Culture

Talks, panels and workshops on various aspects of Japanese culture.

Talk: Scouting Japan

Holly Webb will share her experience of Japan, where she travelled to attend the 23rd World Scouting Jamboree in Kirara-hama with 39 other scouts from Nottinghamshire. "I met people from all walks of life and experienced Japan in all its colours, and, after my talk, you'll want to as well."

Talk: Aid for Japan

Akemi Solloway will give a talk about Aid for Japan, the charity she founded to provide long-term support for orphans of the 2011 Tohoku disaster in Japan, which the Doki Doki Festival is pleased to support.

Talk: History of Japan

Akemi Solloway will give a talk on the history of Japan.

Panel: Visiting & living in Japan

A panel session with the following guests answering the questions of anyone interested in visiting or living in Japan:

• Akemi Solloway
• Angela Davies
• Sumie Kent
• Awa Siren
• Misaki Saito

Language

Activities involving the Japanese language.

Japanese language competition

We are holding a competition for people learning to speak the Japanese language. It will be split into three levels: beginner, intermediate and advance.

For an application form, please contact us.

Food & drink

Stalls serving Japanese food and drink.

Sushi Craft

Sushi, bento and more.

Sweet Octopus

Japanese cakes and tea.

Maid café

Sweet Cupcake Academy Maids and Sweet Octopus will be providing a maid café table waiting service where, for an extra charge on your food or drink purchase, you can have it delivered to your table by a maid, with proceeds going to Doki Doki's supported charity.

Talk: Japanese food

Angela Davies will give a talk about Japanese food.

Tea ceremony

Japanese exchange student Misaki Saito will give a demonstration of the traditional tea ceremony.

Fashion & cosplay

All attendees are encouraged to attend wearing traditional or contemporary Japanese fashion or cosplay.

Please read the cosplay rules on the Doki Doki forum, especially the props rules, which apply to all attendees.

There are male and female changing rooms with coin-operated lockers available on-site.

Cosplay competition

A cosplay competition with prizes, organised by Becca from the League of Extraordinary Cosplayers and judged by a panel of cosplay guests.

Full details of the cosplay competition are available on the Doki Doki forum.

Fashion show

A pageant featuring various styles of Japanese fashion with prizes for the participants.

Sign-up will be on the day.

Photography

Real Time Events will be present all day for photo shoots, as the official festival photographer.

Other photographers are welcome to attend the festival, but should abide by the festival rules for photographers, film makers and interviewers.

Cosplay guests

The following cosplayers will be attending the festival as guests, judging the cosplay competition, holding workshops and being involved in other activities.

Ryun Stark Cosplay

Winner of the 2013 Doki Doki Festival cosplay contest, Ryun Stark has been cosplaying for just over two years.

Winning numerous other cosplay contests with his skills in pepakura: his Daderic Armour cosplay was entirely constructed using the paper and resin process. His cosplay inspiration comes from his love of gaming.

Ryun Stark Cosplay appeared on ITV's This Morning show in 2014, where he represented the community, explaining what cosplay is and how to get involved.

Rathalely Cosplay

Rathalely Cosplay started costuming in Summer 2013, specialising in video game characters.

This talented cosplayer works with a range of materials to complete her costumes, such as EVA foam and Worbla; however, she is always looking to learn and develop her craft as well as share tips with others.

Rathaley appeared on ITV's This Morning show in 2014 as Samus Aran (Metroid), where she represented the community, explaining what cosplay is and how to get involved.

Kyokyo

A recent arrival to the community, Kyokyo has brought together her love of characters and crafting in cosplaying.

Using many inspirations, such as Disney, anime and gaming, Kyokyo's cosplay wish is to bring many more well-loved characters to life.

Being told that she was "too tall" to be a meet-and-greet princess, Kyokyo used her crafting skills to make one of her dreams come true by becoming Disney characters at conventions.

Kyokyo is a friendly individual who loves to meet new people and is excited to attend and be a part of the Doki Doki Festival!

