As the boom in the interest in Asian pop culture entertainment continues, Tashawna Welsh of Weeb Out, hopes to put her own twist on these events having recently hosting their second event Howl Meets Totoro at Portmore HEART Academy in St Catherine.

A student of the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), Welsh decided to turn her passion into a school project, putting on her first Asian pop culture-themed event last year under the Weeb Out branding.

Weeb is a slang description of a Western person who is obsessed with Japanese culture, usually anime and manga – something Welsh confesses to being.

“The reason for Weeb Out is that I’m a UTech student and I was doing the project management course at the time, and, of course, wanting to make my university life fun, I decided to do an anime event for my course project,” she said.

Thus began the merging of her passion and her education.

With the business registered and her first event successful, she looked at Howl Meets Totoro as a way to address various elements in the genre space she felt was lacking.

While themed anime productions are nothing new, Welsh wanted a more a “cuter, more community and vendor-focused event”, and one that worked with her faith.

“I observe the Sabbath on a Saturday. Most of the anime events are on a Saturday, so I want to give persons the chance to attend an event on a Sunday,” she said.

Welsh drew inspiration from her own fandom, that of famed Japanese animation Studio Ghibli and their seminal films My Neighbour Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle.

“I absolutely adore Studio Ghibli. Their animation work is just beautiful, vintage, with a soothing feel to it. And I’m really a lover of Kawaii and slice of life,” said Welsh.

Slice of life refers to the general story type associated with various anime, and Kawaii is Japanese for cute, which the combination of Howl Meets Totoro was, as the venue was being decorated with props from the various films for patrons to snap their selfies to their heart’s content, including the iconic cat bus from Totoro.

With the focus on community building, the participation challenges throughout the day were group focused, except the Cosplay competition, which was won by Jerome Wilson.

“I believe we will just be having one annual event. It’s a work-in-progress, so what I plan to do after Howl Meets Totoro is evaluate how things went and seeing how exactly we will be going forward, because the brand that I want to push out is one that is family-friendly, and is building the anime community.”