Japanese animation at du Forum wows Yas Island
abu dhabi — A giant Godzilla towers above the du Forum in Yas Island. It’s a specimen of the surreal world created at the three-day anime, manga and Japanese cultural festival – ANI:ME, which began on Thursday.
Inside the du Forum is the Who’s Who of Japanese animation world starting with Yoshitaka Amano, the artist behind Speed Racer and Final Fantasy franchise.
The Panther, one of Amano’s sculptures, valued at $3.5 million is on display. Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, who inaugurated the event admired the 400kg ‘Panther’.
A group of artists were busy creating street fighter and other characters. Anime artist Long Vu, with over 15 years of experience in the field, said his street fighter Ryu and Chun-Li are always in demand. “People come and ask me to draw these two characters,” he said.
At present, he is the creative director and producer at Udon Entertainment. He has worked as a comic creator, illustrator and art director for Disney, Marvel, Warner Bros and more. Then there are classic manga and anime like Grendizer and Astroganger on display.
Among other activities is cosplay — a performance art where participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayer Phil Mizuno is among the many international names at the event.
“I am from Canada. It was at a Los Angeles event from where I got invite for this event. I was at the right place at the right time,” said Mizuno, who plays as Koga the wolf demon from manga series ‘Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale’.
Ambassador of Japan to the UAE, Kanji Fujiki, said this event is only the first step among many planned to build cultural ties. And the Emiratis were out in numbers catching up on Anime and Manga works.