Jason Charles Mille set to thrill anime, manga, video game, and anime fans in Baltimore. Image: Otakon

BY KAZAD

Types of Anime Fans

Fans of anime culture fans are everywhere. As the Japanese culture spreads across the globe, it continues to gain fans exponentially. There is a general misconception that there are just two types of anime fans: Otaku and Weaboos. This is further from the truth. Otakon has proven through its conventions over the years that there are many types of anime fans. Many of them will be at this year’s Otakon event.

Anime fans are categorized by their position on the types of anime fans hierarchy. At the top of the hierarchy is the group The Industry Standard. This group includes animators, Seuyuus, illustrators, and Mangaka. The Content Creator is on the same level as The Industry Standard group. This group includes Youtubers, Bloggers, Podcasters, and Anchors

Those who are just familiarizing themselves with the anime culture are known as The Beginner. Some anime fans are identified by sexuality.

Anime Fans Converge

The Types of anime fans hierarchy is long and always growing. Here are 15 types of anime fans you will encounter at this year’s Otakon.

• Beginner
• Normie
• Ultimate Sage
• Shipper
• Weeaboo
• Seiyuu
• Fandom Intellectual
• Shounen Enthusiast
• Anime Hipster
• Fujoshi
• Cosplayer
• Closet Weeb
• The activist
•  Furry
• Elitists

ENTERTAINMENT| READ ALSO: Sexy Anime Girls Bring Heat to Baltimore Otakon

Since 1999, Otakon Convention has been a meeting point for young and old who love Asian culture. Otakon celebrates popular Japanese culture and serves as a gateway to a deeper understanding of Asian culture. There is a particular focus on anime, manga, video games, and music from the Far East.

Lotus Juice Set to Entertain Anime Fans

Preparations are in top gear to make this year’s Convention better than previous ones. Like other years, Otakon Matsuri will kick off the Convention on August 11. The venue is Baltimore’s beautiful West Shore Park at the Inner Harbor. Otakon Matsuri will provide great fun for the manga, Asian culture, and anime fans. There will be games, contests, prizes, live entertainment, and great food.

Several exciting artists and musicians are already on the lineup for the Otakon Matsuri festival. One of them is Lotus Juice. Juice is a rap pioneer popular for his Japanese anime game music. He draws his inspiration from 90’s hip-hop J-Pop, dub, rock, comedy, love, manga, and many more. He has worked with Shoji Meguro from Atlus Japan, ripping the mic on the track Mass Destruction on the game Persona 3. Juice is a frequent traveler and a popular face at anime and game conventions in Argentina, Mexico, and the USA. He has composed music for much of the Persona series. Juice has also collaborated with Taque Iwasaki and gained substantial recognition from their joint effort. He is currently working on his third album.

Shihoko Hirata

The beautiful Shihoko Hirata is another entertainer to look out for at the Otakon Matsuri.  She is a powerful singer with a big voice. Hirata will thrill fans and send them to the dancing floor. She grew up listening to mainly funk and soul. However, Hirata has her own style of music. Her voice illuminates venues with power and soul. Hirata’s talent was recognized by Shoji Meguro in his works for Persona 4, a game with international recognition and loved by many fans around the world. The soundtrack to Persona 4 earned a Nihon Gold Disc Award for Soundtrack.

Diana Garnet

Diana Garnet is another artist to watch at Otakon Matsuri 2016.  Born in Washington D.C., U.S.A., Garnet was heavily influenced by her anime-loving father. She was immersed into anime and manga culture at a young age.  That love for anime culture grew into a music career that blends East and West music traditions.

Diana Garnet is one of the few prominent foreign artists on a major Japanese record label. Her journey to a musical career began after listening to Yuzurenai Negai by Naomi Tamura. Tamura’s story was a major inspiration for Garnet, fueling her determination to became a singer in Japan.

Inspiration, determination, and luck met in 2013. While working as a middle-school English teacher in Japan, Garnet entered the Nodojiman, The World 2013 Spring, a nationwide karaoke TV show for foreigners on NTV. She was not only crowned the winner of the contest, she also secured a major label debut at the same time.

Making Great Strides

Garnet has featured in Flow’s best album as a guest vocalist. Her success is the reason she was declared the “likely breakout stars of 2015” in Yahoo! Japan’s Video Topic Awards. Garnet’s presence at Otakon Matsuri will add color to the funfest that will include manga and anime fans.

Drake McWhorter

Drake McWhorter’s performance will add excitement to this year’s event. Better known as Trailer Drake or Comic Drake, McWhorter has helped produce the SideScrollers podcast, the daily news show Hard News on Screw Attack website. He currently produces the insanely entertaining, but informative Comic Drake channel. An anime fanatic, McWhorter is set to excite the audience at the Matsuri event.

Nerdy People of Color (NPC Collective)

Nerdy People of Color (NPC Collective) is a group that combines the musical and artistic talents of people of color. The group will be a major attraction at this year’s Otakon Matsuri. Members of the group that will be at this year’s event include music composer and producer Richie Branson and rapper, producer and trombonist Ryan “Kadesh Flow” Davis. Others include business process engineer and musician 1Up Creative Mindframe; and musician Eye.Q.

NPC Collective started as a way of encouraging people of color who want to create music, art, or think differently than their counterparts. It is the platform for people of color who are discouraged and forced to conceal their thoughts and ideas.

Rappers & Educators

Raheem “Mega Ran” Jarbo, the founder of the collective, set up the group with the main objective of bringing together like-minded creatives who enjoy nerdy things and have faced teasing or worse as a result. NPC Collective includes rappers, educators, students, athletes, and even a WWE superstar.

Songwriter, singer, and voice actor Jason Charles Miller is another major highlight of this year’s Otakon Matsuri. A lover of manga,  anime movies, and Asian culture, Miller is popular in the anime world.  With more than two decades of professional experience, he is set to thrill fans at the festival. Miller is originally from Clifton, Va., but now lives in Los Angeles, where he owns and runs the successful recording complex, Central Command Studios.

Miller is the frontman and founder of the rock band Godhead, the only band on Marilyn Manson’s Posthuman Records. The band has sold more than 250,000 albums and toured the world with the likes of Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, Disturbed, GWAR, Slipknot, Rammstein, Linkin Park, and Korn frontman Jonathan Davis.

Miller has co-written songs with artists Marilyn Manson, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ben Moody of Evanescence, and Chuck Goff of the Toby Keith Band. Others include Jeordie White of Nine Inch Nails, Driver Williams of the Eric Church Band, and many others. He has also received two Gold Record Awards for sales. One was for the Godhead song Penetrate on the Queen of the Damned movie soundtrack. The other was for The End Has Come, which he wrote and performed with Evanescence founder Ben Moody for the movie The Punisher.

As a voice actor, Jason has appeared in over 60 animated productions and dozens of video games, and live-action productions.

Are you going to this year’s Otakon Conventions? Where do you belong in the Types of Anime Fans hierarchy? Share your experience about the convention. Join the art conversation: Share your thoughts and comments.

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