Wow, I was surprised to flick on the CPU and browse around my usual sites to find a lot of people talking about Anime Conventions. And I don't just mean locally, it seems nationwide. Many people I know on the east coast are saying the same thing about the cons; there is much less of a focus on anime. The things that are replacing it seem to be J-Crack and Video Crack. (~_^) Not that Japanese music and video games aren't cool. I could list my obsessions with the two and be here for a while, but that isn't the issue at hand. There is an increase in the amount of non-anime things at conventions, and this is on the whole, not just in cosplay. This year at AX there was an entire masquerade dedicated to J-Rock.
And costume is just where it begins. If you haven't seen the LEBT on anipike, a similar symptom is infecting fanfiction.
We call this immature fandom.
It's hard to deny. The tendrils of Anime, once thought to be more of an underground "geek" thing are colliding with mainstream culture more and more, bringing in people who are more and more American. The general audience at a convention is with each passing one, becoming more "otaku"; and I do mean in the creepy obsessive, "I know Japanese so I am 1337!" way. Have you seen this trend? Look at the cosplayers at con, and then think about the anime or Japan related things that are in the American mainstream media. Notice the high number of bebop cosplayers? It's not to say it is a bad series, it is actually quite good. But some of the bigger numbers over the con came from Square's newest video game and Cartoon Network animes. Notice the abundant lack of Duo Maxwells this year? Can you guess what hasn't been shown in a while?
The problem lies in the fandom itself - a collection of pop-stricken teenagers who think Japanese stuff is cool, but then feel the need to be teenagers about it. I found reference to a piece on the HYA Junction board that was very appropriate:
Everyone wants to be infatuated with Japan in some way, whether it be singers or videogames, and it's getting really annoying... seeing people out on the lawn reading Manga... probably not reading it but just looking at the pictures, but they still want to strut their respective "I know Japanese." Argh...pisses me off.
I think that about sums up 80% of the growing fandom, another 10% being people such as JSeraphim who see this trend and are angered by it. I dread the day an anime theme hits the UK dance floor and spreads like wildfire to US top 40. We'll all be doomed.
In response to "in light of recent rants?":