Highlights of FanimeCon 2015

FanimeCon 2015 is over, and I am currently suffering from post-con depression. You can check out my excitement prior to FanimeCon 2015 in this post.) This year, I decided to try some new things: speed dating, and rave/dance events. 

I decided to do speed dating this year because I was curious about it, and I heard it’s a popular event at Fanime. I always thought speed dating was only an easy access to find hook-ups. I was completely wrong.

So I learned that this event runs on a girl to boy ratio. There are more guys than girls that desire to be part of this event. Since there are very few girls, only a handful of guys are selected to participate each session. So if you are a guy, your chances are slim. If you are a girl, your chances of getting in are high. After my experience, I wondered why not many girls participate. I think the main reason is because they are scared to be paired with a weird, creepy guy. (You shouldn’t worry though because the facilitator makes sure that this event is safe and fun for all participants. Also, in the end, you decide who you want to give your personal information to.) Another possible reason why girls don’t do speed dating is because they are really shy and nervous. They don’t know what to ask in just four minutes.

When they called my name, I was nervous because I never done this before, and talking to people isn’t my cup of tea. I’m a pretty shy person, but I swallowed my fear, and went for it. Aside from curiosity, I went speed dating because I thought that it will help improve my people skills and I will gain more practice in interviews. The nerves finally subsided once the four minutes started with the first guy that I introduced myself to.

What I learn from the guys in my session is that there seems to be a connection between heavy metal music and anime. I don’t know why, but the guys I met liked heavy metal music and anime. It was an interesting connection. If you didn’t know what else to ask, “What’s your favorite type of anime or manga?” is a safe question. However, I wouldn’t ask that as the first question. It is more of a last resort kind of question because in my view, it is already common ground that we both like anime and manga since we are all attending a convention. One of the people who stood out is this guy who is passionate about the study of sword making and samurai history, which I though was pretty awesome. I have seen some documentaries about sword making, and I gained some respect towards the art and “the people of the sword.”

So the other thing I decided to do that is different from my usual Fanime weekend is attend one of those late-night dances/raves. My friends went to those a lot last year, and I was curious about it. So I went this year with some of my friends. I am not much of a dancer, so I had no idea what I was doing. It was hot, and there wasn’t any A/C. You can assume how uncomfortable it is to have all that body heat surrounding you. There were many dance halls to choose from. My friends and I picked the large dance hall that has fewer people. Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun. They played electronic dance music, but also played some of today’s contemporary hits like Cash Cash featuring Beba Rexha’s “Take Me Home,” and DJ Snake featuring Lil Jon’s “Turn Down For What.” It was really funny to see one of my friends in the middle of the Conga line too.

Those are just some of the stuff I experienced at FanimeCon 2015 that seem note worthy to post. As for the loot I got from the Con, I think the best deal I got was this English-Japanese dictionary from the swap meet. It only cost me $25 in comparison to the actual cost of reference books, which range from $100 to $200. I also got some cool art prints (I will be talking about one particular artist I met at Fanime in a later post, which you should definitely check out later).

Overall, I had an awesome time at FanimeCon 2015. I will definitely do speed dating again. I recommend to girls that are thinking about going to FanimeCon to try speed dating. Speed dating is a lot of fun than I thought it would be.  It is something new and gets you out of your comfort zone. There are times when I want to be bold and down-to-earth. That was one of those moments.