/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>9764670
>was a toddler in the early/mid 2000s

>>9764670
>tfw I met her the same day (Animecon 2005) I met Anneke van der Stap, who got brutally murdered a few weeks later
F

Eurobeat and the remants of Eurodance were a mistake, by the way.

No, that sounds like cons were awful or just plain depressing outside of big ones

>>9764698
If you look at old pictures those tiny European countryside cons were very depressing, but back then they were tons of fun.

where are the OG cosplayers now?

I miss mid-2000's cons a lot, that was the height of my young exuberant weeb phase. My parents hated anime so cons were honestly my first taste of independence and rebellion.
I miss obsessing over the con forums and making sure to post what I'd be cosplaying and what panels I was the most excited about.
I miss making "pre con" to do lists in my high school planner reminding me to finish reading that manga or make a new mix cd or stop at the Asian grocery to buy weeb snacks before the fated weekend.

I'm jealous that I never got to experience them. Even though I was old enough to be a young teen back then and was a huge undercover weeb, I lived in the middle of nowhere and barely connected, living off taped copies of old toonami and what little manga I could get my hands on. I dressed up as my favorite characters at halloween and spirit week at my school.

It wasn't until I got older and went to college that I finally got to go to a con and realized all the shit I'd missed out on as a younger weeb.

>>9764674
Does anyone else ever get irrationally angry about the way people born in the late 90s/2000s are so cavalier about discussing "internet culture" irl?

Some 17 year old literally tried to school me on memes the other week. I was like fuck off, I have files on my hard drive that predate your conception

Is this how ethnic minorities feel when witnessing cultural appropriation?

>mfw time

>>9764677
eurobeat was the best to happen, f u

>>9764915
>eurobeat was the best to happen, f u

damn right

Man, I feel like before I had a smartphone I used to take waaaay more photos at cons. Of cosplayers, candid shots of my friends being goofy, the venue and atmosphere itself even.

>>9764989
Post old pics.

>>9764953
For once someone isn't doing a hover hand.

2006?

>>9764670
I could use a do over; perhaps get the DSLR instead of the point and shoot.

1998

H-Chan has aged remarkably well

Why did cons become so much more popular around 2008/2009?

>>9764677
What? Who was she? I searched her name but only get results in another languages.

>>9765070
Wait, what con is that? I think that might be me in the bottom left corner.

I didn't start going to cons til 2007. I think what I miss most about pre 2010-cons is a lack of store-bought cosplay. There was still a lot of store-bought cosplay, sure, but not nearly as much as there is now. I wanna see more craftsmanship at cons.

>>9765294
Is it too late to start going to cons now? I don't have anyone to go with though.

>>9765294
Fuck, I didn't start going until December 2017.

>>9765294
>wanna see more craftsmanship
Okay anon, there were a lot less store-bought cosplay but in turn there was a lot more shit looking cosplays. Most of that home-made stuff was far from 'craftmanship'. The general quality of today's scene is higher than in the past, even if the amount of people who actually make their stuff is lower.

>>9765185
I don't know who the person in the OP image is, but Anneke van der Stap was a Dutch girl who got murdered a few weeks after the convention. The language you'll find is Dutch most likely.

I don't know exactly what happened to be honest.

>>9765185
See >>9765462
Anneke posted on /a/ and was murdered not too long after a convention (Animecon 2005 IIRC). The murder wasn't solved until 2014 or so. She was very introverted and classically dorky, so not many people around her knew much about her, and most of her friends were people she met at anime conventions and on anime message boards. Her murder happened only 2 hours or so after leaving the house of a few of her anime friends who lived far away from her. Because of that, they were the initial suspects and for a short time there was a lot of stuff in the Dutch media about "HOW ANIME IS A DANGEROUS CULT AND WILL KILL YOUR KIDS". Ultimately the killer turned out to be a guy completely unrelated to anime conventions. He was a serial killer and rapist who was actually targeting Anneke's sister (he was a dishwasher in the restaurant where the sister was a waitress), but mistook Anneke for her sister (Anneke and her sister weren't actually biologically related (they were both adopted), but looked almost exactly alike).
The girl in OP's picture is Stefanie Joosten, the girl who played Quiet in Metal Gear Solid V.

>>9765475
>The girl in OP's picture is Stefanie Joosten, the girl who played Quiet in Metal Gear Solid V.
I had to do a double take to make sure you aren't pulling my leg.

