People waited in line from 3am for an animation and manga festival that opened at the National Taiwan University stadium in Taipei yesterday, organizers said.
The two-day event, in its ninth year, is organized every year by a magazine that specializes in Japanese animation and manga (Japanese comics).
More than 20,000 visitors attended the first day of the festival, event spokeswoman Su Wei-tung (
PHOTO: AP
"Some people were waiting in line since three or four in the morning," she added.
With their unique styles and storylines, Japanese animation and manga are becoming increasingly popular in Taiwan.
"I like the drawing style and the themes [of manga]," a 20-year-old student and a fan of Japanese comics said.
PHOTO: AP
The festival features 400 stalls displaying manga and related merchandise each day, organizers said.
Among the stallholders are manga publishers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan, as well as amateur cartoonists.
"These amateur cartoonists usually create their own short manga in their spare time and publish their works on their own," Su said. "So we wanted to provide an opportunity for them to showcase and sell their work."
In addition to publishers and manga creators, cosplayers are another element of the festival.
The term "cosplay" is a combination of the English words "costume" and "play." It refers to a Japanese subculture in which people dress as their favorite manga or animation characters.
The second day of the event will feature two seiyuu, or voice actresses, from Japan.
"Since characters in animation films are not real people, it is the voice actors who give soul to each character," Su said.
Voice actors in Japan have to go through strict training programs, and good voice actors can become very popular in Japan.
"Some even sing their show's theme song and hold concerts of their own," Su said,
"We're expecting the two-day event to attract more than 50,000 people altogether," she added.
The festival closes at 4pm today.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)