An interesting article from Genericon

[Fuzzy]

http://animeloveu.com/oldtaku-and-conkids/


Feel free to discuss, im rather curious to get peoples thoughts on this.

[Cinders]

it's sad to behold, but inevitable
we can only hope that the conkids start to have some kind of appreciation of anime by going to cons

[Stewart]

Well, I still have hope that in the coming years conkids will either; figure out they don't actually watch anime and find something else or actually put in some effort to their supposed obsession.

[GizzyB]

I found this to be.. scarily true. It's the reason I hate going to conventions. I recall at this last Jacon, Iggy was glomped by one of these kids.. which almost took her down and was close to ruining her costume. Mind you her Mr. Game and Watch head was only made of cardboard, but the effort she put into it was nearly wasted over a 14 yr old girl's nerd trip.

I sometimes shudder to think if I had ever acted like this, but as everything, you grow out of it with age. It's just unfortunate that when one grows up, another is just coming into blossom.

I think its fine to be excited or happy to feel accepted.. but acting like a totally crazed loser in order to completely fit in is ridiculous.

[Watson]

Kids are kids, idiot kids are annoying and should be dealt with.

I'm all for celebrating anime, but when it gets out of hand or overly loud I say nip it.


No signs, no game, no blocking of halls, no rambling boombox playing the same songs over and over again, and you damn kids get off my lawn.

I have seen a few cons that were proactive in keeping shenanigans from getting out of hand, and hope to see it more often.

[Shopple]

One of my work buddies was a punk rocker back in the day. Over the top piercings, loud music, enormous mohawk, etc. He vowed never to show the same intolerance older folk showed about his styles... Yet sure enough, now he can't stand those kids with their pants hanging around their waist.

The only certainty is these conkids will grow up and lament their younger peers all over again.

[chaosmeika]

Well I just think that the target demo changed during the 90's. If you listen or read about the fandom during what some consider to be the anime golden years (80's), there was a lot of people who were older and rather interested in finding out what else was out there for animation. It was this interest that brought people together and allowed a convention to be a place of what conventions have been thought of by older otaku or as the article mentioned (Oldtaku). Because of the shift of the 90's especially after NGE, BSSM, DBZ came out, a couple of things happened. Younger kids got attracted, anime became easier to find, and by the time the 00's came around, the old ways of getting anime was all but gone. I remember the days where IRC was king and you had to serve in order to get files through a barter. That usually spurred conversations about what ever title you had, what was coming in the grapevine, and what to watch out for.

Now it's all streamed. Kids convince parents to let them go to cons more so for the independence than the genre. Parents just want a weekend off where they don't have to worry about a kid and the cost for a babysitter is the same sometimes for the 3 day visit for the con. Conventions don't really turn away money because they gotta break even. Now there's a mixing of generations that can be as volatile as oil and water.

I also have to admit that anime itself isn't the way it used to be. It used to seem that every title from Japan was great and had some sort of depth to them. Now they're just pretty or work toward a fad of the week, like DFC, Loli, and subgenre Moe. There's a move to get manga into e-readers and possibly into slate-like devices.(http://www.orangeanime.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19876&start=0&hilit=e+reader) Interesting stuff but a bit off the beaten path from what the article touched on.

I used to think I knew where this industry was going, but I've been surprised especially as of late. I like the new digital era, but I hate what has happened with the community in some respects. Maybe moving towards clubs and groups and social networks is making a return but as far as the conkids go, it will stick around so long as the industry and conventions cater to it.

[Fishy5]

Your hobby is watching cartoons.

Children like them too? I'm floored.

[IcyCloud]

It all went downhill after Toonami.

[Phoenix Smasher]

Nobody ever glomps me. Nobody.

[chaosmeika]

Your hobby is watching cartoons.

Children like them too? I'm floored.

I'm not saying that children shouldn't like cartoons, but I am saying that a lot of what interested me in Anime was the more serious subject matter that anime can offer. At the time, the only American cartoon that did that was the Simpsons. Things have changed, but not that much. A good example is Venture Brothers. It's animated, but its a bit more adult and I enjoy that. What I tried to say is that the element of what we see in anime in regard to that more adult tone has changed.

And the only way that could return will be if the industry focused more on that. Will they? Probably not. But that's what got me into Anime.

[Tsukasa]

As someone who feels "caught between" these generations, this article is very interesting indeed.

It seems like this is just the natural progression of things. The best thing to do, imho, is to try to wrangle these conkids into groups which can actually foster a deeper intellectual love of anime, and eventually develop them into the next level of oldtaku.

[Roronoa Zoro]

I love this "us vs. them" attitude this guy puts out. It's ridiculous. There're always going to be fans of a differing ilk. The thing the writer forgets is that fans are fans, regardless of how they express their fandom or how much useless knowledge about their fandom they've accumulated. Yeah, I kind of feel the same way the writer does when younger fans admit they've never seen "Akira" or whatever, but like comics, that's the beauty of the hobby. There's so much of it out there that 1) it's impossible to enjoy it all, and 2) not everyone's gonna like the same things you do (and vice versa). To ostracize the younger fans because they don't treat your chosen hobby with the same reverence and "maturity" as you might and call them names harms the hobby more than ignoring or putting up with them.

As the old saying goes, "opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one." Regardless of your opinion of the newcomer's attitudes, every fan should realize that accepting the new generation will spread the gospel better than whittling down the herd ever will. This is why I love Megacon. A "garage sale it may be, but it's all inclusive. Comics/Manga, animation, sci-fi, film, victorian/gothic fashion, eastern, western, southern or northern, all is accepted.

All things I just mentioned have been the refuge for many fellow geeks and other . Yeah, you may've been made fun of in school for loving dollfies, watching weird Japanese movies or having Peter Parker as your personal idol (last one's mine), but at a con, you're amongst kin. Sappy, I know, but this is the truth. If you don't like what you see, you don't have to attend. And if you're somehow worried that the new kids aren't watching the classics, try extending that olive branch. One of the things that made conventions great was the fact that with so many people of differing tastes in one spot, you get exposed to new things.

This guy is that old man who complains about "them young 'un's" being hellraisers, yet forgetting he was just as bad, if not worse.

I do agree with the slight segregation of activities mentioned though. Panels and viewing rooms should be very separate from each other.

[willr123]

What can I say, these damn kids are always on my lawn.

I think it is Us Vs. Them simply because this isn't about what you like or how much you know (Though, honestly, never having heard of Akira is fucking ridiculous) it's a matter of being able to keep your shit together when surrounded by people that won't judge you. I don't care if all you've seen is Death Note (Though I have to question why you came if you only like one thing), what I do care about is if you're scaling the walls hopped up on pocky and ramune. You see, it's not the fans who bother me, but the scenesters who aren't fans at all, but attend for the atmosphere (I guess. I really don't know why they attend). I'm sure you've seen them, those arrive for the teen party weekend, and have little to no interest in anime. These kids are the one's that really won't get off my lawn.

[Phoenix Smasher]

Hmmm, your claims are spot on. I would like to subscribe to your news letter.