“COSPLAY” a GROWING PHENOMENON in the U.S. Japanese Subculture Merges with a Growing American Subculture and Edges Closer to the Mainstream

In This Issue: Anime, Art, Technology June 2007 Issue “COSPLAY” A GROWING PHENOMENON IN THE U.S. Japanese subculture merges with a growing American subculture and edges closer to the mainstream IMPRINT OBSERVATION tially play acting as a character from base on their favorite anime and manga. Manga, Anime, J-pop music bands and - Karaoke contest is an event with ethni- video games in costumes. cally diverse participants, all who sing in Japanese. Observation: ImprintTALK author, Tyler • - Cosplay shows what anime is hot now. Inouye, attended San Jose, CA’s Fanime At Fanime Con, Naruto took first place, Con 2007, and participated in Cosplay followed by Bleach with about the same as a character from Dragonball Z. number of One Piece, followed by Final - Most conventions have the following: Fantasy related characters with an even 1) Gaming room number of Kingdom Hearts cosplayers. 2) Artists room where artists can sell • Trend: The Japanese subculture called Read full report here. “Cosplay” is a growing phenomenon in artwork the United States. North American con- 3) Vending room for retailers ventions, such as Anime Expo, Otakon, 4) Screening rooms that play anime epi- and Sakuracon have become renowned sodes internationally. 5) Cosplayers everywhere - The Masquerade is the biggest event at • Definition: Cosplay is a term that origi- Fanime Con. It’s a theatrical perform- nated in Japan but is based on the Eng- ance and contest in which groups of fans lish words “Costume Roleplay”. Essen- wear costumes and perform short skits [1] tional Animation Festival. To prove their - Manoi: Designed to move smoothly growing popularity in the United States, while it performs various movements PIKAPIKA Sprint recently used a similar concept as such as standing on one leg, or get- PIKAPIKA on banner ads. ting up after a fall. SPREADING PIKAPIKA will host an animation project at - FT Robot: FT (Female Type) Robot the Imprint Culture Lab, open to first time is a one-foot tall robot, created purely participants! to mock the female body and manner- ACROSS THE WEB isms. Flashlight abstract animation wiz- - Robo-1: A robot competition where ards, PIKAPIKA is a hit highly intelligent robots fight by trying MINI ROBOT to knock each other down, or out of a IMPRINT OBSERVATION TREND IN JAPAN ring. Small customizable robots in Otaku Mecca, Akihabara *small talk IMPRINT OBSERVATION • Trend: Flashlight abstract animation wizards, PIKAPIKA’s work and style is spreading quickly. • Definition: PIKAPIKA is an abstract animation film made with flashlights. A series of photographs using long expo- • Trend: Modifying a mini robot is the hot- Kashiwa Sato sures are edited together to make them test trend in Akihabara, Tokyo. Behind the scene of UNIQLO’s appear as one animation. • Observation: Japan has always been a world wide success, creative/art Watch PIKAPIKA video. leader in robotics, whether it be for indus- director Kashiwa Sato is the man • Observation: Tochika is the group of trial, social, or entertainment purposes. who developed the cool and artists who started PIKAPIKA in Japan. More recently, Japanese robot creators trendy UNIQLO brand image. Their series of flash light art works “PI- have been focusing heavily on creating Kashiwa Sato set up his own stu- KAPIKA” started to spread about 2 mini robots. With the popularity of pet ro- dio “Samurai” in 2000, after work- years ago in Japan, and within the last bots like the AIBO a few years back, ing at Japan’s largest advertising year, they’ve slowly caught in the US. Japanese robot creators are finding value agency. He is definitely one of the They were awarded the “Honorable in smaller, less robotic and more human most active and dynamic art direc- Mention” prize in Ottawa 2006 Interna- movement robots. tors in Japan now. Imprint Imprint TALK Imprint Conference Imprint is an interactive program created http://imprinttalk.com/ http://imprintlife.com/ to tap into the growing influence of Asian Imprint TALK is a blog to discuss emerg- Save the date Youth. It is an initiative designed to voice ing trends in Asian Youth culture. Topic Sep 13th, 2007 the interests and motivations of Asian include: Anime, Art, Auto, Fashion, Film, National Center for the Preservation of Youth. Game, Music, Sports, Technology and Democracy For more information, please contact Toys. Please visit our site, and sign up! Little Tokyo, Los Angeles [email protected] 562-733-1861 [2].

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