Thursday, October 10, 2013 Your Cosplay is not Moe enough, brah.

So, there's one habit I've been noticing quite a bit, and that is the eventual transition from Out-In-Your-Face Otaku to mild mannered person who just happens to enjoy their hobbies on the side. You know what? That's actually not a bad thing, contrary to what your 20-year old self would say. Generally you tend to live almost 3 different lives when travelling through adulthood, here, I'll use some Chappelle as an example:

Chappelle Show: The Three Daves - watch more funny videos

Now as for what causes such a series of turning points in one's life? Well, for one, there's the physical process of aging, coupled with the maturation of your friends and family. When I was younger, I was very much about Anime, Manga, Video Games, Comics, and whatnot, and I still am, but at this point I do keep in perspective that I have become a dinosaur in a series of hobbies that tend to skewer young, which can lead to many issues and problems. When you realize that you are pretty much an old fart by Anime Con standards, you are forced to reevaluate exactly how you participate in such an event. For me, a really good example is Cosplay. For those who know me, I am a giant panda. It is probably not a great idea for a giant panda to go off and dress like Kirito from S.A.O., and not because of body size or anything like that, but rather the concept of becoming your character. Kirito is a young preteen, I am in my 30s, we are in two different worlds by a large margin. Now something like being a Ghostbuster, or Perf from Journeyquest, or even Gym Trainer Wattson, I could pull off, but that is more due to the source material being closer to who I really am at this point in my life. I think the other thing that triggers the knowledge that I have truly become an old anime fart is also my lack of tolerance for the constant pranks, infighting, and general ugliness that tends to occur nowanddays, which strangely enough was the very same crap we all used to pull when we were younger. Some of this mental awakening can be brought on by having to work in environments where being an ass can actually cost you your job, and economic/emotional/physical hardships also play a large factor into things. When you break out of high school, you think you can be "Sooo Real" with folks, and that if you just straight shoot everything, you'll get what you want, how you want. Then you learn that there is a song and dance you have to play for life, and suddenly walking up to a person who had probably had a very horrible day that they just sucked and that they should just man up or go die in a corner doesn't sound as great anymore. You know what does sound great though? The little things. Being able to get a tight group of folks and run around for some weekend pub crawling. Going out to the State Fair for those Chicken Tenders in Hot-Seasoned Pancake Batter. Spending time after work at the archery range. There's a world of experiences out there if you're willing to look for it, and you never know, you just may like samba dancing. I actually want to break down and take some dancing classes. That sounds fun as hell. I should say that at this point, collectively at my place we still keep the wall scrolls and videogame posters up, but there is the eventuality that one day, all of my hobbies from my youth will probably be designated to a Man Cave while I host a wine and cheese party with a sweet gal and all of our friends. And you know what, that's just fine. Sometimes it's more fun to be an old fart. Especially when I do volunteer work at Conventions and tell people to get off of my lawn.