A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a talk by filmmaker and writer Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma), held at the Bryant Park Reading room in New York city. During a Q&A session, I asked Kevin a question, not before giving him some context about me as a Jamaican nerd. “Being a Jamaican nerd is like being in nerd purgatory,” I said to Kevin, who chuckled along with the crowd. I continued: “There are no comic conventions, comic book stores and all that cool stuff.” Needless to say, I was referring to my days, when playing online video games meant struggling to try and frag people through a sea of choppy frame rates in Quake 2 and organizing LAN Starcraft battles because that was the only way to get lag-free gaming. But fast forward to 2014, where I find myself at the fifth annual Anime Nation, Jamaica’s largest Costume Play event, organized by a local group here called the JA Cosplayaz, with assistance from the Japanese embassy.

He’s still got the G-Force

With the awesome Masumi Suda (legendary animator of such titles as Dragon Ball Z, Gatchaman (otherwise called G-Force), Fist Of the North Star and most recently Yo-Kai watch) as a featured guest, Jamaican nerddom officially stepped into new territory. To explain to people what a Jamaican nerd is doesn’t require any particular stretch of the imagination. With the advent of hipster culture, massively available streaming data from all over the world, Jamaican nerd subculture has a new face plastered with Youtube pimples. Guys with highly inflected voices sit near a personal computer and play a video game, feet crossed on the floor, oblivious to the stream of passersby going inside to see the actual convention. Never mind that there are banks of large LCD screens only feet away attached to Playstation systems where people play Super Street Fighter 4 and Marvel VS Capcom.

Nerds have always had two main characteristics in my opinion. One is a kind of frantic, slightly overenthusiastic appreciation of whatever they like, such as screaming and shouting “No way bro!” when someone launches a slick super combination attack on an unsuspecting player. The other is that more quiet introverted side that may connote shyness, which slowly fades away in the proximity of more nerds. There were no quiet nerds at Anime Nation. It was a raging mob of smiling faces, only too happy to dress up and pretend to be their favourite superheroes, arch villains or Anime leading characters. But nerdiness is hip and cool these days, and I am not referring to people considered as such in a derogatory manner. After all i’m a huge nerd myself. I’m at this event to give a presentation on character design.

Two of the founders of the JA Cosplayaz group, Fabian Pinkney and Zane Francis are doing double duty as different versions of the character Link from The Legend Of Zelda. I spoke to Zane soon after I arrived, trying to find out what time slot I’d be presenting in. He greeted me with slightly concerned eyes, and I could see his brain was processing a million things at once. “We started a bit late, but it’s all good,” he said. Zane has a clear orator’s voice, and he tends to be the M.C for anime nation and usually gives the closing statement after the event ends. His costume is elaborate and highly recognizable, including the four foot, blue and silver sword so iconic to Nintendo fans around the globe. He vanishes in mid-conversation to deal with something near a table where Mr. Suda is sitting, calmly assisted by Asuza, a translator brought in by the Japanese Embassy. A panel discussion begins and the packed seats facing the animator are filled with kids, teenagers and adults at rapt attention. Many of the “nerds” in Jamaica are very creative people; artistes, musicians and designers that don’t have many outlets for constant self-expression. The weirdness that comes with liking Japanese animation and wanting to dress up in skintight costumes hasn’t infected the bigger population of conservative Jamaica yet, and you can see the excitement in the audience’s eyes as a real life, flesh and blood animation god sits in front of them, giving tips on honing their craft.

But there aren’t just geeky artists in attendance. All persons associated with various Jamaican subcultures from metal guitarists, bloggers and skateboarders are all in attendance, including rock band Downstairs and another up and coming group, The Sky is Broken. This is the new mecca for the people who are different, happy to be among others like themselves. I recognize most of the people in the crowd because I took pictures of almost every person in costume the previous year. Costume wise, attention to detail by the patrons has significantly improved. In 2011, at my first Anime Nation convention in Kingston, it was held a the Pulse 8 complex, off Trafalgar road, which is a much smaller venue. I had a booth where I was selling a few t-shirts, and the event, still in its infancy had a few gung-ho persons in full costume, but more observers than full-on participants. Other people had costumes that were put together quickly and the feeling at the time that this was a small party for Anime heads in Jamaica. Not so now.

Winner of the 2014 Anime Nation Cosplay competition Steffi Singh.

Many people don face masks with lifelike realism. Costumes are woven in high quality fabric, and particularly creative people use a variety of tools to create interesting body armour. More girls this year are wearing risqué outfits, but they aren’t tacky because they are designed well. But I was shocked when I saw two people walk in dressed as Pyramid Head and a Nurse from the PC video game turned movie, Silent Hill. These two are constant showstoppers at anime nation, because their costumes are done with painstaking attention to detail. Stephen and Sherae, both administrators in the Jacosplayaz group, take their interest in this event to the next level. In 2011, when I saw them for the first time, I could see they were not your average Jamaican bears. The next year in 2012, when Stephen showed up as Faust from Guilty Gear (complete with a six foot scalpel) heads turned. This year I was genuinely impressed. A ripple ran through the crowd behind me because of their entry. They had done it again.

Stephen relished creeping me out by stepping forward menacingly each time I raised my camera to take a photo.

But they were not the only ones with great costumes, a girl decked out in a giant mech suit, and several people in other elaborate costumes were at the venue.

Because of people like them, Anime Nation Jamaica through Instagram, twitter and youtube has begun to attract people from all over the island with similar interests. In my estimation this event had no less than five hundred people. Soon, it will begin attracting people from other countries.

All events have their traditions, and each year, there is a competition to see who will be crowned the best Cosplayer with the best costume. Recently, they’ve also instituted a “Cosplayer of the year” award, which went to Steffi Singh. Incidentally, she ended up winning the whole thing. Having been mostly a behind the scenes person during these events (I’ve had booths at two events and covered three with photography and video) I’ve been able to be reasonably impartial about the nature of the event while watching it grow. Initially the Japanese Embassy sponsored food for the events, but soon that had to go because the crowds were too large. So contrary to popular belief, Jamaican nerddom isn’t just fun, but possibly profitable.

One of the best things for me personally was seeing this year’s winner under the constant endearing gaze of her father, who is clearly is behind her efforts to Cosplay 100%. The cultural adoption of such things as Cosplay can seem like a bizarre kind of hobby to some Jamaican parents (in fact to parents in general) and it was good to see her father there with her, sharing her success.

Steffi Singh accepts her award for Cosplayer of the Year from one of the Ja Cosplayaz founders, Zane Francis.

Steffi Singh gets ready to give her father an enthusiastic hug.

The event ended with most of the Cosplayers heading over to nearby Devon House, where an arrangement had been made for people with Armbands to get in free to a local house music event called “EDM ALL STARS”. I stood somewhere near the DJ in a sweaty box of revelers, some in costume and some dressed regularly, and in that moment saw that a pulse was coursing through Jamaica. The need for different kinds of stimulation, creatively or musically was obvious. People wanted to rave and dance with glowsticks in the same way people want to create costumes and step outside their reality for a while. Standing there, as a seasoned and self-labeled nerd, all I could do was smile and dance the night away, thinking about what is to come. You can see the full album of pictures I took at the event here.