Anime and Disney

Ok this is probably a pit off topic but it’s the best I can think of right now. This past weekend I attended an anime convention called NekoCon. I love anime (Japanese’s Animation). Now it’s mostly a purely anime convention but you can also find items of Japanese culture such and Kimonos and Tea ceremony items and such. There is also usually a weapons booth featuring items of both Eastern and Western origin. But the Con also has a video game aspect. If you walk through the game room you find more than a dozen games of Japanese origin and maybe one or two of Western origin depending on the Con.

Now it’s common practice to dress up at these Cons and people go as both characters from actual animes and video games. What got me this year was the number of people dressed as Disney characters. At first I didn’t know what they were doing dressed and these characters, but then I realized that they were dressed as characters from the Kingdom Hearts video game. A game that features not only Disney characters but several anime characters from games and shows that Disney either holds the American license on, or is affiliated with (Final Fantasy being one).

Until then I hadn’t really associated Disney and anime even though Disney sponsored the American release of the Japanese’s animated films Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. Even though I knew about it before hand it was still surprising to see. Disney and some of the more popular animes aren’t something people tend to put together.