Presentations

A semester in Japan

A semester or a year at a university abroad is probably one of the most exciting experiences a university can offer. What does it look like? What to expect when applying, when abroad, and afterwards? AniMatsuri’s Heikki Saul will be sharing his recent experiences studying in Japan at Hokkaido University.

Rokudan no shirabe - the six step road

In this Yatsuhashi Kengyō’s (1614-1685) piece for the koto with an easily memorable melody, every step is similar to the next but still different, bringing is both closer and taking us away. The Japanese traditional music culture has had influences from its Eastern neighbors, but has created a special refined world of sounds according to its tone sensitivity, often hiding the magic between the sounds.

I will introduce the Japanese traditional music culture through the instruments. These are koto, biwa, shamisen, shakuhachi, kugo harp, and percussion instruments.

Japanese idols

I will explain the term “Japanese idols”, what is their position and role in the Japanese society. Where comes the term, what audience is the idol industry aimed at. Small differences between male and female idol groups. I will bring examples from the most famous idols and will discuss relations within a group and between group members, using Johnny & Associates and their two boy groups as an example. How teens get into this business and how they become stars, what rules and lifestyles the idol group members have to follow. What are the idols’ model shows. Additionally I will bring out the differences between how the Japanese and European fans treat their idols and why the Japanese idols could be interesting to an European.

Japanese society

The presentation will give an overview of the Japanese society and what sort of development and challenges it has faced (employment, education, healthcare, minorities, the role of women).

Nightcore 101

Surely while surfing on the internet you’ve stumbled upon strange sped up music called Nightcore that is almost always somehow connected to anime and general otaku culture. How to start with uploading Nightcore videos to Youtube or making Nightcore for your own listening pleasure but with no expenses? What surprised me and are things I would’ve liked to know when creating my Youtube channel? In this presentation I will talk about the basics of Nightcore and introduce the styles of other popular Nightcore channels.

My own channel is called Nightstep Trap and it’s over a year old. During this year I’ve gained experience with various Youtube limitations but also made a lot of friends without whom I wouldn’t have made it this far. I like the Nightcore community a lot as everyone is very supportive and helpful with bigger problems.

Haikus

Haiku is a Japanese form of short poetry, with three fundamental elements: three lines (with syllable counts of 5-7-5), a word that references a season, and a cutting word that unites two different ideas in the poem. During the presentation, a brief overview of the history of haiku and its form will be given. Additionally, the entries for the Japan Month haiku contest will be read and best poets awarded.

Baltic conventions and festivals or how to make a geek event

Anime, comics, video games have all actually been “the thing” in the Baltic countries for more than a decade. Tens or even hundreds of thousands of people are passionate about their hobbies and gather in communities following common interests. Together with the demand for the products, the need of social interactions with the other fans has evolved. To this point, there are about 20 events annually all the way from Tallinn to Vilnius. In this presentation we will speak about the majority of them (AniMatsuri, JAFF, UniCon, WinterCon, Nyaaa, nowJapan, gameOn, etc.) and will try to understand what does it take to make a great geek event.

Taking the best photos with your phone

Introduction to better photography with your phone or difference between good photo and good Instagram.

Nowadays everyone who has a smartphone is a photographer. But some Instagram users’ pictures are somehow better than others. Why? Where is that magic button for that? We, professional photographers from Visual Culture Club, will “show” you the location of that “good looking smartphone photos” button!

Anime BLITZ

No time or energy to keep up with Japanese most colourful? Everything looks like any other big-eyed school comedy? Not to worry! We’ll look at the hottest anime series of the last year and discuss what can be expected of them. We’ll focus on each series only as long as lasts their opening.

Cosplay in Europe

Cosplay is a wonderful hobby which took over the world! Have you been wondering is it all the same everywhere? I invite you to a panel where I will tell you all about my trips over Europe and how the cosplay differs in every country – from the conventions to contests and overall atmosphere that you can feel in the cosplay communities all over our continent.

Introduction to making AMVs

In the presentation we’ll be talking about AMV as an art form through which complicated stories and emotions can be relayed. We’ll tell you what makes an AMV a good AMV and what to avoid and keep in mind in the making of one. We’ll show various programs to use and we’ll share our personal experiences with them. In addition to the technical aspect, we’ll also introduce you to the vast AMV community and known studios, and also look into contests, their formats and executions.

Japanese traditional music and nō-theatre

The Japanese nō-theatre is an almost 700 years old form of stage arts that has been compared to opera and sometimes to Greek tragedy. The carrying roll in nō-theatre is the musical reaching back to the Heian era’s court music gagaku. During the presentation we’ll look at and listen to the instruments used in nō-music, how the singers and choir perform, how the musical development and climax for the play are composed, and how nō-music has changed throughout the centuries.

Japanese pop culture in Estonian written media

In 2003, Hayao Miyazaki won an Oscar for his movie “Spirited Away”. Since then, Japanese anime has been described in Estonian press as something creative, magnificent and enthralling, but words like ‘vulgar’, ‘unaesthetic’, and ’disgusting’ have also occurred. The presentation gives an overview of the representation of the Japanese pop culture in the years 2003-2015, focusing not only on anime but also on other topics, such as manga and lolita fashion. We will look into how the choice of topics has changed over the years, is Japanese pop culture more a yellow press thing or are there any articles with deeper discussion and development, and what is written overall. We will learn if Japanese pop culture has gotten more positive or negative reactions.

The presentation is based on a Bachelor’s thesis.

Cosplay on a budget

Cosplay is a wonderful hobby that keeps you busy and helps you learn various things – how to sew, make props or even work with carpentry tools. But, it can get pretty expensive, right? After cosplaying for around 6 or 7 years now, we as a group still try to find the best and cheapest way of making cosplay. Expensive does not always mean the best – sometimes you can get a fabulous outcome just by using stuff you can find around your home – plastic bottles, corks, random wires, grandma’s closet… So in our presentation we would like to share with you all the ways how we try to save money on costume and prop making! We will focus on fabrics, detail work and regular prop making (e.g. swords, guns, staff) and techniques we use, but any other questions will be very much welcome!

The anatomy of cosplay

What is cosplay performance? What should you have in mind while performing in front of a life audience? Stop by and let’s talk a little about improving your skills on stage. Comedy, drama, dancing? It doesn’t matter – there’s a lot of ground to cover but the key elements are always the same. And I’d love to share with you what I’ve learnt within the last 10 years on various cosplay stages.