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davemerrillExciting updates await you at Mister Kitty as Shain unleashes ELEMENT OF SURPRISE and Bunky the Found Sound Squid unwraps his tentacles from two - well, one and half really - Dickie Goodman "break-in" novelty singles!!
Other excitement awaits you as we learn that a dealer at Katsucon last weekend was not only selling swastika armbands - you know, for all your Hellsing cosplay needs - but has expanded his Nazi line of fashion accessories to things like German army helmets and Nazi propaganda posters.
I would like to point out that this is completely unacceptable. Selling Nazi memorabilia to ignorant teenagers so they can dress up as Japanese cartoon characters... I mean, there's making a quick buck, and there's making a quick buck while being morally reprehensible. And profiting from (a) the horror of World War Two and (b) the ignorance of teenagers while counting on (c) good people doing nothing about it, that's a level of greed and disregard that goes above and beyond the normal convention dealer's "gimme the money" attitude.
Relevant cosplay.com thread is here - it's since been locked, but you can see people saying what's the big deal, it's only a symbol, and other people saying, hey, are you insane? and then there's discussion of the cosplay Jesuses and Japanese war atrocities. It's a thread that started off Godwinized and went downhill from there.
You wanna know what I think? I think anime cons should be about Japanese cartoons, and dealers shouldn't be selling Nazi propaganda posters at Japanese cartoon conventions. People that want to dress up like Nazis should get used to other people giving them attitude. People who think Americans should be expected to have the same emotional and cultural reactions to Nazi regalia as Japanese people need to go back to school, because they weren't paying attention during the part where teacher explained that America and Japan are two completely different nations.
There are plenty of actual Nazis around who would love new members to play dress up with. I suggest Nazi cosplayers should join the actual National Socialist Party and get up close and personal with the sexy, thrilling and exciting REAL LIFE Nazis who would cheerfully murder us all to satisfy their brain-damaged hate. Think of the exciting cosplay opportunities!
I ALSO think that attention whoring by dressing up as Nazis or Jesus or Iron Man or Gay Caribbean Pirate or presidents is pathetic and sad, especially at an anime con.
Of course I ALSO ALSO believe people should be allowed to wear whatever they want as long as their hoo-hah or their nay-nays aren't hangin' out, so feel free to dress like a total attention-whoring emotionally crippled d-bag at the Rotary Club luncheon or the software engineers conference or whatever event you choose. Just don't get all weepy when we mock you.
Other excitement awaits you as we learn that a dealer at Katsucon last weekend was not only selling swastika armbands - you know, for all your Hellsing cosplay needs - but has expanded his Nazi line of fashion accessories to things like German army helmets and Nazi propaganda posters.
I would like to point out that this is completely unacceptable. Selling Nazi memorabilia to ignorant teenagers so they can dress up as Japanese cartoon characters... I mean, there's making a quick buck, and there's making a quick buck while being morally reprehensible. And profiting from (a) the horror of World War Two and (b) the ignorance of teenagers while counting on (c) good people doing nothing about it, that's a level of greed and disregard that goes above and beyond the normal convention dealer's "gimme the money" attitude.
Relevant cosplay.com thread is here - it's since been locked, but you can see people saying what's the big deal, it's only a symbol, and other people saying, hey, are you insane? and then there's discussion of the cosplay Jesuses and Japanese war atrocities. It's a thread that started off Godwinized and went downhill from there.
You wanna know what I think? I think anime cons should be about Japanese cartoons, and dealers shouldn't be selling Nazi propaganda posters at Japanese cartoon conventions. People that want to dress up like Nazis should get used to other people giving them attitude. People who think Americans should be expected to have the same emotional and cultural reactions to Nazi regalia as Japanese people need to go back to school, because they weren't paying attention during the part where teacher explained that America and Japan are two completely different nations.
There are plenty of actual Nazis around who would love new members to play dress up with. I suggest Nazi cosplayers should join the actual National Socialist Party and get up close and personal with the sexy, thrilling and exciting REAL LIFE Nazis who would cheerfully murder us all to satisfy their brain-damaged hate. Think of the exciting cosplay opportunities!
