Lost in the shuffle of planning Dragon Con and my upcoming Japan trip is a milestone that completely snuck up on me.
A special anniversary. No, not a relationship anniversary…well, not in the traditional sense anyway.
This year marks 15 years since I started cosplaying regularly, which is honestly wild to think about. Somehow a decade and a half has gone by since I decided to jump headfirst into one of the most fun, chaotic, and occasionally wallet-destroying hobbies out there.
After going back and forth on it longer than I should’ve, I made a tough call on something that actually means a lot to me as an anime fan: I’m skipping Anime Expo (AX) this year.
Typing that out still feels weird.
For the longest time, AX has been automatic. No debate, no overthinking—it just happened every summer.
Which is probably why this decision took way longer than it should’ve.
To be clear, this has nothing to do with the con itself. The last couple of years have actually been great. Crowded? It’s the largest anime convention in North America, after all. But it never felt as overwhelming as it could’ve. Just good energy, good vibes, and a lot of great memories…whether that’s wandering the Exhibit Hall way longer than I planned or ending up at a random late-night panel that somehow becomes the highlight of the day.
The real issue this year came down to timing.When I actually looked at what I’ve got coming up, reality hit:
Fanime? Locked in.
Dragon Con? Locked in.
Japan? Pretty much locked in.
Anime Los Angeles? Already locked in.
Katsucon? Looking very likely.
If you’re keeping score at home, that’s four conventions and an international trip over the next year. At some point, something has to give. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t default to “do everything and deal with it later” (which, historically, has been my brand).
I actually stopped and asked what I wanted to prioritize—and what was worth the time and energy. As much as I like AX (and my attendance streak definitely backs that up), it just didn’t make the cut this year.
Which surprised me—not the decision itself, but how okay I am with it.
A few years ago, I would’ve forced it. Told myself I had to go just to keep the streak alive. Squeezed it in even if it didn’t really fit—and that’s usually when something that’s supposed to be fun starts feeling like an obligation. I didn’t want AX to turn into that.
Planning out this year—especially with Japan—has made me a lot more intentional about how I spend my time and energy. This just feels like an extension of that. Skipping AX this year doesn’t mean I’m done with it. It just means I’m not forcing it.
And the streak ending?
It doesn’t feel like a loss the way I thought it would. If anything, it feels like a reset…one that is probably long overdue.
There are some anime you fall in love with immediately, and some you just can’t get behind no matter how many times you try.
And then there are the ones you almost drop completely…only for them to come back later and completely take over your life.
The Love Live franchise was definitely the third one, because when I first watched Love Live! School Idol Project, I just didn’t get it.
A few episodes in, I was sitting there wondering what the big deal was and dropped it. Honestly, if it wasn’t for a good friend telling me to give it a second chance, there is a very real chance this entire part of my anime fandom just doesn’t exist. Which is kind of insane to think about now considering just how big of a part of my anime fandom this franchise is. At some point as I watched the first season of School Idol Project, something flipped.
Maybe it was the music finally clicking, getting attached to the group dynamic, or maybe I just needed to give it another chance. But suddenly I wasn’t just watching it, I was invested.
And once Love Live gets you, it doesn’t let go. It doesn’t just stop at the anime, because Love Live is one of those franchises where you don’t just watch it, you fall into it. It becomes the songs, picking favorite characters, watching performances and following new groups.
Then there’s the mobile games…ah yes, the mobile games that I spent way too much time playing.
Did I whale? No, but did I spend more than I should have? That’s irrelevant and we don’t need to discuss it. But at some point, it stopped being something I just watched, it became something I did.
Conventions and meeting other fans who were just as deep into it as I was.
The delayed viewings of live shows in packed movie theaters or getting to see Aqours perform live in person twice at AX.
Cosplay.
Honestly, if you were to look at my cosplay roster, you’d see that it’s probably 80% Love Live, which tells you everything you need to know about how deep I go down this rabbit hole. Maybe that’s where Love Live hits differently, it doesn’t just build a story, it builds a community.
Fifteen years is a long time for any franchise.And somehow Love Live is still here—and still evolving:
μ’s, Aqours, Nijigasaki, Liella, Hasunosora, Ikizuraibu and School Idol Musical.
Different eras, styles and vibes, but the core idea hasn’t changed: chasing something you care about, even when it feels out of reach and even now, it still works. I’ve watched a lot of anime in my time. Some I loved and some I forgot about a week later.
Love Live is one of those franchises I can’t easily explain: it just stuck, and it hits differently.
Perhaps it’s the way the fandom has been so welcoming, or maybe it’s the energy I get from the cosplay gatherings I attend.
Maybe it was how the franchise was a bright spot that got me through a rough time during the pandemic and seeing my dad slowly dying from cancer in the hospital.
Whatever the case, it’s an anime that has always been there to put a smile on my face no matter how many times I’ve watched or how bad of a day I’ve had and I guess that’s the big difference.
Now, years later, I’m planning a Japan trip where Love Live is a major part of the experience, not even just for the concert, though that would be a dream if the lottery gods decided to favor me. Being able to visit places tied to something that’s been part of my life for this long? That already feels like a full-circle moment.
Something that started as: ‘I might drop this’ turned into: ‘I’m building part of a trip around this.’ It’s funny, a series I almost dropped after a few episodes ended up becoming one of the biggest parts of my fandom experience and 15 years later, it’s still here.
Still evolving.
Still connecting people.
Still pulling in new fans the same way it eventually pulled me in. I’m really glad I gave it that second chance.
Some fandoms you enjoy for a while, but this one stuck and somehow became part of how I experience everything else.
Or, if you want to sound more professional about it:
Book a tour and let someone else plan everything…Or become a full-time project manager of your own vacation.
Naturally, I chose chaos. Not reckless chaos, but the kind where you’ve got multiple tabs open, a running notes app, and just enough structure to convince yourself everything is under control.But I didn’t start there.
The land of the rising sun, ancient temples, neon-lit cities, and the birthplace of anime. For a lot of us otaku, it’s less of a vacation and more of a pilgrimage — the kind you spend years saying you’ll take someday.
And after more than 20 years of saying “someday,” it finally looks like that someday might actually be happening this year, which means, naturally, I’ve decided to plan the entire trip myself.
