Be brave, make friends, and rep your favorite show or character, that’s what happens at anime conventions. It’s a message of a safe space to be you. At the Anime Milwaukee website, the event is meant to “celebrate and educate fans about anime, manga, Asian culture, music and gaming.”
Milwaukee’s annual convention typically draws large crowds and has a big economic impact. This year’s event is held at the Baird Center Hilton March 6-8. For those of you who don’t quite get the draw of this experience, I’ll try to give you some insight.
Anime is all around us, and mostly in the Midwest is where anime impacted communities in the US.
Shows like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece, even anime shows under the radar like Nana and Inuyasha, heck even Trigun for the old timers, along with Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann. There are so many to count, and this is the tip of the surface when it comes to anime shows that are out there for everyone.
Now, how did we get here? Simple Toonami.
Toonami was released to the US audience on March 17, 1997, on the Cartoon Network channel after-hours. And around 4 to 5 p.m. every day.
It introduced the American audience to shows that would only be seen in Japan and translated the language into English, with a cast voicing the characters of each show. Toonami introduced the American audience to high action-packed shows with beautiful animations during the afternoon and very mature themes in its lineup during after-hours.
However, back then anime wasn’t as popular as it is nowadays. It was actually shunned by other individuals who enjoyed anime because it was unknown to them, or it wasn’t considered normal by society’s standards.
So, think of Toonami as an underground club where people would come at night and watch the shows you love, or even catch up on shows you missed. It was considered The Spot for anime enthusiasts and lovers, in high demand for anime
It also helped people who were having a hard time with school and life to just sit down and watch a show from Toonami, and shape kids’ lives in terms of learning morals. Sadly, on September 20, 2008, Toonami shut down its services due to low ratings. However, due to the impact it gave to the American audience, anime was then streamlined and created traction all over other streaming platforms.
These conferences also feature Cosplay (Costume-Play). This is the hobby or practice of dressing up as characters from fiction, often from anime, manga, video games, or movies, and sometimes acting out their parts, originating in Japan but popular globally at conventions and events.
Years later, after the rising popularity that anime has gotten over the years, cosplaying started to convert more into anime characters than characters you would see from Marvel and DC cosplayers.
It is not to say there are no Marvel and DC cosplayers, but the majority of people would cosplay as Naruto or any other characters from an anime series because of the popularity and how certain people can resonate with a character.
Due to this, conventions were made, and with this, communities and the like were formed. This is what Anime Milwaukee is.
This community gathers annually in Milwaukee and is a space where the anime community can gather and celebrate.
