So in mid August I went to my first huge convention in Japan.
I went to Comic Market (aka Comiket) 106.
It's sort of like the Japanese ComicCon but more anime/video game themed and with significantly less input from official parties.
Usually I avoid these huge conventions because of the lines and gigantic mass of people who attend but I decided to go just so I could say I've at least been there once.
Plus one benefit is that I get to meet a lot of cosplayers I don't often see since these events are sometimes the only times they can arrange their schedules to go to.
Much like when I went to the card shows back in New York, I was hoping to pick up a few autographs.
Even though I prepared that board all but one of those cards went unsigned and instead I got a bunch of autographed polaroids. A lot of the cosplayers had some available for sale, I brought the classic blue sharpie and the rest is magic.
Blue sharpie ink on polaroids work so well. Especially if the backgrounds aren't too dark and it's easy to see the ink absolutely pop.
On top of these some cosplayers had polaroids already signed and ready.
Seeing wendydydydy in particular was a trip because I remember her being active in California. But according to her she's relocated to do more events in east Asia where the bulk of her core fans are.
It'll forever be surreal to me to finally meet people I've only known as cosplayers on Twitter, in real life. I've known about some of these people since 2022-23, and there they were right in front of me.
Some of these cosplayers have come a long way too. A few have now gotten followers in the 100K+ range and get hired by companies trying to promote their video games and anime IPs. Others aren't quite there yet but still have sizeable followings.
Nanako there is more or less the one cosplayer I really wanted to meet (with all due respect to everyone else). I met her back in 2023 but wasn't able to match up with her schedule in 2024.
She's the only cosplayer I also picked up photobooks of and even got a selfie with. But I also got the last set of polaroids she brought (score!). She was also the only one I asked to sign a trading card on the autograph board I showed above.
No that's not her on the card but she's done this character in cosplay, which is good enough.
All in all it was pretty fun but also extremely exhausting. Standing in the humid mid-summer Japanese sun for an hour just to get into six giant but somehow still cramped halls isn't an experience I want to revisit. Though I might be more interested in smaller, more niche conventions (the kind where the conventions are devoted to really specific IPs and have considerably less crowds) depending on the attendee's. I won't deny that I got an itch for wanting to do cosplay myself too even though I don't look nearly as attractive as these women.
Finally I would like to say that these finally knocked out my annual goal of getting an autograph just for me but fortunately that one was knocked out earlier in the year by other cosplayers. I never got around to making a blogpost for those, so I'll add them to the tail end of this one.
Bless. I haven't counted the IPs I've gotten this year (this post isn't including girls at maid cafe's and the like), but I'm probably putting up numbers akin to when I went to Staten Island Yankees games.
Anyway big thanks to the cosplayers for their effort, their time and their autographs.
And always thank you (the readers) for stopping by. Take care.
My buddy promoted a comic book/toy convention a few years ago and I helped him out. The cosplayers were one of the most interesting aspects of the show. He held a contest with a few different categories and it drew hundreds of people. I thought it was so cool how much time and effort each of them put into their costumes.
ReplyDeleteI doubt I'll ever attend another one... but I'm glad you got a chance to go to one and add a bunch of these autographed Polaroids to your collection. It's pretty awesome how they take the time to decorate them and make each one an individual piece of art.
It's just a shame polaroids are getting more expensive now that foreign (read: US) markets have had an uptick in interest. A lot of cosplayers are moving on to other things to sell as merch.
DeleteWelp US markets might be cut off soon thanks to the US basically removing itself from international mail…
DeleteGlad to see you having fun. And while this isn't my kind of thing the fact that it seems like a mostly positive relationship between the fans and the cosplayers is fantastic to see.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot more grassroots, and in a highly competitive field where fans could be drawn away to other things (or other cosplayers) for any number of reasons, they're all determined to keep the supporters they do have.
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