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Fan-run panels at any convention are a rich mix of the absurd and the sublime. Here’s some of the best that monopolized my attention this year:

Satoshi Kon

This panel, courtesy of Evan Minto of Anigamers.com, was part memorial, part overview of the director who gave us Paprika, Paranoia Agent, and so much more. Kon’s meteoric career was cut short way too soon, but what little we have of his work is still endlessly fascinating.

Apart from the expected deep-dive look at his movies, Evan also showed examples of Kon’s less-known work—e.g., a sequence from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure that sports a beautiful example of his reality-bending conceits at work. Apparently Kon’s major influences were not other anime, but manga (like Katsuhiro Otomo and, amazingly, shojo—e.g., Moto Hagio) and live-action directors like Terry Gilliam. “Truth from fiction” was the subtitle for the panel, a line in one of Kon’s films that resonates all the more deeply through his reality-twisting works the more we look at them. It would be a shame if his final movie, The Dream Machine, remains in limbo—even if so much of what the work would be was bound up with its creator.

Investigating Detective Anime

Presented by the folks from the Reverse Thieves blog, this was a fun romp through various shows that touch on mystery and detection of various kinds. Some were obvious (Detective Conan), some less so (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), some known mainly to hardcore fans but few others (When They Cry), but all were intriguingly explained and accompanied with clips that highlight the “detective” nature of each show.

It worked both as a way to discover new shows previously unknown, and as a reminder that many anime—especially the most commercially successful and intriguing titles—refuse to be pigeonholed neatly into a single category.

Fanthropology

As the title implies, this is the systematic study of fan culture via anthropology. The panel leader, Charles Dunbar (on Twitter as @studyofanime) is himself a degree-holder in the field, and his discussion invited a great deal of intelligent audience commentary. He drew surprising parallels between fan culture and religious organizations: fans seek out other fans for the sake of community and shared emotional experiences. The audience volunteered many tidbits of their own to both confirm and broaden that observation—most fandoms, but anime in particular, have to deal with being stigmatized by outsiders. Xenophobia and racism often figures in as a reason, something many other fandoms haven’t dealt with as bluntly.

The most interesting implication: are fans in general just prolonging their adolescence? That seems to be less the case as time goes on, with more adults openly enjoying cultural products that used to be “just for kids.” Before it was anime, it was science fiction or Marvel / DC Comics. This conflict didn’t start with the Sailor Moon generation, even if it’s tempting to think so.

Anime in the ‘90s

The premise of the panel was debatable: the anime of the ‘90s was better than what we have today. That said, I couldn’t argue with some of the titles that were up for discussion: Cowboy Bebop, Rurouni Kenshin, Cardcaptor Sakura. The general sentiment from the audience was that moé (the fetishization of cuteness) has been a destructive influence, and that the decline in the volume of shows has brought with it a concomitant collapse in both quality and variety. Then again, it’s easy to forget how much sheer garbage was foisted off on people in previous decades, if only because so much of it hasn’t survived.