Anime has gotten a lot more mainstream since 1999. I think I was one of the only kids in my HS (graduated in 99) to be into it in any measure.
Dragon Con isn't an anime convention. There's tons of it there, sure, but it's a fantasy/comic con that's been going on for years and years.
I'm the same as you, Tiesto. I remember the days when the only "Japanimation" that people knew were Akira, Ghost In The Shell, and Ninja Scroll. My high point was back in the early-mid nineties...I was fucking NUTS for Ranma 1/2. I had multiple fanboy orgasms when the first tape from Viz and the mediocre SNES game hit the U.S. in late 1992.
Shit's just not the same anymore.
There was this scary nerd-girl I found out about when I was a senior. She was either a freshman or a sophomore, and called herself "Michi." "Michi" claimed to be Japanese, even though Michi" was a white girl with blonde hair. Apparently her great grandmother on her father's cousin's brother's side was Japanese or some shit. Yeah.
"Michi" called herself Michi because she loved a fucking character in Sailor Moon with the same name. She even dyed her hair green to match this character at one point.
This was one of my earliest tastes of actually being turned off to something I liked because of a super-nerd. And then following this wave were the hardcore elitist prick types who would scoff at anyone not watching the latest fansubs, joining the game nerd pricks (ESPECIALLY fighting game players...incredibly fucking elitist), and you knew anime was here to stay. I couldn't stand going to cons either; I used to go just to hit the dealers' rooms, and after anime exploded, it was easy to find and order everything on the internet, so no need. I sure as hell didn't miss the putrid odors emitting from fat Son Goku cosplayers with cardboard hair, either.
