Anime and Manga Cosplay Festival at UNCP

On March 28, you may have seen some of your favorite Japanese anime and manga characters running around the University Center Annex area. You could have seen Yourichi from the manga novel Bleach, Kagome from Inu Yasha or even Claire Redfield from the popular video game and movie franchise Resident Evil.
The Mary Livermore Library has a large collection of Japanese Animation DVD's or "Anime" and also a growing collection of graphic novels that are also called manga. These items are not widely known, but those who enjoy them were thrilled to have this festival to celebrate them!
"Cosplay" focused on the costumes of the beloved characters in the books and movies; the word "Cosplay" itself is a mash up of the words "costume" and "play." I believe this word is appropriated from the science fiction conventions for which this has been happening for decades, think "trekkie."
To promote the libraries collections, to support literacy, to collaborate with many other departments on campus, namely The Asian Studies Minor, who hosted a speaker on April 7, we had this Anime and Manga Cosplay Fest!
The festival itself took place over the course of two and a half hours of singing, dancing, costume judging, video games, crafts, "Magic the Gathering." At the beginning of all this mirth, we reflected with a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the recent tragic earthquake in Japan. The Scotland County Chapter of the American Red Cross was on site to provide information and to collect donations for relief efforts.
The other related event is a lecture from Dr. Anne Allison, a Japanese cultural anthropologist at Duke University. Dr. Allison was brought to campus by Dr. Annika Culver, chairperson of the Asian History Minor. That lecture was followed by discussion and the next day celebrated with a "Cosplay Lunch" hosted by the Office of Multicultural and Minority Affairs.
The amazing promotional poster you may have seen around campus was designed by Margie Labadies ART 2500 class and is truly a work of art. It celebrates the tradition of manga style storytelling with panels featuring the Festival, the Digital Content Consortium (where I will present the promotional poster,) the lecture of Dr. Anne Allison and finally the Cosplay Lunch in the OMMA office.
The series of events in all was a great success; a product of the collaboration by many departments helped to better promote, compare notes, help each other in planning and will be utilized in the future for more campus collaborations. Many people need to be thanked for their volunteer time and donated materials: Dr. Kevin Freeman, Michael Alewine, Robert Arndt, Virgil Oxendine, Angela Carter, Jeremy Salzer, Mia Hawkins, Grant Merritt, The UNCP Book Store, Mighty J's Restaurant and Sodexo.