Last Friday, Goth Chick photog Chris Z and I once again had the pleasure of a press invitation to the annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (or C2E2 for you cool kids). If you haven’t heard of this event, C2E2 is a Chicago fan convention dedicated to comics, pop culture, graphic novels ,video games, toys, movies, and television.

The inaugural C2E2 was held in 2010 at the McCormick Place in Chicago and hosted roughly twenty-eight thousand people over three days. Thirteen years later and according to our inside sources, all three individual days were sold out, as well as the three-day passes. Though C2E2 show runners have been tight-lipped these last few years as to attendance numbers, estimations I’ve been able to gather put the total in the 110K neighborhood for 2023, making C2E2 in the top five largest comic conventions in the US.

Aerial view of the show floor

Chris Z and I have been in attendance for 11 of the past 13 years and if you work backwards, you can surmise that both of us are over 30, which is probably why I have some questions.

Before I go there, I want to tell you about this year’s C2E2. First, the sheer quantity of exhibitors was a bit mind boggling (see Chris Z’s aerial shot above for context).

Artist’s Alley

Being that this is a comic convention, comic vendors, creators and artists were out in force. Each year a significant amount of the convention floor is consumed by 25 aisles of artists and illustrators, lined up table to table. From 2×3 miniature paintings to 20×30 canvases, we marveled at not only the talent we saw, but at how many different ways Marvel characters and Disney princesses could be depicted.

Want a watercolor of all the Marvel favs as toddlers? Check. How about Snow White reimagined as a rock star? Check. Wonder Woman and Black Widow in a semi-clad clinch? You betcha! A shirtless Batman reenacting that famous scene from Ghost with an equally shirtless Joker? Absolutely.

It was difficult to know where to look next, especially with Chris Z emcee’ing to ensure I didn’t miss a thing.

TPub’s Booth

Of course, we stopped by to congratulate the folks manning the TPub booth, the company responsible for the graphic novel Tuned, which I told you about a few weeks ago. They were celebrating reaching their Kickstarter goal in less than 24 hours which is a new record that doesn’t surprise me a bit, having gotten an early look. We originally met writer Neil Gibson at C2E2 2014 when he was launching his first publication, Twisted Dark, though he was off being fabulous elsewhere this year.

Then there was our annual love-fest with comic writer/creator and man of mystery Dirk Manning who we met at our very first C2E2 in 2011. Back then he was sharing a booth and promoting his graphic novel trilogy Nightmare World which remains one of my favorites. These days Manning’s own booth is full of multiple volumes of Tales of Mr. Rhee, The Haunted High-Ons, Hope, and Buried but Not Dead among his other titles.

It’s also six-people deep in fans wanting to meet their favorite comic icon, which is why I feel especially thrilled to learn Manning has “huge news” he promises to share with me first, as soon as he gets the NDAs worked out. Stay tuned for that.

Goth Chick and Mr. Rhee – reunited for the 22nd year

We also met two new friends in the form of Fenom Comics creators Tom and Joe Fenoglio. They were promoting their graphic novel Hunter Ninja Bear, which caught our attention for the incredible illustrations. I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a copy which I’ll be featuring here just as soon as I finish all 360 of the beautifully rendered pages. I must admit I’m now kind of obsessed with this story of three forces of nature (a hunter, a ninja, and a bear) becoming eternally tied to one another through fate.

The Banana Sundae, PG-13 version…

There is no convention of this kind without cosplayers and C2E2 has some of the best we’ve ever seen. Its impossible not to admire the dedication, attention to detail and the expendable income required to create some of the characters we saw, not to mention the sheer bravado. For instance, there was a guy, by his own identification, dressed as a banana sundae who was thrilled when Chris Z asked for a picture. How do we know he was a banana sundae? Well, there was a banana prominently featured, though I couldn’t publish the picture from the angle which shows it.

The rest of the show floor was vendors. Naturally there were oodles of comic vendors, vendors of toys based on comics, people selling Funko Pop (yes, these are still a big thing), jewelry, clothing and tchotchkes of every category, size, shape, and price point you can imagine.

And this is where my questions come in.

As someone with a very real and understandable aversion to lavender, yellow, baby blue and especially the color pink, I couldn’t help but notice my eyeballs being assaulted from nearly every angle by these hues, which are normally not associated with the places I frequent. Chris Z noticed it too. “Is it just me, or is there a whole lot of pastel-y colors everywhere?” Upon closer inspection it was clear there was a new trend at C2E2 2023.

We see something similar every year. One year you couldn’t move without tripping over a Harley Quinn and Joker, another year everything was about Deadpool. But this was the year of Anime.

The South Park gang in real life, including Chef’s Chocolate Salty Balls

Outside of Japan, Anime refers to a style of animation originating in Japan whereas inside of Japan, Anime is any animated work, regardless of origin. So, we’re specifically talking about the definition referring to animation from Japan. Not all Anime is done in pastel colors, I’m clear on that. But nearly every booth we saw connected to Anime and nearly all the Anime cosplayers were sporting this pallet.

Anime Cosplayers

I also noticed a prevalence of characters with very large eyes and child-like features. I couldn’t help doing a little digging when I got home and found out that these attributes are associated with two specific types of Anime called Kyoto Animation and Fujiko Fujio, which are indeed two of the most popular originators of Anime.

Styles of Anime according to Wikipe-Tan

However, whereas I can understand the fandom around video games, Marvel, DC and others, the raging and prolific popularity of Anime escapes me. So, I did some more digging. The pop culture site ReelRundown describes it this way:

Most anime fans become interested in their favorite shows because they like the characters. They want to draw them, act like them, dress up as them, and so on. Their favorite characters are usually young, aesthetically pleasing, and possess desirable traits like confidence, determination, and a positive attitude.

Cancelculturemag says of Anime,

It pushes the boundaries of the status quo with unique characters and stories. It also expands beyond reality as anime often showcases magic, Japanese tales and superpowers. It also extends beyond usual Western movies and shows, giving audiences a repository of novel plots, ideas and characters.

Finally, Gamequitters.com states the obsession with Anime is simple:

Escapism – Coping with everyday life can be difficult for teenagers so they find it attractive to escape into anime where the characters, settings and plots are a good distraction.

And that might be the answer right there – it’s generational, and I missed out.

So, as we say a fond farewell to C2E2 for another year with the anticipation of oh so much more pop culture goodness to come, I’d love to know what you think about the Anime trend. Are you a fan and if so, what do you love about it?