Anime Art Contest for Teens at Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library

Ok, just to get this out of the way – Do you know what anime and manga are?

A quick guide for the perplexed:

Manga:  Remember comic books? Not books of comic strips like you might find in the Sunday funnies, more like continuing stories in illustrated form, like Archie, or Batman. In Japan, this is a very popular format for telling all kinds of stories; love stories, adventure stories, novels about ordinary life, history, how-to, humor, everything. This form of illustrated literature is becoming more and more popular all around the world. In the U.S. we often call things like this comics. If all the parts of a story are presented together in one book –not in episodes or different issues like in comics— we call them graphic novels. In Japan, they call them manga. Lots of manga for teens have been translated into English and have a huge following in America.

Anime is short for animation. If a manga series is popular, it is often made into an animated series for broadcast on TV.  Anime refers to these Japanese or Japanese-style animated series and feature-length films. The library’s Teen Anime Club gets together about once a month to watch videos, talk about characters and
participate in a variety of manga- and anime-related activities.

Now that we’ve brought people my age up to speed, here are the contest details:

Students in grades 7 through 12 can enter original, hand-drawn or digitally created artwork relating to anime, manga, video games, original characters or fan art.

Entries can be submitted in person at the library from March 17 to March 23. The contest ends March 23 at 5 p.m.

Contestants can enter up to two pieces – one hand-drawn and one digitally created.

If your artwork wins, you’ll get at $30 or $50 gift card from Hobby Lobby (artists always need art supplies!) and your artwork will be used to promote the library’s Anime Club.

All artwork will be on display at the library from April 2-13.

Here are the complete rules and the entry form. We have copies of both on hand at the library, so you can pick them up in person too.  Want to know what you’re up against? Check out last year’s entries here.

The Anime Art Contest and the Anime Club are organized by Teen Librarian Christina Getrost. See Christina’s book talks here. You can also sign up to receive twice-a-month texts about teen events at the library.