Kenyan Anime Fans Get Creative With Cardboard, PVC in Cosplay Craze

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Kenyan Anime Fans Get Creative With Cardboard, PVC in Cosplay Craze

Cosplay culture is gaining popularity in Kenya, where anime and manga fans are turning to creativity and recycled materials to recreate the looks of their favourite fictional characters. Thousands of enthusiasts attended the latest Otamatsuri anime and manga convention in Nairobi over the weekend, one of Africa’s largest events of……

Cosplay culture is gaining popularity in Kenya, where anime and manga fans are turning to creativity and recycled materials to recreate the looks of their favourite fictional characters.

Thousands of enthusiasts attended the latest Otamatsuri anime and manga convention in Nairobi over the weekend, one of Africa’s largest events of its kind.

Many participants arrived in elaborate costumes inspired by popular Japanese franchises, including One Piece and Naruto.

For some fans, however, creating the costumes can be challenging due to the high cost of materials and imported outfits.

Julius Mokaya, a building caretaker who has won the convention’s costume competition twice, said he cannot afford expensive imported costumes and instead relies on cardboard and other materials collected from recycling bins.

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His modest apartment is full of homemade weapons, masks and accessories, and he spent months designing this year’s costume, based on Enjin, from the manga “Gachiakuta”, a story about an exile in a dumping ground.

Fittingly, the message of the story is “that trash and things thrown out aren’t really bad”, he told AFP.

It can still be an expensive hobby, though: “I’m broke half the time, but… I love the creative aspect, the deep dive into research and understanding the character,” he said.

This year’s winner, 24-year-old Yvonne Chockey, dressed as Angewomon, an angel character from a Japanese franchise.

She, too, had to get her hands dirty, using a hot-sand technique to heat and bend PVC pipes that became the frame for eight massive white wings.

“I had to cut each feather one by one and then attach them to the base. That was the most difficult part,” she said.

Even in a highly globalised country like Kenya, the hobby can still raise a few eyebrows.

“Relatives saw what I was doing on social media and asked my father if I had joined a cult,” said Mokaya.

But the convention’s organiser Jotham Micah, co-founder of the Movie Jabber company, said more than 4,000 people had attended this weekend’s event, and that “the beauty of anime and manga has transcended the borders of culture”.

“It gives you life. It gives you inspiration,” he said.