Porco Rosso is still my favourite Ghibli movie.
I already posted most of the cosplay photos I took this year to my Instagram but, for those of you who don't follow my Instagram, I'll post them here.
These two reminded me of my students in Japan.
I tried to find interesting costumes I wouldn't see posted on other sites.
You see, there's no reason for Indiana Jones fans and Lara Croft fans to be at odds.
I saw some nice costumes. I didn't see astondingly ambitious costumes with multiple puppet limbs like I used to. I saw no centaurs, no angels or demons with massive, operable wings. I didn't see the Cinema Makeup School.
This was the skimpiest costume I saw and I could tell she was someone who remembered how Comic Con used to be. I'd noted for years the decline in girls wearing sexy costumes. There were still some but no army of Slave Leias or Dawn or Morrigan Aenslads. At one point a girl walked in front of me in the Exhibit hall in what I thought was a sexy cowgirl costume. I said, "Good costume but I don't know the character."
"Then it isn't a good costume," she said, smugly. Both her and her friend had looks on their faces like they thought I was up to something.
Still, I couldn't help asking, "What character is it?" She told me she was a character named Appleblossom, apparently from My Little Pony. She was not dressed as a pony.
I saw a few Wonder Woman cosplayers. One of them was walking through Artist's Alley, sternly announcing, "No touching."
But now there seems to be just a general lack of enthusiasm for cosplay compared to former years and compared to ComiKet. It occurred to me that all of the fandoms that previously dominated Comic Con aren't all that popular anymore--Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who are no longer the phenomena they once were. Twilight and Game of Thrones aren't what they once were, though I saw some House of the Dragon costumes. Add to this post-Covid Trauma and the systematic desexualisation of American nerd culture and I suppose it's no surprise things seemed generally subdued.
And, of course, many of the biggest names of Comic Con in years past, like Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon, have been cancelled. Kevin Smith was still doing his Evening with Kevin Smith in Hall H. But it seemed like there were no more big names associated with going to Comic Con almost every year. I did see a guy in Artist's Alley selling his drawings of Death from Gaiman's comics. We both talked about how we liked the character but he avoided saying her name.
There was big celebrity stuff, like Johnny Depp, emerging from cancellation to play Ebeneezer Scrooge. I did not witness it but I think it could be an interesting movie. It's directed by Ti West who made those X/Pearl movies with Mia Goth. Given popular attitudes regarding the surging number of homeless people, this might be just the time for A Christmas Carol.
