Intermission: Animania Festival March 28th,2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
There is a secret about Miki that not many people know of. I am a nerd. Well, not a nerd as in book smarts or anything, but an Anime nerd. Sounds dorky??
It may, however, that is where I get a lot of my inspiration from. I took drawing lessons for 5 years, I self taught myself how to sew and construct/alter patterns at the age of 14 because of it.
When I was 15, I started to attend this Japanese Pop Culture Festival called
Animania. What started out as a geek convention for me has now become part of my life. I not only have fun participating in its events, but also being able to meet new people and gain inspiration from them.
Possibly one of the biggest attractions known to be at Animania is Cosplay. Cosplay stands for costume play which pretty much in english terms, it means dressing up. While at a Animania, cosplay is generally reserved for Anime, game and Manga characters, over the years it has developed to Japanese subcultures and street fashion such as Fruits, Lolita, Visual Kei and Gyaru/Ganguro(below).
Most cosplayers are extremely nice to chat with and will allow you to take photos of them. You can even interview them for research purposes!! A fascinating thing about them is that 90% of them make their own costumes and outfits and all their sewing and prop making experiences are self taught.
Of course cosplay is not the only thing to look for inspiration at Animania. There are quite a few artist stands there whose drawings really amaze and inspire me and also the Yukata workshop is a great learning experience! (Unfortunately pre-reg. is require for Yukata workshop which is already closed but will be available again for the September event).
A new feature at Animania is also the display of Asian Ball Joint Dolls(above). They are actually one of the biggest trends of Asia and are absolutely beautiful to look at. There is also a mini origami class for those interested as well as some fun activities and games to play and my absolute favourite...karaoke!!
If you have nothing better to do on a Saturday, please bring a camera and come down to the citigate (which is right behind building 6, btw) and might as well dress up and try to find things that inspire you.
For more information check out http://www.animania.net.au/2009/sydney-march/venue-info-and-times
