Anime LA 2017: A Revelation in Wigs
This past weekend from January 26th through the 29th under the back drop of the snow covered San Antonio Mountains, and bright California sun, a sea of people gathered at the Ontario Convention Center for Anime LA, 2017.
Indeed a vast sea of people showed up; different ethnicity, different races, different religions, different sex, different gender, all congregated to celebrate a common love of art. They celebrated freedom, creativity, and diversity in a week when those values were purposefully, systematically, and maliciously attacked.
Now, just to be clear, an event like Anime LA is crazy. On paper it sounds impossible. Tons of contrasting people from all across the nation, all in one place celebrating a niche art?
It’s a lot like Anime hair: it defies all reason.
At the con we spoke with Elizabeth; one of the hundreds of dedicated Cos-players, and creators, who make the impossible possible. Admittedly, making wigs seems like a minor, tedious, finger callous creating task, and it is. However, a lot can be learned from putting on a headpiece that looks impossible.
One of the more obvious lessons: a good wig isn’t all one single piece of hair. The best wigs are made from thousands of different strands of plastic fibers, woven together to make one whole headpiece.
A bunch of different individual fibers, woven together, to form impossibly beautiful shapes, colors, and styles all in the name of art. It is a metaphorical concept that’s both figuratively and literally designed to wrap around your head.
It looks impossible, but it works. Not always perfect, sometimes unwieldy, but individual pieces bonded together form something beautiful.
Perhaps taking such a ridiculous concept to heart would go a long way in preventing division?
Nevertheless, in a week where sanity seems to have taken a nose dive, have peace in knowing there are places where diversity continues to band together to celebrate and create something truly spectacular.
Thank you to all who attended, volunteered, and staffed Anime LA, 2017.