>>9765485
He's not.
Fun fact: Joosten personally requested that anyone who posted one of these pics on /v/ would get a very long ban, which was enforced throughout 2015.

>>9765489
why was it enforced?

>>9765490
I'm not sure why the mods complied while they never do such things. I can only imagine that they happened to like her (she was EXTREMELY popular on /v/ at the time) and they were spooked by her being undrage in most of the pictures. Also, someone posted an old Japanese blog she had stopped using by then, and about 10 minutes after /v/ discovered it she deleted the blog.

Tasha Leigh Cosplay gets all of her images banned on 4chan for DMCA

It cant be that hard to do

>>9765490
>>9765495
They censored her name here too:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/willemvelthoven/sets/72157594184771147/

>>9764863

No. Minorities are fake news.

>>9764670
I miss the old days of Dutch anime conventions too, OP. But why that Stefanie picture? Have you also known her personally?

>>9764863
Haha oh yeah, or those who try to act oldfag on 4chan though they joined since 2012 or whatever.

Went to my first local con in 2007. I loved how people still exchanged phone numbers and actually talked to each other. In my country smartphones and facebook only really took off in 2009 and that's also roughly the year cons became more mainstream.

>>9765614
You knew Stefanie? Anecdotes?

I really wish that I could have gone to cons when Inuyasha, Fruits Basket, Ouran, etc. were still super popular. The anime from my teenage years remains my favorite, and I don't keep up with a lot of new anime. So I go to cons in my Kyo cosplay and hang out in a sea of SAO and Re:Zero cosplayers.

My favorite anime isn't so obsolete that NOBODY recognizes me, but I miss the days when the majority of the weeb community was genuinely hyped about early 2000's anime.

>>9765525
classic

>2004 con
>everyone is a huge pleb but even knowing just bebop or evangelion makes someone seem like they're a hardcore member of the community since nobody knows any better

>>9766028
That's more of less what I'm imagining. The true hardcore fans probably wouldn't go to these things.

>>9766060
They'd go too. They would just complain they already knew every anime that was being screened.

>>9765121
>Harry Potter on the right
sexy

When did people start getting into hardcore partying at cons? I started going to cons in 2004 but I was underaged so I was never made aware that people got completely blasted at cons until 2013, at which point I was already out of college so I didn't get the appeal of the hotel parties.

>>9765186
Doubt. This was a teeny con hosted in a Best Western in middle of the US

Tell me /cgl/, as an anon that started cons in 2014 id say what were the 2000s cons like?

>>9764677

>disliking eurobeat

>>9766186
>When did people start getting into hardcore partying at cons?
As long as they have existed.

I'll take the modern con scene over the early con scene. Back then, anime cons were all about binge watching anime. Now I can binge watch all I want at home thanks to streaming services. Tapes aren't $40 for 2 episodes anymore. I can get fansubs without having to mail people money orders and wonder if I'll ever get them or not. Which means the con scene is now all about socializing. That gets rid of the anti-social con-goers who were just there for their anime fix. I'll take the affordable decent looking wigs and higher level of cosplay supplies available today. I can now go to my local con and meet people in my area who are into anime instead of traveling hundreds of miles to meet anime fans that drove from all over the region to attend.

I remember the Cartoon Network kiddies that were introduced to anime through Toonami and didn't know about anything else. That was their gateway. Everyone from before had to have that weird friend who had these tapes from a foreign land to be introduced to it.

Nope, I would never want to go back to the way things were back then.

I just hit my ten year con-going anniversary a few years back. I remember being in high school and saying “well there’s no way I’ll cosplay in college”, but kept cosplaying, then after undergrad being like “welp that’s done for” and now I’m still cosplaying and using cosplay as the focus of my masters thesis which is WEIRD but fun so who cares.

I don’t know if conventions back years ago were really more fun, or whether being a 13-16 year old being allowed to run around without parents and geek out was where the fun was coming from. I mean cosplaying sucked back then. You’d shell out $60 for a wig that would come pre-tangled and be happy for it because it was the only long wig you could find on eBay.

>>9766264
What's your field and what are you writing about, anon?

>>9765180
The iphone was released in '07.
Apple is the cause of the casualization of your favorite hobby because any random jackass could easily access the internet without a computer.

