Young girls and boys on Saturday crowded The Heritage Garden in Sanepa to attend the Comic and Cosplay Convention Nepal 2017 organized by Next Entertainment in association with The Arbitary Group. The event had various musical performances, cosplay competition and stalls.
The one-day event saw youths dressed in different characters from popular anime series ‘One Piece’, ‘Naruto’, ‘Fairy Tail’, ‘Attack on Titan’, ‘Pokémon’, ‘Tokyo Ghoul’ and ‘One Punch Man’, among others. Apart from the anime series, the participants had also dressed as characters from ‘Harry Potter’ and Korean hit drama ‘Goblin’.

Those who had dressed up to attend the event were allowed a free entry. Among them, interested ones were also allowed to register for a cosplay competition. “While registering, the participants provided us with the details and soundtracks/videos they wanted to be played in the background during their performances,” said Shalini Rana, one of the co-founders of Next 
Entertainment. 

Three among the participants were announced winners and awarded gift hampers. 
Siblings, Sarah and Rebekah Magar, had dressed as the female version of Naruto and Sasuke from ‘Naruto’. The sisters-duo shared that being avid anime fans, they thought it would be a nice change to pose as the two leading male characters of the series. 

Sarah chose to be Naruto because she finds the character cheerful, helpful and friendly, who deeply cares and values his friendship. Rebekah, on the other hand, chose to dress as Sasuke for his bold and fierce characteristics. Because of their look, Sarah and Rebekah grabbed a fair amount of attention as people were lining up to take photographs with the two sisters.
In events like these, it is not uncommon to find people dressed in gender bent roles. Another participant, Rajiv Rai, was dressed as the snow queen, Elsa, from the popular animated movie ‘Frozen’. According to Rajiv, he decided to enjoy the event dressed as Elsa because he loved her character in the movie. 

Posing as Nashiro, one of the one-eyed twins from ‘Tokyo Ghoul’, participant Kanchan Thapa Magar said she loved the character for it has an intriguing story despite having played a negative role in the series. This is her second time participating in such an event, and believes they act as a platform to exchange diverse cultures and interests.

Twelve-year-old Joy Gurung, who attended the event with his brother but did not come dressed up, said he wanted to see and attend more of such events so that he could share his love for anime as well as manga with like-minded people. 

According to Kavin Shah, Co-Founder/Managing Director of Next Entertainment, the motive behind organizing such an event was to promote anime fandom that has been on the rise among Nepali youths. Kavin, who is an anime aficionado himself, informed that Next Entertainment is also working to create a local manga keeping in mind its craze in Nepal.

Founder of The Courtyard Studio, Bijaya Maharjan, who had a stall at the event, said Nepal has a diverse market for the production of new and customized graphic items. His products, including photos, posters, puzzles and key rings, were popular among the visitors. 

He also stressed that cosplay has been practiced in Nepal since long in various forms during jatras and festivals.