Why I'm Quitting Anime Conventions, Pt. 2 - ANKU and Cons

ANKU has changed my life and has molded me into a person that I am happy to have become.

During the vast majority of my involvement with ANKU the club met every-other Friday from 7 (or later, 6)pm and lasted until 1 (or later, midnight)am before "breaking", and by "breaking" I mean "everyone who has money or someone they can bum off of goes to Applebee's for happy hour". Then the first Saturday of every month there was a meeting from noon to midnight.

It was a ritual for me. If I applied for a job, I made sure that I could make it to the entirety of the Friday meetings and the majority of the Saturday. It was really the only socialization I had. I've never been a party-goer, overly outgoing, or even charismatic, so finding a group of nerds who were about as socially awkward as me was thrilling.

For a time I was the secretary for the group. I intended on building a new website, keeping track of all the animes we watched, cataloging them, and attending different on-campus functions to keep our involvement steady. There was a small group of members, including me, that really wanted to expand ANKU outside of just being a group of friends and acquaintances that just watched anime. However, the organization we talked about was not widely accepted by the other 15-20 active/frequent members of the group. Either that, or they just didn't care enough to help us take the changes into fruition.

Of course there is bound to be drama in that large of a group that see each other so often, but most of that is irrelevant to the purpose of why I am writing. What is relevant is that I lived in an apartment with Myra and two gentlemen from ANKU for a year.

During this time, I went to my second anime convention - Anime Punch in Columbus, OH. It was a great weekend with great friends. I cosplayed, purchased a lot of art from artist alley, and enjoyed a few panels. The same basic principle occurred over the course of the next seven conventions I went to.

It was 2009, I began dating a guy who I met through ANKU and the group of friends I had developed through the organization. During the course of that year, I went to three anime conventions and two of those were as a couple. Being a couple at a convention can be challenging if you have different interests within the anime category. He would want to go to a panel, I'd want to go to the gameshow or just hangout. Also, honestly, that was my first relationship - ever. Being homeschool until high school, then as socially awkward as I was, I never really caught onto dating.

Anyways, so anime conventions lost their luster when I felt like I was manipulating my boyfriend into not doing things that he wanted to do just because I didn't want to do them. We broke up the day after Christmas. I asked him if he ever considered me to actually be his girlfriend, he said he tried for while, but no.

It was fine, and I was happier because I didn't have to worry about a failing relationship. We remained friends and went to dinner with a mutual friend that night.

Later in the month of January, I met a wonderful man in my Japanese class. We started dating soon after I went to Ohayocon in 2010. Ohayocon was a blast; however, this began the diversion of the group that I normally hung out with.

Why I'm Quitting Anime Conventions, Pt. 1 - The History

My first anime convention was Sugoicon 2004 (or whichever year it was last seen at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center). I was invited there by a friend from high school who fueled my interest in anime. Before her, I wasn't even aware that these shows I loved were considered anime - let alone, I didn't know what anime was. At this convention, I saw her maybe two or three times. My mother had dropped me off for the day and I assumed I would be hanging out with my friend. To my misunderstanding, she had no intention of hanging out with me. In fact, I believe I was "that kid" who everyone in the group just didn't like. I was the odd one who just wasn't "otaku" enough for them. So I spent those six hours of my first convention mostly by myself just walking around. I didn't know what a "panel" was, I felt like I couldn't go into a video room because I saw "18+" signs (I would have been maybe 14 at the time), I was unfamiliar with every video game in the gaming room, and I didn't know there would be a place for me to buy stuff so I had very little money. I think I bought a few art pieces from artist alley and maybe a necklace.

Needless to say, not a great experience. I was avoided and left alone. I was lost and didn't know how to have fun. I'm not naturally outgoing, so I wasn't about to just make new friends.

Fast forward to my freshman year of college. I had continued my interest in anime, but at this point it had been clearly overshadowed by a love for Lord of the Rings. Even though the movies ended in 2003, I was obsessed (and am obsessed to this day - HOBBIT MOVIE HERE I COME).

At orientation (in May), before the college semester actually started (in August), we were assigned dorm rooms to stay in for the night. I was in a two-bedroom suite. During some downtime I decided to read a book while listening to music on speaker. The theme song for the anime Cowboy Bebop "Tank!" started playing. A girl who was in the other bedroom came in and introduced herself, saying that she knew the song and loved the anime. That girl was Myra, who some may know as my Maid of Honor at my wedding and one of my best friends since that day.

Myra and the girl who was sharing a room with her, Sarah, were both into anime. We stayed up late into the night talking about everything (not just anime) - not that I remember most of it, that was about six years ago. The three of us were pretty inseparable during the next, and last, day of orientation.

When the semester did start, I ran into Sarah (she was either in one of my classes, or it was just on campus somewhere - not sure). We were able to hang out around lunchtime, so we sometimes went to a restaurant off-campus to eat. One fateful Friday we ate at the local Applebee's and were seated by an Irish fellow named Shawn. He recognized the anime on Sarah's shirt as being from Inuyasha. He then informed us that, if we were interested in anime, he was actually the president of the anime club on campus called ANKU and they were having their next meeting that night.

So Sarah and I made plans to attend, then I would drive her home.

It was there that we found Myra, and the circle had completed itself.