I started in 2000. They were WAY better back then. It's the usual, more people get into a hobby, more chance for stupid assholes to ruin a good thing. In 2000 almost everyone at an anime con had fansub vhs on their shelves, were typically older on average, and had way more knowledge of different, less popular anime.

2003 counts as an old con? I was 22 that year, it hasn't been that long. I'd rather hear about cons in the 90's.

the old cons were fucking terrible. they were like 90% men and 10% women. and hardly any cosplayers. basically like old school comic cons. how the fuck can anyone enjoy that kind of shit today?

I only started in 2004; I wouldn't know.

>>2049611
wow you're an idiot or plain delusional. a con full of asshole elitist geeks is not my idea of fun.

imagine a guy that looks like Kyle from cosplay.com
now imagine if everyone looked like him, at a con. with the occassional woman that looks like him.

that's your 90s anime con.

I went to my first con in 1999. I didn't cosplay for the first time until the next year.

Weapons policies weren't as strict, they actually allowed live steel as long as it was sheathed. I was 14 at my first con, and most other congoers were older than me, there were practically no middle school kids. There was a lot less glomping and screaming, and signs were rare, pretty much limited to Panda Genma cosplayers. The video rooms screened fansubs.

>>2049618
They didn't become assholes until the obnoxious fanchildren started going to cons.

>>2049625
right, because the con was full of middle aged thick rimmed glasses wearing overweight geeks instead of teenagers. and who gives a shit about fansubs? they were cool back in the day when you could only get them from friends but these days people have already watched shit off the internets.

i'd take any of today's cons with their copious amounts of cute slutty cosplaying girls over any old shitty 90s con any day.

>>2049629
Actually, in 99 more younger people were getting into it, but they were still nothing like the naruto crowd today.

It was great back then, but it doesn't compare to today. We didn't get a subtitled release hours after a show airs in Japan. I'm not saying that was better, I like being able to download/stream new series, but it gave me more of a reason to go to video rooms than it does now, where they screen officially licensed series.

2003 is considered old now? D: Oh man..
They were different, just slightly. Cosplay wasn't as immaculate all the time for starters. There were still fat annoying yaoi fangirls, neckbeards, attention whores, and elitists. One thing I do remember a lot less of was lolitas and ravers. I don't really recall seeing a rave personally until 2004, but that might have been regional.

There was a lot more satin. I remember schoolgirl uniforms made of satin

>>2049636
i think you just enjoyed it more because it was your first con experiences. i know my all time favorite con is still my very first one (a-kon 2000) but i would never want to go to a con if it was like that today. i'd just enjoy what we have now, especially since things are far more better (more women going to cons for instance).

>>2049615
i LIKED that there were fewer cosplayers. now people think that you HAVE to wear a costume to a con and it just becomes an eyesore.

also there were no naruto headbands back then. THINK ABOUT THAT.

tl;dr
Less shit.

My first con was in 2003....Sakura con. I was....16. The whole experience left me feeling high for days. Everyone was so nice, and everywhere you went people were nerds! It was love.

Now it's still fun, but not the same awe that I had at my first con. Now it's just an excuse to leave town for the weekend with a bunch of friends, and book a couple of hotel rooms.

Cons back in the day, like early and mid 90s, were actually kinda lame compared to cons today. Thing is, back then cons were really the only way you'd really communicate or get to know any other anime fans that weren't part of your local anime club or who shopped at the one local anime store. Also, since they were smaller, volunteers actually cared and there was much less con politics and drama going around. Not that that says much, with cons today completely saturated with politics and drama.

Thing is, though, they were small. You could pretty much do everything there was to do an the con and still have time to kill. There weren't many girls around, not much cosplay (let alone GOOD cosplay), and more neckbeards and mouthbreathers than there are now (percentage wise, of course). And the cons literally stank because of this. And even amongst the relatively normal attendees, most weren't that sociable. You'd hardly see people going out to have a fun dinner together (unless it was at the sushi place) or just having fun. It was a lot like the scifi cons that gave birth to them: mostly people just wrapped up in their own interests and fairly boring.

It's always the people that make a convention, and they are far more interesting these days than back then.

My first con was AWA 3 back in um....1998 I think.
It was really weird... I got ther and costumers!! I was elated.
People were fans cause you had to be when you went through what you did to see a new series, there were gorgeous rare garage kits, less drama, no 4dalulz, and it was harder to make costumes because of less images and intarwebs.

All in all it was a golden time. Everyone was 16+ and I didn't see anyone younger than that for 3 years.

Just to give you a mark for how long ago that was... have some Alisa from that year.

>>2049693
amen. this describes old cons perfectly.

