An anime convention is something all anime fans in Bangladesh have been hoping for, well that dream came true. Organized by the first Bangladeshi anime community MazeCity (formerly named TeamOtaku) came Mazecon 2011. The first anime convention in Bangladesh. The event was well advertised on Facebook and all the members of MazeCity got their invites to register for the event. As considering the limited budget and space only a handful of tickets were sold. A total of around 100 people attended the event, which was held in Zigatola, Dhanmondi. Planning for the event began months ago and organizers have been working day and night on the event few days prior to it. You could say most of the staff attended the event with only a few hours of sleep and almost on an empty stomach. Well we did all this to make the event as much of a success as possible. We had a very shaky start considering some of the staff members including myself were late also the presentation on the Japanese writing and anime genres got deleted somehow, but still we somehow managed to patch things up and then people started coming one after the other. All their tickets were checked by our staff members and were allowed entry to the venue. I quickly took my camera and went inside to witness the largest gathering of anime fans that I have ever seen.
Truly a sight that would make an Otaku(Anime Fan) think “Wow this is something!” and it was. Before the event started me and the other photographers took pictures of delegates and cosplayers as they were chatting and having fun. The event started off with the members of TeamOtaku taking the stage;for those of you who didn’t know, TeamOtaku was actually the former name of MazeCity when it had very few members compared to now. The name was dropped as far as I know due to the word Otaku which is not taken in a well manner in Japan. The name still lives on as the founders even today think of themselves as TeamOtaku and they truly are considering what they have accomplished in an era where there were no such things as gatherings for anime fans and barely an anime DVD store or high speed internet to download them. Enough of the history though. Going back to the event, the members of TeamOtaku after taking the stage shared with us their stories. Stories of how they first met each other and how they all came together to form a group. How they used to watch anime when it was barely popular in Bangladesh. After it was over there was a short break before Nikhat took the stage.
Nikhat’s idea for a section on Japanese language/writing and anime genre was dead on right. Why you ask? If you had been there you would have known. Though maybe some people were not that interested at first,but as the presentation kept on going, it clearly grabbed everyone’s attention. It really brought the crowd together when the anime genre section came up that had a brief description of what the specific genre is as well as an example of anime from that genre. The examples were given as the opening videos of the respective anime in HD. And that totally brought the house down with everyone screaming in excitement after every video was played. Though the main reason everyone probably got excited was due the fact Nikhat asked everyone what anime could fall into the genres she was presenting. That led to the whole crowd screaming the names of their favourite anime. The videos were handpicked and if you’ve been there then you would have to agree that they were almost perfect. No wonder the crowd enjoyed this section of the event so much. I wish the presentation had the genres Moe and Lolicon, just kidding. But in the the credit goes to Nikhat, who not only did an amazing performance but actually put together a slide in only a few hours after we lost the initial slides we made the previous day,so I guess sleepless efforts paid off.
After Nikhat’s presentation came probably the most awaited section in anyone’s mind. Lunch! Okay maybe not. Regardless some of us were really hungry. The food was good quite to my surprise as in most events boxed foods don’t taste good. Inside the box was something that resembled quite close to the taste of a garlic bread and a huge piece of fried chicken. There was also a bottle of Mojo as the beverage. During lunch time I went around taking some mug shots of people eating. Though nothing too funny to actually post in the Facebook group. Well lunch ended soon enough and we started showing an anime movie, which was soon paused due to the fact the main guest of the event had arrived. It was none other than , Ahsan Habib, the man behind the great Bangladeshi satire magazine ‘Unmad’.
