Thousands of manga and anime fans yesterday braved the rain brought by Typhoon Doksuri as they eagerly converged on this year’s Comic Exhibition at the World Trade Center in Taipei on the first day of the event.
Holding umbrellas, fans began lining up well before the doors opened at 10am, taking up almost the entire sidewalk around the building.
By 9:30am, all 20 designated waiting areas around the building were packed with an estimated 10,000 fans, Chinese Animation and Comics Publishers Association (CACPA) secretary-general Roger Kao (高世椿) told the Central News Agency.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
This year’s show, the 22nd, features 125 exhibitors at 1,200 booths, CACPA head Kang Zhenmu (康振木) said.
As in previous years, the event also includes live music performances, with 42 Taiwanese and Japanese pop groups and artists scheduled to perform over the next five days, the organizers said.
Travis Japan from the well-known Japanese talent agency Jonny & Associates, Inc, performed at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
In addition, 13 Japanese anime voice actors, and 30 local and overseas manga artists and illustrators are scheduled to make appearances at the event and interact with fans.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) at the opening ceremony said the turnout seemed set to be larger than at pre-COVID-19 pandemic exhibitions, which averaged an estimated 400,000 visitors per year.
This year’s Taipei International Comics and Animation Festival in January had about 400,000 attendees and created revenue of NT$100 million (US$3.2 million), Chiang said.
Judging from the turnout yesterday alone, Chiang said he was confident that the attendance at the five-day exhibition would top 500,000, which would hopefully generate revenue of more than NT$300 million.
The Comic Exhibition runs until Monday next week at Exhibition Hall 1 of the World Trade Center.
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of