I love Animazement. It’s a non-profit convention that has a fair bit of its programming focused on traditional Japanese culture as well as anime and manga. Historically, it’s drawn about 10,000 to 13,000 attendees. With many other conventions gathering over 60,000 fans, this makes Animazement approachable without being overwhelming.  This year in particular felt like a quiet year. Attendance felt lower than the previous year, but the crowd also seemed calmer.

Economics and Fandom

It’s a second year in a row of uncertain economic times. We’ve survived tariffs, although we’re still feeling the effects. Now, we’re paying in blood for oil. For those of you who don’t follow world events, to quickly sum up, almost everything is made from plastic. Plastic is oil. Oil has been over $100 a barrel for longer than I can remember. A couple months ago, it was $65 a barrel. That’s a huge difference.  The immediate effect can be seen in gas prices,  which would also limit people’s desire to travel to conventions, spend money on hotel rooms, or buy art and merch. 

Now, I didn’t see a huge uptick in the pricing in the dealer’s room, at least not beyond what I already expected. There was some clear price inflation, but it was from the usual suspects. There is one dealer in particular who I like to visit, but MAN their scale figures are double what they should be.  On the other hand, I found two or three dealers offering amazing prices. I got a figure I wanted for way cheaper than I could buy it direct from Japan, which is unusual. 

I’ve had to put some restrictions on my figure buying this year as my collection has gotten…well. It’s something. So, this year I’m only buying bunny figures and dudes. The pricing of some of these were so good, I broke my own rules. H³  fared much better. By that, I mean he found way more figures that he liked. 

I also got to indulge my Blind Box obsession. Yes, I have a problem. And now, I have way more cute and bizarre toys.  I love them all dearly. 

Artist’s Alley was Another Story.

Look, there’s no way to say this without sounding like a kind of terrible person. I made I note about this last year, and it was truer this year. I’m tired of “cute”. I miss big, dramatic prints of dudes punching.  There was almost no shōnen representation in Artist’s Alley. Most of the men represented in the art were depicted in very BL kind of way, which I have so many thoughts about. 

I love Danmei. I’ve read Heaven Official’s Blessing, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, The Husky and his White Cat, Stars of Chaos, and way more.  I’m not super comfortable with the relentless reduction of the main characters to cutsey tropes. H³ called it the “teehee” factor. At a distance, it feels patronizing and fetishizing. Now, I’m not saying that any individual fan does this. Everyone’s specific reason for loving these stories is their own, but when every booth that has merch from these stories only focuses on that aspect and removes all other elements of the story, it feels reductive. 

This is the second year in a row where I’ve bought less from Artist’s Alley. I got a few postcards, charms, and a shirt, but no prints. I got a cool Isekai Tarot deck, though.

Fandom and Me

As the years go by, I always wonder if I’m aging out of anime and manga. It’s escapism for me and I know that. I’m not really looking for depth out of Campfire Cooking in Another World. And it’s not the media itself I’m growing out of. But, the fandom is another story. If the fan community is in a place where they are only embracing the cute, overly pink and girly characters or stories, then it would be very hard for me to support even the artists I love. 

Part of the problem is the lack of a strong shōnen presence right now. JJK is in a bit of a weird place. The manga ended with a bit of a thud, and the anime is moving away from the setup that drew a lot of people into it.  MHA is over.  Demon Slayer is slowly ending. I hate discussions about anime needing a Big Three, but I feel like it kind of does. 

There is a bit of a formula that drives popular IP: high school-age characters in a group “class” setting with archetypal personalities, with a wide variety of easily cosplay-able character designs of both genders.  You need enough characters that look amazing and have a hook for people to grab onto, and also, to make figures and merch and fan art of. Demon Slayer is a perfect example of this. Those characters were merchandised relentlessly, but it was approachable for so many people. 

And now we’re kind of in a void, waiting for the next big property, so everyone is falling back on their own personal favorites and the old reliables: cute and cottagecore. Quality work, but not for me. 

Final Thoughts

I still had a great time, and I always will. But it highlights the state of the world and the state of entertainment in a way that’s honestly a bit sobering.  This isn’t a doom and gloom statement. Anime is fine, and the community is fine. It’s just different right now, and it will be different next year. That’s a good thing.