Taiwan’s animation industry showcased its potential at the Fancy Frontier manga expo over the weekend in Taipei as it seeks to raise its international profile.
There were 2,200 booths at the expo at National Taiwan University’s stadium on Saturday and Sunday, which drew more than 70,000 visitors, organizers said.
The expo showcased works featuring Tainan’s Fucheng Siaoman girl character, which is used to introduce the city’s culture; Kaohsiung’s iPASS payment system’s “magical girls” series used on cards; and Taiwan Mopetz Co’s figurines based on alcohol sales-promotion girls.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The figurines, which can hang on the side of glasses, have become popular in China and Japan, as well as attracting the attention of consumers in France and Italy, the company said.
The figurines were the company’s first innovation, and they share an aspect of Taiwan’s unique drinking culture with the world, Mopetz business director Lin Nu-hui (林女惠) said.
Mopetz is also looking at working with animal protection agencies that might want to use its Tiger Girl character in promotional materials, Lin said.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
Tainan Department of Culture and Creativity Community Union director-general Chen Hsin-yu (陳信宇) said that when he saw the Jupiter Girl character last year that personifies Tainan’s Chihkan Tower he decided to create an animated character to help promote the city’s history, cuisine and culture to tourists.
A fan of anime and manga, Chen came up with the character Fucheng Siaoman, which was accepted by the Tainan Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Ministry of Culture.
Vofan, an artist with 20 years of experience as a painter, was hired to create Siaoman.
Vofan said he decided to draw a girl in Western-style clothes, using the indigenous moth orchid and the pheasant-tailed jacana as inspiration for her clothing, and with traditional Tainan paper cuttings as a background.
Tainan is now using the Fucheng Siaoman character in its promotional materials.
Business opportunities are abundant as animated characters have become “virtual idols” for comic fans and the use of animated characters as company and product mascots is growing, expo organizers said.
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