COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 326
It's been somewhat of tiring summer for me. I haven't been home a single weekend in some six weeks, and my weeks have been pretty hectic too. Oh, and I've been sleeping a lot... maybe it isn't so tiring then.
I managed to be coerced into attending this year's Shoujocon, held in New Jersey at the East Brunswick Hilton. The fact that it's less than two hours away from my house was the deciding factor, though in hindsight it would have been worth it had the con been on the other side of the country.
For those of you not in the know, Shoujo is a genre within Japanese manga and anime focusing on and catering to girls. Shoujo even means "girl." So yes, I was at an anime convention. And yes, it was mostly dominated by girls. Which was a pleasant change in a medium thought to be mostly patroned by guys. There were a fair share of guys there too, but no one felt left out. I can honestly say that not a single person was rude or patronizing there. And that made it an enjoyable experience.
I was there with a large group of friends, some of whom I barely knew, of the ones I did know rather well, they were working at the convention. One friend was part of the security staff, the other supervising in the dealer's room. The former was mentioned that she had to be staff otherwise she'd get bored. I don't know... I dislike the idea of having to be certain places at particular times, without the option to opt out. I like wandering around and trying to see everything.
I arrived at the hotel Saturday morning, and ended up in the dealer's room first thing. I was lost for what to buy, because living in New York City makes lots of merchandise available to me at better prices. I didn't want to waste my con experience on things that could have been easily obtained elsewhere. After consulting with one of my knowledgeable friends I decided to grab some doujinshi. Doujinshi are fan-made comics, usually of licensed properties. These aren't like the simple photocopy-and-staple works we distribute over here in the States. Most of them are professional jobs, with good paper and actual binding. The covers are full color, inside is black-and-white, usually ranging 20-30 pages. They're tolerated in Japan because the professional artists see the doujinshi market as free advertising for their creations.
Of course, we'd never see the likes of these in America. The companies would freak and the lawyers called out in full-force. They just barely tolerate fan-fiction. That line is drawn especially thin for slash fan-fic, pairing two characters together in rather... delicate situations. I saw my fair share of that at the doujinshi stands, which is why all of them were positioned in the adult section. You needed to present ID at registration to be classified as adult - no exceptions. I admire the con staff for remaining so resolute on this.
I eventually bought three books, two Final Fantasy 7 and a Final Fantasy Tactics. I know I'm an FF junkie, but I didn't see anything else attractive enough on the stands. I don't read Japanese, so how a doujinshi looks is paramount in my mind. They're fun to have simply as unique souvenirs and oddities, perhaps someday I will have the skills to read them too.
Afterwards I actually began going to events. One popular going is the "Whack-a-Thon" where a generally hated character is made into a piņata and pounded into oblivion. The broken body is then auctioned off. How much people cheer and how hard they hit are a testiment to how strongly people feel about certain anime. It's refreshing.
The con had several video rooms, which I'm happy to say never got too crowded. At various points over the weekend I watched an anime called "Kiko-chan's Smile," the music video competition (where fans edit clips of their favorite shows and movies to appropriate rock and pop tunes), and a fan-dub called "This is Otakudom." (In a fan-dub, new voice-overs are created for anime with usually hilarious results.) For anyone thinking of going to Otakon next month, I highly recommend checking out the official premiere of this video there (this was a rough preview).
There was a costume contest as well. All weekend I saw a variety of costumes, including Card Captor Sakura and Trigun. I took a number of pictures, which I hope to develop soon. A wedding being held in the same hotel also introduced amusing hijnks along these lines, with a little girl asking "Are you dressed as a bride? " later to be topped by one individual commenting "Are you supposed to be Wedding Peach? If so, your costume's a little off." The happy couple knew that their nuptuals would be coinciding with an anime convention and still went ahead with the scheduling. They must have thought we'd simply be a nice, quiet group of Asian students playing with their laptops and drawing in sketchbooks. How misleading stereotypes can be.
Promotion was a big theme of the convention. The crowd there was pretty mixed: men and women, old men and little girls, serious and casual fans. I think this diversity is a testiment to the increased press anime and manga have been getting. But it's still not enough. We were trying to figure out ways to showcase this culture outside of Toonami. One guy mentioned Lifetime television as a possible outlet for shoujo, then someone jokingly commented "Oprah's Manga Club" which doesn't strike me as such a bad idea. The books she recommends always sell like gangbusters - what better way to get manga into middle America?
Next year I'll be back, maybe even running a table dedicated to getting Oprah Winfrey into our culture. Until then, I commend the staff of Shoujocon for a job well done, an enjoyable experience for everyone, including a relative outsider like myself.
[For a more horrifically detailed convention report, read my LiveJournal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/lampbane/day/2001/07/17. Be warned - it gets a little graphic]