An evening with Tokyopop

Written by Ross Locksley on 02 Sep 2007

Tokyopop have been holding their ReCon evenings across the UK in Waterstones book shops for a while now. Recently they arrived in Harrogate, so I decided to pop down there and see what goes on at these events.

Entry was £1.50, which you could pay in advance, and the ReCon lasted 2 hours (6-8pm). When I arrived there were around 50 people in attendence, ranging in age from 7 to 35 (plus various parents, but we won't guess their ages!).

The event took place on the top floor, where a range of free Japanese snacks were available, with coca cola or water available to keep everyone going. The manga was 3 for 2 during the event, and helpful members of Waterstone's staff were on hand to take your money during the intervals.

The evening starts with an introduction from Tokyopop, in this case handled by Andrew Whelan, where we learned about the evening's activities. There was a Cosplay competition, an art competition and a Tokyopop Quiz (which yours truly dismally failed!)

The Cosplay competition was well organised, and from 50 guests we had 10 cosplayers, all of which were very good. The audience got to vote for the entrants, and each cosplayer introduced themselves and their characters.

After this, we voted on the artwork and handed in our quiz answers. This was followed by Andrew talking us through Tokyopop's latest releases, upcoming Nintendo games (sponsors of the event) and then unveiling a Wii for people to play on.

All in, though geared toward promotion, the evening was clearly enjoyed by everyone. Prizes were given to competition winners and through a raffle, most of the Japanese sweets were eaten, and from what I saw an awful lot of books were sold!

I was impressed with Andrew's stamina - he managed the 2 hour event unaided, and kept everyone entertained for the duration of the event. Anyone with questions were given full and (very) honest answers, and although the event emptied after about an hour and a half, everyone left happy.

I was struck by how young some of the attendees were, and it really hammers home just how much the UK scene has changed over the years. I was 13 when I first started reading manga, and considered myself pretty advanced at the time - but to see 7 year olds reading it, pronouncing Japanese names corrrectly and asking intelligent questions was really quite impressive.

If you have the chance to go to a ReCon in your area, I'd highly recommend it. Take some friends, mingle and enjoy the atmosphere, it's £1.50 very well spent.