Japanese costume designer Yaya Han poses at Katsucon 15 in full anime regalia that she made herself. Katsucon is a Japanese anime convention that takes place over Valentine's Day weekend every year in the D.C. area.

Anime: randomness, perversion and unexpected. One word: kawaii! Here’s a brief education on what it is for non-otaku (“otaku” meaning people who are obsessed with anime, video games, etc.) One definition of anime from AllWords.com was “an artistic style used in Japanese animation that has also been adopted by some artists in America and other countries.” Shows created by manga artists, are spoken in English or Japanese. However, it depends on whether the U.S. distributor could dub over the original language or insert subtitles for the show. I remember my first anime was Sailor Moon. It was about Usagi (Serena) Tsukino, a young Japanese school girl, who uncovered that she wasn’t an average high school student but a super hero as well. She transforms Sailor Moon, leader of all the Sailor scouts: Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus. Along with the scouts, there’s a mystery man in a mask called Tuxedo Mask who was also known as Darien “Mamoru” Chiba on Earth. They must “right wrongs and triumph over evil” and protect the city of Tokyo from villains who want to enslave the Earth and entire universe. It’s comical, romantic and dramatic which was what drew me to this show until the show ended the series on a heartwarming note.

Every day after school around 3:30 p.m., I would run upstairs to my mother’s room, turn the TV to the Cartoon Network and bounce around to the opening theme song… Well, not really “bounce around,” but you get the idea. I always compared myself to Serena and how she was so clumsy and a cry baby. Anyone who watched the show could remember those days where they had a “Serena moment.”

Sailor Moon soon transitioned to Pokemon, and I had my own collection of Pokemon cards. In high school, I was an avid lover for the Japanese arts and still am today. I’ve gone to conventions like Katsucon and out of the state to Hartford, Conn., to go to Connecticon in the past several years. I own wall scrolls, over 50 mangas – which are modern Japanese-style comic books — magazines, a few DVDs, and the list goes on.

Besides myself, there are others who love it.

NOVA student Kat Kimes started watching Sailor Moon when she was about 10 years old. She’s partially blind but is able to read and enjoy colored mangas. As a huge fan, Kimes admired their drawing style.

“I don’t watch other things besides anime, mostly documentaries,” Kimes said. She also said that she loves fantasy more than anime but doesn’t appreciate how Sci-Fi and Fantasy are put together. When people think “fantasy”, Kimes stated, “They prefer to fantasy as sci-fi, not as its own genre.” Clarabelle Rosales, another fanatic, started out with Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z at age 7. In Sailor Moon, she liked Sailor Mercury’s uniqueness and how she stood out, unlike the other scouts, as well as her powers.

“There are some anime I like and others I don’t,” she said. Rosales loves anime and is among those who are partially obsessed with it. She said that she watches it at least twice a day. At conventions, known as “cons,” there are many events that take place. There are musical performances from Japanese pop or rock singers. There have been celebrities like Ellen Muth from Dead Like Me who attended a panel to talk about her show at Connecticon 2007. There’s a shopping area for mangas, anime, costumes, bags, wall scrolls and pretty much whatever you can imagine. At cons, raves are held from around 9 p.m. until 2 a.m. People dress up in costumes, some handmade, and weapons while making random outbursts — one of my favorite being “you lose the game.”

Many people role-play characters from Bleach and Naruto, while others were Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Joker from The Dark Knight or Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. Every year at a “con,” people have topped duplications of characters and have succeeded well. Anime conventions are places for gamers to go where they have any game system available and competitions like Dance Dance Revolution.

Personally, I hope to see a Guitar Hero competition because I would definitely sign-up.

For all those gamers out there, I’ve seen two people become Master Chief from Halo and Link from Zelda.

Anime culture has ways of making people feel like they are a particular or favorite anime character (how?) or can just be themselves. Non-fanatics could see anime as something childish, but doesn’t everyone have something they love so much that they would go to extremes to be that person or fictional character? It is like an underworld for otaku everywhere. They can be whoever they want, and reactions would be either hugs or getting their photos taken. Going to cons is like attending an annual family reunion except there’s a good amount of people who keep in contact with one another when it’s over. Anime is not just reading and watching Japanese cartoons and comics, it is about having a piece of Japan in our own country.

By: Tamika Taylor

Stay updated by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.