>>9765121
Yes she definitely has. Actually a lot of oldschool famous cosplayers have aged really well. Adella, Usagi Kou, Miyu, Lillyxandra, and Claire Max all come to mind. They all still look the same as they did a decade ago.

>>9765659
About 4 years ago I was at metrocon and a limo pulls up to the riverside entrance to the convention center. A group of teenage boys dressed in Ouran uniforms got out and walked into the con.
It is the best thing I've ever seen at a convention.

>>9765180
The rise of social media, I guess
Personally, I didn't really know they were a thing until around that time because of people in my high school, and I think Littlekuriboh made a video about one, or mentioned one. Perhaps youtube also has something to do with it, there was that sakura con ad that exploded due to how fucking stupid it was. Sakura-con 2009.

>>9766308
>implying iphone wad the first smartphone
>implying you even needed a smartphone to access internet when non-smartphone phones had web browsers too and allowed you to install java applications including opera mini (a great early web browser with traffic compression, since 2005), im messengers, chat clients etc

*was

>>9766314
GIRUGAMESH
Some dude in my country threatened to shoot up a school with a pic of the girugamesh guy and for a while posting anything about girugamesh guy on websites from my country would lead to a police visit.

>>9766321
Amazing how paranoid people can be, and how quickly they leap to collective guilt.

>>9766318
It was the first widely successful smartphone and required no modifications or installation of third party programs to use the internet. hence the any random jackass part. casuals don't know what java is.

>>9766330
no it's not true. massively used mobile internet goes to about beginning of 2000

opera mini was optional, also often distributed by default together with the native phone browser. it was mostly used to save traffic, apple didn't have anything like it btw

>>9766264
how the fuck do 13 year olds even end up at cons without parents? How do they get a hotel?

>>9766428
you......you do realize people are capable of commuting to conventions from their house, right?

>>9766190
They were comfy. I imagine people these days who are getting into anime wouldn't be the biggest fan of old cons since I mainly miss seeing cosplays from the shows I grew up with.

I think my other favorite things about old cons were the lack of store bought costumes (preventing D.Va situations) and vendors selling bootleg DVDs/VHS tapes.

>>9764953
I haven't heard from EBK in a while. I take it he's effectively retired?

>>9766478
no he is still around being a passive aggressive cuck white knight virgin to this day.

Something I don't miss from 2000's cons is how many FUCKING INSANE people there were back in the day.

Like, legit actual psychopaths basically sexually harassing the shit out of people, crazy assault, Yaoi hammers and the most common of all, hearing "AH MAY GAWWWWEDDDD KAWWWAAAIIIIIIIIII" and then getting fucking "glomped" (read tackled) and having your fucking costume explode because some fuckhead overactive fan girl decided anime physics were real and jumped on you. Hyperactive ADHD fan girls that had legitimately zero respect for personal space were not a irregularity, they were the norm.

I literally got assaulted at the very first con I ever went to by a STAFF member who legit just punched me in the stomach for no fucking reason, I was legit just standing next to a wall and he came up, punched me and left leaving me completely winded, later I found out that he thought I was another staff member who wasn't watching the door or some shit. Even if I was another staff member, why in fuck would you punch them in the stomach and leave for no reason?

You see it in the "Con" horror stories as well, they all almost range from early-mid 00s to around 2009-2010.

Honestly what the fuck was wrong with so much of the community back then? Just largely socially maladjusted people in a space they thought rules of society went out the window or something and because anime cons were in their early days, rules and standards from actual mature people hadn't come into play yet?

>>9766574
This so much, I laughed pretty hard at someone upthread saying convention goers used to be LESS autistic.

>nightcore

>>9765301
No
Just go, you might end up making friends

>>9766574
I have no idea, but that sounds awful. Holy shit, I guess I don't know how good we have it today.

>>9764670
Post more Stef.

Pictures of cons from the early/mid 2000s look so comfy. Then again everything seemed to be comfier back then.

Unfortunately even though I was in middle/highschool at the time I never had weeb friends who cared about social things like that so I missed out. Just throw it on the pile with the other regrets.

>>9766800

>>9766821
Fun fact: the girl on the right is actually the "boss" of that con now.

>>9766800
What's this obsession with her?

>>9766923
/v/ collectively fell in love with her a few years ago.

