Costumed fans of anime descend on downtown Winnipeg

Downtown Winnipeg will look a little bit like a scene out of a Japanese animation this weekend. Ai-Kon, the Manitoba-based anime convention, will run from Friday to Sunday drawing thousands of fans decked out in colourful costumes of their favourite characters.

"It's an escape. The whole weekend is a bit of an escape. People idolize these characters," said Tracy Nauss-Laurie, president of Ai-Kon.

Ai-Kon focuses on anime, manga, and Japanese culture. Anime is a style of Japanese animation that is known for vibrant colours and characters, and fantasy-based storylines. Manga is a style of Japanese comic book or graphic novel.

Fans often celebrate the animation style by dressing up as their favourite characters and participating in cosplay, or costume play, where they perform skits or simply interact with others while incharacter.

"Cosplay is an opportunity for fans of varying [types of] anime and manga, and the characters within them, to dress up like those characters and pretend to be someone else for the weekend," said Nauss-Laurie.

"It makes them feel powerful, and makes them feel good about themselves. It's just a lot of fun."

A chance to express your passion

Sasha Leggett and Rebecca Lauder, both 12, are going to be at the convention most of the weekend. They each dressed as their favourite anime characters.

Leggett has been to a few other conventions before this one and has decided to dress as Alois Trancy from the manga series, Black Butler.

"He's kind of a vengeful little 14-year-old. Very angry and temperamental but still likeable," said Leggett.

"I kind of relate to him a lot. The second I saw him I was like 'that's me'" she said.

Lauder is at Ai-Kon for the first time in the hopes of finding new friends with similar interests. Lauder dressed as her favourite character, Tsukiyama, who is from another manga series,Tokyo Ghoul.

"When you dress as a character you kind of get into their personality," said Lauder.

"It's a way of expressing what you like. Instead of just watching or reading manga at home, you can go out and meet people that like the same things."

The convention has a cosplay masquerade, fashion show, video games, tournaments, and speaker panels throughout the weekend.

Artists and vendors will be on hand selling merchandise, much of which can't be found in local stores. Everything from plush toys, to art andcollectibles, pins and buttons, as well as swords and wigs.

The convention runs 24 hours a day,from Friday at noon untilSunday at 3 p.m. Organizers are expecting over 4,000 tickets to be sold.