and message board addresses.
>get bothered by one creepy guy, and group of cosplayers dressed from Naruto (when it was still in its first couple of chapters) tell him to leave their little sister alone and adopt me until he goes away.

>>6455573
cont.

Everyone also made all their own costumes so we really appreciated the effort that went into them. There was no question however crappy the outfit was that the person who made it loved the character and series, and there wasn't a rough divide between 'good' and 'bad' cosplayers.

Looking back, there was just such a sense of wonder and pride in sharing something you loved with so many people. Nobody was a loser or geek because we all liked the same thing and since it was so rare to meet others involved in the same hobby being able to talk to others and socialize someplace that wasn't online was a real treat.

Now when I go to cons I feel this sense of snobbery and elitism, that people are now 'cool' nerds looking down on others who actually want to interact and chat with other people about what we're all supposed to be there for. People are often really surprised when they stop me for a picture and say a brief comment and I'll continue to engage them in conversation. It's like they think chatting to cosplayers is a no-no.

>>6455237
this is absolutely amazing.

>>6455237
Notice the very first message from this historic archive mentions LaserDiscs. Laserdiscs were at the core of early anime fandom: a laserdisc is a 12 inch optical format encoded in pure analog, and LDs provided the highest quality anime experience back in the day.

Laserdiscs were the master source for the first fansubbing efforts, and have amazing LP record sized cover art. The lavish Japanese LD boxsets are amazing to behold (and huge!). I have a collection of anime LDs, and holding one of this huge discs is like holding a slice of old school anime history.

I recently bought the Maison Ikkoku 24 disc box in my pic from ebay for $50 (the original price was almost $1500!) from the original owner who imported it from Japan. It is sooo much cooler to hold these babies, then to just see some files from a torrent on a screen...

>>6455576
>this is absolutely amazing
Definitely! I first saw references to the file that archives this UY list listed in the remains of 80s fandom: ancient textfiles and the like. The age of this relic immediately caught me eye, and I looked everywhere for it (at first, I feared it lost to posterity as all that turned up were descriptions of it).

I finally found the last copy of it on the net, at the SUNET ftp archive (a great source for very old anime stuff, this UY pic has a date of 1988 on it's file!), and presented it here because it's such a rare glimpse into early fandom.

>>6455573
>>lots of people come up to us to chat, it's 1am and we're in the lobby talking about anime with a circle of people we just met.
>>we all do brunch the next morning and discuss the stuff we saw and things we bought.
>>THESE ARE MY PEOPLE.

Are you me in 1998?

There were amazing rare garage kits to oogle, CDs I didn't know existed, viewing rooms that had things I never even heard of, posters, panels about rumors in japan.

Then after all that there are people, so many nice people to talk with. We spent hours talking about what we saw, things we heard, stuff we bought, costumes we liked, and where we were from. That was the feeling after my first con. These are my people. I was floating on a cloud by Sunday.

bump

>>6457083
that feel. I remember that feel well.

I haven't had that feel since 2004.

new thread: >>6459208