>>9766923
Metal Gear Solid made her popular

>>9766293
Sociology
I’m looking at how cosplayers and crossplayers “perform” gender in cosplay, looking at it similar to how drag is examined. It started out as a silly project for one class but has spiraled out of control and now I’m at the beginning of my masters thesis. But I figure this is the time to do a project that interests me before I get into all the boring shit I’ll have to work on to get published/tenure etc

>>9766428
My mom was the “con Mom”. She’d book the hotel for like six of us and be the chaperone but she’d mostly chill on her own and go to museums in major cities instead of following us around.

>>9767101
sounds nice, having someone who would do that, and also having friends.

>>9767123
As long as you aren't extremely socially retarded you can make friends. I'm a huge introvert and if my dumbass can make friends at a con so can you

>>9767156
I mean I'm a bit to old to have those same kind of experiences. It would be meeting people at the cons rather than going with other people.

For me it's late 90s and barely early 00s (2000 and 2001).
I miss the old world. There's a lot of convenient things nowadays, but in many regards, life was a lot more comfier in the pre-internet world (or when internet was still very young and not mainstream).
Mid 00s were pretty good for internet, fast connections and total freedom.
Too bad everything went to shit so fast and it seems it's going to keep getting worse and worse.

>>9767123
Yeah man my parents were pretty chill to put up with my nerd shit. My dad has always helped me with props and my mom was chill af to drive these nerdy teenagers to conventions all over the DMV.
They actually just cosplayed as Negan and Carol to WalkerStalkerCon and were geeking out about people wanting their pictures. They get why I do this nerd shit now

>>9767385
How did you even get In to these things so early? I can't imagine that you had the original idea, organized it yourself, and had everyone just go along with it.

>>9767254
>of all things related to Dragon Ball, that dude picked GT
Also, holy shit, I never heard of this and I'm in Argentina. How the fuck would you have found any events back then? Without facebook, I'd have no idea about anime events. Granted, I was out of the country for 2004-2012, so I wouldn't have any idea what events were like in that time anyways.

And so far, the events I've gone to (4 this year, 5 total) all have nice people going to them. I'd only say one was a bust, and that was kinda on me because I was not really feeling it. That said, it was one of those small "we got a school to let us host an event" deals, below Anicomix and most Jigoku Producciones offerings, so I can't imagine that one being a great event.

Found a blogpost about fantabaires for those curious:

http://dmundo.blogspot.com/2009/02/se-acuerdan-de-fantabaires.html
>do you remember Fantabaires?
>Remember the Fantabaires conventions? It was a beautiful time!

>The first con was in 1996 and the last one in 2001. Since 1999, the quality of this con decayed.
>In 1996, the guest from outside the country was Alan Grant. In 1997, the guests were Alan Grant, Jerry Robinson (who was in Brazil and invited himself) and Adam West (Batman). In 1998, the guests were Alan Grant, William Shatner (Captain Kirk) and Neil Gaiman. In the 1999 edition, Adam West came again, accompanied by Frank Gorshin (The Riddler), Mark Waid, Devin Grayson, Peter David, and Cels Piñol. The 1999 edition had the most guests from outside the country.
>In 2000, the guest was...did he come? Lou Ferrigno (Hulk), but he didn't show up. In 2001, I don't even know if there was a guest.
>I went to every one of the editions, to the Fantabaires of '97 to '99 I went the 4 days it lasted. Beautiful memories, offers (yes, beofre, there were offers, really good ones! in conventions), photos, damn...
and then he shows flyers for the events, I wonder if there were disastrous anime events from the years I was out of the country.

If you wanted some yaoi paddle action you just had to find someone cosplaying this guy

>>9767388
>be loser
>have loser friends
>Loser friends want to go to Katsucon
>Birthday is Feb 18th, falls on Katsu weekend
>decide to go with loser friends for 13th birthday
>be obsessed with Chobits
>decide to do closet cosplay of Chi
I think one of them had been to a convention before, and mentioned cosplay and that’s where I got the idea? I can’t remember, only one of my friends and I cosplayed then, but that started a number of years of group cosplays which were honestly some of my favorite cosplaying days, even if we were teens that couldn’t sew for shit. A few of us are considering getting together and cosplaying the same characters again for old times sake. And also because we’re way better looking, better at makeup and actually have jobs and ways to buy nice fabric now.

