Ran into an old forum buddy at Anime Expo 2019 and it was surreal

I was standing in line for the Trigger panel at Anime Expo 2019 when this guy next to me goes 'hey, aren't you Phoenix from the MyAnimeList forums?' It was some dude named Josh who I used to argue with back in 2012 about whether Steins;Gate was overrated. We spent the whole line just catching up and laughing about how dumb our old posts were. Has anyone else ever met someone from an anime forum in real life and had it be actually cool rather than awkward?

4 comments

4 Comments

aaron_mitchell1mo ago

Actually met my old forum arch-nemesis at a con once. We'd argued for YEARS over which Gundam series was the best starting point. Turns out he was a super chill dude in person, we ended up doing a joint cosplay as Char and Amuro the next day. The weird part was we kept slipping into our old forum debating voices every time Sunrise was mentioned.

the_piper1mo ago

Met a guy at a con who recognized me from a Fire Emblem forum, and we spent 20 minutes debating which waifu was actually worth the S-support grind. Your mileage may vary but it was way less awkward than I expected, probably because we were both already wearing embarrassing cosplay. Just don't bring up their hot take from 2015 unless you want to relitigate that whole thing again.

logan_mitchell1mo ago

Oh man, that hot take from 2015 thing is way too real. I ran into a guy who remembered I called Rei Ayanami "overrated" on some Evangelion board a decade ago, and he wouldn't let it go until I admitted I was wrong in front of a whole panel line. Like bro, I was 14 and trying to be edgy, can we just talk about the new merch instead.

sean_green441mo ago

...and then he pulls out his phone to show me his MAL profile and it was literally the same guy I'd been beefing with on a Ghibli forum about whether Nausicaa or Mononoke was better. I couldn't even be mad because it turned out he was based as hell and we ended up grabbing ramen after the con. The weirdest part is we still text each other about new releases like we're old friends now. I think the key is you gotta be ready to accept that you were probably the cringey one too back then and it makes everything way less awkward.