It’s about time for fan convention season and that means fans going out to events once more to celebrate their fandom. Even though COVID still lingers, the convention experience is worth it. That’s mostly because you get a good chance of talking to strangers that can become new friends. I want to talk about that because I want everyone to see that there’s good people out there.
I was reading a 2021 Atlantic article called “Why We Should Talk to Strangers More.” It detailed various anecdotes of people’s experiences of talking to strangers and the joy they got when talking to them. They greatly underestimated the reception they will get from the stranger and vice versa. It turns out most conversations end up being pleasant. Many things are in-play as to why people don’t talk to strangers, but talking to strangers is a beautiful thing. It’s argued that we don’t know how to talk to them due to social messaging saying that strangers in general are bad.
I recall one moment where I talked to a stranger on the way to Crunchyroll Expo 2017. I ran into a woman who was wondering which rail train to take to the convention center. So she talked to me as I was in total cosplay and I guided her to the same train I was taking. We talked for a bit and then she revealed that she worked at VIZ Media. We then talked about what was hot at the time (Haikyuu!! and Tokyo Ghoul). After we reached the convention, we parted ways and told each other to have a great time. While we didn’t become friends, I enjoyed the conversation. It got me more hyped for the convention.
About a couple of months ago, a new user joined a mahjong Discord server I was a part of and asked about what to do at anime conventions as they were going to one for the 1st time. I chimed in and said.
“Regarding conventions, just hang around people with similar interests. Go to panels that interest you. Talk to people when you can.
Take photos. Artists’ alley has some fun stuff to buy at times.
I hope you get to make friends there because they make convention experiences worthwhile.“
I did check in with them later and they told me that while they may not be adept in social skills, they managed to make a friend. I considered that a success.
What I want to say is that meeting strangers is arguably the best solution to some of life’s problems. Many popular anime/manga stories are about meeting strangers that change heroes’ lives. I think about Gintama’s introduction where Shinpachi meets Gintoki at his job and decides to join him after seeing how cool he was standing up to the Amanto. There’s many scenes in anime/manga where a disgruntled youth finds a lone badass to be inspiring and their heart tells them to go with them. There’s also the opposite where the lone badass finds peace with strangers that turn out to be the best friends they needed. The best example is Guts from Berserk as his supporting cast helped him ease the burden of helping Casca and providing him a companionship that he missed since his old Band of the Hawk days.
There’s so much conditioning in media and outside influences saying the world isn’t safe. Here’s the thing – the ones who often hurt us the most are those closest to us. When I hear stories about abuse of any kind, it is usually from someone who knows the victim well. Trauma can be caused by people who are supposed to protect/support us. I notice a lot of anime/manga characters are usually hurt because someone close to them treated them like crap.
Given how much has happened in the past 3 years, definitely reach out to someone who looks like they could be nice to talk to. You deserve a manga-esque story that can make life a bit more worthwhile and less lonely. You deserve a chance to see that people are still beautiful and trying to live the best they can despite the mercilessness of it all.