>>9767442
Holy FUCK I had forgotten about this cosplay. It’s like they all disappeared all at once.

>>9767442
People used to cosplay Hard Gay? Someone needs to revive this.

>>9767448
Well the real HG did retire after he was outted as straight.

>>9767446
What exactly do you mean by loser in the context?
someone who has friends (plural) who goes somewhere and makes memories at age 13 no less doesn't sound like much of a loser to me.

>>9767442
>>9767448
>>9767457
>>9767454
Hard Gay was so fucking common he just teleported in to OP's picture.

>>9767400
>How the fuck would you have found any events back then? Without facebook, I'd have no idea about anime events.
LOL; Fantabaires was advertised on newspapers, TV, radio. Rock & Pop was the sponsor for some of the Fantabaires, like '98.
The last Fantabaires was Fantabaires 2000. I think 1999 and 2000 were about the same. '98 was when it got really big and massive. I went to '97 and it was in much, much smaller scale venue (Centro Cultural Borges, very pretty place), less people (although still many people, just not massive).
In 2001 there was no more Fantabaires but a substitute of sorts appeared, Expocomics.
Instead of being in the centro de exposiciones in Recoleta, it went back to La Rural as FB98 (which IMO was also the best venue in terms of capacity, accessibility, etc).
One of the organizers or producers of Expocomics was Leandro Oberto from Ivrea/Lazer, who was also the guy who did the first cosplay contests, which by the way are hilarious, please watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdVHwH3x8KI
And yeah that was F'2000 and not Expocomics. The first cosplay contest Oberto did was in FB2000 iirc, or maybe FB99, pretty sure F'98 didn't have any contest (although there were cosplayers around, at the time, we didn't even use the word "cosplay", just disfraces).
2 more FB2000 videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdlX97dF_fM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVVQg474xqU
I know most of the people in these videos. Back then fandom was very small compared to today.

I didn't went to any con after Expocomics 2001, but yeah after 2001, along with the economic crisis, most things went to shit. Oberto from Ivrea started doing his own "Lazer Night" parties, which were like "yeah, otakus can party, too!" crappy night club with cosplay contests, cocaine and lots of drama, went to shit around this time.

>>9767556
I saw the first video already. Part of it anyways. No, thanks, I got all I could take.

>dat cameraman zooming in on Rei's crotch
Wew lad

Interestingly, I looked up Oberto and landed on some thread that went over the history of Revista Lazer. I thought it was going to be about what was on Wikipedia. The crisis and the story with the Japanese folks finally finding out about the magazine. Instead it was way more depressing than that. The magazine was apparently decaying in quality, some guy who worked for them left for the competition and is rumored to have reported Lazer, which ended up killing the magazine...and the possibility of Oberto making up the story about the Japanese getting the magazine shut down was also mentioned. In that theory, he supposedly made it up to save face in light of the magazine's decay and decreased sales.

What do you make of that? I barely knew Revista Lazer through my older brother.

Also, modern events are ok from what I've seen. Cosplay has gotten better, memes don't spread here, at least not as badly as in the US. I heard a few teens spouting the Ugandan knuckles meme at a Jigoku event, but beyond that, I wasn't bothered. Anicomix events seem less obnoxious, and I haven't gone to them yet, but Anime Friends seem to have the biggest events.

That said, always scout events somehow before going. If a Jigoku event doesn't have a second floor, it will probably be boring. If an event's page doesn't go into detail about the gamer section beyond "we have games," it's a safe sign that the event is too rinky dink.

The people are always nice at these, though. I haven't dealt with any egomaniac cosplayer yet. I also haven't dealt with a crowd like the one in the video you posted, that is for damn sure.

>>9767618
Yeah, since that was the first (or second) cosplay contest ever in Argentina, the public didn't really know how to react, or behave. So they went for a "hinchada" kind of vibe. Honestly I think it's funny as hell, and I also know most people there knew each other, so the insults you might consider offensive, weren't really ill intended. It's weird having to explain this but yeah, I can understand how a "BOLITA!" or "PUTO!" might raise a red flag in some people, but yeah it was all for fun.
>dat cameraman zooming in on Rei's crotch
That's a camerawoman! Tomoyo, she is the one who uploaded all these FB videos.

