Are comic and anime conventions in trouble?
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
- Welcome back to the Gaming Harbinger. In today's video we are going to talk about Conventions. I wanted to take a moment to discuss some concerns regarding all the tech lay offs and restaurant closings. Are conventions in trouble? That's what we are here to discuss in this video.
There is a section in this video that includes information from Anime News Network regarding the convention AnimeNEXT. Here is the link if you are curious about the entire article.
www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...
#animeconvention
#comiccon
#gamingconvention
Apologies for the weird color changes in the video. This was happening due to the sun light going in and out of the clouds. 😅. This shouldn’t be an issue moving forward.
You want anime you can stream it, or buy DVDs on amazon. You want to see cosplay, you can google awesome cosplay. You want anime merch you can buy it on Etsy or Amazon, or have it custom made to your liking. You can almost get anything within short amount of time and in the comfort of your home. It's all changes due to time and change of priorities of people. Like Blockbuster, cassette tapes, CDs, Sears, cinema movies, and a dozen other businesses drop because there are better and easier ways to get everything. Yea, I could go to a convention and bump into smelly dudes, and weirdo furries just to mingle with anime community or I can just stay home and not deal with any inconvenience.
I used to go to anime next when I was in high school so I keep up with it every so often. apparently the year after the covid ban was lifted they had some very high requirements such as requiring every person to be vaccinated to attend and then recently they had a weird setup with two buildings requiring a bus to get back and forth. I think these two incidents put them in the hole very badly combined with the rising cost of venue.
I am not sure where my original comment went, but thank you for giving some extra insight into the story. I hope AnimeNEXT is able to recover.
If I were running a con, I'd want to avoid going public with money trouble as long as possible to avoid scaring people guests, vendors, sponsors and attendees away, so it's hard to say how many more are barely holding on. It's also very difficult to say that even a model that works now is sustainable since we won't know when the current trend of high inflation will end until well after it already has. In my experience, attempts to pause shows or scale them down usually don't work out, so I see new cons that find creative ways to keep costs way down as having the best opportunities to work.
I think you have a valid point. There could be more cons struggling, but they are trying not to run anyone off. I think in the instance of A-kon in Dallas the new owner was trying to show how much he cared for the event and didn’t want it to end. But it definitely can be a double-edge sword.
Thank you for making this video! Im glad you touched on this subject because I am also worried about the conventions in Texas as well as the rest of the US.
Glad you liked it! I hope Animefest's smaller events work out for them. I am very curious to know what the full plan is once its revealed.
This is A-kon's 3rd cancellation in the past 5 years. I am taking a break from them, but I want them to survive this storm.
As for any other cons in Texas having issues, I hope they recover. I think conventions have a unique way of bringing people together. It would be nice to always have them around. 😌
My main concern with conventions is that some conventions when held in a certain section in my state capital, always require online tickets to be purchased days before the event.
I am the type of convention attendee who requires pay at the door tickets because I live extremely busy unpredictable life at home and not able to plan unless if something happens at home that prevents me from going.
A lot of people really can relate to your situation. Over the years I have casually recommended cons to people I feel would enjoy it most. 70% of those it is really hard to commit to something several months in advance. And I totally get it. Not only is that how you get the closest hotel, its how you get your badges at the cheapest. You can wait til the day of but you might have to wait in a log line and its going to cost more. I wish there was a solution for that. 🫤
I stopped going to cons years ago because I was tired of dealing with convention sickness the next week or two afterwards and they got less and less good as comics and anime went more and more mainstream.
Edit: mainstream as in unless you're after con specific merch, you can usually find what you are looking for online, and as an oldtaku who remembers digging through resellers and importers at cons for anime you couldn't find anywhere else in the US, anime is just so much more accessible now.
I could give you a super long reply, but I am just going to say I feel your pain. I have been going to cons since 2000 and things have changed a LOT since then. I had access to tons of merchandise that was barely becoming available online.
In the 90s I wouldn't dare bring up anime to my classmates because I would have to spend all this time explaining what it was. There are so many more people that have been exposed to anime its unreal. You could even say it has become apart of pop culture.
Even though I sometimes miss the old days, it still makes me happy to see people younger than me that get to enjoy anime with no judgement. I don't doubt there are still people that think its weird or will make fun of someone for liking it. I would still say its way more liked now than it was 30 years ago. And now they don't have to spend $30 per 3 episodes to finish a season. 😵💫
*starts off message with not wanting to give you a long reply*
*proceeds to give you a long reply* 😂😂😂
Just recently one convention I was going to got postponed to next year due to to the convention partner laying down almost all of their staff (Player1 Events) (& Convention was going to be RuneFest in the UK)
Wow, I am sorry to hear that! Thanks for sharing this information. I have been curious to hear how cons are peeforming in the UK.
Cons have been going down for the past 10~15 years with the rise of fake merchandise in fact some of the figurines you showed on the b-roll are bootlegs.
I remember it started with one or two stands with bad quality posters and weapon keychains and some years after suddenly there were a lot of stands from shops without a webpage or a physical location selling figures without boxes with weird defects, stolen fan arts (some times from other standees) and now most of the stands are not legit with prices that are even more expensive than the legit ones.
This has been my reason for not going to cons for the last 3 years, the only one I went was one for non-comercial mostly and even then the AliExpress nation attacked. Also the food prices, I am not gonna spend 7€ for a cold bun and 2€ more for a fanta
Seen this at other conventions, going from artists, custom made gear to mostly dropshipped nic-nak stalls
Good observation on the b-roll! I will keep that in mind for the future. I have not noticed the shift in cheaper figurines vs high quality ones. But I know I don’t buy enough of them to be aware of that. I occasionally buy j-rock music and have noticed those bootlegs trickle into vendors’ merchandise. Probably the same as figurines, it’s obvious because the price difference is drastic (sometimes with different album covers).
Selling someone else’s fan art is just wild to me. That’s just sad. ☹️
Regarding the vendors with no webpage selling cheap misc merchandise: I only see this at smaller conventions. In fact the bootlegs you spotted were from footage I recorded at a smaller con. But if you have been seeing this happen at the cons you have attended, I can see that being a major problem. Not surprisingly, I have never seen bootleg blu-rays or dvds at the conventions I attend. 😎
I hear ya loud in clear on the food. Gotta love it. No one likes an overpriced hot dog or overpriced bland chicken strips. 😂 The food trucks help, but some of them can be quite expensive.
@@Khranok that is terrible. 😞
Why is the entertainment industry in dire straits…cost of living 🤷♂️
So true! It’s hard for the average person to watch a movie or buy an expensive game when people are barely scraping by.
i think so my friend
A lot of businesses have been hit hard as of lately. 🫤. Hopefully it gets better for everyone.