A Surprise in the Mailbox

Fishing flyers out of my mailbox today, in noticing a promotion for Halloween costumes I recognized it showed someone in a Naruto costume. That got my attention; what might have pushed things a bit further was recognizing two more people in the cover picture in costumes from Demon Slayer, which hasn’t been around for as long. (The Nezuko didn’t have the chunk of bamboo in her mouth; that accessory was visible, though.) It was something to realise it still gets to me when I notice some new hint that “more people recognize anime than you might think.”

At the same time, aware of the continued wailings over the Right Stuf online anime store having been shut down to redirect commerce to Crunchyroll, I am conscious of the tension between “surely everyone would like what I like! (or that’ll help prove my taste is valid and I’m not wasting my time)” and “I’m better than everyone else for not following the crowd; when something gets popular, it’s spoiled.” I also got to recalling impressions that those dedicated to “cosplay” make their costumes themselves (or at least get them produced in artisan fashion), but as I’ve admitted before, I’m just not as into that as a lot of other people are.