6A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
FRIDAY. APRIL 15, 2005
Anime mania comes to Kansas Union
CLUBS
BY NEH MULKA
nmulka@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
The KU Anime club is hosting Nakau-Kan, an anime convention, at noon, Sunday on the fifth floor of the Kansas Union.
The Kansas Union might soon be full of people dressed up as Japanese cartoon characters.
Anime — also known as 'Japanamation' — are Japanese cartoons characterized by futuristic themes, robot-like characters and colorful imagery.
Naka is the Japanese word for "middle" and Kon is short for convention, said Brian Smith, KU Anime club president and Bonner Springs senior.
The purpose of the convention is to get everyone from the University of Kansas and Lawrence interested in anime in the same room, said Kristina Dobbs, Atchison senior and KU Anime club vice president.
"We want to bring in people who are interested and meet people like themselves." Dobbs said.
The event will include a viewing of about 10 recently released
anime titles and music videos.
As with most anime conventions the costume contest will be the most popular aspect of the event, Smith said.
"It's always the biggest event at an anime convention," Smith said. "People like to show off how they make them."
Winner of the contest will receive a plush Grunty, a character from the anime "hack//Sign," pronounced "Dot Hack Sign."
Inuyasha, Naruto and Dragon Ball Z characters are usually the most popular characters during costume contests.
A karaoke room will be set up for participants to sing along to Japanese pop music and anime
The KU Anime club is expecting members from similar clubs at Kansas State and Emporia State to attend the convention, Dobbs said.
show tunes.
There will also be a manga — Japanese comics — drawing workshop and a video game competition.
Anime has been surging into the mainstream with the popularity of Pokemon and DragonBall in the late '90s
The Cartoon Network features anime daily on "Toonami" and "Adult Swim."
More recently, full-length anime movies such as "Cowboy Bebop" and "Ghost in the Shell" have played in mainstream theaters.
Liberty Hall Video, 642 Massachusetts St., has some anime on VHS but wants to build it up on DVD, said Doug Redding, manger of the video section.
Redding wants to attend the convention to get insight on what's popular with the anime crowd, which he describes as a selective group of people.
FOR MORE
A complete schedule of showtimes can be found online at kansan.com
"I'm basically looking for the top anime collections," Redding said. "I'm trying to cherry-pick the best."
Smith is expecting 300 people to attend the convention.
As of Wednesday, about 100 people have already preregistered via the KU Anime Club's Web site, kuantimeclub.com. The event is open to the public and is free. Anyone interested in attending the convention can either pre-register at the site or show up at the event.
Edited by Lori Bettes
Illustration by Cameron Monken
CAMPUS
World Expo to have international flavor
International Student Association and the International Student Scholar Services will hold the World Expo and Fashion Show and the Festival of Nations this afternoon.
More than 60 countries have signed up for the World Expo and Fashion Show, which will be held from noon to 5 p.m. in the Kansas Union Ballroom and Parlors.
Each country will have a table set up where all students can come to learn about different countries and cultures, sample food and check out the
different types of clothing.
"It's just amazing how much diversity we have on campus, but you never get to see it all in one place like at the World Expo," said Joe Potts, ISSS director.
Following the expo, students are welcomed to come celebrate the 53rd annual Festival of Nations also held in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
Estuardo Garcia
The festival will showcase the many artistic talents from KU students from around the world.
They will perform traditional music, dance and songs of their countries.
The festival will begin at 7 p.m.
Smoking ban case to be decided today
LAWRENCE
The first legal challenge to the city's smoking ban will be decided today in Douglas County municipal court.
Dennis Steffes, owner of Last Call, 729 New Hampshire St., and Coyote's night club, 1003 E. 23rd St., has challenged five citations issued to him for violating the city's smoking ordinance.
Steffes and his attorney have argued that Kansas state law pre-empts the city's smoking ban. They have also argued that the wording of the ordinance is unconstitutionally vague. The vagueness of a law
is based on elementary notions of fairness, said Richard Levy, professor in the School of Law. It is unfair to penalize someone for conduct he did not know was illegal, he said. Steffes and his attorney, Bill Rork, were unavailable for comment.
In an interview after the case was filed in February, Steffes said the smoking ordinance did not clearly define how the ban was supposed to be enforced. He did not think his bars were violating the ordinance when he received citations, Steffes said.
The city has argued that the ordinance is not pre-empted by state law and that the terms of the ordinance are clear, said David Corliss, director of legal
services for the city. Judge Randy McGrath was expected to make a decision on the case today at about 8 a.m., according to Douglas County municipal court.
If McGrath rules in favor of Steffes, it would be up to the court to interpret what parts of the law are valid or invalid.
The court could invalidate the entire ordinance or it could just reinterpret the scope of the ban, Levy said.
If any part of the ordinance is invalidated by the court, the city could attempt to redraft it and avoid the problems, he said.
Corliss said he expected McGrath to make his decision without hearing oral arguments.
— Jason Shaad
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