Guilty Pleasures

[greg]

I have friends who watch and enjoy the show - males and females - but I do have to say that some of the MLP fans take their fandom as license to act like total idiots. I sat in on a panel Mike Toole and Neil Nadelman were doing at AN last year and it was nightmarish. The audience would not shut up, would not sit still, did not posess indoor voices or any sense of personal space or communication skills. And these weren't 10 year old kids, these were grown adults, old enough to drive and purchase their own fedoras. Why they wear fedoras is anybody's guess.

Well, this was at an anime convention, wasn't it? I must say I've never been to one, but this describes the anime panels at the local Phoenix Comicon I used to attend. It was embarrassing to sit in on those panels.

Fedoras, huh?

[davemerrill]

The "bronies" are measurably worse than other identifiable fan groups. It's some sort of combination of "internet meme fandom" and self-inflicted Asperger's Syndrome; they will holler whatever comes to mind whenever they feel like it, regardless of where they are or what's happening. At Q&A sessions they will get in line to use the mic to ask their question (which is "Why can't we have more MLP panels at this convention?"), and then get back in line to ask the same question again, over and over again. It's really odd, seeing adults behave like ADD-afflicted children.

Used to be there would be one or two guys in every fan crowd that couldn't use their indoor voices or would interrupt meetings to make sure everyone knew about their pet obsessions (there was a guy in Atlanta who would respond to any mention of Ranma 1/2 by hollering "I LIKE RANMA"), but the "bronies" seem like a collection of JUST those people, all battling to see who can out-shrill the other. It's fascinating.

And yeah, for some reason fedoras are big among the brony crowd. I dunno why.

Luckily they have started to self-segregate into their own conventions, which are immediately starting to implode (the Vegas convention was a train wreck of felony-level fraud proportions) and the fad seems to be dying away. Homestuck fandom is replacing it to a large extent, but the Homestuck fans aren't nearly as childish or as annoying.

[usamimi]

Yeah, this is one of the reasons I decided to not go to any of the MLP conventions...because they'd be filled with those kinds of people. :/ They had MLP conventions before this new cartoon, mostly collector-centric, but now they're popping up everywhere and seem to be centered mostly around those fans and the new cartoon.

I really do hope this strange fad of crazy people liking MLP dies soon, too. The cartoon is cute but I seriously don't understand why some people are putting it up on a pedestal like it's the best thing EVER MADE.

[Path]

Yeah, this is one of the reasons I decided to not go to any of the MLP conventions...because they'd be filled with those kinds of people. :/ They had MLP conventions before this new cartoon, mostly collector-centric, but now they're popping up everywhere and seem to be centered mostly around those fans and the new cartoon.

I really do hope this strange fad of crazy people liking MLP dies soon, too. The cartoon is cute but I seriously don't understand why some people are putting it up on a pedestal like it's the best thing EVER MADE.

I've been to a few pony conventions pre-bronies, they were amazing. The one brony convention in NYC I went to made me run for the hills screaming. Never again. I'm actually going to be going to the normal pony con in Indianapolis this year as a vendor (selling older generations as well as other 80s girl toys) and I hope to make a killing.

I can't wait till its just back to normal.

[Heero]

Homestuck fandom is replacing it to a large extent, but the Homestuck fans aren't nearly as childish or as annoying.

This statement really makes me question what you've been looking at. Don't get me wrong, I have NO love for the "Brony" fandom, but my experience is pretty much the exact opposite of yours. (ie. the Homestuckers are 10x the boors that bronies are. I will grant that #1. I haven't been in many panels with bronies, and #2. I REALLY hate the visual aesthetic of Homestuck)

[Animusubi]

Homestuck fandom is replacing it to a large extent, but the Homestuck fans aren't nearly as childish or as annoying.