Pippa Wolf

Known for her armour builds with thermoplastics and unusual materials, Pipa Wolf is new to the cosplay community after combining her love of theatre and art with all things geeky in 2013. A huge gaming fan, Pipa recently graduated as a game designer and enjoys combining her skills and knowledge of all subjects to create large and extravagant costumes. A huge Japanophile, Pipa is looking forward to being at Doki Doki and seeing all the cosplay, food and stalls it has to offer!

Workshop: Cosplay props

Matt from Poseidon Props will run a workshop showing techniques for making cosplay props.

Workshop: Kimono dressing

A demonstration of how to dress in a traditional kimono.

Games

Video games

The Nights of Gaming will be providing a selection of modern and retro Japanese video games to play.

TOKYO Chipped will be running Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart video game tournaments with prizes. Sign-up for the tournaments will be on the day.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

A Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game tournament with a prize for the overall winner. Sign-up will be on the day.

Go

Demonstrations of the ancient board game of Go by the British Go Association.

Films

Anime and live-action Japanese film screenings throughout the day.

Welcome to the Space Show

Directed by Kouji Masunari & Masaaki Yuasa, 2010; cert. PG; anime; dubbed; released by Manga Entertainment; trailer

Summer has finally arrived in the small, tight-knit community of Murakawa Village, where everyone practically knows everyone else. The population is so small that there's only five children, Kiyoshi, Natsuki, Noriko, Koji and Amane, enrolled and studying together at the village elementary school. A most unusual incident occurs during summer camp, when they find and save an injured dog, who turns out to be an alien from outer space! The alien named Pochi invites the children for a trip to the moon, but due to an unexpected accident, they end up traveling through the universe on the wildest school field trip of their lives! Ladies and Aliens! Welcome to the Space Show!

Patema Inverted

Directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura, 2013; cert. PG; anime; subtitled; released by All The Anime; trailer

Patema has lived her whole life underground. Following a catastrophic attempt to harness alternative power sources, her community were driven to settle in a dark, cramped network of tunnels below ground. She roams them by torchlight, dreaming of adventures on the surface. Age does not fit in comfortably in school or society as a whole. The world he lives in is known as Aiga, controlled by the tyrant Izamura's family for generations. The city at the centre of the kingdom is dominated by a massive Control Tower with a vast wasteland lurking on the horizon. Together, the pair are about to be pulled into something much bigger that will turn their worlds on their heads...

Fukuchan of Fukufuku Flats

Directed by Yosuke Fujita, 2014; cert. 15; live-action; subtitled; released by Third Window Films; trailer

32-year-old Tatsuo Fukuda, nickname Fuku-chan, is a painter who lives in a run-down apartment complex called Fukufuku Flats. He spends his days working up a sweat painting buildings, his nights mediating disputes between the other denizens of Fukufuku Flats, and his days off flying handmade kites down by the riverside. One day, an unfamiliar woman turns up at Fukufuku Flats. It is Chiho, his first love from his junior high school days who he has not seen for around 20 years, and she has come to apologize for something that happened in their past. As Fuku-chan allows himself to get caught up in Chiho's quest to become a photographer, he begins to fall in love all over again with this woman who was responsible for the traumatizing incident that led to his fear of women.

Music, dance & performance

DJ Neo Kei

DJ Neo Kei will be playing a variety of styles of Japanese popular music throughout the day.

Taiko

Performances of taiko, traditional Japanese drumming, by Kayobi Taiko.

Formed in 2010, Kayobi Taiko are a "community" taiko group who take their membership from the other groups in the Wem Taiko family, both past and present. Members of the group first got together and performed in June 2011 at Wem Taiko Fest 2. Since then, they have performed regularly in the local area under the watchful eye of James Barrow (Taiko West) and Malcolm Brown (Taiko Rangers). Kayobi's repertoire explores a range ofstyles and has attracted very positive reviews. They are much in demand!

Talent show

The Sweet Cupcake Academy maids will be hosting a talent show, providing the opportunity for individuals or groups to give a short performance (5 minutes maximum) on-stage, e.g. a cosplay skit, karaoke rendition or dance routine.

