Riffing off Professor Miyake's discussion of manga, Anime also seems like an approachable and usable method to teach to children or to just improve cultural literacy. The expo will have a bunch of folks in character's outfits as well as several manga on display.
I have been to one of these expos as a teenager! They're HUGE and people get very much into the excitement. Likewise, the costumes, called "cosplaying," are very elaborate and quite impressive. It's a great place to see more about manga and anime, and a lot of the merchandise sold there is in Japanese.
The Japanese teacher at my school uses Anime to introduce the culture to the students. It seems to work very well as my studernts who take the class are very passionate about it.
Several of my students are into the ANime. I love the artwork. My first experience with Japanese animation was Speed Racer. Anybody remember those cartoons?
i remember speed racer, though i never particularly took an interest in other anime. i thought the book one of the presenters brought sometime back was especially interesting. one thing i can appreciate about anime though is how it is quite contrary to a perhaps typical stereotype(?) of the asceticism of the culture that i've been curious about. i'm still curious about other forms of art that defy ascetic values.
thanks for the information! We have an anime club on campus so I will also let their president know (if they don't already know). And I really like the idea of bringing anime into the classroom.