KOCHI: Once every month, the unassuming Anton Hotel at Kacheripady, Kochi, becomes a beehive of activity as members of the Kochi Anime Club, a collective of anime and manga enthusiasts, pour in for their monthly meetup.
Each event, which is accompanied by quizzes, anime merchandise and manga sales, screenings, and video game tournaments, has brought to the fore the existence of such sub-cultures and the fact that a wide section of people actually embraces them.
The beginnings of Kochi Anime Club can be traced back to a casual conversation two guys, who met over board games, had in December 2022. “Amal and I were very interested in anime. We created a small poster to announce the gathering. It was widely shared. Even then, we expected only about twenty people, but so many people showed up. That was the beginning. Last December, we celebrated our first anniversary,” says the organiser, who wishes not to be named.
Now, as interest surges, the two have planned a mega event as part of the Kerala Pop Con, a comic event, to be held at Rotary Club Balbhavan Hall in Panampilly Nagar on Sunday (January 28). To acknowledge their growing popularity, the club too has donned a new avatar — Kawaii Kochi.
“We started out as a hobby. But now, the community has grown really big. We had over 300 people attending the November event. It has come to a point where the platform too needs its own dedicated space,” explains the organiser.
‘Kawaii Kochi’ means ‘Cute Kochi’. This expansion also means new programmes — origami workshops, sushi making or kimono designing. “It’s on the to-do list. The goal is to make more content so that Kochi people can feel like there’s a place for all of these things, for them,” the organiser says.
But anime is not alien to Kochi. “A fan base for anime has always existed. But social media has made it more accessible to people. Also, the animation quality and storylines have also undergone drastic transformations over the years, thus becoming appealing to a lot more people,” he says. “Anime has something for everyone.”
On Instagram:
@kawaii.kochi
@keralapopcon
