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.
I’m in Munich right now at this year’s Animuc in Fürstenfeldbruck. The Animuc is a cosplay convention for the southern part of Germany. This year’s special Guest is the japanese singer and writer Yuuki, today she gave a little concert for a few hundred visitors and I was really lucky to get some amazing shot of this great show.
„Beotkkot Chukje“, „Shang Mei“ and „Hanami“, again this year, the Cherry Blossom Festival took place in Berlin’s Gardens of the World with many shows, performers, cosplayers and of course sakura trees.
The cherry blossom (sakura) is the national flower of Japan. To honor its beauty, and short life span, the Japanese celebrate its arrival with a yearly festival. Friends will gather under the trees to enjoy rice wine (sake), sing songs, and celebrate the coming of spring.
In Berlin, the Japanese, the Chinese and the Koreans celebrated this day together on Sunday, 17. April.
After this years ITB, the next fair on my list was the Book Fair in Leipzig, so I took a car and traveled to the Leipzig Exhibition Grounds about 190km away from Berlin and like last year, the whole places was filled with cosplayers and photographers.
The Japan Festival 2011 took place during the last 2 days at Berlin’s Urania with many stands, artists and two stages with non-stop-live programs such as Taiko Drums, Aikido, Karate, Kendo, Cosplay, Ju Tai Jutsu, and many more.
Even an authentic Japanese cuisine freshly made by Japanese chief Takao Udagawa such as Sushi, Udon and Misu.
For me, it was a really funny and interesting festival, maybe because it wasn’t all about cosplay and mangas but more about the culture, the food and the lifestyle of the japanese people.
The third and last part of my Connichi 2010 coverage, a bit of everything.
The beginning, the large sales area, the park, the Halko Momoi concert, some pictures from this years World Cosplay Summit Qualification, the winners of this years World Cosplay Summit Qualification and this years special guests from Japan: OLIVIA, Rumi Shishido, “Halko” Momoi, You Higuri, Hiroyuki Yamaga, “Noir”, Yutaka Uemura, Gakuto Mikumo, Kumiko Uehara.
So here is the second part of my Cosplay Photo Collection. I was asked to show some convention shots, sales area, concerts, japanese guests, I’ll see if I can get some together, stay tuned for part 3.
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.
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.