The administrators greeted Ahsan Habib with the warmest of welcomes, everyone got restless to take pictures with him or get his autograph. Thus, people were allowed to have their wishes granted. Ahsan Habib also blessed us with a speech. He especially complimented the anime fans of Bangladesh on the fact that our dedication for Japanese culture is extremely respectable and honourable. The administrators, staff members and the cosplayers didn’t forget to take group pictures with the man who gave birth to ‘Bangladeshi manga’ before he took his leave. Note that the part about Ahsan Habib in this article was written by HellBound Soul. As I was getting ready for my epic cosplay I missed my chance to meet the main guest of the event, also I thought the movie was going on so I kind of ended up taking my time. Well after dressing up I actually got shy because I mean it was the first time I had cosplayed and it was kind of embarrassing to go into the venue alone. So I told Wasio to accompany me. After entering I was greeted with kind of like a silence that really got my heart racing. And after that brief moment started all the cheering and screaming. Hey I am not making this part up, everyone was actually was astounded by my cosplay. If you still haven’t guessed I was Zabuza and along with my huge sword I ended up becoming the main attraction of the cosplay section of the event. Well after people had settled down the cosplayers lined up and came on stage to act out their favourite characters out for the audience. I was up first. After going on stage I requested for someone who cud play the dead shinobi part. HellBound Soul came up on stage and using my sword I slashed his neck and then he fell tumbling to the ground. Then came the laughing man a known hacker from the anime Ghost in the shell. I have to say even though the cosplay was simple, the idea was brilliant. Then came the fruit of my efforts Nikhat as Rukia in her shinigami costume and her beloved sword shirayuki. Her brother came on stage much later as Itachi. See when I say fruit of my efforts I mean that their costumes were made by me. So seeing them on stage just made my efforts all worthwhile. Nikhat was followed by horde of Akatsuki cosplayers. First up came Itachi number 1 aka Shinobi 21 one of the founders of Mazecity,followed by two girls cosplaying as Itachi and Konan. In my opinion the girl who cosplayed as Konan looked amazing. Well all of them did their respective ninja techniques like of fire and paper. Well just to make it short I won’t describe all of the cosplayers. Anyways then came a lot of other cosplayers. Starting from L, Ryoma Echizen from Prince of Tennis, to Katsura from Gintama. Including Hajime Saito, Yui, Edajima Heihachi, Kamiya Karou, Baby Beelzebub, Sasuke, Hei from Darker than Black, Brook, Robin and Zoro form One Piece. Some interesting things took place in the meanwhile, Baby Beelzebub was carried by the laughing man onto the stage where he accidentally dropped baby Beelzebub, which literally made everyone laughing; Zoro did his amazing sword technique which literally pumped up everyone in the audience and literally took everyone’s breath. Some group pictures were taken of cosplayers from the same anime.
There was also a battle between cosplayers from different anime like Naruto vs One piece which was a fun entertainment for the crowd and also for the people who participated. After that we had a multimedia based quiz section where the audiences were asked to see and hear a few clips and answer some questions that followed. Everyone was given an answering page and a pen to take part in the quiz. Then we started off with the karaoke section. Honestly I had doubts about this section as I thought that it would turn out horrible and people would end up laughing. But much to my surprise it actually went great. If not everyone actually enjoyed it. We had lots of people sing the opening and endings of different anime. Not to mention some of them sang multiple times as the crowd wanted to hear more. There was also a duet not to mention half the audience came on stage to sing the Pokémon song. And I have to say that truly was amazing not to mention it totally brought the crowd together. Can’t really put the karaoke section in much words as it’s something you had to see and hear for yourself to enjoy and not something that can be portrayed by words. But one thing is for sure that the singers did an amazing job considering that none of them actually know Japanese or have studied it as per my knowledge. So singing in a foreign language and actually pulling it off like that is an amazing feat.
We then moved on to showcasing some anime fan arts by our talented artists in the community. People went around browsing through some of the amazing artworks. After that came the cake cutting part, though it’s not MazeCity’s birthday we still thought that such an occasion deserved a cake and that everyone loves cake. The cake was cut by MX bhai the founder of TeamOtaku. Everyone one was given a slice, but the TO part of the cake was reserved for the members of TeamOtaku. How do I know this? That is because I asked for a slice from there lol.
The event was nearing its end so we put on some music and everyone started dancing and having fun while we prepared the results for the karaoke, cosplay and quiz winners. MX bhai announced the results and presented the winners with a trophy shaped like Luffy from One Piece. Staff members were not allowed to win so the winner of the karaoke section was Kaizoku Onni, in cosplay it was Yoi Shirou who cosplayed as Zoro and the quiz section was won by Kai who also cosplayed as Sasuke.
After the awards were given out everyone was given a gift package which consisted of a Mazecon poster and mug. I forgot to mention this before, but near the beginning of the event everyone was also given a Mazecon t-shirt. Then most of the members who came from far away left while the staff members and a few other people stayed behind. Then began something like an after party where we fooled around taking pictures, gossiping and just having fun.
We also cleaned up after the event and the photographers had to submit all the photos they took before they left. Everyone who went back home just didn’t go back with some awesome gifts but also went back with a memory that I believe they will cherish forever. So what you have been reading up till now was Mazecon 2011. So the year ends with a dream come true. Who knows maybe there will be a Mazecon 2012, something that probably might be bigger and better than this one. Let’s pray for the success of MazeCity and of events like Mazecon 2011. Animefreak155 signing out!
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