I went to a few Jigoku/Stream now that you mention it, mostly because my friend works in the organization so I got free pass+VIP room+free booze, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered, but I can see how these events might be fun for younger people. I just don't think night clubs mix with nerdy stuff. It gets a bit old after a while and in the end it's just like going to any other antro, like Infekted or Alternativa.

About Oberto, yeah I dunno, I never liked him, although I did buy Lazer during the early years, I stopped at around number 20. When ivrea mover to Spain and all that, I just stopped caring about them or Lazer.
And yeah, the quality of the magazine went down. I've read an issue from around 2006, and it seemed a lot more generic than what it used to be.
However, for the time, when most people didn't have internet, Lazer was a very good little magazine.

>>9764674
>Tfw was in highschool during 2005-2008

I don't know if I should feel mad there's so many little children on this board or if I'm just depressed I'm so old.

>>9767655
No worries, it's just that I'm looking at it with modern eyes. I'm rather new to anime events anyways (earliest one I went to was in 2017)

>That's a camerawoman!
What a twist

I never went to Jigoku events like that. You know, with the night club and booze, those seem like they'd be disaster areas, so I agree, night clubs don't mix well with nerdy stuff. All the events I went to were in the day and usually end around 19:00

>>9764670
Could someone tellme something about Stefanie Joosten's cosplay past? How many costumes did she have?

>>9767673
the latter
i'm older than you and it doesn't get any better

>>9767673
The fact that there's so many kiddies on here certainly explains a lot about this board.

>>9767442
we still have them in the netherlands

These were the purest times of cosplay, I wish we could get these back when I look at the hellscape of costhots and "I cosplay for the money and fame" around today. There wasn't competition, people would hype up even the most basic of costumes because they were happy to see them, photos weren't excessively photoshopped and it wasn't about being the hottest. It was purely about being a nerd and doing something fun. I still keep that sentiment when I cosplay but I hate what it's become for a majority.

These were the purest times of cosplay, I wish we could get these back when I look at the hellscape of costhots and "I cosplay for the money and fame" around today. There wasn't a popularity competition, people would hype up even the most basic of costumes because they were happy to see them, photos weren't excessively photoshopped and it wasn't about being the hottest. It was purely about being a nerd and doing something fun. I still keep that sentiment when I cosplay but I hate what it's become for a majority.

Yes, I would gladly even embrace a comeback of glomps and yaoi paddles to escape the toxic costhot/patreon culture of today.

>>9770802
I feel this on another level. It seemed much more fun and pure.. most people were friendly and 10x easier to talk to.. snobs were much rarer. Even though i was fairly young back then, it was what made me like cons.

>>9770802
Most people seem to think that because they were young and so being bad at cosplay was tolerated and they tolerated bad cosplay more. Look at teenagers at cons today, it's almost the same as it was before.

You're just hanging around an older and more bitter community that aged, and became older and more picky yourself

>>9764674
You smol thing you

>>9770802
>the toxic costhot/patreon culture of today.
This is barely a thing outside the US.
It's a problem with your culture.

>>9771009

>Looks at all the hot asian cosplay models from China/Taiwan/Vietnam

>>9770802
my guess is you were never on the receiving end of a yoai paddle.

>>9765121
Who is that dream girl on the right?

>>9765637
I already gave some stuff away in the previous Dutch thread. Not gonna give away too much, because I don't want to taint her privacy. But she was always kind to me.

>>9765180
superhero movies made "nerdculture" accessible to everyone

>>9766199 earliest cons I remember were all about underage drinking and inappropriate encounters. A lot of people I knew back then just went to hook up.

>>9766428
anime club almost always has some adult with a visa

>>9771357
I wish my school had an anime club.
unfortunately i was destined to spend my awkward teenage years alone
fortunately that means there is no evidence.

>>9764670
>do you ever wish to go back to the early/mid 2000s?

Yes but only to clean up the mess I’ve made of everything

>>9765294
>lack of store-bought cosplay.
>wanna see more craftsmanship at cons.

Same. I actually want to see 5 different takes on the flavor of the month anime. I actually enjoyed that. Even if some of them were crap they were still having a blast showing you that they even tried it for the show they like.

Plus I liked seeing the one person who got it super right. It was worth knowing their hard won skills really shone.

>>9770802
>These were the purest times of cosplay
>people would hype up even the most basic of costumes because they were happy to see them, photos weren't excessively photoshopped and it wasn't about being the hottest.


