A whole new world: Looking kawaii in Karachi

Japanese anime and cosplay culture finds its niche in the city's youth

KARACHI: Pakistan's youth have discovered that animated characters and comics are a fun way to experience another culture without leaving your home.

Eight years ago, Metal Seinen, a non-governmental organisation working on promoting culture, being an incubator provider and being a supportive organisation for mentorship, developed the trend of Japanese animation or 'anime' in Karachi.

"People here are getting involved with Japanese games and fantasy, as well as the anime culture," said Shoaib Ali, communications manager at Metal Seinen. "The popularity is so much that Japanese cosplays [costume plays] have been held in Karachi thrice in a single year and, resultantly, have even become a part of the Islamabad social scene via Twin Con," he explained excitedly.



According to Ali, anime has truly picked up amongst the local youth, especially with the release of comics such as Burka Avenger and Glassworks. Japanese anime has found its mark in Pakistan, with participants ranging from 12 to 35 years of age, he said.

"Apart from entertainment, cosplay events allow participants to meet face to face and interact with others who have similar interests, find people who are like them, are like-minded and who have certain hobbies and cultural know-how," described Ali. He confessed that around eight-years-ago, when he first started in this field, he was apprehensive about the number of people interested in anime but he soon learnt that many in Pakistan share his passion for animation.

Behind the scenes

Amal Tariq, who entered the business of making costumes about two months back said, "Either people do it for fun or they do it as an art form; I get involved keeping both of these aspects as possibilities".

So far, since he took an interest in anime in 2013, he has designed costumes for five different anime characters and says he believes he has an inborn talent and skill to create costumes. "I think anyone can learn how to make them," he added.

For 18-year-old Zoya Pal, Mikasa from Attack on Titan was the first character she ever cosplayed. In 2013 she participated in a cosplay at the Dekho Japan event in Karachi.



"The first time I went to a cosplay I was essentially alone, as my friends were arriving way later but I saw people who were getting excited and, though I am innately shy, I gained a bit of confidence to stand up and enact my character on stage," she explained. It allows you to build on your confidence a lot more than you would ever believe yourself to be capable of, she added.

Pal says that since that fateful day, there has been no turning back for her. For cosplays in which she dresses up, she says she never buys an entire costume. "For my costumes, half of the items are bought and the other half are improvised. I do need to buy the wigs but the small details of the character I do completely myself."

Pal's love affair with anime began when she was just six-years-old. "I was first drawn towards particular cartoons, which at the time I did not know were anime. However, with the passage of time my interest in these characters grew and later, while browsing the web, I learned that there was a whole new world out there," she recalled. "Moving from graphic novels to animated films and unveiling the world and varied forms of animation drove me to love cosplay."

For the love of cosplay

"Youths socialise at cosplays. It's a socialising activity, but more than that there it's basically a costume competition," explained Ali. "The criteria of the competition fall into two sections; how well the costume has been stitched and how well you portray the character."

"First you need to register yourself, dress up as a character and turn up to attend. Once at the event you need to pose, walk and talk, probably even fight pose, like the anime character and later you will be judged by a panel of judges and the cosplay community as to how well you performed it live," narrated Pal.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2016.