Sign-up will be on the day on a first-come, first-served basis. Performers that require backing music should bring it with them as either a CD, mp3 on a USB memory stick or on a music player/mobile phone with headphone socket.

Group odorite dance

This is an opportunity for odorite dancers to perform some popular songs on-stage as a group, led by the Sweet Cupcake Maids.

The songs that will be performed are:

• Candy Candy - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu
• Viva Happy - Hatsune Miku
• Doki Doki Morning - Babymetal
• Heart Catch Paradise! - Pretty Cure

Anyone who knows the moves to these songs (at any level) is welcome to join the group.

Koto

Performances on the koto, a traditional stringed instrument, by Sumie Kent.

Shamisen

Liam Morgan will be playing the shamisen, a 400 year old instrument. Don't let its age fool you – it has a fast, heavy and distinct sound!

Awa Odori

Dancer Awa Siren will lead a traditional Awa Odori festival parade around the Doki Doki Festival venue and then give a dance performance.

SOAS Min'yo

Formed in 2012, SOAS Min'yo are a Japanese folk group of singers, shamisen players, shakuhachi players, percussionists and dancers.

Akari Mochizuki

Akari Mochizuki is the only enka (Japanese blues) singer in UK.

Akari started singing enka at the age of three. She studied drama in Cambrige and contemporary music in London and started her career as a professional singer in 2009. Since then, she has performed on many occasions, showcasing Japanese folk music with Tsugaru Shamisen virtuoso, Hibiki Ichikawa.

GS 1.0

Closing the 2015 Doki Doki Festival will be a performance by GS 1.0.

GS 1.0 are an English band dedicated to celebrating Japanese culture and the world of gaming and anime. They express themselves through songs and videos writing original compositions and arranging cover music. Based in North-West England and formed in 2013, the band present themselves to the public using a fictional back-story, appearing as something of a 'real life anime' as well as a musical project. From Pokemon love songs to anime character songs and gaming situations, GS 1.0 have it all your passions covered.

Art

Various activities involving different forms of Japanese art.

Cosplay Sketch-off

MancsterCon will be bringing their Cosplay Sketch-off to Doki Doki 2015. Cosplayers pose for a group of artists, who have a short amount of time to sketch them, with prizes given for the best sketches.

Artist panel

A panel session featuring some of the artists attending the festival, where they will answer questions put to them by the festival organisers and the audience.

Talk: On-line comics & running a successful kickstarter

This talk by self-described queer comic author Tab Kimpton will look at using the Internet as a medium for getting published in the comic world.

Workshop: Manga drawing

Manga artist Sonia Leong will present a workshop on drawing in the manga style and creating your own comic.

Workshop: Needle craft

Sally Myers will present a workshop on Japanese needlecraft.

Martial arts

Demonstrations of various forms of Japanese martial arts.

Samurai & Shinobi

Demonstrations of samurai and shinobi (ninja) martial arts by Circle Martial Arts.

Workshops will be held to learn how to use some of the weapons. Have your photograph taken with a fully-armoured samurai – proceeds willl go to Doki Doki's supported charity and to support Circle Martial Arts' dojo as it improves its facilities and provides an amazing place to train.

Kobudo

Demonstrations of the Okinawan weapon-based martial art of kobudo by Bukido Kobudo Dojo.

Karate & Jujutsu

Demonstrations of Okinawan karate and nihon jujutsu by the Bushinkai Academy of Martial Arts.

Raffle

A raffle, with all proceeds going to Doki Doki's supported charity.

After-party

In the evening following the main festival, there will be a cosplay after-party co-hosted by the Manchester University Japanimation Society (MUJS), with DJs playing J-pop/rock/dance, anime and video game themes.

It will be held at The Pub (adjacent to The Zoo nightclub, just opposite the Sugden Sports Centre), from 9pm until 2am. Entry will be free-of-charge and open to people aged 18 and above only.