Anime'ted delight

By now, all of us know that cartoons aren’t just intended for kids being encouraged to finish their meal. Adults watch it too. And nope, they don’t like mindless and mediocre cartoons with dimmed down plots. Enter anime.

With their creative story lines, real characters and illustrations that are light years ahead of the West, these Japanese toons are quietly taking over the world, and it’s no different in the city too. As a fresh edition of Comic Con is set to return to Bengaluru on November 12 and 13, the city’s staunch fans and anime cosplay heroes tell us just why they can’t help but be hooked!

“It’s not just another cartoon, it prepares you for life,” says 21-year-old Anushruti Saha. “What makes them superior is that most of them are inspired by real stories. You understand a lot about the Japan’s wars, mythology and religion, for instance. Although Indian cartoons are based on mythology, it’s not like anyone gets real information out of them,” says the lass who has been watching the likes of One Piece, Fairy Tail and Orange for over eight years now.

The influence of anime is so far reaching that a lot of Bengalureans have not just learnt Japanese but have careers inspired by them as well! “I’ve been watching it since I was three and I grew up wanting to be an illustrator. Thanks to the very attractive anime eyes, sharp jaw line and features that I began to draw, I got a degree in animation and visual effects. There’s a lot of preproduction work that goes into making these cartoons and that’s what I specialise in too,” says Christina David.

In the midst of watching her all time favourite Inuyasha and preparing for her cosplay costume perhaps from the hit series, Katekyo Hitman Reborn! like she tells us, the 21-year-old is also prepping to crack exams to do a master’s degree from Japan!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the anime scene is massive in Bengaluru. We even have a designated Bangalore Anime Club and an Animatusuri (Anime Festival).

“The club started out in 2006 on the now obsolete Orkut with 12 members and today it has over 5,000 people with regular meetings where we not just introduce each other to new shows, exchange them, but also hold card and beyblade tournaments,” explains 28-year-old Rahul Karan Diwakar.

The number of anime meets only seem to be increasing. “For instance, for the first time in India, there’s something called the Otaku Karaoke Night happening today at Opus Out of the Box, where we not only get to cosplay as our favourite anime characters, but also get to sing anime tunes, some of which are catchy Japanese pop/rock songs,” adds Anushruti, who hopes to sing Shiki No Uta (meaning Song of Four Seasons) at the gig. Although she’s a vocal instructor, she says it’s challenging. And that’s the thing about anime fans, they will go to any lengths simply, for the love of it.