All this yes.
I really miss it being about "Oh dude I love that show too, lets talk about the final episode for 20 minutes."

I started opposing the "sex sells" only cosplay early on. The rest of the fucking world runs on sex appeal. All of it. I just wanted one weekend a year where that was left at the door and your utter love of a show or your dedication to nailing that cosplay were the focus for the next 72 hours.

Looks are nice. It's great to fit the look of a character but man I am tired of it making someone a "cosplay master."
Genetic lottery winner yes....skilled maker no.

I'd gladly welcome back 7 wig colors, shitty photos, and too many satin school uniforms.

>>9771631
I'm the person you replied to and you summarised the rest of my thoughts. It is very sad what it has become.

>>9765525

>>9771615
Then you probably know threads like the cringe and bad cosplay thread are why people buy so many costumes on here. Why make your own and try, just to be mocked if you can buy one for a little over the cost of materials and focus only on a wig and makeup?

>>9766574
This is the most accurate take ITT as far as American cons are concerned

>>9772410
>implying shitty bought cosplays won't land in the thread too

>>9771659
Your post spoke to me too. We're two peas in a pod.
>>9772410
We enjoyed the crap cosplay too because it came from a place of enjoyment.

>Even if some of them were crap they were still having a blast showing you that they even tried it for the show they like.

When we started going looks based over fandom based we got meaner and mocked people. If we were fandom/enjoyment based instead of sex sells we'd likely be kinder because we'd be into "holy fuck I love that show too" instead of "man her nose is all wrong for my waifu."

>>9766428
have older friends?

the Real pre-smartphone cosplayer nostalgia was having to bring printed out reference photos fabric shopping.

>>9777703
I mean, I guess a not too insignificant number of young cosplayers have adults trying to take advantage of them but most of the stories about it here are happy.

>>9777709
I still print things instead of looking at my phone most of the time. Due to notes I make on fabric choices

>>9777709

I still do this too! I write all over them as well, I might whip out my phone in case my other half mentions seeing something differently, in which case I need to check for consistency, but otherwise I enjoy having my hard copy and being able to show the ladies at my local fabric shop what I'm up to.

My first con was 2008 and I looked like absolute shut but it was probably the highlight of my High school years. Cons haven't felt the same since.

>>9779281
Yep. Here's one with my notes. (excuse the horrid handwriting and the large photo)

I attended my first con in 1997. Times were simple then.

>>9765069
>>9765070
>>9765072
Holy fuck is this Anime Fest Wichita?

>>9779771
>I attended my first con in 1997. Times were simple then.


SAME
What con was it? Mine was AWA3. I think I was probably one of the youngest there at 17 yrs old. Everyone was in their mid 20s and lots were 30 something.

JOOST THREAD? JOOST THREAD

>>9779982
god this woman is literal perfection

>>9779984
I love her guys. I really do.

>>9779988
HITLER DUBS FOR PERFECTION

>>9779992
Not gonna post the rares just the ones we've all seen. The rare ones are for me and whoever else found em.

>>9779995
She is just the best thing ever

>>9779997
WILL I GET THE 9S? probably not. Cucked again.

>>9780002
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh i love her!

>>9780003
what a slow board jesus these are like a minute apart and im getting 1 2 3s going

>>9780005
inb7

>>9780008
WOAH HOLY 11

>>9780009
fuck man i just cant tell. 10?

>>9780011
oh now I get 11? fuck you 12.

>>9780013
yeah see? fuck 12 and fuck 14 while I'm at it.

>>9780014
holy shit i got 14? what about 15. Do the mods just not care about this boar? CAW CAW SEAGULL CAW!!

>>9779980
Animethon 4, I believe it was. Alberta, Canada. I was 14.

>>9780018
No, they don't.

>>9767847
Newfag here, was too little to party back then but had a blast discovering Lazer in the used book section. I've always wondered what's the deal with Jigoku (and apparently other underground) raves/fiestas. But I live far from BA and don't have anybody to go with.

>>9767673
Christ I was graduating when you were in 5th grade.

