More seasonal tomfoolery from the Heanor Library manga group

[Carl Cross]

Hi everyone,

In what has become as much a tradition for me as the event itself here
is a quick rundown of Nakama!’s (Heanor Library’s manga and anime
group) 4th annual Christmas Con.

It was really nice to see some new members but also some old faces
come back to celebrate Christmas with us. Well, actually they mostly
came back to play silly party games and defend their unbeaten run of
winning the quiz but allow me my seasonal rosy glow won’t you?

This year we started off with a little light origami: 10 minutes to
make a Pikachu following a YouTube video. Not as easy as it looks! I’d
be practising but everyone else managed a square which looked like it
might turn into Pika’s face at some point.

Next.

Followed by manga Pictionary organised by a club regular. My lot are a
very literal bunch. They were bemused by my suggestions of drawing
yellow bottles for Bleach and crowns and internal organs for Kingdom
Hearts. They got into it in the end though although they only had a
draw a piece of paper and everyone was shouting out “Death Note!”

Double Blind Manga Characters (or that old game where you sit back to
back and one person describes something for the other to draw) was a
lot easier than I thought. I’d banned them from actually naming what
it was but all groups managed to do a respectable facsimile in a
couple of minutes. If I hadn’t been watching them I’d swear they were
cheating.

Since we have a lot of new members and have sadly lost a few older
members to university and jobs we didn’t have as many rounds
contributed by the club members themselves. Which meant a return of
older rounds like “guess the manga from a zoomed in detail” – game and
the “Japanese film posters some of which are similar to ours and some
of which you wouldn’t even think are describing the same film” – game.
Must work on those snappy titles.

To finish we had another new round, or rather one kinda ripped off
from Never Mind the Buzzcocks! and I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue. We
played a well known theme tune through headphones to one person and
asked them to hum (not sing) along with it. Points were also awarded
for style and for making a complete and utter idiot of yourself.

All went home a little later than usual full of Pocky and other
Japanese-ish snacks purchased from the surprisingly well stocked
branch of a large supermarket which begins with T. And ends with Esco.

Anybody else do similar events with their groups?

Hope everyone has a good Christmas and New Year.