The lobby of the Holiday Inn is busy. Vocaloid’s Hatsune Miku sips water from a styrofoam cup; meanwhile Gamzee Makara of Homestuck chats up an artist who is selling their wares from a booth in the hallway. Korra of Legend of Korra poses for fans who ask for her picture as they see her congregating with friends from K Project and One Piece.
What brings this variety of people together? Conventions.
Conventions (or cons) have been a huge part of geek culture for decades. People dress up as their favorite characters, meet people with like interests, play their favourite video games in gaming rooms, or go to panels. In these panels, people are either in character costume and discuss relevant topics with their fellow fandom members, or special guests such as actors, voice actors, or artists are interviewed by the attending audience.
Television shows that highlight geek culture, such as CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, have brought cons into the public eye, and have thus increased attendance. San Diego’s Comic-Con International has been topping 130,000 attendees in recent years. DragonCon in Atlanta had approximately 52,000 attendees.
“It was so overwhelming,” freshman Lisi Schauer said after she travelled to DragonCon.
“I met George Takei and John Barrowman!” freshman DragonCon attendee Aviva Majerczyk said. To those who don’t know, George Takei was the man who played Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series, meanwhile John Barrowman is an actor most known for his role as Captain Jack in the modern version of the cult science-fiction show, Doctor Who.
Another major event at cons would be the costumes that attendees wear. These character costumes, dubbed as “cosplays” by con-goers, represent everything from superheroes, to video game characters, to various anime personas, to even to literary and television figures. Cosplayers work for weeks, months even, breaking sewing needles as well as their budgets while perfecting a costume for the sake of looking good at an upcoming convention.
According to freshman Kieran Rundle, her costume took approximately a month to sew and put together with the help of her mother.
“Everyone is so dressed up and into it,” Rundle said. She attended DragonCon in Atlanta this summer as Princess Peach from the Mario Brothers video games.
“We got stopped every couple minutes for pictures!” Rundle continued.
Cosplay contests are another one of the various activities at conventions, senior Masato Dowling participated in one at Charlottesville’s Omegacon.
“The costume contest was my favorite part!” Dowling said, “I won for best performance- with a trophy and everything! I also loved seeing everyone’s costumes.”
The idea of cosplay is attractive to so many people for multiple reasons. To some its a different way of artistic expression, to some it’s more personal.
“You can be anyone you want, and people don’t know who you are,” senior Andrea Mendoza said. Mendoza attended Charlottesville’s OmegaCon on Sept. 28 dressed as Mizore from Rosario + Vampire. However, she has also dressed as Raven from Teen Titans, Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as many others at other cons and cosplay contests. “All rules are out the window, you don’t have to worry about being self-conscious, and you can even pretend to be a different gender!”
The habit of crossdressing for cosplay, also known as “crossplaying” is fairly common, as people don’t want the barrier of gender to prevent them from dressing as their favorite characters.
“It’s just a way to express yourself,” junior Kyleigh Crawford said. She attended Omegacon as Remilia from the Touhou Project video game series, Ib from the horror video game Ib, and Carla, which is a female version of Carlos the Scientist from the popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale.
These cons are intense, colorful, exciting, and costume is laborious, but is definitely not required and can be really enjoyable.
Local upcoming cons include Nekocon in Hampton Roads, VA, on Nov. 1-3, Katsucon in Baltimore, MD, Feb. 14-16, 2014, as well as Ring of Fire Con in Virginia Beach, VA, Feb. 28-March 2, 2014.
Also, here at AHS, the Anime Club is hosting a Halloween cosplay contest, on Oct. 31 during CHAT.