Just got back from spending the day at Otafest and I felt like it was…alright?
Normally I’m super ecstatic about Otafest and how much I loved it and enjoyed it and I just don’t feel the same way? I mean, it was not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it felt really lacklustre to me.
Now, to be fair, I have only gone the one day, and maybe if I go the whole weekend, my experience would be better, but my experience today does not make me want to go back tomorrow.
The thing is, I’m not 100% sure why I feel this way. Now there are a couple of things I can home in on. I felt like there were a huge lack of panels, events, and the like that really interested me. Because of this most of my day was me sitting in the Gaming Area playing card games just to kill time. The other thing is the vendor hall, which includes the exact same vendors that have been there since I started going to Otafest, so I’m just seeing the same stuff over and over again.
Is it the new venue? I don’t think so. There are less places to just sit and hang out, but it is air conditioned (Thank the Lord), and once you sort of figure out how the place works I found it way easier to navigate, with far less walking.
Is it the people i was with? Well, one thing was this year a large majority of the people I normally spend my time with at Otafest did not go this year, which was a little upsetting, but I did meet up with a couple of friends and spend the whole day with them, which was great.
Was it my interests? It is possible. It tends to be whatever anime is the newest and hottest is the one that gets the most attention, programming, and representation, leaving my interests (Dragon Ball, Gundam, and Digimon) almost completely unrepresented. It could be I’m just not into the right kind of stuff, or not immersed enough in this culture to truly appreciate this.
Was it cosplay? Also possible. I rarely cosplay mostly due to a lack of time, money, and skill, even though it is something I really want to do. Also, because I have not started my transition yet, my lack of body positivity prevents me from cosplaying characters I truly want to (e.g the ones of the cute female variety) and seeing them constantly done very well could leave a mark on my self esteem a bit.
I’m not sure. It could be a combination of all of these or some of these, but I just did not feel like I had as good of a time this year.
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