When I first heard about Anime Expo offering actual real money (in no insubstantial amount) to the “Best of Show” winner in their popular Masquerade, I thought that they were nuts.
I’m no expert on human nature, but I’ve seen people do really stupid things for twenty dollars.
Imagine the sheer chaos over ten grand.
Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money. I mean, we are talking adult money – made out of paper money. Granted, it’s for their twentieth anniversary but I’m not seeing how any part of this is going to end well. Of course, I could be wrong. I’m sure it won’t become a hole of drama (a Drama Hole if you will – it’s sort of like a black hole).
I was at Anime Expo around ten years ago (I was stuck in a car with five other people driving from Colorado to Los Angeles during the summer when it was like five hojillion degrees outside – something I don’t recommend). I remember not entirely enjoying myself, but the sheer size of the convention really worked against it for me. Walking to an entirely different hotel to a video room and have it packed to the brim with two hundred otaku who hadn’t showered in like two days – not fun.
Seriously, take ten minutes and take a shower. Having to deal with “walls of funk” (which could seriously be used for research in force field technology) at every single convention I go to – entirely the opposite of awesome.
See you next week.
