I am working at a food counter at a convention centre in the middle of a large anime event. I am extra happy to work this weekend, as I am an anime geek and I get to tell my customers how much I love their cosplays.

A timid-looking girl in a wheelchair is with her friend and they order some food from me. She is cosplaying as an anime character.

Me: “That’ll be £10.95. By the way, I love your outfit! Tougou Mimori from Yuki Yuna Is A Hero, right?”

With this, the girl suddenly breaks down crying.

Me: “Oh, no! Did I say something wrong? Did I get the wrong cosplay?”

Girl: *Through some tears* “No, you got it right! You’re the first person to get it right!”

Me: *Nervous laughter* “Oh, well, I am sorry to hear that. But it’s a limited-run anime from 2014, so I guess you kinda have to be a fan?”

Girl: “It’s just, she’s the only anime girl in a wheelchair, so I thought I would try her out. She’s such an inspiration to me, and I was getting so upset that not one other person at an anime convention got it. You’ve just made me soooooo happy!”

Her friend then gets a photo of us both to record the happy memory. I say thanks to the photographer, who responds in basic sign language.

Girl: “Oh, yeah, my friend is deaf.”

Me: “Ah. Is that why he’s cosplaying as Bojji from Ranking Of Kings?”

The girl’s eyes go wide, and I look at her friend who has read my lips. His cosplay is based on a deaf anime character, so for me, it was an easy guess.

Girl: “Who are you?!”

I got pics with both of them and shared Instagram details so I could continue to marvel at their amazing cosplays.

I would like to point out that I think those with and without disabilities should both be able to cosplay characters with or without disabilities, but in this particular instance, it was like putting two and two together. This will always be my favourite customer encounter.

This story is part of our Highest-Voted-Inspirational-Stories-Of-2023-(so far!) roundup!

Read the next Highest-Voted-Inspirational-Stories-Of-2023-(so far!) story!

Read the Highest-Voted-Inspirational-Stories-Of-2023-(so far!) roundup!

I work at a shop that buys and sells cards, comics, and other nerdy stuff. My coworkers are busy unsleeving some cards that were just bought to put out for sale.

Coworker #1: “Ew! Ew, ew, eww!”

Me: “What?! What happened?!”

Coworker #1: “Take a look at this.”

Coworker #2: “Okay, here’s the card…”

Me: “Okay, it’s a regular card in a sleeve? Whatever?

Coworker #2: “No, no! Take a look at this.”

He holds the card up, and then he flips it over. The back of the sleeve has an image of an anime girl, and it’s incredibly graphic.

Coworker #2: “And it’s sticky!“

Me: “I’m gonna go barf, thanks.”

Coworker #1: “Thank God it’s you handling these cards and not me.”

I’m taking a Media Studies class in college, and for one project, I’m showing my classmates a set of clips from various anime films.

One of the clips gives us a brief suggestion of lesbianism between two characters.

Classmate: “Hey, I wanna see this movie!”

The characters then melt into orange goo.

Classmate: “…no, I don’t.”

Dear readers,

Anime is a huge and influential art-form all over the world, and one of the largest exports from Japan. It has fans in almost every country, and many are readers of Not Always Right! In celebration of this, we’ve rounded up 23 stories from our archives about the wonderful world of anime, it’s fans, and the struggles they go through to make others understand that it’s not just “cartoons”!

Kudos To Otaku Girls – It’s sad that even in the anime world, misogyny still exists.

This Troll Should Have Stuck At Home – Pray that some Hellsing cosplayers will walk past!

Watch What You Saiyan – We won’t stop until the likes of this story are over 9000!

(more…)

(I am a kid, with my sister, watching an old TV sitcom. Our mother is passing by. My mom is super strict with what we watch and read.)

Mom: “What kind of show are you watching? This is not for kids! Watch Sesame Street or a cartoon, instead!”

Me: “Mom, it’s a sitcom and it’s funny. See…”

(I start to explain what’s going on, and then a scene with the two main characters suddenly making out with some girls plays and doesn’t go away. I go silent.)

Mom: “You see? Kids shouldn’t be watching shows meant for adults! Gross, disgusting!”

(She flipped off the TV and we went to our room. Later, she learned about cartoons being meant for adults and banned ALL our cartoons, too!)