Fun for the younger crowd!
- Anime was Japanimation for years.
- Most commonly watched late at night on AMC (Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Vampire Hunter D) or as butchered super cuts like Macross.
- The internet was basically useless before 1995, so to get anime we all watched VHS tapes with 1-2 episodes (subtitled by fans) that were imported at a hefty cost. Like $40 per tape.
- If you had access to an R-Rated approved account you could probably find these same tapes at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. If you were really lucky, up until the early 90's your local video chain may have carried some. These were superior opportunities to view boobs at the time.
- Used to skip school in the morning to catch Sailor Moon. It wasn't great, but it was what we had.
- After 1999 you could readily find DVDs (and VHS still) in video stores like Suncoast. These are nearly extinct.

>>9780018
Let me guess, you came over from /v/?

>>9779995
>Not gonna post the rares
Post a cropped rare so I know if I have seen it.

>>9772353
jesus christ I made that image. Has it really been ten years??

I'm too old for this shit.

>>9780807
How old are you?

>>9780114
The late night shit?
I got an invite to one of them, called Yukai Night. I looked up one of the videos.

>event starts at midnight (already a no for me right there, riding a bus that late and trying to get back home would be troublesome, my area isn't safe at night)
>people raving at the fucking digimon season 1 OP

That's a double no for me. Just go to events during the day if you find any. Also, afaik, Jigoku mostly just has events during the day now.

>>9764670
I remember being a small weeb and going to at least 2 cons every week. I wore a cat bell collar. I'm cringing so hard just from picturing it.

I kind of miss the old internet, forums, MSN messenger and IRC were at a level i could deal with. And while forums are still about, it hasn't quite got the buzz i remember it having.
The whole social explosion was just kind of crazy and creepy to me. I miss discussing projects with friends and sharing pictures in little protected places.

At least there seems to be a backlash against the big social monster, maybe people will realise user owned communities are the way to go again...

>>9786748
Nah, user owned communities were cancer in their own ways. People are used to a higher degree of freedom to say whatever they want on social media

> yfw Haruhi was FotM at some point
I was lucky to find one nowadays.

>>9780284
I remember when I discovered bittorrent in 2005, that was a game changer. Do you do cons? Does it feel kind of lonely seeing cosplays you're not familiar with?

A part of me misses the xD random *glomp* rawr era. Though I know I wouldn't if I had to relive it. Nostalgia is weird. Went to my first con in 2005, but I'm sad I missed out on 90s cons. They look so comfy.

>>9786748
Yeah, the same. I never got comfortable with posting my name and face everywhere. Never got selfies. I grew up in forum culture in which emojis were never used, so I never adapted to using those and get shit at work for always sounding so cold. It's increasingly hard for me to connect with the community of my country as they are all on twitter and it's the shittiest social media I can come up with. All announcements are published there, so I kinda miss application times and all that. I miss IRC, comfortable anonymity, roughness of the community, messier pictures, and fandom specific forums.

For very selfish reasons, I wish user owned smaller more anonymous communities would return. I'd prefer those. There were shitty communities with strict mods, but there were dedicated owners who kept the community and hobby alive. I miss dearly bjd community of my country. We used to post all our shitty project pictures, order stuff together as it was so complicated back then, held meetings at cons. These days it's good if there is a lolita meeting at a con.

Maybe this is the nostalgia talking, maybe I'm just bitter 30-something office lady, maybe time passing makes me see only the best in horrible times, but I do miss the old days of being anime fan.

I started in '08, I wish I could go back to those times. I mean granted I still enjoy going to cons and cosplaying, but not nearly as much as I did back then. I still cosplay mostly older anime even now. I also still use coscom occasionally. I really hate this modern day cosplay thing with everyone only caring about getting more and more followers. It seems like it's all about popularity and fame nowadays.

>>9787338
I thought I was the only one that missed that.

ah, my fondest memory is being stuck out in the summer heat of baltimore dressed as Suiseiseki, long ass wig, no wig cap, my first colored contacts.
Some fucktard from /b/ pulled the firealarm at otakon, right before the Black Lagoon Premier.
Ruined my day.

>>9767442
Really? I never saw dudes with yoai paddles. It was always chicks. Fat chicks.

>>9787648
Holy shit, I remember this! I was 14 and therefore didn't use 4chan but I remember being told to evacuate lmfao

That masters thesis on cosplay will be a big help while you are making Frappuccinos.

Can't relate to any of this my first con was anime matsuri 3 years ago
The only difference between then and now was I didn't have depression

>>9767673
You're depressed about being old. I'm in my 30s and feel the same.

>>9787695
t. McDonald's reject