CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Attending Otakon this year I witness a few cosplayers with some real risqué outfits. One I seen used a string bikini for the makeup of hers. A male cosplayer wear white briefs. A Batman with boxer shorts and bare chest. There were many others. Working a smaller anime con with a family organized setup we have to be sure that attendees are not dressed offensive for families including those with small children.
It has been seen that some of the larger cons may not have the people to control the actions of others during the show unless pointed out to them.
Now some cons may allow after certain hours for over 18+ programs and maybe costumes and other events when children should be in bed.

When going to events like those, we have to be ready for anything! The bigger the event, the more rampant wickedness will be. Besides, anime, manga, and games do not help. If it's not violence, it's promiscuity; integrity and righteousness seem to be outdated characteristics nowadays!

Eh, no worse than they'd see at a public beach as far as I'm concerned.

I know some public beaches have some rules that won't allow certain bathing suits on their beaches and boardwalks. Some even go as far as requiring males to wear t-shirts when walking on the boardwalk.

Um, I'm sorry, but what are you trying to say here? Even if more measures are made to discourage scantily-clad cosplayers, they're still going to find ways to bend (if not break) the rules.

We've been seeing outfits of this nature out at Anime Expo since the first year I attended, 2004 or so, such as Yatta groups and Naruto transformations. There are even some regulations in place inside the con, but there's not much that can be done in areas that don't require a badge to enter, such as courtyards of hotels or outdoor sections of convention centers.

ashfire wrote:Some even go as far as requiring males to wear t-shirts when walking on the boardwalk.

Maybe I'm the weirdo but that just seems silly. I can understand requiring them in shops and in restaurants, but just walking around? Meh.

I feel like at most conventions there are risqué cosplays. Personally, as someone who used to Cosplay I can understand why some pick those specific characters because they either love them, know the costume will be easy, or they do it for attention meaning whatever anime is getting a lot of hype they will Cosplay to have more people stop and take pictures. That stated even if they are doing a character they love I do not think characters like Felicia from darkstalkers is appropriate. If conventions were 18+ than go ahead show all the nip slips, butt cheeks, and crotch shots all you want but because conventions are all ages with kids present I don't think it's right. Plus, as an adult going to a convention I got really tired of seein everybody's everything on display.

I thought standard procedure for Felicia cosplays and similar designs was to wear a nude-colored bodysuit. Nothing gets shown and it's still pretty true to the character when you put all the fluff on top of it.

18+ programming is hardly new. I've only been attending cons since 2008, but even back then they had 18+ programming (and 21+ room parties). Minor/underaged attendees shouldn't be able to get into them anyway, because you (are supposed to) get carded. I had an adult badge and still had to show my license.

Anirac wrote:When going to events like those, we have to be ready for anything! The bigger the event, the more rampant wickedness will be. Besides, anime, manga, and games do not help. If it's not violence, it's promiscuity; integrity and righteousness seem to be outdated characteristics nowadays!

It also helps to not be overzealous. It's hard to have fun when you're too busy judging every bare shoulder.

Nate wrote:I thought standard procedure for Felicia cosplays and similar designs was to wear a nude-colored bodysuit. Nothing gets shown and it's still pretty true to the character when you put all the fluff on top of it.

For anime expo the bodysuit was recently required by the organizers in the convention dress code, if I remember correctly. It of course did nothing about people without con badges, or in areas outside of regular supervision.

Nate wrote:

ashfire wrote:Some even go as far as requiring males to wear t-shirts when walking on the boardwalk.

Maybe I'm the weirdo but that just seems silly. I can understand requiring them in shops and in restaurants, but just walking around? Meh.

yukoxholic wrote:I feel like at most conventions there are risqué cosplays. Personally, as someone who used to Cosplay I can understand why some pick those specific characters because they either love them, know the costume will be easy, or they do it for attention meaning whatever anime is getting a lot of hype they will Cosplay to have more people stop and take pictures. That stated even if they are doing a character they love I do not think characters like Felicia from darkstalkers is appropriate. If conventions were 18+ than go ahead show all the nip slips, butt cheeks, and crotch shots all you want but because conventions are all ages with kids present I don't think it's right. Plus, as an adult going to a convention I got really tired of seein everybody's everything on display.

Ante Bellum wrote:It also helps to not be overzealous. It's hard to have fun when you're too busy judging every bare shoulder.

Totally agreeing with Nate, Yukoxholic, and Ante.

Personally, I don't see any problem with cosplaying. To me it's just dressing up for fun like for Halloween or being an actor playing a role. That said, however, I do think some costumes go waaaaaay overboard.

Nate wrote:

ashfire wrote:Some even go as far as requiring males to wear t-shirts when walking on the boardwalk.

