Konnichi wa

Welcome one and all! This blog will be on the wonderful magical world of manga and anime. Isn’t that just so exciting? I am going to do two different kinds of posts a week, just to keep you on your toes you know? First off I will be looking into the history of manga and anime, its influences and the huge effect it has had both on itself and on the boring world of the west. Secondly I will be creating my very own manga character. Woohoo! *crowd goes wild* This will be a part of how I will explain and show the crazy things fans do to show people just how much they love manga and anime. I will also be talking about and showing the development of my first ever cosplay for my first anime convention this year. So have I lost you yet? Okay, just to put it basically for those who are lost (including me), there will be two angles to this blog: first will be on the huge effect manga and anime have had on the world, second will be how the fans celebrate it in their own crazy little ways (and yes I am one of them so maybe you should just get away now whilst you still can).

Now that the embarrassing introductions are over let’s get on with it. I’m going to start off with that second angle I was rambling on about: how the fans express their love for manga and anime. There are many different ways so I will only go briefly over the main ones. First off, they talk on and on and on about their favourite manga series or anime series, and I mean incessantly. Personally my favourite is the enormously popular series Naruto. This series about ninjas started off as just a manga series by Masashi Kishimoto, and when it was successful an anime adaptation began. Being the obsessive geek I am, I have of course watched every single episode of the series, including every fan’s pet hate: the fillers (random episodes created for the duration of the time when they had to let the manga get ahead for a while).

Okay see what I mean about the incessant geeky knowledge? Anyway, the next most popular way of expressing love for favourite characters has got to be drawing them, just check out sites such as www.deviantart.com, they’re full of fan’s drawings. Then of course there is cosplaying. This term means dressing up as your favourite character. It tends to be focused around anime conventions for the most part but it also happens for other anime related events and some fans dress up purely for the hell of it. This year at AmeCon I will be dressing up as Kazekage Gaara from Naruto. So far the only parts of my costume I have are the ninja sandals and a forehead protector (which may or may not be used). However, I have bought some white elastic for three white bands that are round Gaara’s legs and I am currently planning the best way to make his gourd. Lastly, there is also a huge amount of fanfiction out there depicting every character you can think of in numerous compromising positions. It’s scary.

My terrible drawing of Gaara