Kenyans get creative to join manga cosplay craze

Cosplay has taken hold in Kenya, where fans must often get creative to dress up as their fantasy heroes. 

Thousands attended the latest edition of the Otamatsuri anime and manga convention in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, this weekend — one of the largest in Africa — with many in extravagant costumes inspired by hits like “One Piece” and “Naruto”. 

Sourcing the materials can be a challenge, though. 

Julius Mokaya, a building caretaker who has twice won the event’s costume competition, does not have money to import expensive costumes so relies on cardboard and other material that he salvages from recycling bins. 

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.