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Anime Clubs:
Hosted by Richard De Armond, anime club leaders from many
American schools and club groups came forth to help give advice to the
packed audience on how to form anime clubs, write up club bibles and
literature, advertise the club within the local community, acquire anime
to show, contact companies for permission to show anime, fund-raising,
get proper equipment to show new titles, travel to anime conventions to
acquire more club members and officers, and most of all, coordinate with
other clubs for best contacts and shopping trips.
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Female Cosplaying:
Hosted by Widya Santoso, avid American fans Meg and
Gina discussed their views and concerns about females in cosplay.
Topics included dealing with the amount of attention from anime fans and
convention photographers, choosing favorite anime, manga, or game
characters to cosplay, individual tastes on building and wearing a
risque costume showing more flesh versus a more conservative costume
showing more style in fabrics and design, and giving advice on personal
safety and keeping good communication within the cosplayer community.
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Hana Yori Dango:
Miaka Becca, Marisa Price, Gail Lu, Kristen Groth,
and Cindy hosted a packed
panel on their love for Hana Yori Dango, a favorite romantic comedy for
the cute bishounen lovers who desire a little bit of interpersonal
rebellion and angst. The story basically centers around a young
girl Makino Tsukushi entering a new school Eitoku Gakuen and becoming a
subject of heated and dramatic controversy involving the F4, a four
bishounen group of boys who are above all the school rules, and many
friends and family. Teenage rivalry, love triangles, war, and
frightening classroom politics ensue and the results build up intense
emotion and personal turmoil that are essential ingredients for a
quality teenage soap opera. It's no wonder that this show has
gained a huge fan following collecting all the mangas, anime, artbooks,
and much more.
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Meet URAN, the Japanese Cosplayers:
Hosted by Emi, Sara, Barbie, Kaie,
Nomi, Ganko, Widya Santoso, and other notable Japanese cosplayers, the
discussion gave a more advanced view into the Japanese environment.
Displaying some of most detailed and intricate costumes for the
audience, the URAN group gave advice on rules to follow when cosplaying
in Japan, acquiring research materials for total authenticity on designs
and history, costume places to shop, how much money it takes to design,
build, and take care of the very expensive costumes, and still being
able to afford to travel around with the huge loads of boxes and
suitcases. The group also noted that in America, fans cosplay as
characters from titles they particularily like, whereas in Japan, fans
cosplay as characters only from titles that are the current trend, a
startling view that cosplay is a major component in the foreign fashion
sales industry. A notable highlight was how much space is left to
maneuver in their apartments, which is basically not much with tons of
boxes, fabrics, sewing machines, and design books piled high up to the
ceilings and all across the floors, leaving a lasting impression that
URAN and countless Japanese cosplayers like them love taking their hobby
to the extreme and encouraging Americans to join in the cosplayer fun.
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