EVERETT — It began with a flash mob with about a dozen people dressed as their favorite animation characters.
But the first of what is hoped to be an annual Japanese Anime Arts Festival at Everett Community College offered the public a chance to experience a wide variety of cultural events.
They included an appearance by renown Japanese manga or comic book illustrator Yoshimi Kurata, as well as traditional drumming, music and folk dance, a kimono dressing demonstration and a classic tea ceremony.
On Saturday, Ken “Enfu” Taya, a Japanese-American animation and video game artist living in Seattle, gave a drawing demonstration.
The Japanese cultural and animation or “anime” festival is thought to be the first such event in the northern Puget Sound region, said Heather Uhl, a college librarian who spent about a year organizing the event.
One of the goals was to provide the public a chance to connect Japanese popular culture with its art, music dance, and history, Uhl said.
“That’s one of the things that’s so delightful,” she said. “It’s history, fashion, poetry — everything.”
All but one of the events at the two-day festival were free. There was a $5 fee to cover the costs for two sessions of the tea ceremony, held at the college’s Nippon Business Institute, to help cover the event’s expenses.
Organizers of the local event wanted to help ensure that costs weren’t a barrier to people attending the festival, she said. Registration fees for manga conferences often can be out of reach for many people, Uhl said.
On Saturday, children and adults joined members of the Okinawa Kenjin Club of Washington State, a traditional drumming, music and a folk dance group, in a synchronized dance in a courtyard near Gray Wolf Hall.
Jeannie Summerville’s twin 4-year-olds, Conner and Alena Burleson, as well as 7-year-old daughter Anna Burleson, were among those who participated. “It’s been wonderful,” Summerville said of the festival.
Some 200 people filled an auditorium in the Jackson Conference Center Saturday afternoon to see performances of Japanese classical dance and music.
But since the event was an anime arts festival, there was celebration of that culture with what’s called cosplay, shorthand for costume play.
Uhl counts herself as one of those who loves participating in such events, leading the group of students in the flash mob walk Friday through parts of the college’s campus.
“They dress up as their favorite character,” she said. “You research an (animation) character and replicate it to every button and stitch.”
Uhl dressed in a Neco cat girl outfit, complete with gold-tipped claws on her fingers. The character is based on a Japanese goblin, she said.
Deborah Woods, 25, was one of the students joining Uhl in the cosplay event. Woods said she’s been interested in anime and cosplay events since she was in sixth grade. With her purple unicorn horn atop her head, she was dressed to take on the character of Twilight Sparkle.
Shannon Kenison, 19, was dressed in a black-and-red Akatsuki robe, said her joy in such events comes from her love of animation and seeing illustrations of characters from Japanese comic books.
Amber Kuehneo, 19, dressed in an aqua tunic as Frigg of Norse Pantheon.
Kuehneo said she’s been participating in cosplay event since she was 2-year-old and also participates in medieval reenactments and sci-fi events. “I’m really big into geek-dom,” she said.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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