This statement really makes me question what you've been looking at. Don't get me wrong, I have NO love for the "Brony" fandom, but my experience is pretty much the exact opposite of yours. (ie. the Homestuckers are 10x the boors that bronies are. I will grant that #1. I haven't been in many panels with bronies, and #2. I REALLY hate the visual aesthetic of Homestuck)

My main gripe with MLP:FiM and Homestuck is that I don't like that either of them are starting to take over anime conventions. There were never really any non-anime series at anime conventions except for Disney Princesses (ala Kingdom Hearts) and your typical American comics superheroes and Star Wars/Star Trek guys at convention, which was always fine because they were there for anime as well most of the time. But these MLP:FiM and Homestuck fans are hardly there for anime anymore. And I sadly met some very disrespectful Homestuck fans at last year's Sakura-Con.

It's partly the reason I don't even go to anime conventions anymore. My sister recently had a table at Artist Alley, and it was almost a given she had to do both Homestuck and MLP art to sell anything, and it's not surprising that both of those she had were her best sellers. Eventhough she has Pokemon, One Piece, and other older anime series fanart she had done. And she did meet a very rude MLP fan who criticized her humanized version of the MLP characters. I think if I ever sell art at a con again, I'll stick with a comic convention.

[Heero]

My main gripe with MLP:FiM and Homestuck is that I don't like that either of them are starting to take over anime conventions. There were never really any non-anime series at anime conventions except for Disney Princesses (ala Kingdom Hearts) and your typical American comics superheroes and Star Wars/Star Trek guys at convention, which was always fine because they were there for anime as well most of the time. But these MLP:FiM and Homestuck fans are hardly there for anime anymore.

I could literally rant for DAYS on that topic, and that's only if I stop myself from stretching it into weeks or months. I think the thing that bothers me the MOST about those people co-opting the "fandom" is exactly what you noted for yourself, which is ANIME fans not going to ANIME conventions anymore. I really, Really, REALLY want most "anime" conventions to rebrand themselves into whatever they really are, so that:
1. When I tell people I'm running an ANIME convention, they'll know that it's focused on ANIME
2. When people see my ANIME convention, they don't assume I'm here to cater to their random interest that I don't care about

(I think that's another reason the Bronies annoy me less, at least (for good or ill) they're starting their own conventions)

[davemerrill]

I agree, the visual aesthetic of Homestuck is ugly on top of ugly. I myself haven't seen a lot of bad behavior from the fans, but then again, it's early, I believe if they put their mind to it they can be just as obnoxious as anybody else.

Apparently the strip is ending, the creator seems to be hesitant about encouraging the fandom to be anything more than it already is. We may have seen the peak of interest in both Pony and Homestuck.

The presence of both fandoms at anime conventions is grating. The cons themselves are kind of in a bind; if they don't have some sort of Brony or HS event, then the fans will just mill around and be annoying in the halls, and if they give Brony / HS fans space and time to hold their own events, they get out of control if not strictly monitored. The best solution is to give them one panel each, period. I have seen both Anime North and AWA have gone from two or three Pony events in past years to just one this year. I can't speak for the Homestuck programming, I haven't paid enough attention to it.

Of course, the anime cons hear from the fans who ask 'why are these non-anime panels happening at the anime conventions?' - and the answer is, these panels happen because people volunteer to make them happen. The conventions aren't cancelling anime panels in favor of Brony panels, and they aren't seeking these Brony/HS panels out they are scheduling Brony panels because the anime fans aren't stepping up to the plate with their own panels, and the Bronies or the Homestuck fans are.

I wonder if we shouldn't start a topic over in the Real World Stuff about "Improving anime cons" or something like that.

[Heero]

The conventions aren't cancelling anime panels in favor of Brony panels, and they aren't seeking these Brony/HS panels out they are scheduling Brony panels because the anime fans aren't stepping up to the plate with their own panels, and the Bronies or the Homestuck fans are.

As I noted before, I think this is PARTLY (altho not ENTIRELY) due to many anime fans LEAVING. I think a fair number of anime fans hit the con for a year or two, see it as "not my scene", and then never return. And that (IMO) is a big problem.

I wonder if we shouldn't start a topic over in the Real World Stuff about "Improving anime cons" or something like that.

I'm game.

[llj]

I had to google Homestuck after reading this thread.

Boy, I'm out of touch with today's fandoms. Not that it bothers me.