26th October 2023, Mumbai: Zee Café Anime Fan Fest, the first-of-its-kind by Zee Café, concluded on a high recently. The two-day event, held at the Phoenix Market City, Kurla attracted anime enthusiasts, cosplayers, artists, and influencers from across the country. The Zee Café Anime Fan Fest saw a footfall of more than 11000 people with the festival offering a variety of activities, workshops, games, contests, and performances for the fans to indulge in their passion for anime and Japanese culture.
The impact of Japanese culture has been growing in the country with more and more people watching and enjoying anime on the screens. Zee Café leveraged this fan following and brought them together under one roof for their shared love of Anime. The fans seemed delighted as they socialized with like-minded people and competed for giveaways via Anime quizzes. Emcee Mihir Joshi left no stone unturned to keep the audiences entertained with his fun and impromptu games and activities.
Cosplayers in the event increased the heat with their unique anime dressing and India’s first cosplay band Daisuki was cheered by thousands of fans as they performed songs like Silhouette by Kana Boon, Gurenge by Lisa, Akuma No Ko by Ai Higuchi and Pokémon theme song amongst others. Quiz, giveaways, graffiti wall, origami, sneaker painting contest conducted by Shinichi Baadkar, owner of Sneakeranime, caricature, temporary tattoo, and Zee Zest minute to win it games formed the major attraction throughout these two days. The fans were also seen immersing themselves in Japanese culture as they learned about Omamori while also relishing authentic Japanese cuisine and snacks.
The first day was a learning spree for the Fanimes as they understood the nitty-gritty of the art of cosplay makeup from Anushruti Saha and attended a workshop on Origami conducted by Prajakta Chaudhari. A skateboarding competition was also held in partnership with Nerd Arena where multiple professionals showcased their tricks and inspired the attendees to enroll in skating tutorials as well. The second day, on the other hand, was the epitome of entertainment with a cosplay competition and an epic performance by the Daisuki Cosplay Band. Influencers like Aakash Dodeja, Simran Dhanwani and Santanu Hazarika also interacted with the audience and the event emcee – Mihir Joshi – engaged with the audience in the most entertaining way on both days.
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Mr Amit Shah, Chief Cluster Officer – West, North and Premium Channels, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. shared, “At Zee Café, we thrive on passion and Fandom for content. Be it our Breaking Bad campaign, K-Dramas or now Anime, we have seen that fandom transcends all boundaries. In India, we are increasingly witnessing Anime develop a massive audience base, and the fervour for unique offerings in this segment is phenomenal. At Zee Café, our commitment has been to recognize the audience’s needs early and stay ahead of the curve. Understanding the love for Anime in the country, we decided to curate this two-day fest for all Anime heartsand unite all fanime under one roof to celebrate their common love for this beautiful genre. We are delighted to note the overwhelming response this initiative received in Mumbai, and we are keen to now take this fest to other cities as well, giving everyone a chance to celebrate their love for Anime, as we continue to offer the best of content from this segment on the television screens.”
Adding to this Mr Rishi Parekh Chief Channel Officer- English, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. also mentioned, “Zee Café was early to recognise the audience’s passion for Anime and we were the first to telecast Anime with a Hindi language option on Indian television to make it more accessible for viewers. The encouraging response we received for the content, inspired us to curate a property through which a community of like-minded people who are passionate about Anime could be built. It was fulfilling to see it materialise so well at the Zee Café Anime Fest. All our attractions saw a massive and a positive response with overwhelming audience participation at the booths throughout these two days, making the entire event a success and inspiring us to build more such engaging events going forward.”
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