With over 3,000 active members on Facebook, an Abu Dhabi-based community group is helping spread the culture of anime in the capital, the popular Japanese style of producing animation.

The anime industry in Japan enjoys considerable success with a market value worth billions of dollars. Its wide range of genres and creativity have also made it popular internationally, including in the UAE. With its growing popularity, the community group Abu Dhabi Anime, founded in 2006, has established itself to tap into that growing interest, creating a platform for like-minded fans of Japanese anime to get together.

“The goal of our group is to have a community for people that are into Japanese anime, we wanted to have a place for them where they could come together and share their passion for the genre,” said Naureen Kamal, the head of the group.

Kamal explained that the group arranged meetups throughout the year for its members, including film screenings.

“We arrange quarterly events which usually get around 60 people attending. The events are held at cafés that offer the ideal space for us. At the event there are a whole range of activities that take place, members come share and talk about their latest favourite anime series, and we also have some very talented sketch artists who draw their favourite anime characters,” she said. “For film screenings, we try to arrange as many as we can, but it is challenging because it’s always subject to the availability. We have at least two film screenings a year, which is a great way of getting our members together,” she added.

With its large social media presence, the group is also active on the internet. “If we are not holding events then we are certainly updating our members on the latest news in the anime scene in the UAE,” she said.

“If there is an anime event that is happening outside our group, we will help promote that event. The group also regularly posts about the latest anime films, our goal is to keep a pulse on the anime genre, and for our page to be the go-to place for fans in the UAE to find the latest news about what’s happening in Japanese anime,” she added.

Kamal said that she has been able to witness the steady rise in popularity of Japanese anime in the UAE compared to when she joined the group in 2008.

“There is a definite interest in anime these days, it’s much more popular than 10 years ago. We have even seen popularity with our own group because we always get new faces joining our events.

“I remember when I was in school, some of me and my friends did cosplay, which was to dress up as our famous anime characters, and we would often get discouraged by other students who would call us freaks. Nowadays, however, cosplay is much more accepted and visible,” she added.

Kamal also said the themes tackled in Japanese anime are another reason for its growing popularity. “A lot of people are able to relate to the themes of anime shows and films, they deal with things like respecting others, friendship, loyalty, and underdogs becoming heroes.”

As well as bringing fans of anime together, Kamal said the group was bringing the community together, thanks to its broad multicultural make-up.

“The group has members of all nationalities — we have Emiratis, Europeans, Indians, Filipinos, and people from all countries. It’s a great melting pot, people of all different backgrounds and ages coming together to share their love and passion for anime.

“It’s been great to see people come out of their shells thanks to our events, some of them would initially be quiet or have a lack of communication skills, but afterwards they really opened up and that made us very proud to see,” Kamal added

source : gulfnews