Here at Time Out Abu Dhabi we harbour a few nerds who were quietly nerding along way before comic-books and videogames became the popular, nay, cool pastime. In fact, in today’s golden age, fans of Japanese animation can strut their stuff as life sized versions of their favourite characters with their heads held high and with no fear of those high-school bullies who used to torment us so. You could almost say that now the nerds are the cool kids! Almost.
Let us backtrack a bit now to the previous reference to Japanese animation, better known as anime. If you yourself are an anime or manga (Japanese graphic novel) fan, you’ll be pleased to know that there just so happens to be an anime society here in Abu Dhabi, and if you’re not a fan, then it’s about time you got enlightened. In fact, the Abu Dhabi Anime Club (ADAnime) have been kicking around since 2004, and now that they’re getting more active, it’s only fair that we shine a little light on their colourful antics. We spoke to Abigail Kerr (president) and Maha Ismail (vice president) of ADAnime, to see what they get up to.
Who are Abu Dhabi Anime Club and where do you meet?
Maha: We are a non-profit social community for fans of anime, manga, video games and Japanese/Korean music in Abu Dhabi. We have 30 active members who meet twice a month at Mugg & Bean in Abu Dhabi Mall or Mokamore at Marina Mall.
What do you do at these meetings?
Maha: We mostly meet up to socialise and discuss Japanese movies, music, anime and video games. We share our manga and anime DVDs sometimes. Additionally we watch movies together, like the latest animated films and Marvel or DC comic movie screenings at the cinema.
Abigail: Also, members share their passion through artwork, and show each other their art collections. In fact, last year we had an anime freestyle drawing competition and Kinokuniya Bookstore at Dubai Mall was one of our sponsors. ADAnime organises trips too. Whenever there are events in Dubai, we’ll arrange a bus trip.
Maha: Then there is the cosplay! We give tips and suggestions for the next cosplay event and discuss which character fits whom or who can pull off what.
Hold it right there, for those who don’t know, can you tell us what cosplay is?
Abigail: Cosplay is a short term for ‘costume play’, which is well known in Japan. It’s when fans dress up and act as characters from videogames, films or comics.
Maha: It’s a type of performance art. We try to represent the character well enough that people will go, ‘that looks like it dropped out from the screen!’
Abigail: The idea is to hand-make your own costume. So for cosplay competitions, most of our members dress up as their favourite character, and also show their creativity in art and crafts, since they would have put the costumes together themselves. And people take this very seriously, right? We understand there are professional cosplayers out there who have reached celebrity status in cosplay communities.
Maha: That’s right. Cosplay made me more confident of myself and more creative, and I also made many great friends from around the world.
So what kind of events do you take part in?
Maha: Gaming tournaments, charity events and cosplay competitions.
Abigail: Also, art competitions. ADAnime supports any event that is related to the clubs’ interests. The last event we had was the World Game Championship Cosplay Competition in December 2011. The event was held by Index Company, and Mr. Koichi of Index contacted us to organize the event for them. It ended up becoming the biggest cosplay competition in the UAE, with cosplayers attending from other Gulf countries, like Saudi Arabia. Hopefully, the ADAnime Club will be organizing the next World Game Championship Cosplay competition for 2012 too. We are also looking forward to supporting upcoming events such as NerdyCon and Middle East Comic Con. However, we don’t know when the exact dates for those events are.
Yeah, we’d like to know when those dates are too! Finally, can you suggest a good manga or anime as an introduction for the uninitiated?
Abigail: Most of the Hayao Miyazaki movies are inspiring and interesting. I would always recommend for people who don’t know anime to watch these first. My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Also, some good series are Black Lagoon, Full Metal Alchemist and Death Note.
Maha: Bleach is also a club favourite. At our last event most of us cosplayed as Bleach characters.
For more info about ADAnime club, visit www.adanimeclub.com or sign up with them on Facebook www.facebook.com/AbuDhabianimeclub
