NEMACON: North East Manga & Anime Convention

This month Middlesbrough saw its first North East Manga and Anime Convention and it certainly made an impact.
NemaCon was an event 18 months in the making running in 3 venues across the whole June 19th weekend.
That is not to say it all went without a hitch.
Staff were seen running from pillar to post intent on getting things running smoothly. I have no illusions about this event. It wasn’t perfect, and the opening day timetable was considerably altered due to technical difficulties, but things ran considerably better on the second day.

Guests at the event included a number of Manga artists including Emma Viecelli, Sonia Leong, Chie Katsuwada, Jennika Iofreda and Alice De Ste Croix. Samurai descendant and cultural lecturer, Akemi Solloway also conducted a series of lectures on Japanese culture, language and traditions which were well received by attendees.
Akemi is an elegant soul, a polite and knowledgeable woman who was a captivating host and was on the whole a very informative and entertaining guest.

Sonia Leong gave presentations on the science of page layouts with a brief overview of what it means to produce manga style work. Sonia delivered some quite useful information if not in a scarily over exuberant manner. A spirited attitude shared by cosplay expert Missy Tetra/Natasha Tyler.

Missy Tetra at NemaCon. Photo Courtesy of Ian Marshall

Missy Tetra gave presentations on cosplay and wig-making as well as being available to help con-goers with more specific costume woes. Missy Tetra was cosplay guest of honor, and, amongst the other guests, helped judge a number of contests running during the event.

The time table saw a variety of anime related events in addition to these panels such as the Lolita coordinates fashion show, cosplay masquerade and skit contest. For a first year event, if not for an anime convention in general the cosplays were of an impressive caliber.
Some stand out costumes were that of the Brutal Legend Eddie Riggs Cosplayer and an impressive Monster Hunter costume which surprised con-goers further with its gender bending wearer, not to mention a wealth of Naruto and Dragonball Z cosplayers

Panels on Yaoi and Yuri ran as part of the event for more mature attendees, as well as the eventual closing party on the Sunday night with a burlesque  performance from Violet Magenta and anime related tuneage as part of the evenings entertainment.

Goku faces off against Naruto at NemaCon. Photo Courtesy of Michael Tuckwell

Nemacon was a thoroughly entertaining weekend and proved a lot of things. There is demand for an event of this sort and a bustling anime fandom community in the North East if not the entire of the UK. NemaCon itself proves that an anime convention can be run in Middlesbrough with help of fans, congoers and little Lolita everywhere.

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