STROKE N°7 – Urban Art Fair 2012 Berlin

September 18, 2012

FinDac (UK)

STROKE N°7 took place in Berlin, artists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Mexico, Spain and many more countries around the world joined their forces to represent Urban Art as an emerging global postmodern art development without any attitudes or academic prejudices. From painting to streetart, graffiti, illustration or photography the URBAN ART FAIR represented finest in Urban Art.

The young international art scene came to Berlin to celebrate the capitals reputation as electric breeding ground for young emerging art and its corresponding lifestyle. New this year, ANIMAX and URBAN ART FAIR cooperated and brought the aesthetics of anime “on stage” during the fair.

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Shanadoo Concert AnimagiC 2011

August 2, 2011

Another trip, another Cosplay Convention, another Concert, this time, in Bonn. The Japanese Eurodance group Shanadoo was on stage on one of Germany’s biggest annual Anime Conventions, the AnimagiC with about 13,500 visitors in 2011.

Shanadoo is an all female group made up of four young Japanese women, which were quite famous in Germany in 2006 with their singles King Kong and My Samurai and it seems like they are trying for a comeback in 2011.

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Proto Anime Cut Exhibition Berlin

January 24, 2011


The Künstlerhaus Bethanien has a new exhibition, the Proto Anime Cut – Spaces and Visions in Japanese animation, with original drawings of the most important directors and illustrators of Japanese animated films.

The exhibition includes work by Hideaki Anno (director, Neon Genesis Evangelion), Haruhiko Higami (photographer), Koji Morimoto (director, Dimension Bomb), Hiromasa Ogura (art director), Mamoru Oshii (director, Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell, Innocence) and Takashi Watabe (layout).

A fascinating journey into the world of Japanese anime artists.

The exhibition was held until the 6th of March 2011 at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Kottbusser Str. 10 Berlin.

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Connichi 2010 – Part 01

September 14, 2010

I’m back in Berlin, back from this years Connichi in Kassel, a city about 360km away from Berlin and all I can say is, it was amazing.

The Connichi is an annual, 3-day Anime convention in Germany and one of the largest of its kind in the German-speaking world with over 15,000 visitors in 2010. Apart from Japanese artists that go on stage, Connichi hosts a variety of amateur performers showing plays and musicals, singing and/or doing standup comedy with anime-related themes.

Like the Leipzig Book Fair, the Connichi is also a place for many thousands of cosplayers and because that’s the only interesting reason for me to visit such a convention, I will show you some of the best cosplays I saw during my time in Kassel.

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Danbo is here!

July 28, 2010

I bought a Danbo from amazon.co.jp, the Japanese version of Amazon. I wanted to test how long it would take to send a package from Japan to Berlin and I was pretty surprised after it arrived in less than 2 weeks, considering that I have to wait up to 5 days to get something from amazon.de.

Danbo is the anime figure Miura Hayasaka in a cardboard box suit from the Japanese manga series Yotsuba!. The plastic figure, from the Revoltech line by the company Kaiyodo, has movable joints, light up eyes and stands around 8cm tall.

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Leipzig Book Fair 2010

March 22, 2010

Last weekend, I was in Leipzig to visit the Leipzig Book Fair 2010.

The Leipzig Book Fair is the most important spring meeting place for the publishing and media sector and has evolved into an attractive hallmark both in Germany and across Europe.

But after I arrived at the exhibition grounds, it was obvious that the fair isn’t only about Books anymore. Cosplayers, as far as the eye could see.

Since Animes and Mangas are becoming more and more famous in Germany, Cosplay is pretty popular among the fans and instead of taking pictures from books and their authors, I focused on capturing all the amazing costumes I saw during my time at the fair.

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Berlinale 2010, Welcome to the Space Show World Premiere

February 20, 2010

I watched the second Anime during this years Berlinale, the world premiere of Welcome to the Space Show or Uchuu Show e Youkoso / 宇宙ショーへようこ if you are more familiar with the Japanese title.

A tiny mountain village in a remote woodland region. Five primary school kids have come together in this idyllic spot in order to spend their summer holidays at a camp. At first the children enjoy carefree days amidst unspoiled nature far away from adult supervision. But their life changes dramatically when they come across what they believe to be a small dog, badly in need of help.

The creature turns out not to be a dog at all but an alien on an important mission. It seems there is a mysterious substance on earth that is coveted throughout the universe.

The movie was produced by the same guys who brought you R.O.D -Read or Die-, Ishihama Masashi Masunari Kouji, Hideyuki Kurata and Tomonori Ochikoshi, all of them were parts of the audience.

There was only one thing I found a bit disturbing, I watched the movie in three languages, Japanese language, English subtitle and… a German translator for every single sentence and also totally emotionless.

But overall It was a really great movie with an interesting science-fiction story and cute characters.

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