The Japan Weekend has been celebrated during the 4th and 5th of November in La Farga, Hospitalet del Lobregat. We had the opportunity to make a visit in order to discover how the world of manga and anime works. The place where this event took place was big enough in order to accommodate a big amount of visitors. This Japan Weekend was focused in order to support young content creators related with the Japan Culture. For example, streamers, illustrators, dealers and cosplayers.
The space
The polygon was distributed in different areas. Stores, associations, two stages, zones of restoration where you could eat Japaese food and some areas aimed for those video game fans where they had the opportunity to play with other guests. There were different types of stores, where you could buy anything related with your favourite manga or anime. For example, action figures, clothes, posters, katanas, second hand video games and also playstations.
An extra point of this Japan Weekend is that you could attend to conferences were some experts made speeches about drawing and tips of cosplaying. In terms of clothing, everybody could attend to this event with costumes. There were people with handmade costumes were they needed almost a month to produce their own costumes.
Para decir hey que se celebra la japan wekend, 2 puestos de comida en toda la feria, volumen muy alto de la música, productos de AliExpress, espacio mal aprovechado, en él manga barcelona se celebró hay fue más gente, no sabe venderse para lo que les cobran a los stands+
— Shiroyasha (@Shiroya54511761) March 12, 2023
The first impression that you get from this kind of events is if the people that you will meet inside will be a bit peculiar. To my surprise, people were very kind, especially when they see a camera. In events like Japan weekend anime and manga fans will find themselves as if they were in their own home. That’s because they will have the opportunity to meet new people that probably are interested in their same pastimes.
video gaming machine in the Japan Weekend: Igor Ribas
Japan Weekend is more than an experience
Japan weekend is an enriching experience for those that are interested in manga and anime and also for those that they don’t know a lot of this interesting world. As mentioned before, we had the opportunity to talk with some costumers and streamers in order to know when they started to get interested in anime or manga. At the end of this text you will find a vídeo that contains interviews and a small review of the event. Last but not least, I have to say that at the end the event was a little bit monotonous and it could be easy to get bored, especially if you are not interested in this kind of events.
Igor Ribas