I ALSO think that attention whoring by dressing up as Nazis or Jesus or Iron Man or Gay Caribbean Pirate or presidents is pathetic and sad, especially at an anime con.
Of course I ALSO ALSO believe people should be allowed to wear whatever they want as long as their hoo-hah or their nay-nays aren't hangin' out, so feel free to dress like a total attention-whoring emotionally crippled d-bag at the Rotary Club luncheon or the software engineers conference or whatever event you choose. Just don't get all weepy when we mock you.
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Date: 2010-02-18 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-18 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-18 11:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-18 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-18 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-18 07:56 pm (UTC)While wearing my Prussia cosplay, however, I had quite a few people point me to various dealers who were selling real metal Iron Crosses and various Military Hats. I made an effort to keep my costume looking cartoony and accurate to the anime, so my foam medal will do me just fine. The Propaganda Posters is just going TOO far with any of that, and that makes me very uncomfortable. I took precautions as it was to make sure my cosplay outfit wasn't offensive in its SS Waffen-style look, but when dealers are trying to "help" by offering "the real thing", that's just creepy. I'll be posting my photos from Katsucon soon, Dave. Please let me know if you'd prefer not to see them-I can put them in a filter so that you don't see them on your friends page.
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Date: 2010-02-18 09:10 pm (UTC)Seriously, I have nothing against anime character cosplay. It's the HEY LOOKA ME I GOTTA BOX ON MY HAID people I have a problem with.
On the other hand, as long as they're buying badges, I shouldn't complain.
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Date: 2010-02-19 12:08 am (UTC)Yyyyeah, a lot of Hetalia cosplayers unfortunately do fall into that "Hey lookit me!" category and end up making a) Hetalia fandom, b) anime fandom in general, and c) costumers in general look like a bunch of insane little brats with access to a sewing machine. We ducked out of the Hetalia panel because of that very issue.
BTW, there was a History of Anime panel at Katsucon, and the guy running it turned me off to the entire panel within the first 3 minutes. He was a loudmouth who went around to the rows of people sitting down and would ask "What's your name and what is your favorite anime?" Then, depending on the favorite anime given, he would either congratulate the fan for "having good taste" (in other words, liking what HE likes) or mock, degrade, and insult them by treating them like they aren't fit to be at a srsbizniss con like HE is. After the first few rows, I noticed he only praised someone for liking an oldschool anime and insulted anyone who dared say that they liked an anime newer than 20 years old. I wish you'd have been there to see it; Zelda and I left out of disgust before the panel officially kicked off because he was such an elitist jerk. Somehow, I had the feeling that the panel was going to be 30 minutes of condescending crap from that guy. Nooo thanks. /rant. Sorry, it seemed appropriate for an entry where you used your "Fandumb" tag, lol.
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Date: 2010-02-18 10:48 pm (UTC)I feel like going all Kermit the Frog, shouting "blargagalabala!" while my useless felt arms wave about frantically.
Mind, I have a fascination with Nazi propaganda posters (and Soviet and such like) from an art/design perspective (which is funny as I r not an artist) but hoo-boy, I sure don't see the point of selling them at an anime con.
Haven't read the thread yet, but it devolved into the usual "Japan hasn't properly apologized for the rape of Shanghai!" nonsense? Gee, and has China and Korea apologized for their various atrocities? yeesh.
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Date: 2010-02-19 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-19 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-19 05:49 am (UTC)ZING!
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Date: 2010-02-21 05:24 pm (UTC)Dude, AWA was supposed to be about Japanese cartoons too but it ran off those rails years ago and shows no signs of ever recovering. And heck, if you took the non-anime stuff out of AWA, there'd be like 75% less going on.
No more bands, no more weird tangential panels from DragonCon (and by extension, no more insanely expensive extra event rooms), no more video games and card games and just tons of bull out the door.
Ain't gonna happen.
On the other hand, as long as they're buying badges, I shouldn't complain.
There you go.
As long as there are lots of bills to pay, there is a need to attract people to buy tickets in order to pay the bills.
Not enough people and too many bills is a death sentence.
And so the cons pander and look the other way.