>>2049653
you're just acting like an elitist prick. who gives a shit if there's more annoying noobs running around now? for every annoying noob there are 2-3 hot girls to compensate. i'm sure all of the other reasons you enjoy older cons are for similar elitist bullshit reasons, like fansubs in video rooms and only older hardcore geeks to debate shit with. fuck that.

Yes, there are a lot more obnoxious nerds (of all ages) at cons now, as well as more annoying people doing memes and shit. Even their percentage is now bigger. But cons have grown so big that there are tons of cool people at them now, too. You just gotta learn to ignore the tards and hang with the cool people.

>>2049696
lol, I love that this picture was totally taken with like, a new-hotness-at-the-time Sony Mavica camera and then compressed and resized to hell to get it to EVER load.

Oooh I loved those times where people wouldn't be holding FREE HUGS signs, and everyone was nice to everyone...

>>2050299
There were hug signs in 2003.

Old cons were just like new cons, except smaller and when people saw cosplay they went "OMG LOOK, ITS COSPLAY!" instead of what they do nowadays which is "meh, more cosplay. Let me know when you see a good one."

THESE TWO OLD FARTS ARE WHOREY SLUT SKANK TRANNY BITCHES WITH MAN FACES!!!

AMIDOINGITRITE 4CHAN!!!?

they were MUCH better than today.
now cons are controlled by the fucking companys sponsoring everything. So they're really boring and you never see weird or rare shit anymore. Just the same fucking DVDs that you can buy at Suncoast.
and we didn't have narutards ruining the fandom.
You'd actually see A.D. Police cosplay!
and you'd maybe only see 100 cosplayers at any con. It was a highlight. Now it's like fucking mandatory or something, which is why we see so many assholes in here every day with "who should I cosplay?" threads, because they're not actually fans at all, it's just "the thing to do" now.

>>2049713
>>2049615
>>2049618
>>2049629

GOFUCKYOURSELVES!
*said in Girugamesh-kid voice*

Amazing. Because the fans that were there, were real fans. Not to say that the 14yr olds today aren't. But for the most part, the majority of people there, were die-hards, and really had a true passion, not just a need for attention.
If you want to go to a good con, go find a nice small con with a higher ratio of older attendees, the camaraderie between fans, isn't just pleasant, its humbling.

>>2050825
no more right than the first 20 times you used this joke. shut the fuck up

>>2051384
elitist snot nosed faggot. nobody gives a shit about AD Police or your oldass shitty con experiences. Cons back in the day were fucking terrible. Man up and admit it.

>>2051397
sure if you want to enjoy a con full of people who look like Kyle from cosplay.com
seriously you idiots are deluded

>>2051405 elitist

you act like thats slander.
I see that as a good thing, summerfag. I'll take that as a compliment if the opposite of that is people like YOU.

now go and enjoy your faggoty Naruto & Bleach while the grownups talk.

ahh man! pre-2004 cons were the shit!
I remember when I would go to a con I felt safer than I did walking around my own school, if a little girl screamed ten big guys with angry looks would pop out of nowhere to help out. Today, so many idiots scream "RAPE" at the tiniest of things and no one pays them any attention, so if anything real happens no one will notice.

I remember how if you sat in a line you could have an actual discussion with the people around you. All the panels were filled with people who would sit quietly and pay the fuck attention, not talk loudly over the guests. Parties had good music, not so much of the beatless techno mixes that you can't dance to even with a good imagination.

I suppose the main thing that made cons good back then was the people, before adult swim and before every 15 year old with mommy's credit card the only people at cons were collage students and older who spent time making their hobby worth while. Fan subbing their own anime, hilarious fan dubs, searching all over town to find that one supplier that carried VHS tapes with piss poor quality but fuck yes they had that BRAND NEW ANIME that came out in japan only like three years ago!
Conversations pre-2000 could go like;
"HOLY FUCK HOW DID YOU GET THAT COPY OF SUPA SUPA KAWAI MAGICAL GIRL MITSUCHAN?!"

"OH MAN I HAVE THIS ASIAN MARKET AND I HAD BEEN TALKING TO THIS WOMAN WHO SPEAKS LIKE TWO WORDS OF ENGLISH BUT I MANAGED TO ASK HER TO ORDER IT IN AND IT ONLY TOOK SIX MONTHS TO GET HERE!!"

that takes dedication. Today you don't see that kind of effort put into the anime fandom. Mind you, I am not complaining! But it does make it so that any numbnuts with cable can call themselves big time anime fans... Elitist as that makes me, well I don't really care. I miss those times. good times...

HURR TL;DR
Oh man the people were awesome back then, new kids suck!