Yeah you end up meeting a lot of good looking girls at cons but they always seem to be too young. The girls you do meet that are old enough to take back to your hotel rooms are usually bitches who are really only "into anime" because they are trying to create a false common interest with their boyfriends. A sad sad truth. Actually if you really want to pick up girls at cons, your best bet is to roll into the raves at night. One of the times I went Sakura Con went I with a group of people and we found some chicks (and unfortunately some of their guy friends lol) at the rave and got trashed with them. Some of the people in our group who couldn't be bothered to go to the rave because they would rather go sit in the theater rooms were pissed we didn't get them. Not that anything really happened but it was cool to go party with some chill people. Alrighty I should probably get back on track and comment rather than reminisce about the past >.>
Ooh formal ball, that sounds fun. You shouldn't feel bad that you didn't hear back from that girl, at least you can say you are part of the 3% that go to cons that actually have the balls to make a play. Now this next thing really makes me disappointed my son, the shy girls are usually the best ones to go after. It may be hard to start, but if you just keep the conversation moving, (even if the answers are "yeah" or "oh" etc) be nice, and don't show frustration due to the shyness, she will eventually open up.
Here's the thing, people at cons can be broken down into several categories: 1. The hardcore anime fan, 2. The elitist prick, 3. the "I've only seen like 2 or 3 shows but I'm a bigger anime fan than you", 4. The Casual watcher, and finally 5. The "I'm only here because my friend/boyfriend dragged me along". I will now show you the sad fact about the group of people that attend these. (Disclaimer all the figures shown below are not don't by polls, professional analysis, or necessarily represent the views or opinions of atv-oni-ota).
You probably talked to Groups 2, 3, and 5. Generally the Hardcore watchers and the Casual watchers are friendly, like being around like-minded people, and just want to enjoy themselves. Most likely the person who specifically called you a noob was a part of group 3, they've only seen Inuyasha, Naruto, Death Note, and perhaps one non mainstream show so they push their insecurities onto you, thinking that if he makes you look bad no one will judge him for when he says the latest show he watched was something that was heavily pushed to be seen by everyone or on Adult Swim. I mean their are other shows that are mainstream that aren't shown on tv but those are just examples. I'm sure you get the gist of what I'm saying.
I can understand where you are coming from with everything lumped together, but you also have to think about it from the other angle. It is all anime, and they cant hold hundreds of panels for every different category. Even though they don't exactly have the same target audience, they do in fact share many of the same fans. On that note I happen to have a different grievance. I generally disagree with expecting everyone who watches anime to completely love everything about everything that is Japanese. Like you get many panels talking about Japanese history or they will just talk about everything Japanese in general. Does it fit the target audience? Yes. Does it belong at an anime convention? No. Sticking to your demographic, I don't necessarily agree with sticking to your demographic. I mean you play games, does that mean you can only enjoy M rated games if you are over 17.
That said, I do agree with you on some things. I mean yeah you aren't necessarily have to relate so someone who liked Pretty Cure and is outside of your demographic, but lets say you find out that you liked many of the same things, was she wrong to step out of her demographic? Take me for example, I'm an adult male, I love many genres of shows many including stuff targeted to me. I love Kanokon, a mindless harem show, Higurashi, a horror show, Ghost in the Shell, action, and Initial D, which is just racing. But I also love shows based towards girls like NANA and Shugo Chara. I am way out of my demographic but if we met at a convention I would be able to get along with you. Anyways I am starting to run on so I'll move on.
Well I didn't mean to make it sound like an argument, that's not what I was going for.
On a final note, don't diss the Shugo.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that one thing I do agree with you about when it comes to lumping all things Japanese together. I hate when people come dressed up as shit like Mario and Luigi or whatever, its like that has nothing to fucking do with this stuff here.