Maybe I'm the weirdo but that just seems silly. I can understand requiring them in shops and in restaurants, but just walking around? Meh.

Some beaches consider themselves as family resorts. When you have some males even females with tattoos and piercing walking in and around families walking on the boardwalk would guess some would feel intimidated by these people. I know Ocean City Md. boardwalk is heavily patrolled by the city police and have had discussion with many on the boardwalk about their actions. I know a friend of mine that carried a folding knife on their belt and had a officer walk up and ask them about it. Even to remove the knife from the belt. They have a lot of rules and regulations about the whole city. Right now they are trying to stop one week rentals in areas of the city to stop parties and noise.

Tattoos and piercings? Really? Unless someone's got Neo-Nazi symbolism on them, generally you can't tell what someone is like just from their body decoration.
As to your friend getting questioned, that's a no-brainer. Knives come off as dangerous when you're displaying them openly in public, so it's not "even," it's "naturally" asking him to put it away. If you think that's better than, gasp, a bit of embedded ink, then you need to rethink what you consider unsafe.

Can't let children see people with tattoos or piercings, they may grow up to be demon worshiper a who listens to Taylor Swift metal.

\M/ETAL

ashfire wrote:

Nate wrote:

ashfire wrote:Some even go as far as requiring males to wear t-shirts when walking on the boardwalk.

Maybe I'm the weirdo but that just seems silly. I can understand requiring them in shops and in restaurants, but just walking around? Meh.

Some beaches consider themselves as family resorts. When you have some males even females with tattoos and piercing walking in and around families walking on the boardwalk would guess some would feel intimidated by these people. I know Ocean City Md. boardwalk is heavily patrolled by the city police and have had discussion with many on the boardwalk about their actions. I know a friend of mine that carried a folding knife on their belt and had a officer walk up and ask them about it. Even to remove the knife from the belt. They have a lot of rules and regulations about the whole city. Right now they are trying to stop one week rentals in areas of the city to stop parties and noise.

See, the knife thing I can understand. Who carries a knife on their belt and expects people to not be nervous?
Not sure about the tattoo and piercing thing, though, but some beaches or public places in general will have strict codes of conduct and such. Ocean City is an actual resort town, so they probably try to maintain a certain image.

Back to the original topic, most conventions have rules about how exposing cosplays can be, as many people in this thread have mentioned. Often, though, these rules will be more lax that some standards of people will be, but they try to make it a happy medium for everyone, though. Also, I find it very fortunate of you to witness only a "few" risque cosplayers, at Otakon, no less, one of the biggest anime conventions in the US.
I also staff anime conventions, both fairly small (anywhere from 600 to 2500 people), and I can tell you that it's impossible to police every single corner of the convention center for cosplayers breaking the costume rules of our con. But, in general, hearing that you only saw a few, again, means that Otakon was doing a fairly good job.

goldenspines wrote:Also, I find it very fortunate of you to witness only a "few" risque cosplayers, at Otakon, no less, one of the biggest anime conventions in the US.

The rest were all still in line.

ashfire wrote:

Nate wrote:

ashfire wrote:Some even go as far as requiring males to wear t-shirts when walking on the boardwalk.

Maybe I'm the weirdo but that just seems silly. I can understand requiring them in shops and in restaurants, but just walking around? Meh.

Some beaches consider themselves as family resorts. When you have some males even females with tattoos and piercing walking in and around families walking on the boardwalk would guess some would feel intimidated by these people. I know Ocean City Md. boardwalk is heavily patrolled by the city police and have had discussion with many on the boardwalk about their actions. I know a friend of mine that carried a folding knife on their belt and had a officer walk up and ask them about it. Even to remove the knife from the belt. They have a lot of rules and regulations about the whole city. Right now they are trying to stop one week rentals in areas of the city to stop parties and noise.

That whole thing about the tattoos and piercings is just plain stereotyping. I know of lots of good, peaceful, mellow people who have them. The knife thing I could understand. My mom carries a knife on her belt for protection, just in case but carrying something like that to a big family oriented place is just asking for trouble.

Ante Bellum wrote:

goldenspines wrote:Also, I find it very fortunate of you to witness only a "few" risque cosplayers, at Otakon, no less, one of the biggest anime conventions in the US.

The rest were all still in line.

lol XD

I guess when I brought up the knife thing I didn't go into it enough. Back in the 70s many of the fire and EMS people carried folding Buck Knifes in sheathes on their belts. Most of them were under 6 inches blades. Sort of a trend thing back then. Today most would carry a Leatherman Tool sort of a Swiss Army Knife item. One reason most carry a knife or tool is because if you get entangled in falling material in a building you may have to cut your way out while calling for help.